Using hook_form_alter on exposed view filters on Drupal 7

Question

I'm currently getting used to Drupal 7 after previously working solely on D6. I'm having some trouble using hook_form_alter with views 3 and Drupal 7.

I'm unable to add an if statement to uniquely identify a view, whatever I put in, the if statement is never found to be true. However, I can easily use the form_id using the following so I'm not sure where I am going wrong!

if ($form_id == 'views_exposed_form') {
}

I'd be really grateful for any pointers.

Answer 1

What i would do is take it a step back and see if you're even registering this hook. Often $form_id's change.

Debugging process:

• Turn on devel
• Insert dsm($form_id) inside your hook as you used to with D6
• Clear your cache

Example code (inside mymodule.module or template.php file) from drupal.org:

<?php
/**
 * Implementation of hook_form_alter()
 */
function mymodule_form_alter(&$form, $form_state, $form_id) {
  if ($form_id == 'form_views_exposed_form') {
    drupal_set_message("Form ID is : " . $form_id);
  }
}
?>

You'll see a bunch of form id's printed out then select your views exposed form hook and work from there.

Also, with drupal 7 you're able to target specific forms by ID directly.

Example:

<?php
/**
 * Implementation of hook_form_alter()
 */
function mymodule_form_views_exposed_form_alter(&$form, $form_state, $form_id) {
  drupal_set_message("Form ID is : " . $form_id);
}
?>

Finally, if that doesn't work i would recommend reviewing this issue queue: How to alter filter in exposed filters form trough form_alter hook

Answer 2

You can get access to the view object within hook_form_alter by accessing $form_state['view']. That allows you to identify a specific view:

function mymodule_form_alter(&$form, &$form_state, $form_id) {
    if ($form_id == 'views_exposed_form') {
        $view = $form_state['view'];
        if ($view->name == 'my_view_machine_name' && $view->current_display == 'display_name') {
            // alter your exposed form here
        }
    }
}