Add a style (CSS)

1. Open \theme\standard\config.php (assume you are using "standard" theme)
2. Find the last element of $THEME->sheets (should be css3 if you have not done anything yet)
3. Open \theme\standard\style\css3.css and add your css code
4. Goto \moodledata\cache\theme\standard\css and delete all files (anyone have a better way?)
5. Done

Set up role permission

First, add this to \mod\your_module\db\access.php (after line $capabilities = array( )

    'mod/your_module:view' => array(
        'captype' => 'read',
        'contextlevel' => CONTEXT_MODULE,
        'legacy' => array(
            'teacher' => CAP_ALLOW
        )
    )

Open \mod\your_module\lang\en\your_module.php, add this line:
$string['your_module:view'] = 'View your module';

Change version.php to new version, and then goto Notification.

Use this to test the permission:

$context = get_context_instance(CONTEXT_MODULE, $cm->id);
has_capability('mod/your_module:view', $context)

Construct a url string

new moodle_url( 'url_path', array( 'paramenter1'=>$value1 ) );

Make new module with groupING

In mod_form.php, add this line:
$this->_features->groupings = true;

Note: But i still wonder why others module don't add this line but they are still available for groupING, any idea?

Add a table to Module Database

1. Site administration -> Development -> XMLDB editor
2. Find your module and click [Load]
3. Click [Edit]
4. Click [New table] and fill in the detail
5. Click [Back]
6. Click [View PHP code]
7. Select action: create table
8. Select table: select your table name
9. Click "View"
10. Copy the code to mod/your_mod/db/upgrade.php
11. Change XXXXXXXXXX to new version number (e.g. 2011022301)
12. Open mod/your_mod/version.php, change $module->version to the new version number
13. Notification 
14. Done

Create a new format

1. Goto course/format/ (read the README.txt there)
2. Copy topics folder to a new folder (e.g. yourformat)
3. Goto yourformat/lang/en/
4. Rename "format_topics.php" to "format_yourformat.php"
5. Open format_yourformat.php
6. Change the $string
7. Done.

Note: course/format/yourformat/format.php is the file for output view

Add new field to user profile

Site administration -> Users -> Accounts -> User profile fields

Add a field to Module Update page

By Module Update page, i mean the page shown when you add a new activity or update it.

Note: You should add a field to the database first if you want to save the entered field information.

1. Open mod\your_mod\mod_form.php
2. Add this line: $mform->addElement('text', 'your_field', 'label_shown', array('size'=>'64'));
3. Done

Note2: your_field is the field name in the database of table mdl_your_mod, the field information will save to the table

Note3: To show the field, just use $your_mod->your_field

Add a field to Module Database

1. Site administration -> Development -> XMLDB editor
2. Find your module and click [Load]
3. Click [Edit]
4. At the Tables section, click the table you want to add field
5. Click [New field] and fill in the detail
6. [View PHP code]
7. Select action: add field
8. Select field/key/index: your_new_field_name
9. Click "View"
10. Copy the code to mod/your_mod/db/upgrade.php
11. Change XXXXXXXXXX to new version number (e.g. 2011022301)
12. Open mod/your_mod/version.php, change $module->version to the new version number
13. Notification 
14. Done

A good way to print message

Use: print_string( 'the_message', 'your_module_name' );

Then, at mod\your_mod\lang\en\your_mod.php, add:
$string[ 'the_message' ] = 'Welcome!!!';

Remove a Module

1. Goto: Site administration -> Plugins -> Activity modules -> Manage activities
2. Find your module and click Delete
3. Remove the module from mod/ folder
4. Done

Show Block on My Moodle page

By default, some of the blocks cannot be shown on My Moodle page. However, we can force them, but you need to take the risk that the block may be work on My Moodle page. (e.g. some course level functions)

1. Go to blocks/your_block/ folder
2. Edit block_your_block.php
3. Go to function applicable_formats()
4. Change "'my' => false" to "'my' => true"
5. Done.

