Course formats

Course formats are plugins that determine the layout of course resources.

Course formats determine how the course main page looks like (/course/view.php) in both view and editing mode. They are also responsible for building navigation tree inside the course (displayed to user in navigation block and breadcrumb). They can organise the course content in sections. Course creator or teacher can specify course format for the course in course edit form.

Moodle 2.4 and above: Course formats also can add it's own options fields to the course edit form. They can add course dependend content to header/footer of any page inside the course, not only /course/view.php

Components

course/format/FORMATNAME/lang/en/format_FORMATNAME.php

Contains the English language strings used in the format. You can also define strings for other languages.

course/format/FORMATNAME/config.php (deprecated since 2.4)

Contains $format['defaultblocks'] which defines the default blocks loaded with the format.

course/format/FORMATNAME/format.php

This is is the layout itself. It is included in course/view.php.

course/format/FORMATNAME/lib.php

The main library of the format. In Moodle versions up to 2.3 it should contain implementations of course format callbacks. In versions 2.4 and above it should contain a class format_FORMATNAME extending format_base. Also it may contain callbacks for other core and contributed APIs if necessary

course/format/FORMATNAME/styles.css, styles_THEMENAME.css

Optional stylesheet. Note that this file is included on all pages on the site, even in the courses that use other formats. In 2.4+ the class format-FORMATNAME is automatically added to body for all pages inside the course, it is recommended to prefix all directives in your styles.css with body.format-FORMATNAME

File styles.css will be included always, styles_THEMENAME.css only if theme_THEMENAME is used for the site (or for the course).

course/format/FORMATNAME/settings.php (version 2.4 and above)

Optional plugin administrative settings

course/format/FORMATNAME/renderer.php

Optional but very recommended file containing renderer for this course format. This file will contain class format_FORMATNAME_renderer extends plugin_renderer_base. See Output renderers

course/format/FORMATNAME/version.php

Version definitions, see version.php. It is highly recommended always to have it and it is required if you have any files in db folder

course/format/db/install.xml, course/format/db/install.php, course/format/db/upgrade.php

Definitions of tables used by this plugin and upgrade script, see Upgrade API

course/format/backup/

Implementation of backup and restore for additional tables defined in your plugin. See Backup API. This is only needed if you define additional tables in your db folder. Data from table course_format_options is backed up for your plugin automatically

course/format/db/access.php

Capabilities introduced by this plugin, see Access API. Please note that if you define new capabilities inside course format they should not affect accessibility of course modules because other components (for example reports and/or gradebook) will not know about them

Creating a New Format

The easiest way to create a new course format is to copy an existing one.

1. Copy the folder containing the format files.

2. Rename the folder to the new name. Course format names cannot exceed 21 characters. (In Moodle 2.3 and below the limit is 10 characters)

3. Rename language files in course/format/FORMATNAME/lang/

4. Change $string['pluginname'] in course/format/FORMATNAME/lang/en/format_FORMATNAME.php to the new name.

5. Moodle 2.3 and below: Rename callback functions in lib.php. The names of the functions is formed as callback_FORMATNAME_CALLBACKNAME()

Moodle 2.4 and above: Rename class name in lib.php to format_FORMATNAME.

6. Search and replace other occurences of the old format name, for example in renderer, capabilities names, etc.

7. The new format is ready for modification.