Question

I’d like to ask how can I do some code before I build the form in Drupal 7?
Before defining a form I’d like to perform some code(I want to build an object), How can I do it?

The code i want to perform:

if (isset($_GET["team"])){$team = $_GET["team"];} else {$team=1; };
$myteam = new Team($team);

I define the form:

function teamform_nameform() { 
    $form['editteam']['team_city'] = array( 
    '#title' => t('Team city'), 
    '#type' => 'textfield', 
    '#description' => t(''), 
        '#required' => TRUE,
        '#default_value' =>**$myteam->returnCity()**,
        '#size' => 30, 
     );
$form['editteam']['submitContentChanges'] = array( 
     '#type' => 'submit', 
     '#value' => t('Save changes'),
     '#submit' => array('teamform_editteam_submitContentChanges'),
);
}

I tried to use the following hook, but it doesn’t work. (i still can’t get access to variable $team and to the object $myteam (it’s written that they are undefined))

/** 
 *  Implements hook_form_alter(). 
 */ 

   function teamform_form_alter(&$form, &$form_state, $form_id) { 
     global $team;
     if (isset($_GET["team"])){$team = $_GET["team"];} else {$team=2;};
     global $myteam
     $myteam = new Team($team);
   }

$team is the team id which i get using method GET or if it’s not set than i assign the default value. $myteam is a object which i build based on the team_id.
Than I’d like to get access to the object in the function teamform_nameform(). In this function i use method returnCity() in order to return the city which the team belongs to; as a default value.
Than I’d like to make changes with the object. Specifically, when the user changes the city of the team and click submit button then i want to update the city in the object $myteam. Therefore i use the function:

function teamform_editteam_submitContentChanges($form, &$form_state){
  $team_city=$form_state['values']['team_city'];
  $myteam->updateTeamCity($team_city); //i got the error here. it's said that $myteam is undefined!
}

Answer 1

It looks like you want an object to persist across page loads, does that sound right? If that’s the case, you can store it in the session. Try something like this:

/** 
 *  Implements hook_form_alter(). 
 */ 
function teamform_form_alter(&$form, &$form_state, $form_id) { 
  $team = isset($_GET["team"]) ? $_GET["team"] : 2;
  $_SESSION['team'] = new Team($team);
}

function teamform_editteam_submitContentChanges($form, &$form_state){
  $team_city = $form_state['values']['team_city'];

  $myteam = $_SESSION['team'];
  $myteam->updateTeamCity($team_city);
}