Developer tools
Developers of Moodle code have some special tools included in the Moodle package to assist them. Most of the tools should ONLY be used on test sites (not production sites). However there are a few which may be used by a cautious administrator.
Experimental features
Moodle includes a few experimental features which a cautious administrator may consider enabling. See Experimental settings for details.
Debugging
Administration > Site administration > Development > Debugging
At certain times a site administrator will need to see more and/or a more complete error message. The default is to show NONE. These messages can also 1) be very confusing to teachers and students when they suddenly appear and 2) can reveal things about your Moodle and web server that should not be common knowledge. Thus use with care and for short periods of time. See Debugging for details.
Web services test client
See Web services test client for details.
Purge all caches
Administration > Site administration > Development > Purge all caches
Moodle can cache themes, language strings, filters and other bits of information that have been calculated and stored by the web browser. This link forces all user web browsers to refresh their screens of any information that Moodle has cached. Several modules that use cache have settings which will turn off caching for that module. Eliminating or purging caches slows performance.
Third party libraries
A list of all third party libraries in use together with versions and licenses is available at Administration > Site administration > Development > Third party libraries.
See also Moodle libraries credits in the dev docs.
Acceptance testing
Administration > Site administration > Development > Acceptance testing
See Acceptance testing in the dev docs for details.
Test course generator
See Test course generator for details.
JMeter test plan generator
See JMeter test plan generator for details.
PHP Unit tests
Administration > Site administration > Development > PHPUnit tests
See PHPUnit in the dev docs for details.
Template library
See Template library for details.
XMLDB editor
Site administration > Development > XMLDB editor
The XMLDB editor is a tool for making the .xml files that specify how Moodle should set up its database tables. See XMLDB editor in the dev docs for details.
