Unable to modify data with ‘entry_submission_ready’ extension hook

Question

I’ve read a few posts on this, and for the life of me I can’t get this working. I want to intercept a Channel Form submission, and modify the submitted data.

I’m using the ‘entry_submission_ready’ extension hook, which fires fine. I can access the $data array, but I cannot modify an element so that it is saved when the entry is saved.

I’m accessing the $data arary by reference ( &$data ), but that doesn’t make any difference.

Where an I going wrong?

<?php  if ( ! defined('BASEPATH')) exit('No direct script access allowed');

/**
 * ExpressionEngine - by EllisLab
 *
 * @package     ExpressionEngine
 * @author      ExpressionEngine Dev Team
 * @copyright   Copyright (c) 2003 - 2011, EllisLab, Inc.
 * @license     http://expressionengine.com/user_guide/license.html
 * @link        http://expressionengine.com
 * @since       Version 2.0
 * @filesource
 */

// ------------------------------------------------------------------------

/**
 * Contact Notify Extension
 *
 * @package     ExpressionEngine
 * @subpackage  Addons
 * @category    Extension
 * @author      James Seavers
 * @link        http://www.symphonyonline.co.uk
 */

class Contact_notify_ext {

    public $settings        = array();
    public $description     = 'Notifies when an entry is created in contact request channel after changing some data';
    public $docs_url        = '';
    public $name            = 'Contact Notify';
    public $settings_exist  = 'n';
    public $version         = '1.0';

    private $EE;

    private $recipient = '[email protected]';

    /**
     * Constructor
     *
     * @param   mixed   Settings array or empty string if none exist.
     */
    public function __construct($settings = '')
    {
        $this->EE =& get_instance();
        $this->settings = $settings;
    }// ----------------------------------------------------------------------

    /**
     * Activate Extension
     *
     * This function enters the extension into the exp_extensions table
     *
     * @see http://codeigniter.com/user_guide/database/index.html for
     * more information on the db class.
     *
     * @return void
     */
    public function activate_extension()
    {
        // Setup custom settings in this array.
        $this->settings = array();

        $data = array(
            'class'     => __CLASS__,
            'method'    => 'change_data',
            'hook'      => 'entry_submission_ready',
            'settings'  => serialize($this->settings),
            'version'   => $this->version,
            'enabled'   => 'y'
        );

        $this->EE->db->insert('extensions', $data);         

    }   

    // ----------------------------------------------------------------------

    /**
     * change_data
     *
     * @param 
     * @return 
     */
    public function change_data($meta, &$data, $autosave=false)
    {
        $data['field_id_60'] = 'test';
    }

} 

Thanks in advance, James

Answer 1

Passing by reference doesn't work when calling extension hooks in EE.

If you want to alter the field data inside any of the API Channel Entries hooks, you need to change it directly in the API object, like so:

ee()->api_channel_entries->data['field_id_60'] = 'test';