Development:Web services
This page is to decide on a STANDARD list of CORE web service functions that we should support in Moodle (by XMLRPC, REST and SOAP with the option to plug in AMFPHP for Flash/Flex interfaces) as an API for those writing code to work against Moodle.
Please add new functions if there's functionality you want that isn't covered (we can refactor/whittle at the end).
The tracker bug for all this is here: MDL-12886
add user
[Feedback] Speaking as someone who will be using this API to integrate with another line of business application I would recommend the following changes.
The add_user method should really be a 'SetUser' ie it will create the record if it does not exist or update it it if it does. The ID that is passed into the method would be *our* primary key which Moodle would use to recognise the user record within Moodle. We would not normally need to know anything about the Moodle primary key.
One option to make the web services maintainable is to accept XML as a parameter and not a structure or custom object. That way you can define an XSD which will define required\optional parameters. Equally if you include a version number you can change the XML to add new features without having to redefine the web service signature itself (and hence clients will not have to recompile their code). So you may receive a SetUser call with XML V1.0 and another with XML V2.0 on the same webservice but from two different clients supporting different versions of the API.
The method *must* accept an array of users - it's a little trickier to set this up in the client code but is much more scalable (if there's some good sample code then this is easier anyway). The latency (round trip time) with web service calls is high so you want to do as much as you can in a single call. We have a customer who wants us to deploy Moodle to 40,000 users - we're not going to do that using individual calls. [/Feedback]
I think we should require all data needed for a successful "first login" to Moodle without popping him out the profile page to fill in all missing required data. This may require extra inputs such as city, description ... (unsure of the full list depending of Moodle version ?). Also password should be "required" if authentication method is "internal" .
INPUT:
firstname lastname email idnumber login authentication method (optional , default= manual ?)
OPERATION:
Adds a new user to the user database
OUTPUT:
id or false
delete user
INPUT:
idnumber or email or id or login
OPERATION:
User is marked as deleted All it's role assignments are destroyed
OUTPUT:
true/false
get user
INPUT:
idnumber or email or id or login
OPERATION:
user record with optional fields set (Moodle 1.8 and later) and maybe some fields filtered out (password, email if user said not to disclose it ...) depending of the identity of the "caller" (admin or the user himself)
OUTPUT:
false or user record
add course
INPUT:
name shortname format (default topics) idnumber
OPERATION:
Adds a new course to the course table
OUTPUT:
id or false
delete course
INPUT:
name OR shortname OR idnumber OR id
OPERATION:
Deletes a course from the course table What about associated ressources, roles ...
OUTPUT:
true or false
get course
INPUT:
id or idnumber or shortname
OPERATION:
fetch course record with some fields filtered out depending of the "caller" identity (admin, teacher, student ...)
OUTPUT:
false or course record
enrol student to course
INPUT:
course unique Id (Moodle's ID or idnumber or shortname) student unique id (Moodle's ID or idnumber or login or email)
OPERATION:
Assign student role to course
OUTPUT:
true or false
unenrol student from course
INPUT:
course unique Id (Moodle's ID or idnumber or shortname) student unique id (Moodle's ID or idnumber or login or email)
OPERATION:
remove student role from course
OUTPUT:
true or false
assign role to course
INPUT:
course unique Id (Moodle's ID or idnumber or shortname) user unique id (Moodle's ID or idnumber or login or email) role id (teacher, non editing teacher, student (?) ...)
OPERATION:
assign given user a "standard" role to given course
OUTPUT:
true or false
remove role from course
INPUT:
course unique Id (Moodle's ID or idnumber or shortname) user unique id (Moodle's ID or idnumber or login or email) role id (teacher, non editing teacher, student (?) ...)
OPERATION:
remove given user's "standard" role from given course
OUTPUT:
true or false
get my courses
INPUT:
user unique id (Moodle's ID or idnumber or login or email)
OPERATION:
return a "list" of course's id in which given user move given user has some role assigned
OUTPUT:
"array" of (course id, course shortname, course fullname, role id, role name, course url) or false in case of error (bad user id)
get last changes in my courses
INPUT:
user unique id (Moodle's ID or idnumber or login or email) course unique Id (Moodle's ID ,idnumber or shortname) - optional (default = all my courses) timestamp - optional (default = time of last connexion in every course)
OPERATION:
return a "list" of changes (resource added/modified, new activities, etc.) for courses in which given user has some role assigned - since timestamp or last connexion in given course
OUTPUT:
"array" of (course id, course shortname, course fullname, role id, role name, url of the resource/activity, time of change) or false in case of error (bad user/course id)
get grades
INPUT:
user unique id (Moodle's ID or idnumber or login or email) course unique Id (Moodle's ID ,idnumber or shortname) - optional (default = all my courses)
OPERATION:
return a "list" of grades and statistics for the given student in the given course
OUTPUT:
"array" of grades records (name,maxgrade,grade,percent,weight,weighted,sortOrder) and "array" of stats (gradeItems,allgrades, points,totalpoints, percent, weight, weighted;) or false in case of error (bad user/course id or user not in course)
get groups
OPERATION:
return a "list" of group records in a given course (or site ?)
get group members
OPERATION:
return a "list" of ids for members of a group (within a course or global)
enrol to group
OPERATION:
add a new member to a group
unenrol from group
OPERATION:
remove membership from a group
get calendar events
OPERATION:
return a "list" of event's identifiers suitable from the "get event" operation
get calendar event
OPERATION:
return in an "exportable" format (iCal, vCal ...)an event recorded in Moodle database (site, course, private ...)
set calendar event
OPERATION:
add/modify an event in Moodle database (site, course, private ...)