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Help strings: Difference between revisions

From MoodleDocs
(→‎More help links: link edit)
(removing 2.0 template as the info applies to all supported versions, history)
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{{Infobox Project
{{Infobox Project
|name = 2.0 help strings
|name = Help strings
|state = Fixed
|state = Fixed
|tracker = MDL-21695
|tracker = MDL-21695
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|assignee = [[User:Helen Foster|Helen Foster]]
|assignee = [[User:Helen Foster|Helen Foster]]
}}
}}
{{Moodle 2.0}}In Moodle 2.0, help files will be converted to strings. All essential help will remain available in Moodle via help popups, with supplementary help available in Moodle Docs. Many help popups remain the same in 2.0 as in 1.9, with only extra long help popups (often from the time before Moodle Docs) greatly reduced.
==String names==
==String names==


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([[User:Martin Dougiamas|Martin Dougiamas]] 16:13, 20 April 2010 (UTC): I'm not entirely comfortable with this choice even though I just re-confirmed it, as I'd prefer to be using words like facilitator/moderator to subtly and continually promote a less transmissionist pedgagogy and I know many Moodle users would agree.  However, I think these terms are far more commonly used in the community and in discussion, and from the point of view that we need to build a consistent system for usability they are less distracting and better for documentation.)
([[User:Martin Dougiamas|Martin Dougiamas]] 16:13, 20 April 2010 (UTC): I'm not entirely comfortable with this choice even though I just re-confirmed it, as I'd prefer to be using words like facilitator/moderator to subtly and continually promote a less transmissionist pedgagogy and I know many Moodle users would agree.  However, I think these terms are far more commonly used in the community and in discussion, and from the point of view that we need to build a consistent system for usability they are less distracting and better for documentation.)
==History==
In Moodle 2.0, help files were converted to strings. All essential help remains available in Moodle via help popups, with supplementary help available in Moodle Docs. Many help popups remain the same in 2.0 as in 1.9, with only extra long help popups (often from the time before Moodle Docs) greatly reduced.


[[Category:Language]]
[[Category:Language]]

Revision as of 11:14, 5 November 2014

Help strings
Project state Fixed
Tracker issue MDL-21695
Discussion Help file integration in php lang files
Assignee Helen Foster

String names

Help popup containing "More help" link

Help strings names will start with the string name of the setting to which they apply, so that they are kept together in the language file.

  • stringname
  • stringname_help
  • stringname_link - an optional string naming a path in Moodle Docs, only if required, calculated just like the link in the footer to go to the right language etc, and shown after the help text in the popup as a link with an icon to "More help..."
  • stringname_desc - an admin setting description replacing the legacy configstringname

For example:

$string['submissionsize'] = 'Submission size';
$string['submissionsize_help'] = 'Blah blah blah some useful text, optionally using Markdown syntax';
$string['submissionsize_link'] = 'mod/workshop/submission';
$string['submissionsize_desc'] = 'Default value for submission size. This value will be pre-filled and can be blah blah ...';

Help string formatting

Help string text should be short and simple - two small paragraphs maximum (150 words?) with no headings, no links, no bold, no tables etc.

Markdown can be used for some formatting. It is recommended to stick on paragraphs and lists only.

  • paragraph: new line
  • bullet point: *

The help popup will have the same title as the setting it applies to.

For example:

$string['newsitemsnumber'] = 'News items to show';
$string['newsitemsnumber_help'] = 'This setting determines how many recent items appear in the latest news block on the course page. If set to "0 news items" then the latest news block will not be displayed.';

will result in a help popup as follows:

Help popup.png

More help links

The string with the _link suffix is used to provide an optional More help... link at the bottom of the associated help popup. These strings should consist of a short relative path like 'component/thing' (eg. 'mod/folder/view' or 'group/import'). This gets turned into a link to MoodleDocs in the user's language, and for the appropriate Moodle version.

For example the string

$string['groupimport_link'] = 'group/import';

will make a link to something like 'https://docs.moodle.org/23/en/group/import' (if you are an English user of Moodle 2.3). This page in turn should be a redirect page to the actual page providing the info. Note the 'https://docs.moodle.org' part comes from $CFG->docroot.

This is the only option that should be used in standard Moodle code. The other two options exist since Moodle 2.3.1 and have been implemented because they are useful for third-party plugins. The are described below.

Also note that the strings with the _link suffix do not appear in AMOS translation tool. They are supposed to be defined in the English pack only.

Absolute links

The second option is that you can give an absolute link, if you want, and that will be used unmodified. For example

$string['patronising_link'] = 'http://lmgtfy.com/?q=Moodle+for+dummies';

This case is detected by seeing if the string starts with http:// or https://. This option is useful if the documentation for your plugin is hosted at Github wiki, for example.

Links relative to wwwroot

The third option is to start the link with %%WWWROOT%%. That is replaced by $CFG->wwwroot. This is useful for contrib plugins that want to keep the help within the plugin. For an example see https://github.com/maths/moodle-qtype_stack/blob/master/lang/en/qtype_stack.php.

Words for roles

The following words should be used in the en help strings whenever it is necessary to refer to people with particular roles in a generic sense.

  • Participants - all people with a role
  • Teachers - people with some sort of a facilitation/editing role
  • Students - people primarily there to learn
  • Users - people across the site

(Martin Dougiamas 16:13, 20 April 2010 (UTC): I'm not entirely comfortable with this choice even though I just re-confirmed it, as I'd prefer to be using words like facilitator/moderator to subtly and continually promote a less transmissionist pedgagogy and I know many Moodle users would agree. However, I think these terms are far more commonly used in the community and in discussion, and from the point of view that we need to build a consistent system for usability they are less distracting and better for documentation.)

History

In Moodle 2.0, help files were converted to strings. All essential help remains available in Moodle via help popups, with supplementary help available in Moodle Docs. Many help popups remain the same in 2.0 as in 1.9, with only extra long help popups (often from the time before Moodle Docs) greatly reduced.