CCK Blocks – Put Drupal Fields into Blocks

Download the module from http://drupal.org/project/cck_blocks.

Go to Modules > Install new module > Browse and Click Install to upload the module you downloaded.

After it’s uploaded return to the Modules page and make sure the check box is clicked.

Scroll to the bottom of the page and be sure you save the changes.

That’s all there is to the installation. This simple step adds the ability for you to select a field in a content type and make it available for display in a block.

Go to Structure > Content types.

Fields are part of Content Types. So open up Content Types.

1. You can add a new content type
2. You can manage an existing content type. Click Manage Fields under Operations.

Let’s just take an existing content type and click on Manage Fields. We cover creating content types in our Drupal classes. If you’re a student at OSTraining, refer to the Drupal course.

You have several fields you can work with or you can add a new one. It’s up to you. Let’s work with the existing Image field. Move to the right of the screen and click on edit to make changes to the image field.

This process would be the same whether you create a type or modify an existing one.

At the very bottom of the page you can see the selection that was added by the CCK Blocks module. Choose Enabled and save the settings.

Return to Structure > Content types and click on Manage Display

When you get to the Manage Display tab, find the row with the Image field and click edit.

Make sure the format is correct and CCK Blocks is checked.

If you want the block to show up when the entire article is viewed, choose Full Content here. You can uncheck Teaser for this demo.

Save any changes.

Go back to Structure and click on Blocks.

Scroll down. and you will see a new block type created for the image field which you can place in any region you want. I chose Sidebar first.

After selecting a region, scroll down to the bottom of the page,

Click Save.

Find the block you added and under the region you added it to and click Configure.

Configure the pages on which you want to use the block.

Choose the content types that will use the block. In this case only Articles will have the block. It won’t show if any other content type is visited by the user.

Save any changes!

The reason that no block is showing is that we have not yet uploaded the image to the article. Either create an article or go to an existing one, and upload an image for the image field.

Go to Structure > Content Type > Article and click the Manage Display tab.

You will see that you can manage the default view, the Full content view and the CCK Blocks view.

Click and drag the Image field to the Hidden section on the Default view.

Click and drag the image field to the Hidden section.

Click the CCK Blocks button and make sure the Image field is in the Field section – Above the hidden section.

Choose an article and click Edit. Upload an image to go with that article.

Once it’s uploaded you need to configure what you see. Normally, without using CCK blocks, the image would display at the bottom of the article, or wherever your theme places the Image field.

You can control what views show the image field and the block.

When I did this I kept looking at the site, but didn’t see my changes. I had to keep clearing the Drupal cache. If you don’t get the result you expect, clear the cache (more than once if you have to.)

Known Issue – Requires a patch Read about it here: http://drupal.org/node/833730

From the Drupal forum: “I noticed today that the cck block display settings are overriding the basic display settings. For instance I have field_1, on the basic display settings I have it set to hidden so that it does not render in $content. But I have the display setting in the cck_blocks display settings as default. What I end up with is field_1 displaying in $content and in the cck block that I have added. I’ll see what I can dig up to help resolve this.”

Patch located here: cck_blocks_conten_view-833730-24.patch

At this writing the patch has not been committed to the module, but it has been tested and works.

Related modules For Interemediate to Advanced Users

If you want to have a field editable directly within a block, try editablefields.

Since version 6x-1.2 and 7x-1.0, block titles support tokens from the token module. Use this module, if you want to have a field as block, with another field value as the block title. As tokens are availibla in D7 core, you can use them without installing the token module. However, if you want to see, what tokens are available (many token names have changed), you need to install the token module, as it provides additional GUI support, including information about available tokens.