By lancsDavid on

i know that you use formAPI to create pages with form elements on them. including buttons that have validate & submit handlers

but what does this have to do with nodes?

i am trying to create a multiple choice question 'template' page. it can be viewed by someone attempting a question (in which case it just shows a bunch of questions - complete with radio button answers). & appears again once the user has answered the question - this time showing the user if they got it right or wrong, as well as including some explanatory text (basically explaining the correct answer to the user)

[ in both cases the page needs to also have "forward" & "previous" buttons so the user can navigate to the next/previous question ]

& maybe - if this 'template' page turns out to be a node, it could even appear again in 'administrator' mode, when the administrator basically fills in all the fields (ie: creates the node)

but is this the right way to be thinking about it? i mean, can nodes be interactive like this? or should i not be using nodes? i mean, should i be constructing the entire page with FormAPI instead, using hook_menu & forgetting entirely about nodes???

any illumination much appreciated. i am very lost

⋅ Categories: Drupal 6.x

Comments

reecemarsland’s picture

reecemarsland commented

Have you tied the quiz module. I've used it many times and it appears to fit your criteria almost exactly. It's pretty customizable and has a pretty decent admin interface.

Hope that helps.
Thanks

lancsDavid’s picture

lancsDavid commented

"almost exactly" isn't good enough, unfortunately. the site has several thousand users as it stands & a turnover of £60,000 a year, so whatever replaces it has to be an exact fit

( plus the main reason for me taking on the project is to get familiar with custom module development & the formAPI )

reecemarsland’s picture

reecemarsland commented

In that case you could tackle it both ways. You could create custom content types that present as a form to the user as a test or page callbacks with render a form built with the formAPI. I would personally use the latter option but it all depends on the requirements of the project. The quiz module actually creates each quiz, and quiz question as a node so if you do decide to go with that option it would be a good starting point to see how they handle it.

lancsDavid’s picture

lancsDavid commented

custom content types that call drupal_get_form() from within hook_view() ???

OR...

not bothering with nodes at all. just using Form API, hook_menu() & page callback functions ???

NOTE: because the application I'm trying to drupalize is a little difficult to explain I've made a couple of images & a 2 minute movie to clarify things. these are the links for the image of the "question" page - http://www.flickr.com/photos/53405654@N06/4932293936/sizes/l/, the image of the "question & answer" page - http://www.flickr.com/photos/53405654@N06/4931716633/sizes/l/, and the movie that shows how the application works - http://blip.tv/file/4053310