how to customize autocomplete TO field in privatemsg module - drupal 6

Question

Using the privatemessage module, users can send messages to each other as in facebook. The page displays a form with a TO field, subject and message. The TO field is an autocomplete field by default. Upon searching for a user name, it shows a drop down with only the names. How can i customize it to show the user's profile picture also in the drop down??? I dont know where to go and make the code changes.

Answer 1

Open privatemsg.module

in hook_menu search for $items['messages/user-name-autocomplete'] this particular menu item defines that auto complete path.

Search for privatemsg_user_name_autocomplete function where the output defines.

Edit this function. Thats all. Also Create a patch if youre familiar with patching, so that others c

Answer 2

Note: Tested in Drupal 7 only, years later...

Here's an example of a modification that can be made to privatemsg_autocomplete in the privatemsg.pages.inc file such that a custom Profile2 picture field can be added instead of simply names.

I don't know how it performs though or if there are any scenarios under which it may fail. Compare the code with the original.

/**
 * Return autocomplete results for usernames.
 *
 * Prevents usernames from being used and/or suggested twice.
 */
function privatemsg_autocomplete($string) {
  $names = array();
  // 1: Parse $string and build list of valid user names.
  $fragments = explode(',', $string);
  foreach ($fragments as $name) {
    if ($name = trim($name)) {
      $names[$name] = $name;
    }
  }
  // 2: Find the next user name suggestion.
  $fragment = array_pop($names);
  $matches = array();
  if (!empty($fragment)) {
    $remaining = 10;
    $types = privatemsg_recipient_get_types();
    foreach ($types as $name => $type) {
      if (isset($type['autocomplete']) && is_callable($type['autocomplete']) && privatemsg_recipient_access($name, 'write')) {
        $function = $type['autocomplete'];
        $return = $function($fragment, $names, $remaining);
        if (is_array($return) && !empty($return)) {
          $matches = array_merge($matches, $return);
        }
        $remaining = 10 - count($matches);
        if ($remaining <= 0) {
          break;
        }
      }
    }
  }
  // Allow modules to alter the autocomplete list.
  drupal_alter('privatemsg_autocomplete', $matches, $names, $fragment);

  // Format the suggestions.
  $themed_matches = array();
  foreach ($matches as $key => $match) {
    $themed_matches[$key] = privatemsg_recipient_format($match, array('plain' => TRUE));
   $profile = '';
   if (isset($match->uid)) {
        $profile = profile2_load_by_user($match->uid);
}

    $picture = '';
    if(isset($profile['main']->field_profile_photo['und'][0]['uri'])) { 
        $picture = theme('image_style', array( 'path' =>  $profile['main']->field_profile_photo['und'][0]['uri'], 'style_name' => 'profile_thumbnail'));    
    } else {
        //I'm using sites/default/files/default_images/profile-default.jpg as the default image
        $picture = theme('image_style', array( 'path' =>  "public://default_images/profile-default.jpg", 'style_name' => 'profile_thumbnail'));
    }
    $picture_matches[$key] = $picture;
  }

  // Check if there are any duplicates.
  if (count(array_unique($themed_matches)) != count($themed_matches)) {
    // Loop over matches, look for duplicates of each one.
    foreach ($themed_matches as $themed_match) {
      $duplicate_keys = array_keys($themed_matches, $themed_match);
      if (count($duplicate_keys) > 1) {
        // There are duplicates, make them unique.
        foreach ($duplicate_keys as $duplicate_key) {
          // Reformat them with unique argument.
          $themed_matches[$duplicate_key] = privatemsg_recipient_format($matches[$duplicate_key], array('plain' => TRUE, 'unique' => TRUE));
        }
      }
    }
  }

  // Prefix the matches and convert them to the correct form for the
  // autocomplete.
  $prefix = count($names) ? implode(", ", $names) . ", " : '';
  $suggestions = array();
  foreach ($themed_matches as $key => $match) {
    $suggestions[$prefix . $match . ', '] = $picture_matches[$key] . $match;
  }

  // convert to object to prevent drupal bug, see http://drupal.org/node/175361
  drupal_json_output((object)$suggestions);
}