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