Problem creating path alias in code

Question

I am creating a node and a path alias roughly as follows:

<?php
$node = (object) array( 'type' => 'article');
node_object_prepare($node);
$node_wrapper = entity_metadata_wrapper('node', $node);
// ... some more fields get set here...
$node_wrapper->title->set( 'Foo' );
$node_wrapper->save();

// Set the path
$path = array(
  'source' => "node/$node->nid",
  'alias' => "foo/bar",
);
path_save($path);

The node is created OK, and the path seems to be created OK, too. I can type foo/bar in as the path and I see the new blank page. However when I edit that page, the Path Alias is blank?!

I have pathauto installed - could this be something to do with it? Nb. when I edit the page the "Generate path automatically" pathauto checkbox is not checked (which is what I'd expect).

Answer 1

Inspecting the differences in the node table, I noticed that the node created by my code had an empty language field. Updating this to "und" fixed the node alias.

This makes sense, because path_save() defaults to LANGUAGE_NONE (i.e. "und").

I had assumed that node_prepare would do likewise, but it does not.

So the solution is to set $node->language = LANGUAGE_NONE; at the point of creation.

Also, this is an easier way to create the alias...

$node->path = array('alias' => $path, 'pathauto' => FALSE);