Pass data to hook_preprocess_html from custom module

Question

I'm trying to create a custom Drupal 7 module where it renders a custom page template. I want the data on /animals and /animals/getanimal to be in a custom HTML template.

After much searching and few successes, I've found that hook_preprocess_html works and that I can stop Drupal from loading the default template, but I'm struggling to pass data to my templates from the menu hook.

Is there a way to pass data from the menu hook to hook_preprocess_html, or is there another way where I can load my own custom template from the URLs in my custom module?

/**
 * Implements hook_menu()
 * @return mixed
 */
function animal_farm_menu() {

  $items['animals'] = array(
    'title'           => 'Discover animals',
    'page callback'   => 'getDiscover',
    'page arguments'  => array(),
    'access callback' => TRUE,
    'type'            => MENU_NORMAL_ITEM,
    'menu_name'       => 'main-menu',
  );

  $items['animals/getanimal'] = array(
    'title'           => 'all animals',
    'page callback'   => 'getAnimal',
    'page arguments'  => array(),
    'access callback' => TRUE,
    'type'            => MENU_NORMAL_ITEM,
    'menu_name'       => 'main-menu',
  );

  return $items;
}


function getDiscover()
{
  $result = ['cat','dog','monkey','cow'];
  return $result;
}

function getAnimal()
{
  $result = ['cat','dog','monkey','cow'];
  return $result;
}


/**
 * Implements hook_preprocess_html().
 */
function animal_farm_preprocess_html(&$vars) {

  $node = menu_get_object();

  $path = current_path();

  // echo $path;

  // Add a new theme suggestion when viewing node's of mynodetype.
  if ($path == 'animals') {
    $vars['theme_hook_suggestions'][] = 'html__mynodetype';
    $vars['data'] = [1,2,4,'monkey'];
  }

  if ($path == 'animals/getanimal') {
    $vars['theme_hook_suggestions'][] = 'animal_farm_discover';
    $vars['data'] = [1,2,4,'monkey'];
  }

}

/**
 * Implements hook_theme().
 */
function animal_farm_theme($existing, $type, $theme, $path) {
  $theme = array();

  //Add our templates/html--mynodetype.tpl.php to the theme registry
  $theme['html__mynodetype'] = array(
    'template' => 'html--mynodetype',
    'path' => drupal_get_path('module', 'animal_farm') . '/templates',
  );
  return $theme;
}

Answer 1

D7's html.tpl.php doesn't contain menu in $vars, as it's supposed to represent the template that contains the high-level HTML document. This data is in page.tpl.php via $main_menu / $secondary_menu vars.

If you need menu data in hook_preprocess_html() you can do something like call menu_tree_all_data('main-menu') in your code which will retrieve the menu data for main-menu.