--- title: "Can we Modify Drupal Status Messages? · Appnovation" url: "https://www.appnovation.com/insights/can-we-modify-drupal-status-messages" description: "Want control over Drupal status messages from contributed modules? A simple theming trick to alter messages without hook_message_alter." --- Article # Can we Modify Drupal Status Messages? [![](https://cdn.sanity.io/images/ey850001/production/36eb314260fb474cacc1b3a473d7e8402d997898-68x68.png?w=68&auto=format) Appno Blogger Appnovation Coop](/people/appno-blogger.md) May 28, 2009 2 min read ![Appnovation Blog Default Header](https://cdn.sanity.io/images/ey850001/production/9efe1c26d9584ecfb3dfef5a63e698bf4567d305-1440x600.jpg?w=1400&auto=format) If you've ever wished you had control over Drupal status messages generated by contributed modules and/or ever longed for hook\_message\_alter, you may be interested in this little [Drupal web developer](/services/drupal-development.md) trick for changing these messages. First, add this theming function to your template.php file (the function name "phptemplate\_" may be replaced with your theme name): `` `function phptemplate_status_messages($display = NULL) {` `` `` `$output = '';` `` `` `foreach (drupal_get_messages($display) as $type => $messages) {` `` `` `if (count($messages) > 1) {` `` `` `$list = '';` `` `` `$items = '';` `` `` `foreach ($messages as $message) {` `` `` `modify_message($message);` `` `` `if (!empty($message)) {` `` `` `$items .= '` `` * `` `'. $message ."` `` `` `\n";` `` `` `}` `` `` `}` `` `` `if (!empty($items)) {` `` `` `$list = "` `` \\n"; $list .= $items; `` `\n";` `` `` `}` `` `` `}` `` `` `else {` `` `` `$message = $messages[0];` `` `` `modify_message($message);` `` `` `$list = $message;` `` `` `}` `` `` `if (!empty($list)) {` `` `` `$output .= "` `` \\n"; $output .= $list; $output .= " `\n";` `}` `}` `return $output;` `}` Now, all you have to do is to create another function which will be hiding/modifying your status messages. Here is a function with examples of these changes: `/**` `* Modify/hide a message from user:` `*` `* @param string $message` `*/` `function modify_message(&$message) {` `//Add here whatever you need to recognize and modify this message:` `global $user;` `// Hide these messages:` `$message = preg_replace('/No posts in this group\./', '', $message);` `$message = preg_replace('/Fetching data from GeoNames failed.*/', '', $message);` `//If the administrator has removed _himself_, the message should instead of` `//"Username_ABC is no longer a group administrator." say:` `//"You are no longer an administrator for this group. To regain administrator privileges, please contact an administrator for this group."` `$current_name = $user->name;` `preg_match('/(.*) is no longer a\.*/', $message, $matches_A);` `//check if the current user is the same as the user in the message:` `if ($matches_A[1]) preg_match("/$current_name/", $matches_A[1], $matches_B);` `if ($matches_B[0]) $message = "You are no longer an administrator for this group. To regain administrator privileges, please contact an administrator for this group.";` `}` Et, voila. 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