Creating Field Groups in a Custom Module

If you need your module to add a fieldgroup to your Drupal 7 site, follow this quick and easy process: Also, if you’re looking to create fields, see this related post.

1. Build the fieldgroup through the “manage fields” UI.
2. Modify the code below to include a proper $fieldgroup_name, $entity_type and $bundle_name. I needed to add a field to the user profile, so I set the $entity_type to “user” and the $bundle_name to “user”.
   
   PHP

   $fieldgroup_name = ''; // e.g., group_author_info $entity_type = ''; // e.g., node $bundle_name = ''; // e.g., story include_once DRUPAL_ROOT . '/includes/utility.inc'; $group = field_group_load_field_group($fieldgroup_name, $entity_type, $bundle_name, 'form'); $group_var = '$' . $fieldgroup_name . ' = ' . substr(drupal_var_export($group), 9) . ";\r"; $group_var = preg_replace("/ 'id'.*,\n/", '', $group_var); // remove the ID property $group_var = preg_replace("/ 'export_type'.*,\n/", '', $group_var); // remove the export_type property $output = $group_var . 'field_group_group_save($' . $fieldgroup_name . ');'; drupal_set_message("<textarea rows=30 style=\"width: 100%;\">" . $output . '</textarea>');

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   $fieldgroup_name = ''; // e.g., group_author_info $entity_type = '';     // e.g., node $bundle_name = '';     // e.g., story   include_once DRUPAL_ROOT . '/includes/utility.inc'; $group = field_group_load_field_group($fieldgroup_name, $entity_type, $bundle_name, 'form'); $group_var = '$' . $fieldgroup_name . ' = ' . substr(drupal_var_export($group), 9) . ";\r"; $group_var = preg_replace("/  'id'.*,\n/", '', $group_var); // remove the ID property $group_var = preg_replace("/  'export_type'.*,\n/", '', $group_var); // remove the export_type property $output = $group_var . 'field_group_group_save($' . $fieldgroup_name . ');'; drupal_set_message("<textarea rows=30 style=\"width: 100%;\">" . $output . '</textarea>');

3. Run this through the Devel “Execute PHP Code” page, or use Drush.
4. Paste the output within your module’s hook_install() function within mymodule.install. You should make sure this code is executed after its children are created (if you’re doing that in the same hook_install() implementation.
5. Cleanup the formatting.
6. Delete the fieldgroup you created through the UI. (warning: glance at step 8.2 below before continuing)
7. Enable your module.
8. Check if the fieldgroup shows up. If the fieldgroup doesn’t show up:
   1. Check if row exists in field_group table. If no, check logs for errors. Also, you can wrap dpm() around the field_group_group_save function to see the error as hook_install() runs.
   2. Make sure this fieldgroup has a “b” property value of “0” in the {variable} table’s “default_field_group” variable. It will not show in the form if it has a value of 1. I encountered this problem because deleting the fieldgroup (step 6 above) left that fieldgroup within default_field_group but set the value to 1. I would’ve expected the value to go away altogether, but it is not in my installation.

Example