Rendering renderable arrays in an item_list

Question

I'm struggling to get a render-array constructed, and I think it's because of how theme_item_list works. I would be grateful if anyone could help find the problem (or tell me to implement it without item_list!)

The context: This function is called from my module's hook_block_view() to render the content of the block. The module is an example module showing how to use a new API. I hope nothing of that is needed to answer this point, except that these calls are not made from a theme.

The code I have is:

function example_render() {
  $block = array();

/* fill $providers[] ... */

  $items = array();
  foreach ($providers as $metric => $provider) {
    $value = $provider['value'];
    $class_link = $provider['name'];
    $name_link = $provider['name'];

    // Construct a renderable array wrapper for the template invocation.
    $items[$metric] = array(
      '#type' => 'container',
      '#attributes' => array('class' => array('provider')),
      'info' => array(
        'providername' => array(
          '#prefix' => '<span class="provider-name">',
          '#markup' => $name_link,
          '#suffix' => '</span>',
        ),
        'providervalue' => array(
          '#prefix' => '<span class="metric-value">',
          '#markup' => $value,
          '#suffix' => '</span>',
        ),
        'metricname' => array(
          '#prefix' => '<span class="metric-name">',
          '#markup' => $class_link,
          '#suffix' => '</span>',
        ),
      ),
    );
  }

  // Finally, bring it all together.. a container with the via text then a list
  // of the providers.
  $block['content'] = array(
    '#type' => 'container',
    '#attributes' => array('class' => array('example')),
    'ttl_text' => array(
      '#prefix' => '<h3 class="metrics-title">',
      '#markup' => $record['title'],
      '#suffix' => '</h3>',
    ),
    'via_text' => array(
      '#prefix' => '<span class="metrics-via">',
      '#markup' => $via_text,
      '#suffix' => '</span>',
    ),
    'metrics' => array(
      '#items' => $items,
      '#theme' => 'item_list',
      '#attributes' => array(
        'class' => 'providers-list',
      ),
    ),
  );
  return $block;
}

and this is what I get when run with 9 items in the list:

<div class="example"><h3 class="metrics-title">A bacterial sulfonolipid triggers multicellular development in the closest living relatives of animals</h3><span class="metrics-via">via <a href="http://alm.svr.elifesciences.org/articles/info:doi/10.7554/eLife.00013" external="1" target="_blank">Lagotto article information</a> courtesy of <a href="http://articlemetrics.github.io/" external="1" target="_blank">Lagotto</a></span><div class="item-list"><ul class="providers-list"><li #type="container" #attributes="Array" info="Array Array Array" class="first"></li>
<li #type="container" #attributes="Array" info="Array Array Array"></li>
<li #type="container" #attributes="Array" info="Array Array Array"></li>
<li #type="container" #attributes="Array" info="Array Array Array"></li>
<li #type="container" #attributes="Array" info="Array Array Array"></li>
<li #type="container" #attributes="Array" info="Array Array Array"></li>
<li #type="container" #attributes="Array" info="Array Array Array"></li>
<li #type="container" #attributes="Array" info="Array Array Array"></li>
<li #type="container" #attributes="Array" info="Array Array Array" class="last"></li>
</ul></div></div>

not very inspiring!

The three 'Array' under 'info' in the html here obviously correspond to the providername/providervalue/metricname arrays in the code i.e. the $items array isn't being interpreted as a render array at all.

How can I make this work?

Answer 1

According to https://api.drupal.org/api/drupal/includes!theme.inc/function/theme_item_list/7 theme_item_list is looking for data key so your list item should look like this:

// Construct a renderable array wrapper for the template invocation.
$tmp = array(
  '#type' => 'container',
  '#attributes' => array('class' => array('provider')),
  'providername' => array(
    '#prefix' => '<span class="provider-name">',
    '#type' => 'markup',
    '#markup' => $name_link,
    '#suffix' => '</span>',
  ),
  'providervalue' => array(
    '#prefix' => '<span class="metric-value">',
    '#type' => 'markup',
    '#markup' => $value,
    '#suffix' => '</span>',
  ),
  'metricname' => array(
    '#prefix' => '<span class="metric-name">',
    '#type' => 'markup',
    '#markup' => $class_link,
    '#suffix' => '</span>',
  ),
);
$items[$metric]['data'] = drupal_render($tmp);

That should give you single element:

<li class="first"><div class="provider"><span class="provider-name">test1</span><span class="metric-value">test1</span><span class="metric-name">test1</span></div></li>