Module development and code questions

Apologies if this is off topic for this forum, but it was either here or General Discussion, and here seemed more appropriate!

I have been using Drupal for a couple of years now. I love the ease of use, and the ability to plug in some of the fantastic modules that have been created to expand on the core functionality.

Something that I have never figured out, though, is whether there is an easy way to keep track of stable module releases and updates. I do manually check the module downloads pages regularly, but something more automated would be much easier to deal with.

I'm trying to upload a file using the new forms api. I am able to build the form, but when I call the variable up in my _submit function, it only has the text name of the file. Also, there $_FILES variable is totally empty. When I add a file upload form item in a module using node hooks, it uploads fine. Perhaps the files only attach when using node hooks? Here's my form:

I've spent some time lately updating swish-e to 4.7 and changing some parts to work on windows, this work is available in the 'issues' for swish-e. However, what I want to do now requires extensive changes and I'm not even sure they are possible. So before I start I'd like some confirmation that it can be done.

Currently the module adds an 'uploaded files' tab to the search page. So to search within the files you need to click on this. After using the frontpage search_box this means that you have an extra click after you get told that no results were found. This is not really what I want.

1. I want there to only be one search results page. Containing both the swish-e and standard search results.

If you do use the 'uploaded files' tab, the module themes it's search results so that you get an icon and a link to the file, along with some other misc. info.

2. I would like the search results to link to the node that the file is attached to. Not the file itself. Clicking the link will take you to the node as normal. So retaining the functionality that the users will be used to. This would also help with the results fitting in on the standard search page as per '1'.

3. This follows on from '2'. I would like the search result items to contain the snippits of highlighted text that a standard search returns. I can see how I can get text from these files using the programs that swish-e provides but I do not know how to then use that.

Im trying to put the "add to favorites" link on the "teaser" or front page, so i dont have to click on the story title to click the add to favorites link

anyone done that or know how???

I've just started out with Drupal. I'm still alpha testing my site, found out the hard way regarding using the correct module versions, and already dreading future upgrades.

My suggestion is for a way to know the version numbers, particularly of modules and your Drupal installation, without going looking through the files themselves, which in most cases mean ftp. Of course, if you maintain the site, the onus is to keep a note of them. What I do is to keep the downloads of the gzip files so I can tell which versions I have.

But what happens if you lose them, or take over somebody else's installation. Ftp downloading and reading text files are a chore.

Let me apologize first as I haven't done any major php coding (only changed a line here or there, or code-copied), or if this is being worked on, but I hopefully can point someone in the right direction.

In well-coded files, the second line usually contain the Id's so I think this is the only location for the version numbers. The system database also holds the info on the modules. I can think of 3 ways on how to get the numbers from the browser interface:

1. A script to read the second line from each module, either one-by-one (quick) if you make the link from the module settings page, or the whole gamut (lots of file lookups). Reading the text files however doesn't sound like good security, and would take lots of php filters to get to the number.

Following some urgences i decided to continue in the developing of mailhandler.module ...

In my actual version, it is capable of handling attachments and storing them using attachments.module APIs

I do not know hot to submit it to the community in order to be tested and eventually published as new release.

many thanks
kind regards
alberto