Programmatic Block Creation in Drupal
To remove static blocks and replace with as custom block.
Implement hook_block specifying the default visibility and so on
<?php
$blocks['random'] = array(
'info' => t('Random'),
'weight' => 0,
'status' => 1,
'region' => 'sidebar',
'pages' => 'offers',
'visibility' => 0, // all pages except
'cache' => BLOCK_CACHE_PER_PAGE,
);
?>
Create an update hook that deletes the old blocks and boxes (I’ve specified the ID as I know they won’t change on my site).
<?php
function mymodule_update_6101(){
$items = array();
$items[] = update_sql('DELETE FROM {boxes} WHERE bid in (2, 12,13)');
$items[] = update_sql("DELETE FROM {blocks} WHERE module = 'block' AND delta in (2, 12, 13)");
// Update the 'blocks' DB table with the blocks currently exported by modules.
// It's a "private" function called when you visit
// the admin/build/block/list/ page
// calling it here causes the rehash which you otherwise have to visit the page to get
_block_rehash();
// clear the cache
cache_clear_all();
return $items;
}
?>
When you run update.php your shiny new blocks should then be immediately available with no manual steps required.
This makes it so much easier to test your upgrades.