Profile Advice

Here's a quick summary of how I created a way for a user to enter multiple pieces of work experience and how to display it on the profile page. I'm using quite a few modules, the most important being: nodeprofile, Advanced Profile, panels and views.

1. First I created a new content type called "experience" with the info I need for a single job (ie Company, Title, dates, etc). I check "Use this content type as a nodeprofile for users" and on the "Node Profile" tab I have "Integrate this node profile with user categories." and "Don't display this nodeprofile on the user account page" checked.
2. Goto Admin/User management/Access Control and give authenticated users the rights to "create experience content" and "edit own experience content"
3. Goto Admin/Site Building/Views and create a new view named "Experience".
1. Check "Provide Block" and select "List View".
2. In the Block/Header section, under "Input format" check "PHP Code" and add:
   
   <?php
global $user;
if (arg(0) == 'user' && is_numeric(arg(1)) && arg(1) == $user->uid)
    { echo l('Add Position', "node/add/experience", false, "destination=user/".$user->uid); }
?>
   
   This code will display an "Add Position" link for adding new work experience items when looking at your profile page. It will not display the link if you're looking at someone else's profile page.
3. In the Block/Empty Text section, under "Input format" check "PHP Code" and add:
   
   <?php
global $user;
if (arg(0) == 'user' && is_numeric(arg(1)) && arg(1) == $user->uid)
    { echo l('Add Position', "node/add/experience", false, "destination=user/".$user->uid); }
?>
   
   This code will display an "Add Position" link for adding the first new work experience item when looking at your profile page and you don't have any work experience items yet. It will not display the link if you're looking at someone else's profile page.
4. Add your fields
5. Add an argument type of "User: UID is Author" default "Summary, sorted as view" (this limits it to only items created by the profile user)
6. Add another argument type of "Node: Type" default "Summary, sorted as view" (this limits it to only experience items) Handled by step 8 - Feb 14, 2008
7. In "Argument Handling Code" add:
   if (arg(0) == 'user' && is_numeric(arg(1))) { return array(arg(1),'experience'); }
   This sets the arguments that are passed in (ie use the profile users's ID and limit to only 'experience' content)
   Use this instead - Feb 14, 2008
   if (arg(0) == 'user' && is_numeric(arg(1))) { return array(arg(1)); }
   This sets the arguments that are passed in (ie use the profile users's ID)
8. New step - Feb 14, 2008
   In the Filter section, add "Node: Type" and choose your Experience content type. This is the better way of limiting the view to just Experience items
9. New step - Feb 14, 2008
   In the Filter section, add "Node: Published" and choose "Yes". This limits your view to just published experiences
4. Goto Admin/Panels/Views and add a new panel view from your "Experience" view. The default values should work
5. Goto Admin/Panels/Panel Pages and edit the "User Profile" panel and add your new "Experience" panel view.

Let me know just how intelligible you found this "walk-through" and if it actually helped anyone else. There's a screenshot of your profile as you see it and a screenshot of your profile as seen by someone else. Obviously there's still some CSS and HTML work that needs to be applied, but the basics are there.

Updates - Feb 14, 2008
Ok, having worked with this a bit more and learned more about Drupal I found a couple changes that needed to be done. In particular using the Filter to limit to only Experience content types instead of jumping through the Argument Handling hoops. Hopefully this is still legible.

That's great, Chad. I don't really fully understand the reason for panel views. I've been just adding my Views straight in to my panel pages. I looked at it, but didn't really get it.

Can anyone explain why panel views exist and why I should use them? =)