Module development and code questions

Hi All,
I am nearing a decent stopping place with the development of my first module. I'm not really a developer, but I've been able to get the jist of what PHP is about. Oh yeah, before I installed drupal last week I'd never worked with PHP before.

The module is merrily an integration of Dwop Live into the Drupal framework. What this gives you is the ability to parse dmoz data into drupal dynamically, but with the benefit of cache so your server isn't fetching the data each time. You can either grab the entire root of dmoz, or like me tailor a specific tree depending on the site.

In any case I could use some feedback on the module if anyone is interested. I've got it working within the Drupal framework, but I still have some wonky bugs to work out:

1. The users session is not persisting when in my module, not sure if there is some sort of _persist flag I need to set?

2. I tried my best to set all the definable data in the admin screen for the module, but the script requires a server path (/home/sites/blah) that I could never set right. Suffice it to say I'm not sure how to join to strings in PHP. There are a few places in the code that call for

$variable = $pathname + $someothervariable;

I wasn't sure how to join it properly....in any case I'm learning!

3. Where can I insert a link to this module in the primary navigation of the site?

Hello everyone,

I am new to Drupal, but I love it so much for it's speed and elegance.

What I would like is to have a type of nodes that are really simple, like a post-it, without any comments allowed. I would use these on a Listings section on my site.

Does this exist? How hard would it be to create it?

TIA.

Reference: event.module,v 1.25.2.1 2003/09/13 00:47:10 killes Exp

Is there an undefined function at line 123 of the code? Here:

I would like to extend the node/poll/forum ID links so that they could be referred to via an alias. An example would be



http://drupal.org/node/add/forum/ModuleDev


instead of http://drupal.org/node/add/forum/4



I would keep a simple mapping in the database backend that ties a NODE ID to a Keyword/Alias (that would be unique) and links to this node would use the alias, if it exists.

A little intro:
For example:
i have an e-zine where i`m writting some issues about
designer`s sites and such stuff. And at the end of an issue
cms is adding a link to described site under the main text in an area seems like drupal`s "pager".
When i`m writting issue
in admin mode i`ve a standart form like drupal`s "add story" but
with a little textarea nearby where i`m putting an url to describable site.

I was wondering if it would be easier to write a module to customize the links menu. By customize I mean add some icons to it, not just change the font/etc.

I managed to do what I wanted by manually editing the .module files that originally came with drupal, but if I ever upgrade, I will have to redo the changes, which is extra work I'd rather avoid.

Is there a "catch-all" function that will intercept all additions to the $links[] array that I can overwrite in my module? Also, is there a listing of all the links' text? For example "read more", "1 comment", etc.