Managing blocks: Difference between revisions

Latest revision as of 01:53, 19 January 2014

Manage blocks

An administrator can manage Moodle's blocks for the site in Administration > Site administration > Plugins > Blocks > Manage blocks, including any contributed blocks that have been added.

Instances

The blocks page lists the number of instance for each block. Clicking on a number results in the list of courses containing that block being displayed. See Block settings for configuration settings that might be of interest to a site administrator or someone with Front Page editing permissions.

Version

Listed with each block is its version number — in the format 2012061700. This is helpful to ensure that you have the latest version of each block.

Hiding a block

The hide/show column allows selected blocks to be hidden i.e. they do not appear in any course "Add a block" dropdown menu and cannot be used in any course. To hide a block, click the eye icon so that it changes to a closed eye.

To reduce the length of course "Add a block" dropdown menus, you should hide blocks which will not be used, such as mentees (unless you have added a mentor role) and network servers (unless you are using Moodle Networking).

Protecting blocks from deletion

By clicking the padlock against a block in this column, you are preventing it from being deleted on the site. The Administration block and Navigation block are already padlocked, as major difficulties arise if these blocks are deleted. Only unlock them if you are absolutely sure you understand the consequences and have alternative settings and navigation features in place.

Block deletion

Blocks can be deleted using the link in the delete column (but see comments about the Administration block and Navigation block in the previous section) There is usually no reason for standard blocks to be deleted (they are usually hidden) However, non-standard blocks may need to be deleted before upgrading.

Note: To delete a block completely, in addition to deleting it on the blocks page, you also need to remove/delete the actual block folder from the moodle/blocks folder, otherwise Moodle will reinstall it next time you access the site administration.

Block settings

Certain blocks have additional settings, which can be accessed via the links in the settings column.

Block capabilities

In addition, every block has an addinstance capability (e.g. block/comments:addinstance) and most blocks also have a myaddinstance capability (e.g. block/comments:myaddinstance) for controlling whether a user with a particular role can add the block to a page or to their My home page respectively.

Contributed blocks

In addition to using the blocks included in the standard download, other Moodlers have developed their own blocks which they share with the Moodle community. You can download these contributed blocks from the Moodle.org Moodle Plugins directory. See Installing plugins for details of how to install a block.

