Place output of a custom module in a specific region

Question

I am using the following code in a custom module to get the title of the node form in the node creation form, i.e, if i add a new content of type BLOG then on top of that node_add_blog form i get a heading/title "Create New BLOG". SO for this i got a custom module from this very forum (kudos). Now i want to know how can i place the output in a specific region, say as the right sidebar.

<?php
/**
 * Implements hook_form_BASE_FORM_ID_alter().
 */

function show_title_form_node_form_alter(&$form, &$form_state, $form_id) {
  // For the node add form.
  //<pre
  //<?php /** print_r($form);*/?>
  //</pre>
  //<?php
  if (!$form['nid']['#value']) {
    // Add "new" to the page title.
    $node_types = node_type_get_names();
    var_dump($node_types[$form['#node']->type]);
    drupal_set_title(t('Create new @type', array('@type' => $node_types[$form['#node']->type])));
   echo "Create"." ".$node_types[$form['#node']->type];
   ;
  }

Regards

Answer 1

If some variable you are looking for isn't available in the scope of your hook, there is a good chance that you are doing it wrong.

Title of the page can be accessed in your theme's page.tpl.php file (or its variants). You can use a hook_preprocess_page() in your template.php file and populate a new variable if the path matches (node add forms have node/add path) so you can put it in the appropriate sidebar in the page.tpl.php.

You cannot control stuff to be shown in the page with a form_alter hook. For Drupal 7, you could use hook_page_alter() or hook_page_build() to inspect and set sidebar contents.

For an example:

template.php:

function mytheme_preprocess_page (&$variables) {
  if (arg(0) == 'node' && arg(1) == 'add' && arg(2) && isset($vars['page']['content']['system_main']['nid'])) {
    $variables['sidebar_title'] = t('Create new @type', array('@type' => arg(2)))
  }
}

Now, print the sidebar title in your page.tpl.php's appropriate div.

if (isset($sidebar_title)) {
  print $sidebar_title;
}

Drupa.org article: Setting up variables for use in a template (preprocess and process functions)