Alter the “My Account” link in installation profile

Question

Well i've tried the following code to insert an attribute to the user-account link on installation profile.It works for all other menu items (Home[]), except the user-account link, probably due to the reason it is rebuilt again.

<?php
   $path = 'user';
   // Check for user (My account) menu item.
   $existing_item = db_select('menu_links')
    ->fields('menu_links')
    ->condition('link_path', $path)
    //->condition('module', 'system')
    ->execute()->fetchAssoc();

  $item = array(
   'mlid' => $existing['mlid'],
   'link_path' => $existing['link_path'],
   'link_title' => $existing['link_title'],
 //'menu_name' => $existing['menu_name'],
   'router_path' => $existing['router_path'],
 //'module' => $existing['module'],
 //'plid' => $existing['plid'],
   'options' => array(
    'attributes' => array(
    'target' => '_blank',
    ),
   ),
 );
 // $item['options'] = serialize($item['options']);
 // $item = _menu_link_build($item);

 // $link['options'] = serialize($link['options']);
 if (menu_link_save($item, $existing) == $existing['mlid']) {

   drupal_set_message(t('User menu target attribute updated'));
 }

The above code :

1. selects form the database the {menu_links} record for 'user' menu item.
2. Alter the options in the $item['options'] array
3. Performs menu_link_save() on the existing item since we have given an existing $mlid

Well, i've tried menu_cache_clear, rebuilds, straight altering the database values.. everything! but the "My account" link is rebuilded after my profile installation routines, even though is the last one.

How this will work? How can i achieve this kind of alteration in installation profile?

In general, is it possible to override module-defined menu items options/properties in profile, or hook_menu() will run always after my code and revoke all my changes?

Answer 1

Perhaps you could use:

hook_menu_alter

Not sure if it'll work with option attributes, but worth a try.

e.g

/**
 * Implements hook_menu_alter
 */
PROFILE_menu_alter(&$items){
  $items['user']['options'] = array('attributes' => array('target' => '_blank'));
}

Alternatively, it would be easy enough to add the _blank attr with jQuery.

e.g:

$('body.some-class #user-menu-link a').attr('target', '_blank');

Update: added example PROFILE_ option for menu_alter hook

Answer 2

The solution?

variable_set('user_target_attr', '_blank');

in the profile installation and

hook_menu_link_alter()

normally afterwards in the module like :

/**
 * Implements hook_menu_link_alter().
 */
function module_menu_link_alter(&$item) {
  $destination = drupal_get_destination();
    if ($item['link_path'] == 'user') {
    // Allow to be overriden!!
    $default_target = variable_get('user_target_attr', '_blank');
     if ($default_target != $item['options']['attributes']['target']) {
        variable_set('user_target_attr',
          $item['options']['attributes']['target']);
     }
    // Alter all the links to user page to open via the configured or default attribute.
    $item['options']['attributes']['target'] = variable_get('user_target_attr', '_blank');
    }
}

If we don't make the check for the default target , it will always get the default one and we could never update the defaults from amdin UI