The goal of this tutorial is to show how we could add a new block in the edit or detail view of a module where we could add some special functionality that we may need.

To use this strategy you simply have to create a template with the same label as the block followed by _edit or _detail inside the module's template directory.

Inside that file, you will be able to use all the variables and functionality of Smarty and a new $FIELDS variable which contains the values of the fields of the record being shown/edited.

No additional functionality is given. You, as a programmer, must create the code to do any magic you need inside this block.

If you need to add a new block this can be done easily both in the layout editor and by using vtlib API.

Next, I am going to walk through a simple example by creating a new block called Process Workflow which will show an image to move to next phase of a given business process if it is possible in Detail View and a status message in Edit View.

To create the block we use this vtlib code:

$modname = 'Potentials';
$module = Vtiger_Module::getInstance($modname);
if ($module) {
    $block = new Vtiger_Block();
    $block->label = 'ProcessWorkflow';
    $block->sequence = 2;
    $module->addBlock($block);
} else {
    echo "<b>Failed to find $modname module.</b><br>";
}

Now that we have the block we create the files:

Smarty/templates/modules/Potentials/ProcessWorkflow_edit.tpl
Smarty/templates/modules/Potentials/ProcessWorkflow_detail.tpl

In ProcessWorkflow_detail.tpl I will put this code:

<tr>
<td>
<p align="center"><img src="themes/images/right.gif" width="100px"/></p>
<p align="center">Move to next step in process</p>
</td>
</tr>

And in ProcessWorkflow_edit.tpl I will put this code:

<tr>
<td colspan="4">
<p align="center">You are now in Step X of the Process and you can proceed to Step Y or Step Z</p>
</td>
</tr>