I can't get hook_form_alter or hook_form_FORM_ID_alter to add placeholder text to the search input

Question

I know this has been asked but so far none of the accepted answers for this issue are working for me. I am attempting to add placeholder text to the default search form block. I am using a theme we'll call MyTheme, which is a copy of Bartik and is otherwise working exactly as expected.

I have tried adding the following functions to MyTheme.theme:

function MyTheme_form_search_block_form_alter(&$form, &$form_state, $form_id) {
    $form['edit-keys']['#attributes']['placeholder'][] = t('Search');
}

And

function MyTheme_form_alter(&$form, \Drupal\Core\Form\FormStateInterface $form_state, $form_id) {
    if ($form_id == 'search_block_form') {
        // Add placeholder text
        $form['keys']['#attributes']['placeholder'] = t('Search');
    }
}

And many, many variations on those. I have tried both functions with and without "\Drupal\Core|form..." included. I have tried both with 'keys' and 'edit-keys'. I have tried both with and without the empty '[]' after placeholder. Nothing has worked.

In every case, using hook_form_FORM_ID_alter simply fails to do anything at all, while using hook_form_alter causes a 'white screen of death'.

I don't understand what I'm doing wrong.

UPDATE: Now out of the blue Drupal has decided to change the id for the form input to 'edit-keys--2' for some reason. I've tried using that in the functions as well.

Answer 1

This is what eventually worked for me. Posting because other people seem to be having the same issue.

I placed this at the very end of the MyTheme.theme file.

/**
 * Add placeholder text to the search forms.
 */
function MyTheme_form_search_block_form_alter(&$form,\Drupal\Core\Form\FormStateInterface $form_state, $form_id) {
  $form['keys']['#attributes']['placeholder'] = t('Search this site...');
}

Hopefully this will be helpful for some.

Answer 2

So, I've tried this on my local install and had the exact same issue.

Please try changing $form['keys']['#attributes']['placeholder'] to $form['keys']['#title']

Your function would be -

function MyTheme_form_search_block_form_alter(array &$form, \Drupal\Core\Form\FormStateInterface $form_state, $form_id) {
    $form['keys']['#title'] = t("Search");
}