Save and preview differences in hook_form_alter()

Question

I've created a module which uses hook_form_alter(). When a form is loaded (node/add) I hide a field, and the hook works fine. The problem appears when I do a preview of the form. When the form appears again I see the hidden field (the hook doesn't work). Why?

I hide the field through the line:

$form['field_versio']['und']['0']['value']['#type']="hidden";

Answer 1

First, you should use #access = FALSE which will disallow access to a element. #type hidden is not safe, it means that it is printed as a hidden input field which can be easily changed by the user, for example with Firebug.

When you do that, you can also directly set #access on the field element, like $form['field_versio']['#access'] and it will disallow access to all subelements (if there are multiple).

Not sure why it doesn't work in Preview, try adding a drupal_set_message('test') call to see if your hook is called.

Answer 2

hook_node_validate() is the answer.

I have built a personal function X that includes a drupal_add_js function that I need to link to my form.

Depending on the form (content-type) I call my function X from hook_form_alter() (node/add first load) or from hook_node_validate() (node/add after previewing, validating,...).

function my_javascripts($form_id) {
  $path = drupal_get_path('module', 'MYMODULE');
  switch ($form_id) {
    case "CONTENTTYPE-node-form":
        drupal_add_js($path.'/CONTENTTYPE.js','file');
    break;
  }
} 

function MYMODULE_form_alter(&$form, &$form_state, $form_id) {
  my_javascripts($form['#id']);
}

function MYMODULE_node_validate($node, $form, &$form_state) {
  my_javascripts($form['#id']); 
}