Development:Local customisation

/local/ plugins

Benefits compared to previous 1.9:

• local plugins are less hacky
• no cost of local maintenance in core - it is just another general plugin
• easier to implement
• concurrent plugin modifications possible, not just one huge local hack

Migration from old local/*

• local/* needs to be copied to new directory
• local/xxxx/db/install.php is intended for first installation, originally everything was in upgrade.php
• events are used instead of hooks
• upgrade code needs to migrate old settings, events, etc. directly in core db tables - such as change component strings and capability names from db/install.php or manually before/after upgrade

List of differences from normal plugins:

• always executed last during install/upgrade - guaranteed by order of plugins in get_plugin_types()
• are expected to use event handlers - event are intended for communication core-->plugins only, local plugins the best candidates for event handlers
• can add admin settings to any page - loaded last when constructing admin tree
• in exceptional cases modify other db tables - not supported officially, do it at your own risk only
• do not need to have any UI - all other plugins are visible somewhere
• Local user profile view hook (not part of MDL-16438)
• My Moodle hooks (not part of MDL-16438)

List of normal plugin features:

• db/version.php - version of script
• db/install.xml - executed during install (new version.php found)
• db/install.php - executed right after install.xml
• db/upgrade.php - executed after version.php change
• db/access.php - capabilities
• db/events.php - event handlers
• db/messages.php - messaging info
• db/external.php - web services api, not finished yet
• lang/en/local_pluginname.php - localization string files
• plugins of the same type are installed/upgraded in alphabetical order

Local customisations in previous versions

Previous versions include only partial support for customisations in /local/ directory.

List of local customisations in 1.9.x:

• /local/cron.php - custom cron jobs
• /local/settings.php - custom admin settings
• /local/db/upgrade.php - general modifications
• /local/lang/* - custom strings
• /local/lib.php - local_delete_course()

See also

• Using Moodle Local Customisations forum discussion
• http://cvs.moodle.org/moodle/local/readme.txt?view=markup