Block/Theme not 'return'ing $output - php

Question

This is the issue.
I have a block called 'User Favorites Block'
It's placed in the region 'First Sidebar'
'First Sidebar' appears on the front-page.
The function is supposed to grab the data from the f25_favorites table and list them inside the block. Right now the table is an empty array.
When I return $output, none of my divs or anything are output.
When I do print($output), everything is displayed.
This is my test code to show that my 'if' statement is returning true. http://d.pr/zDph
/*
* f25_favorites_my_favorites theme
*/
function theme_f25_favorites_my_favorites($mypaths) {
dsm($mypaths);
print_r(count($mypaths));
$output .= 'n<div id="f25-favorites">n';
$output .= '<div id="f25-favorites-list">n';
if (count($mypaths) == 0) {
$output .= "No favorites have been added";
print "No favorites have been added";
}
else {
foreach ($mypaths as $indpath) {
$output .= l($indpath->title, $indpath->path, $attributes = array());
}
}
$output .= '</div>n';
$output .= '<div id="f25-favorites-add">n';
$output .= '</div>n';
$output .= 'n</div>n';
return $output;
}
This outputs this: http://d.pr/Uhrs
Note the 0 on the top left, that's the output of the 'count()'
And the print of the text within the 'if'
So, this is my theme:
/*
* f25_favorites_my_favorites theme
*/
function theme_f25_favorites_my_favorites($mypaths) {
/*dsm($mypaths);
print_r(count($mypaths));*/
$output .= '\n<div id="f25-favorites">\n';
$output .= '<div id="f25-favorites-list">\n';
if (count($mypaths) == 0) {
$output .= "No favorites have been added";
}
else {
foreach ($mypaths as $indpath) {
$output .= l($indpath->title, $indpath->path, $attributes = array());
}
}
$output .= '</div>\n';
$output .= '<div id="f25-favorites-add">\n';
$output .= '</div>\n';
$output .= '\n</div>\n';
return $output;
}
It's called with this hook_theme() function:
/*
* Implentation of hook_theme().
*/
function f25_favorites_theme () {
return array(
'f25_favorites_my_favorites' => array (
'arguments' => array ('mypaths' => array())
),
);
}
Which is called with this hook_block() function:
/*
* Implementation of hook_block().
*
*/
function f25_favorites_block($op = 'list', $delta = 0, $edit = array()) {
if ($op == 'list') {
$blocks = array();
$blocks['f25-favorites'] = array(
'info' => t('User Favorites Block'),
'cache' => BLOCK_NO_CACHE,
);
return $blocks;
}
if ($op == 'view') {
switch ($delta) {
case 0:
$mypaths = f25_favorites_user_favorites();
$block = array(
'subject' => t('User Favorites Block'),
'content' => theme_f25_favorites_my_favorites($mypaths)
);
return $block;
};
}
}
Noteworthy
My theme is a 'Sub-theme' of a theme called 'Zen'
Zen has a block.tpl.php which looks like this: http://d.pr/AaO1
Here is the full code of my module: http://d.pr/cGqc

Answer 1

It could be a region-related problem. Try switching to Garland and add the block to a plain old Garland region, and see if it appears.
If you see it in Garland then make sure your sub-theme really is defining that "First Sidebar" region and then actually printing its variable in the tpl files.
(FWIW I tried your code on Garland and it displays the block fine.)
Also, you might want to change your function call from:
theme_f25_favorites_my_favorites($mypaths)
to:
theme('f25_favorites_my_favorites', $mypaths)
...if you want to keep the code flexible (i.e. have Drupal call any preprocess functions and allow other people, or yourself in the future, to override the template's output)