Redirect to My Moodle page after login

Site administrator -> Appearance -> Navigation -> Default home page for users -> My Moodle

GD problem

If you cannot find the upload picture area in moodle, there is a chance that the GD module does not installed to the PHP.

You can check by: Site administration -> Server -> PHP info (if it is installed, you will find the word "gd" somewhere on the page)


If GD is not installed:
1) If you are in Windows platform, go to php.ini, uncomment the line "extension=php_gd2.dll"
2) If you are unix platform, you need to reinstall php with "--with-gd" option


After installation, go to Site administration -> Server -> System paths, change GD version to "GD 2.x installed".

Good Luck! (It can be a big task!)

Create a new block

Assume the new block name is your_new_block:

1. Got to moodle/blocks/
2. Create a folder: your_new_block
3. Copy blog_menu/*.* to your_new_block/ (as blog_menu is a simple block)
4. Go to your_new_block folder
5. Rename block_blog_menu.php to block_your_new_block.php
6. Open block_your_new_block.php
7. Remove the "require_once" line at the top
8. Change "class block_blog_menu extends block_base {" to "class block_your_new_block extends block_base {"
9. In init(), change "$this->title = get_string('pluginname', 'block_blog_menu');" to "$this->title = get_string('pluginname', 'block_your_new_block');"
10. In get_content(), you can delete from "* Prepare the content for this block" to "// Return the content object", just keep the last return line.
11. All you have to do is fill in $this->content->text = "Your block content html";
12. Go to lang\en\ folder
13. Rename block_blog_menu.php to block_your_new_block.php
14. Open the file, change "$string['pluginname'] = 'Blog menu';" to your block displace name
15. Notifications
16. Done

Batch add new users

Goto: Site administration -> Users -> Accounts -> Upload users

Using the following file format:
==================================================
username, password, firstname, lastname, email
is1, shtm1234, Susan, Ng, susan@localhost.com
is2, shtm1234, Ann, Chan, ann@localhost.com
==================================================

How to change the Password Policy

Site administration -> Security -> Site policies

How to get the student list of a course

global $COURSE, $DB, $OUTPUT;
$context = get_context_instance( CONTEXT_COURSE, $COURSE->id );

$query = 'select u.id as id, firstname, lastname, picture, imagealt, email from mdl_role_assignments as a, mdl_user as u where contextid=' . $context->id . ' and roleid=5 and a.userid=u.id;';

$rs = $DB->get_recordset_sql( $query );
foreach( $rs as $r ) {
   echo $OUTPUT->user_picture($r, array('size' => 50, 'courseid'=>$COURSE->id));
   echo $r->firstname . ' ' . $r->lastname . '<br>';
}

Access phpMyAdmin

Browse to: http://localhost/admin/mysql/

(Not all installation package get this)

No more Topic Section for Topics format

What i am trying to do is to hide all the topics when we are using the "Topics format".

1. Open moodle\course\format\topics\format.php
2. uncomment started from "/// Now all the normal modules by topic" to the end of the while loop (Just before "if (!displaysection and...") (from line 135 to 260)
3. Done

Build a Hello World new module

1. Download the NEWMODULE.zip (HEAD) from http://docs.moodle.org/en/Development:NEWMODULE_Documentation (or download here) (Follow the README.txt from the zip file! (not the tutorial at moodle.org, it is not for 2.0))
2. Rename all occurrences of "NEWMODULE" to "widget" (or your new module name) of the all files in the zip (161 replacements) (Also rename "newmodule" to "widget" for unix system)
3. Rename "NEWMODULE" folder to "widget"
4. Rename lang\en\NEWMODULE.php to widget.php
5. In version.php, modify $module->version to current date (you need to change the XX for each update). Comment this line: $module->version = 0
6. Optional: In view.php, just before the footer(), add -> echo 'Hello World';
7. Copy the widget folder to moodle\mod\
8. Site Administration -> Notifications, when you see the new module, -> Update
9. Done.

