Module development and code questions

What is the main use of the 'prepare' op in hook_nodeapi? It's not documented , and i was just wondering what is commonly done during that hook, and when it is fired...

Hi everyone (anyone)

I have done my best to solve this issue of adding my own information into the $user object when it is loaded.
I checked the API for hook_user and implemented
what I thought was the correct solution but it didn't work. To ensure that I had done it correctly I made a clean install
of Drupal and built a whole new module based on block_example so that it was clear what I was doing and nothing else could
affect it.

Hi there,
I currently run a brand-new drupal powered site at www.scirpg.com

I need some help, I know very little of php programing, but I know enough to have created, alter and refine my site by myself (no help at all, drupal was very easy to install including most modules)

SciRPG is a community that will run Science Fiction tabletop style RPG's members use existing clients like Screenmonkey/OpenRPG or WebRPG, Klooge, GRiP... chat/dice/map clients of all types.

I need the site to be capable of this:
Users can create Campaign groups, The creator of the Campaign is now the "GM" of that Game.
Other users can create "Characters".... as many as they want.

When a User creates a Campaign group, it should allow the Users to submit one of their "Characters" to the group. If the "GM" deems the "Character" fit to play in his game, he then grants the player access to the "Campaign".

The "GM" can then alter the "Character" as the game progresses...
The "GM" can add notes to his "Campaign" as the game progresses.
The "GM" can end the "Campaign" and save it as an archive (for later reference)

A failsafe feature allows the User "Character" to drop out from a Campaign (in case the "GM" abandons the game without Ending the "Campaign" group)

Admin creates "Character" sheets for Users to fill out (as there may be different game Rules for creating a "Character")

So its mainly a system for Organizing groups of Users, and keeping track of the Activity in the Group.

The facts are these:

I've been running without issue the trackback module for several months. I recently did install and have been sort of running the Xinha module. I was able to run both at the same time with no issue for several hours on monday; last night though, when I tried to run a "story" type node it was returned with: The trackback url is not a valid url.. This only happens for the story nodes and not blog, page, or image.

I tried to search around to see if there is any Microsoft Word/Excel import module. Unfortuantly, all the posts that I was able to find were about a year old. Is there a Word/Excel import module in development or has this idea been passed off as being unneccesary?

Hello all,

I'm trying to write a patch to the event module that changes how individual event nodes are displayed (see http://drupal.org/node/47457), but I'm having trouble figuring out where the output that is being displayed when I view an event node is coming from.