How to Add Contextual Link on a Block

Contextual Link

A contextual link is a nice addition made to Drupal 7 to favor usability. It offers, quick links to pages performing administrative operations. By default, it is available for core block and node teaser view. But designed to be made extendable for other items too - Views, panels, and so.

The Custom contextual link (aka ccl) module is the best choice for adding custom link items.

But I have faced some problems in ccl module while adding a custom contextual link for a block. I would like to share the problems and how I overcame the same.

ccl relies on hook_contextual_links_view_alter() which will only alter or add links if there is already a #contextual_links element in the renderable array. The main content block doesn't get the default Configure block contextual link (see _block_get_renderable_array()), and therefore ccl doesn't affect it by default.

In my case I have added the block on a panel, So the ccl modules don't affect my block. So I had to find a workaround. The problem is explained in detail below,

I needed to create a contextual link for my follow block (from Follow module). The destination of the link is admin/config/services/follow. Then we have to create a menu for the contextual links with the path in hook_menu()

/**
 * Implements hook_menu()
 */
function MY_MODULE_menu() {
  $items['admin/config/services/follow/configure'] = array(
    'title' => t('Edit follow'),
    'type' => MENU_DEFAULT_LOCAL_TASK,
    'context' => MENU_CONTEXT_INLINE,
  );
return $items;
}

/**
 * Implements hook_block_view_MODULE_DELTA_alter()
 */
function mymodule_block_view_follow_site_alter(&$data, $block) {
  $data['content']['#contextual_links']['follow'] = array(
    'admin/config/services/follow', array('follow', 'site'),
  );
}