Develop a block for Moodle

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Develop a block for Moodle
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Project Context

• Speakers
• Michael de Raadt
• Yajuvendrasinh V Mahida (Masters student)
• Moodle Trial Project
• Moodle as new StudyDesk
• Independent Studies Mini-project
• Develop a block for Moodle

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Project Context

• Semester 1 March 2008 - CSC8480 Computing
  Complementary Studies

• Supervisor Mr. Michael de Raadt

• I went with proposal of E-Commerce Portal

• I was asked to develop block for Moodle

• In initial findings about Moodle I found it
  interesting and decided to develop block for
  Moodle

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Moodle

• I found that Moodle is really revolutionary
• e-learning platform

• Moodle is modular. It is having potential for
  keeping up with the time and new technologies

• Development of Moodle is on going process by
  diffused network of commercial and non-commercial
  users which are streamlined by the Moodle company
  based in Perth, Western Australia

• The following Moodle Statistics are success story
  of Moodle http//moodle.org/stats/

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Moodle Statistics
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Intentions

• The project was divided in two phases
• 1.Research work on Moodle and Block
• To find out what is Moodle, how it works, what is
  the file structure etc
• Finding a way for creating a block, what is
  block, how it works and understanding what you
  find
• 2.Creating a block
• Carving the research work to develop block

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Discoveries

• The first difficulty was to find exact
  information regarding to the development
• The http//docs.moodle.org have very useful
  documentation for Developer under MoodleDocs. I
  used this documents as secondary source for the
  information
• I feel that there is a need of more detailed and
  practical documentation work for Developer as the
  current documentation is inadequate

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Discoveries

• For my development work I downloaded the blocks
  developed by developer from the Moodle websites
  Modules and plugins section
• I studied them and tried the Trial and Error
  method and also used the MoodleDocs for block
  development
• Many times my Moodle Software was crashed and I
  learned lot of things through this
• I found that already developed blocks are the
  best source for developer as starting point

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Discoveries

• After all these findings I developed the simple
  Ajax Google Search block
• It was just simple block which was showing the
  Google Web Search results
• I showed to supervisor Mr. Michael de Raadt and
  he advised me for adding more customization
  through the Instance Configuration and Global
  Configuration
• I downloaded and studied the block that have
  configurations. And I used that finding to add
  customization feature to my block

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Tools

• 1. Eclipse with PHP plugin
• It is really good IDE with powerful features
• You can connect to the CVS repository
  http//cvs.moodle.org
• I found that it is very complex and not easy to
  start with
• The setting up Eclipse for Moodle development is
  good guide to start with http//docs.moodle.org/en
  /DevelopmentSetting_up_Eclipse

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Tools

• 2. fabFORCE DBDesigner 4
• DBDesigner 4 is a open source visual database
  design system that integrates database design,
  modeling, creation and maintenance into a single,
  seamless environment
• I used this tool to explore the Moodle database
  system
• This is really good tool for playing around the
  MySQL database of Moodle
• http//www.fabforce.net/dbdesigner4/downloads.php

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Tools

• 3. NuSphere PHP IDE
• It is really good IDE with powerful features like
  friendly user interface, debugger, code navigator
  etc
• I used this IDE is as a real time editor for my
  block http//www.nusphere.com/
• The other features can be useful but I have never
  needed to use it

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Outcomes

• Finally I developed the fully customizable Google
  Search Services block
• I submitted this block on the Moodles Modules
  and Plugins section which was accepted as valid
  block and can be found at http//moodle.org/mod/da
  ta/view.php?d13rid1608
• Till todays date I have received some general
  queries regarding to the block from the Moodle
  community and some few users across the community
  have given me positive feedback about the working
  of the block

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Outcomes

• Through this course and project I had chance for
  the experience with the real world development
• I learnt lot of things in terms of academic and
  professional skills
• My supervisor Michael de Raadt kept me on the
  right track during the project work. This was
  really important as sometime one can easily lost
  during the track in absence of proper guidance

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Outcomes

• I have learnt the theoretical aspects of the PHP,
  HTML, CSS, AJAX through my academic learning
• With this project I put all these theoretical
  skills into the professional and real world
  development
• This course has proved worthwhile for me.

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Moodle Google Block
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Moodle Google Block File Structure
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Blocks Language File Structure
Language File
HTML Help files to use with Blocks help buttons
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Main Block File block_moodle_google.php
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Language File block_moodle_google.php
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Global Configuration Source-Code
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Blocks Global Configuration
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Instance Configuration Source-Code
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Blocks Instance Configuration
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Integrated Help Function

• The help functionality is implemented using the
• Moodle function helpbutton. This function is
  defined in weblib.php library.
• helpbutton(page, title, module'moodle',
  imagetrue, linktextfalse, text'',
  returnfalse,imagetext'')

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Integrated Help Function

• When you press this button help page (html) is
  called from the directory
• \moodle\lang\en_utf8\help\moodle_google_help

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Integrated Help Function

• I found all these functions very late during work
• These functions are described with all arguments
  and required parameters. This can be said the
  Moodle APIs
• This is really very smart APIs and with few lines
  of code one can achieve big functionalities
  within the Moodle
• Use of these functions makes the development work
  very easy

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Integrated Help Function

• The Moodle Community have defined all these
  various Moodle functions under various library on
  http//xref.moodle.org/nav.html?index.html

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Potential for Future Students

• Undergraduates
• Advanced/later-year programming undergrads
• JavaScript in Block
• Simple blocks modifications
• Simple DB access
• Postgrads
• Some groundwork but still steep learning curve
• Block development
• Modifications to existing Moodle code
• Project Clients
• Pseudo-client
• University (lower priority feature requests)
• Moodle Student Projects

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Useful Links

• Moodle Docs
• - Developer Documents for Moodle Developer
• http//docs.moodle.org/en/Developer_documentation
  
• PHP Cross Reference of Moodle 1.9
• - Moodle Functions References and other Stuff
• http//xref.moodle.org
• The CVS archive
• - This archive contains all the source code for
  Moodle
• http//cvs.moodle.org/

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Useful Links

• Moodle Documentation DevelopmentBlock
• Step by step guide to Creating Blocks
• http//docs.moodle.org/en/DevelopmentBlocks
• Moodle Google Block
• This blocks source codes have the comments for
  each piece of the code.
• I have tried to explain each piece of code and
  what it does
• This makes easy for any newbie to start
  developing block
• http//moodle.org/mod/data/view.php?d13rid1608
  

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Thank you very much..