An API method for loading the lineage for a single term

Hello,

I was hoping your module would have something useful for developers, but alas, so I wrote my own lineage loader:

/**
 * Get the lineage of a taxonomy term
 *
 * @param $term object The taxonomy term
 * @return object The taxonomy term with a loaded parent_term property
 */
function taxonomy_get_lineage($term) {
  $parents = taxonomy_get_parents($term->tid);
  
  // If we've reached the bottom of the tree, build the path
  if (!$parents) {
    $lineage = array();
    while ($term) {
      $parent     = $term;
      $clean_term = clone $term;
      unset($clean_term->child);
      $lineage[]  = $clean_term;
      $term       = isset($term->child) ? $term->child : FALSE;
    }
    $parent->lineage[] = $lineage;
    return FALSE;
  }
  
  // Otherwise set the child term
  foreach ($parents as $parent) {
    $parent->child = $term;
    taxonomy_get_lineage($parent);
  }
}

This adds a property, lineage, to the taxonomy term. The lineage property contains shallow (for better garbage collection) copies of all the terms, for all the paths through a multi-parented taxonomy tree.

For example, to print all of paths for a taxonomy item:

* vetted > Design / Design Arts > Architecture > Acoustics / Acoustic Design
* Categories > Arts / Entertainment > Design / Design Arts > Architecture > Acoustics / Acoustic Design
* vetted > Arts / Entertainment > Design / Design Arts > Architecture > Acoustics / Acoustic Design
* Categories > Engineering > Design / Design Arts > Architecture > Acoustics / Acoustic Design
* vetted > Engineering > Design / Design Arts > Architecture > Acoustics / Acoustic Design
* vetted > Architecture > Acoustics / Acoustic Design
* Categories > Construction > Architecture > Acoustics / Acoustic Design
* vetted > Construction > Architecture > Acoustics / Acoustic Design
* vetted > Acoustics / Acoustic Design

We would write:

  $term = taxonomy_get_term(777);
  taxonomy_get_lineage($term);
  
  foreach ($term->lineage as $parents) {
    $names = array();
    foreach ($parents as $parent) {
      $names[] = $parent->name;
    }
    drupal_set_message(implode(' > ', $names));
  }

Hope someone finds this useful.

Cheers,
Aidan