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In my project we implement a little menu that provides information about the module. This snippet lives in drutexml.module.

function drutexml_menu() {
  $items['drutexml'] = array(
    'title' => 'LaTeX filter implemented via LaTeXML',
    'page callback' => 'drutexml_information',
    'access callback' => TRUE,
  );
  return $items;
}

Actually this is a bit silly, and I want to turn it back off inside the installation profile. But as it turns out...

SELECT link_path, module FROM menu_links WHERE link_path = "drutexml";

+-----------+--------+
| link_path | module |
+-----------+--------+
| drutexml  | system |
+-----------+--------+

and then in menu.inc, where menu_link_delete is implemented, we see this bit of logic on line 2997:

if ($item && ($item['module'] != 'system' || $item['updated'] || $force)) { ...

In other words, I can only delete non-"system" links. That's fine with me! Or it would be, if my link was stored with the name of the module where hook_menu is implemented in the first place.

What's going on here? Why is this said to be a "system" link?

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1 Answer 1

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1

The only way to remove a menu item defined from a module in hook_menu() is, apart from removing its definition from the module's hook_menu(), removing it with hook_menu_alter().

function mymodule_menu_alter(&$items) {
  unset($items['drutexml']); 
}

Menu items that are part of a menu, including the ones defined with hook_menu(), are saved in the menu_links table. Those defined in hook_menu() are saved setting the "module" field to "system" to distinguish them from other links directly added from a module.

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6
  • What is the alternative to hook_menu() for adding links directly from a module?
    – Joe Corneli
    Commented Dec 9, 2012 at 22:20
  • 1
    You can use hook_menu(), but use MENU_SUGGESTED_ITEM as type. In that way, the link will appear in a menu if an administrator user enables it.
    – avpaderno ♦
    Commented Dec 9, 2012 at 22:24
  • Or maybe use menu_link_save? Frankly the design decision that says we should "distinguish" hook_menu links from other kinds of links seems weird to me. But any, I think I understand now (sorta). Thanks!
    – Joe Corneli
    Commented Dec 9, 2012 at 22:28
  • You can also use menu_link_save(), but the module should also remove the link once it is disabled. I prefer using MENU_SUGGESTED_ITEM because the link is automatically removed when the module is disabled; when the module is re-enabled, the link is automatically added where it was before.
    – avpaderno ♦
    Commented Dec 9, 2012 at 22:32
  • 1
    Also, another problem with menu_link_save() is that it doesn't straightforwardly allow me to add a page callback. There's considerable discussion about how this will all be rewritten in D8 anyway, so I'm not going to worry about it too much...
    – Joe Corneli
    Commented Dec 9, 2012 at 22:44

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