reportbuilder/API

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Overview

Report builder provides an interface to allow administrators to generate reports, customise their appearance, then make them available to groups of users. It is designed to be easily extensible, so developers can add to existing report sources and write their own to allow administrators to generate the kind of reports they are interested in.

The report builder API enables plugin contributors and moodle core developers to create new sources that can be used by site administrators and teachers to generate and customise reports.

How to create a source

Sources should have a file name with the Frankenstyle prefix of the module, followed by '_source_' and then the name of the source. (e.g. mod_forum_source_posts). It should be located in the module's classes folder, in the source subfolder. (e.g. mod/forum/source/posts.php)

The class must be a child of report_builder_source_base.

The following is an example of a Report Builder source:

<?php

class report_builder_source_courses extends report_builder_source_base {
    public $base, $joinlist, $columnoptions, $filteroptions;

    function __construct() {
        $this->base = '{course}';
        $this->joinlist = array(
            new rb_join(
                'course_category',
                'LEFT',
                '{course_categories}',
                'course_category.id = base.category'
            )
        );
        $this->columnoptions = array(
            new rb_column_option(
                'course',
                'fullname',
                'Course Fullname',
                'base.fullname'
            ),
            new rb_column_option(
                'course_category',
                'name',
                'Course Fullname',
                'course_categories.name'
                array('joins' => 'course_categories')
            )
        );
        $this->filteroptions = array();
        $this->sourcetitle   = "Courses";

        parent::__construct();
    }
}

A source consists of:

• A base table: base (Defines what table all reports from this source will be based off)
• A join list: joinlist (Defines what tables should be joined to the base table)
• Column options: columnoptions (Defines which columns from each table should be available in the report)
• Filter options: filteroptions (Defines what fields can be used to filter the results in the report)
• Default columns: defaultcolumns (Defines what fields will be selected when a report is first created from this source)
• Default filters: defaultfilters (Defines what filters will be available when a report is first created from this source)

When using collumns from a joined table, the rb_column_option should include "joins" in the fifth parameter.

new rb_column_option(
    'course_category',
    'name',
    'Course Fullname',
    'course_categories.name'
    array('joins' => 'course_categories')
)

Helper Functions

A number of helper functions exist that can be used to aid the creation of a source. For instance, 'add_user_table_to_joinlist' can be used to join the user table, 'add_user_fields_to_columns' can be used to add the columns, and 'add_user_fields_to_filters' can be used to add the filters.

Example:

$this->add_user_table_to_joinlist($joinlist_array, 'base', 'userid'); // Where 'base' is the name of the joined table with the users' ids, and 'userid' is the name of the column.
$this->add_user_fields_to_columns($columnoptions_array);
$this->add_user_fields_to_filters($filteroptions_array)

$this->joinlist = $joinlist_array;
$this->columnoptions = $columnoptions_array;
$this->filteroptions = $filteroptions_array;