Drupal 7 - Printing block region in node.tpl.php

Submitted 2 years 5 months ago by duckz.

Drupal 7 will consider "node" $content as a block region, which has advantages over the old "special" $content variable in Drupal 6.

Now since the $content is a block region, themer no longer needs to provide special region area in top / bottom of the node, a site builder just have to put the "top node" block in the content region and set it to be on top / bottom of the content block.

But how about if you want to "integrate" the content node block with other block region, like if you want to display a "node" content on left top while providing another custom region on the left bottom of the node while printing the rest of the node content on the right side??

Sounds complex? In drupal 6, we can achieve this by invoking

theme('blocks', 'your_block_region_machine_name');

Now in Drupal 7, theme_blocks is gone... so to achieve the same result we need to invoke this instead :

print render(block_get_blocks_by_region('your_block_region_machine_name'));

The better way to get this done in Drupal 7 is by invoking the function inside preprocess_node function like this :

function your_theme_name_preprocess_node(&$variables) {
	if ($blocks = block_get_blocks_by_region('your_block_region_machine_name')) {
      $variables['banner_space'] = $blocks;
  }
}

Additional information provided by aquariumtap if you want to preprocess the block region directly from template.php instead of theme.info files :

aquariumtap : If you want those blocks to be available to hook_preprocess_region, add a bit more information:

function your_theme_name_preprocess_node(&$variables) {

if ($blocks = block_get_blocks_by_region('your_block_region_machine_name')) {
  $variables['banner_space'] = $blocks;
  $variables['banner_space'] = $blocks;
  $variables['banner_space']['#theme_wrappers'] = array('region');
  $variables['banner_space']['#region'] = 'your_block_region_machine_name';
  }
}

then invoke this function inside your node.tpl.php

 
  print render($banner_space); ?>

If you got better way to do this, please post it in your comment :)

26 comments

User Comments

jive says :

I was searching for this very thing. Thanks! works like a charm!

Renovations Adelaide says :

Thanks for publishing these details within your site.

Anonymous says :

Excellent! Just what I was looking for :)

Nubimmorybymn says :

Wow!, this was a real quality post. In theory I'd like to write like this too - taking time and real effort to make a good article on Kosttillskott... but what can I say... I keep putting it off and never seem to get something done.

Rolainfalay says :

Nice blog here! Also your website loads up fast! What host are you using? I wish my website (Papper) loaded up as fast as yours lol

aquariumtap says :

If you want those blocks to be available to hook_preprocess_region, add a bit more information:

$variables['banner_space'] = $blocks;
$variables['banner_space']['#theme_wrappers'] = array('region');
$variables['banner_space']['#region'] = 'your_block_region_machine_name';

duckz says :

Thanks for providing the code, I was assuming people will create the regions from the theme.info files since they are capable to edit the template.php files.

But your code will provide user with more options that they can actually create a block region without the need to edit .info file.

aiphes says :

how to do to have multiple regions in D7 , i've posted here : http://drupal.org/node/1232500

if someone could take a look to ..

thanks

aiphes says :

how to do to have multiple regions in D7 , i've posted here : http://drupal.org/node/1232500

if someone could take a look to ..

thanks

duckz says :

edit the theme .info to register your multiple custom block regions, then print each of the regions in the node.tpl (or other place) by invoking :

print render(block_get_blocks_by_region('your_block_region_machine_name'));

for each block region that you want to print

aiphes says :

ok it works but no need to add code in template.php ? your ways works but how can do this code conditionnaly rendered by php if region isnt empty ?

thanks

duckz says :

Adding this code in template.php

$variables['foo'] = block_get_blocks_by_region('your_block_region_machine_name');

and when rendering it in tpls (eg node.tpl)

print render($foo);

is optional and not required.

if you want to conditionally rendering you'll need to split the function :

$block_region = block_get_blocks_by_region('your_block_region_machine_name');

if (isset($block_region)) { // you'll need to double check the actual return value for the $block_region, this is just an example and it may not work
 print render($block_region);
}

BadDaddy says :

Awesome, exactly what I needed! Thanks

Jennifer says :

Could you be so kind to show me how to put 2 or 3 blocks in bottom 1 region in Drupal 7 theme.

Brent says :

I've been searching this code many times but I didn't found it,thanks I found this sites

Printing

nmeegama says :

All though this method works fine for rendering regions i found a bug in this method, Process to recreate the BUG:

Create a view block
Add a exposed filter to the block
Change the Ajax settings of the view block to ON
Assign the block to a region (ex: region_test)

Now render the region using the above method after adding the code to the teplate.php file

The block filtering will not work (a js error appears) Does anyone know the reason for this , If so please reply

duckz says :

My best guess is you will need to include views js (or other required js) manually

wismbuh says :

how to set on spesific location?
i want to insert a custom region between "content" and "comment" in D7.

duckz says :

you can do that in node.tpl.php or comment-wrapper.tpl.php or use Display suite and add a preprocess block field.

dating sites says :

ok it works but no need to add code in template.php ? your ways works but how can do this code conditionnaly rendered by php if region isnt empty ?

duckz says :

If Region is empty then the function will return empty value thus you can check conditionaly by checking if the variable return value is empty or not.

Special says :

Perfect. I've been searching for at least 20 minutes. Solves my area rendering problem.
Thanks

Josh says :

I've been using this on my site, but I've run into a problem. Calling block_get_blocks_by_region() causes the render array to be created a second time — functionally causing the code behind a block to execute twice. Particularly if the block queries the database, this adds a significant performance issue. Have you run into this? Any way around it?

duckz says :

The other way around is probably by calling a single block rather than calling all block in a region.

Probably by tracking down Drupal function starting from block_get_blocks_region() and grab the portion where Drupal is actually retrieving a single block and use it instead of block_get_blocks_by_region()

Josh says :

I figured out another way to do it. It adds a global variable to your template.php (not the best), but it avoids the double (and sometimes triple) block execution that causes the performance drain.

In template.php:

$node_regions = array();

/*
 * template_preprocess_page()
 */
function THEME_preprocess_page(&$vars) {
	// remove Node region from page
	global $node_regions;
	$node_regions['REGION_NAME'] = $vars['page']['REGION_NAME'];
	unset($vars['page']['REGION_NAME']);
}

and then:

/*
 * template_preprocess_node()
 */
function THEME_preprocess_node(&$vars) {
	global $node_regions;
	$vars['content']['REGION_NAME'] = $node_regions['REGION_NAME'];
}

Finally, hide the regions in your node.tpl.php, and then render and print them where you want them.

Is there a better way to code this that uses the same underlying principle?

duckz says :

AFAIK you don't need to use global variable to move the region array from page to node.

Just inject the variable into node object found in preprocess_page and it will show in the preprocesss_node

// Sample array structure for node object found in the preprocess_page

array(
  'page' => array(
     'content' => array(  // This will be region name
        'system_main' => array(
            'nodes' => array(
                 '380' => array( // this will be node nid
                    '#node'  // this is the node object, inject code here
 .............................

but it will need debug and implementation for 100% sure.

Drupal 7 - Printing block region in node.tpl.php

26 comments

User Comments

jive says :

Renovations Adelaide says :

Anonymous says :

Nubimmorybymn says :

Rolainfalay says :

aquariumtap says :

duckz says :

aiphes says :

aiphes says :

duckz says :

aiphes says :

duckz says :

BadDaddy says :

Jennifer says :

Brent says :

nmeegama says :

duckz says :

wismbuh says :

duckz says :

dating sites says :

duckz says :

Special says :

Josh says :

duckz says :

Josh says :

duckz says :

Post New comment

Filtered HTML

Plain text