Drupal 11 – Removing the “View” link from node save messages

Context

In the Heritage Project (Drupal 11.3.x), historian users must **not** be redirected to or encouraged to view the node page after saving content. However, Drupal core automatically shows a status message such as:

Article “My title” has been updated. View

The “View” link is part of the default node save status message.

A custom module (`heritage_tweaks`) modifies this behavior:

The link is removed for non-administrators
Administrators retain the default behavior
Existing date validation logic is untouched

This page documents **why the initial implementation was unreliable** and **what exactly was changed** to make it work consistently in Drupal 11.

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Initial implementation (problematic)

The original code attached a custom submit handler like this:

$form['actions']['submit']['#submit'][] = 'heritage_tweaks_clean_save_message';

This assumes that:

The node form always submits via actions[submit]
The custom submit handler always runs after Drupal core adds its status message

These assumptions were **sometimes false** in Drupal 11.

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Why this failed intermittently

1. Node forms can have multiple submit buttons

Even if the UI appears to show only one “Save” button, internally Drupal may expose:

Multiple submit actions
Workflow or moderation-related submit buttons
Theme-generated submit wrappers

If the user clicks a submit button that is **not** actions[submit], then:

The custom handler is never executed
The core “Saved … View” message remains unchanged

2. Submit handlers are button-specific

In Drupal Form API:

Submit handlers attached to one button are **not shared** with others
Attaching to the wrong button means the code simply never runs

This is a common cause of “my submit handler works sometimes” bugs in Drupal.

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Final implementation (working)

The fix was to attach the cleanup handler to **all submit buttons**, not just one.

Simplified logic:

foreach ($form['actions'] as $action) {
  if ($action['#type'] === 'submit') {
    $action['#submit'][] = 'heritage_tweaks_clean_save_message';
  }
}

This ensures:

The handler always runs, regardless of which submit action is used
The cleanup logic executes after core has added its status message

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What did NOT change

The date validation logic (fields ending in _day)
The placeholder logic (dd/mm/yyyy)
The use of Drupal’s Messenger API
The permission check for administrators

Only the **submit-handler attachment strategy** changed.

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How the message cleanup works

When the submit handler runs:

If the user has the administer nodes permission, do nothing
Otherwise:
1. Remove all STATUS messages
2. Add a new plain-text status message without links

Example replacement message:

Article “My title” has been updated.

Warnings and errors are preserved because only STATUS messages are removed.

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Why this is correct for Drupal 11

Drupal 8.5+ introduced the Messenger service, and Drupal 11 relies fully on it for user messages.

Key points:

Status messages are stored in a message queue
Messages must be removed **after** they are added
Entity hooks (e.g. hook_node_update) run too early
Form submit handlers run at the correct time

Attaching to all submit buttons is the **recommended defensive pattern** for node forms in modern Drupal.

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Summary (one sentence)

The fix works because the cleanup logic is now attached to **every submit button**, guaranteeing that the “View” link is removed no matter how the node form is submitted.

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Maintenance note

If future changes introduce new submit actions (custom workflows, contributed modules, admin themes), this implementation will continue to work without modification.