Note: It seems there will be some problem if the last character of the module name is digital

Word censorship

To enable: Site Administration -> Plugins -> Filters -> Manage filters -> Word Censorship -> On -> Content and headings

You can add words in the "Settings" link.

The file contains the censor words: moodle\filter\censor\lang\en\filter_censor.php

Run cron.php

Moodle use cron.php to handle some routine tasks, i think we need to setup something to make this script run regularly.

Simple enough, download and run MoodleCron-Setup.exe, it will install a windows service for you to handle the everything.

You can also configure cron.php to be executed via command line (ie. cannot run by browser), and set up password: Site administration -> Security -> Site policies

For more details, come here:
http://docs.moodle.org/en/Cron#Managing_Cron_on_Windows_systems

Why no email is received from a subscribed forum?

It is all because the cron.php does not run. The cron.php is for the regular tasks need to be done, including sending these emails.

You can run the cron.php manual by this url: (oops, it can be run by everyone)
http://yoursite/admin/cron.php

I think we should make the cron.php run regularly, this is what i have done. Anyway, here is more detail about the cron.php:
http://docs.moodle.org/en/Cron

User cannot update their email address

I don't understand the reason behide, but it does not work!

Here is the discussion of this issue, it seems there is a solution but i have not tried yet:
http://moodle.org/mod/forum/discuss.php?d=161993&parent=711518

Redirect to user course after login

Aim: When I login to Moodle, the system will redirect the user to his last accessed course.

Add the following code to \moodle\login\index.php (just before the "Go to my-moodle page instead of site homepage if defaulthomepage set to homepage_my" comment):

==================================================
//redirect user to his course (ignore if it is his first time login)
   if ( !empty( $user->lastcourseaccess ) ) {
      $mostRecent = 0;
      $mostRecentCourse = 0;
      foreach ( $user->lastcourseaccess as $k => $v ) {
         if ( $v > $mostRecent ) {
            $mostRecent = $v;
            $mostRecentCourse = $k;
         }
      }
      if ( $mostRecent != 0 ) {
         $urltogo = $CFG->wwwroot.'/course/view.php?id='.$mostRecentCourse;
      }
   }
}
==================================================

Add Login form on the Front Page

Simple!

1. Turn editing on
2. Add a block -> Login
3. Done!

I have tried adding the Login form at the middle of the page (as a label), but it is no good. It is difficult to remove the Login form after login! The role/permission settings is not good.

How to create a clean, 1 column Front Page

I want to make a very clean first page.

By first page, i mean the front page that the users first landed without login.

By clean, i mean only the site title, the login link and some description text.

This is what i want:

Here are the steps:

1. Site administration -> Front page -> Front page settings
2. Clear all "Front page" combo box
3. Clear all "Front page items when logged in" combo box
4. Check "Include a topic section"
5. Click "Save changes"
6. Back to "Home"
7. Front page Settings -> Turn editing on
8. For Navigation block, click "Configuration", select "No" for On this page: Visible
9. Click "Save changes"
10. Hide or Delete all other blocks that are visible by other users
11. Back to "Home"
12. Add a resource: Label, just type some contents and save
13. Done!

Reference: Moodle site

Resource: Page

"Page" resource is good to create a page for information

Moodle 2.0 window installation package

The installation packages of Moodle 2.0 for Windows is finally out! (It is already out for a few weeks)

We don't need to install the Apache+PHP+Mysql by ourself now.

Download page:
http://download.moodle.org/windows/

What is Front page questions?

We can access "Question bank" from here. Question bank is used to create question template or standard questions.

Please noted that moodle treats Front page as a course.

What is this web log about?

I am a newbie for moodle. Just start working on moodle project.

This blog will record the problem that i have encountered during my development, and if possible, the solution.

I will also drop developing notes here, so that i can come back to see what i have already done. (No need to re-invent the FORGOTTEN wheel)

btw, I am working on Moodle 2.0.