Throwing Error When Used

So I believe this may not be related to the export as I originally thought. I traced the problem up to the calling function in ctools_export_ui.class.php on line 46.

function load_item($item_name)

The object instance doesn't seem to have a schema to pass this function.

Okay, found the issue. CTools requires the export_ui include file to define itself using the $plugin variable or a specified function. This module is using the $plugin variable which is included using 'include_once'. The problem is that it is already included once by the 'custom_formatters' module and thus isn't being included again. Because of this the $plugin variable isn't redefined to the appropriate value... it is just NULL.

It seemed the easiest way around this was to just use the other option for defining a plugin. Defining a function.

I added the function custom_formatters_custom_formatters_ctools_export_ui() to replace the $plugin variable. It returns the same information, but doesn't conflict with running 'require once' more than once.

The patch should work for either the beta or dev version (and maybe others).

Hope this helps.

Sure, I found this option out via the code comments as I was tracing the error within the function ctools_plugin_load_includes() in ctools/includes/plugins.inc. Copied below...

          require_once DRUPAL_ROOT . '/' . $file->uri;
          // .inc files have a special format for the hook identifier.
          // For example, 'foo.inc' in the module 'mogul' using the plugin
          // whose hook is named 'borg_type' should have a function named (deep breath)
          // mogul_foo_borg_type()

          // If, however, the .inc file set the quasi-global $plugin array, we
          // can use that and not even call a function. Set the $identifier
          // appropriately and ctools_plugin_process() will handle it.
          if (isset($plugin)) {
            $plugin_arrays[$file->uri] = $plugin;
            $identifier = $plugin;
          }
          else {
            $identifier = $module . '_' . $file->name;
          }

So as far as replication goes, I created a custom formatter for use within a view that displays a date range based on a multiple date field. I received the error whenever the view was displayed.

So the problem, as I may have mentioned, is related to the $plugin variable. Setting this variable is only an option if the file is never referenced via "include_once" (with the exception of the ctools_plugin_load_includes function). Because include once won't interpret the code again if the file has already been included, the $plugin variable isn't reset, and because the $plugin variable is nullified right before including this file for the second time the $plugin variable remains null. This ultimately results in ctools throwing the error "Notice: Undefined index: export in ctools_export_crud_load() (line 75 of sites/all/modules/ctools/includes/export.inc)."

Oddly this doesn't seem to prevent the functionality from working correctly. The custom formatter works as designed even when the error is thrown.

Hope this helps. Let me know if there is anything else I can do. Thanks for contributing and maintaining this great module Deciphered!