Module development and code questions

How can I tell what the active node is, or more specifically what the category is of the active item? I tried a global $node, but it didn't seem to be available.

help!

There are a bunch of great mods out their finding more ways for users to get content. I think the workspace.mod and mypage.mod views are great and am looking forward to trying out sections. There is also books (in core), series, and articles- not sure how they are all separate. I'd like to find ways for users to relate to content better. More like a friendster type trees where you can see how users are related, how their posts are related to topics-vocabs, etc. Then it would be great if users could create views for others to see.

I try to get write access to CVS using http://drupal.org/cvs-account. I posted request but I've not received any response. I have also created my new project where is link to CVS. I expect that is link to your CVS which I cannot write in.

Am I doing something wrong?

Tomas

I had been assured that developing a module which would send new users the mailman confirmation email was easy. And it was.

I had also been told that writing a module which would add a email form for the user profile page would be easy. It was, after figuring out what the global variables are.

Really, its two different modules, but I didn't see much point splitting them for my own purposes. Maybe it'll be useful for someone else. Developed on 4.5.

 function mailmanbasic_user($op, &$edit, &$user, $category)
{

 if($op=='insert')
  {
   mail("list-join@democracyformo.com", " ", " ","From: {$user->mail}\r\n");
  }

$user_profile = $user;
global $user; //user looking at page
 if ($op == 'view' && $user->uid > 0)
  {
        global $edit;

/*      dprint("<pre>");
        dprint_r($user);
        dprint('\n');
//      dprint_r($edit);
        dprint("</pre>"); */

        if($edit['subject'] && $edit['message'])
        {
          mail($user_profile->mail, $edit['subject'], $edit['message'], "From: {$user->name} <{$user->mail}>\r\n");
         return array(t('Email Sent') => t("Your email with the subject <strong>{$edit['subject']}</strong> was sent to {$user_profile->name}."));
        }
        else {
        $output = form_textfield("Subject", "subject", '', 25, 100);
        $output .= form_textarea("Message", "message", '', 80,8);
        $output .= form_submit("Submit");
        $output = form($output);
        return array(t('Send Email') => $output);
        }
  }

}

Some of the lines have been word-wrapped, I'm not sure if this will have any effect.

I'm making a module that will make a few blocks. I want the content of the blocks to very based on what the category of the current focused item is. For instance, if there is a story about cats on the main page, i want the auxillary blocks to have information about cats. How do I tell in the sidebar if the main main item has changed?

help!

thanks!