@@ Line 1: / Line 1: @@
-Location: ''Site Administration > Plugins > Blocks > Manage Blocks''
+{{Blocks}}
-[[Image:blocks admin.png|thumb|Blocks administration]]
+==Manage blocks==
-The blocks administration page enables administrators to manage installed blocks and their settings.
+An administrator can manage Moodle's blocks for the site in ''Administration > Site administration > Plugins > Blocks > Manage blocks'', including any contributed blocks that have been added.
+===Instances===
-==Hiding a block==
+The blocks page  lists the number of instance for each block. Clicking on a number results in the list of courses containing that block being displayed.  See [[Block settings]] for configuration settings that might be of interest to a site administrator or someone with Front Page editing permissions.
-The hide/show column allows selected blocks to be hidden i.e. they do not appear in any course "Add a block" dropdown menu and cannot be used in any course. To hide a block, click the eye icon so that it changes to a closed eye.
+===Version===
-To reduce the length of course "Add a block" dropdown menus, you should hide blocks which will not be used, such as global search (unless you have enabled the global search feature in ''Administration > Miscellaneous > Experimental''), mentees (unless you have added a [[Parent role|mentor role]]) and network servers (unless you are using [[MNet|Moodle Network|Moodle Networking]]).
+Listed with each block is its version number &mdash; in the format 2012061700. This is helpful to ensure that you have the latest version of each block.
-==Instances==
+===Hiding a block===
-The blocks page also lists the number of instance for each block. Clicking on a number results in the list of courses containing that block being displayed.  See [[Managing blocks]] for configuration settings that might be of interest to a site administrator or someone with Front Page editing permissions.
+The hide/show column allows selected blocks to be hidden i.e. they do not appear in any course "Add a block" dropdown menu and cannot be used in any course. To hide a block, click the eye icon so that it changes to a closed eye.
-==Multiple blocks==
+To reduce the length of course "Add a block" dropdown menus, you should hide blocks which will not be used, such as mentees (unless you have added a [[Parent role|mentor role]]) and network servers (unless you are using [[MNet|Moodle Networking]]).
-Some blocks, such as the HTML block, can be used more than once on a course page. You can choose whether or not to allow this by clicking the change link in the Multiple column.
+===Protecting blocks from deletion===
-==Block deletion==
+By clicking the padlock against a block in this column, you are preventing it from being deleted on the site. The [[Administration block]] and [[Navigation block]] are already padlocked, as major difficulties arise if these blocks are deleted. Only unlock them if you are absolutely sure you understand the consequences and have alternative settings and navigation features in place.
-Any block can be deleted using the link in the delete column. There is usually no reason for standard blocks to be deleted (they are usually hidden), however non-standard blocks may need to be deleted before upgrading.
+===Block deletion===
+Blocks can be deleted using the link in the delete column (but see comments about the [[Administration block]] and [[Navigation block]] in the previous section) There is usually no reason for standard blocks to be deleted (they are usually hidden) However, non-standard blocks may need to be deleted before upgrading.
 :''Note:'' To delete a block completely, in addition to deleting it on the blocks page, you also need to remove/delete the actual block folder from the ''moodle/blocks'' folder, otherwise Moodle will reinstall it next time you access the site administration.
-==Block settings==
+===Block settings===
-A few blocks have additional settings, which can be accessed via the links in the settings column.
-*[[Courses block settings]]
+Certain blocks have additional settings, which can be accessed via the links in the settings column.
-*[[Online Users block settings]]
-*[[Remote RSS Feeds block settings]]
-==Blocks (administrator) list==
+==Block capabilities==
-In edit mode, a Moodle page can show a block which contains a list of blocks that are available to add in that context for a [[Roles and capabilities|role]].  There are special blocks only available to [[Administrator]].
-Examples of context include  a Site's front page or a Course's main page.  [[Blocks (teacher)|Teacher blocks]] are available to administrators in their contextual pull down menus.
+*[[Capabilities/moodle/my:manageblocks|Manage My home page blocks]]
+*[[Capabilities/moodle/tag:editblocks|Edit blocks in tags pages]]
+*[[Capabilities/moodle/user:manageownblocks|Manage blocks on own public user profile]]
+*[[Capabilities/moodle/user:manageblocks|Manage blocks on user profile of other users]]
+*[[Capabilities/moodle/block:edit|Edit a block's settings]]
+*[[Capabilities/moodle/block:view|View block]]
+*[[Capabilities/moodle/site:manageblocks|Manage blocks on a page]]
-The list below only includes those blocks available to administrator. All of these are available on the frontpage, only Admin bookmarks and Network Servers are found on the course level.
+In addition, every block has an ''addinstance'' capability (e.g. [[Capabilities/block/comments:addinstance|block/comments:addinstance]]) and most blocks also have a ''myaddinstance'' capability (e.g. [[Capabilities/block/comments:myaddinstance|block/comments:myaddinstance]]) for controlling whether a user with a particular role can add the block to a page or to their [[My home]] page respectively.
-{| border="0"
-| |
-{| border="2";"
-|'''[[Activities block]]'''
-|-
-|'''[[Student projects/Admin page cleanup/Bookmarks|Admin bookmarks block]]'''
-|-
-|'''[[Courses block|Courses]]'''
-|-
-|'''[[Latest News block]]'''
-|-
-|'''[[Main menu block|Main menu]]'''
-|-
-|'''[[Network servers block|Network Servers]]'''
-|-
-|'''[[People block]]'''
-|-
-|'''[[Recent Activity block]]'''
-|-
-|}
-| style="width:100px" |
-|[[Image:Block add frontpage dropdown list admin 1 9.jpg|frame|left| Admin blocks for site frontpage 1.9]]
-|}
 ==Contributed blocks==
-In addition to using the blocks included in the standard download, other Moodlers have developed their own blocks which they share with the Moodle community. You can download these contributed blocks from the Moodle.org [http://moodle.org/mod/data/view.php?id=6009 Modules and plugins database].
+In addition to using the blocks included in the standard download, other Moodlers have developed their own blocks which they share with the Moodle community. You can download these contributed blocks from the Moodle.org [http://moodle.org/plugins Moodle Plugins directory]. See [[Installing plugins]] for details of how to install a block.
-Warning: Be aware that contributed blocks may have quality issues, may not work correctly, and may not work when you upgrade Moodle. You should test them thoroughly before using them and be prepared to uninstall them before upgrading.
 ==See also==
 *[[Block layout]]
-*[[Installing contributed modules or plugins]]
-[[Category:Block]]
+[[Category:Site administration]]
 [[eu:Blokeak_%28Kudeatzailea%29]]
 [[ja:ブロック管理 (管理者)]]
 [[de:Administration_von_Bl%C3%B6cken]]
+[[es:Gestionando bloques]]

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