Obsolete:How Moodle outputs HTML

If you think about the HTML that is output by Moodle, then you can split it into two parts:

the parts like the header and the user-interface, that are generated automatically by the Moodle code and the themes; and
the bits like the contents of forum posts and labels that are input by the users.

This page is about the bits of output that are generated automatically. It explains how that happens.

This article is a stub. Please help improve Moodle Docs by editing it and adding some content.

Actually, please don't start editing this page yet. I will be working on it as and after I have work on the code.--Tim Hunt 03:30, 17 June 2009 (UTC)

History

Most of what is described here is new in Moodle 2.0. The work that lead to this new system is described in Development:Theme engines for Moodle? and Development:Navigation 2.0 implementation plan. Those documents were both written before the new system was developed and shows how the thinking evolved.

If you are familiar with Moodle 1.9 or before, and just wish to update your existing code, you may wish to read Development:Migrating your code to the 2.0 rendering API.

$THEME gets initialised the frist time you use $OUTPUT, or the first time you refer to $PAGE->theme