Repository plugins

Audience:

Plug-in Developer

Related Documents:

• Repository API
• Repository Interface for Moodle/Course/User
• Use Case Number Attribution

Quick Start

As a Quick Start I will create a Flickr Plugin. This plugin will be used to access to a public flickr account. I will call my plugin Flickr Public.

Let's create my skeleton

What does my plugin do: in the Moodle file picker, I want to display some flickr public repositories directly linked to a flickr public account. For example My Public Flickr Pictures, and also My Friend's Flickr Pictures.

APIs for File picker

Methods you *MUST* override

__construct

You may initialize your plugin here, such as:

1. Get options from database
2. Get user name and password from HTTP POST.

get_listing

This function will return a list of files, the list must be a array like this: $list = array( 'path'=>'/var/repo/', 'manage'=>'http://webmgr.moodle.com', array('title'=>'filename1', 'date'=>'01/01/2009', 'size'=>'10MB', 'source'=>'http://www.moodle.com/dl.rar'), array('title'=>'folder', 'date'=>'01/01/2009', 'size'=>'0', 'children'=>array()) ); The full specification:

    * array(
    *   'path' => (string) path for the current folder
    *   'dynload' => (bool) use dynamic loading,
    *   'manage' => (string) link to file manager,
    *   'nologin' => (bool) requires login,
    *   'nosearch' => (bool) no search link,
    *   'search_result' => (bool) this list is a searching result,
    *   'upload' => array( // upload manager
    *     'name' => (string) label of the form element,
    *     'id' => (string) id of the form element
    *   ),
    *   'list' => array(
    *     array( // file
    *       'title' => (string) file name,
    *       'date' => (string) file last modification time, usually userdate(...),
    *       'size' => (int) file size,
    *       'thumbnail' => (string) url to thumbnail for the file,
    *       'source' => plugin-dependent unique path to the file (id, url, path, etc.),
    *       'url'=> the accessible url of file
    *     ),
    *     array( // folder - same as file, but no 'source'.
    *       'title' => (string) folder name,
    *       'path' => (string) path to this folder
    *       'date' => (string) folder last modification time, usually userdate(...),
    *       'size' => 0,
    *       'thumbnail' => (string) url to thumbnail for the folder,
    *       'children' => array( // an empty folder needs to have 'children' defined, but empty.
    *         // content (files and folders)
    *       )
    *     ),
    *   )
    * )

Methods you can override

print_login

This function will help to print a login form, for ajax file picker, this function will return a PHP array to define this form.

   public function print_login(){
       if ($this->options['ajax']) {
           $user_field->label = get_string('username', 'repository_boxnet').': ';
           $user_field->id    = 'box_username';
           $user_field->type  = 'text';
           $user_field->name  = 'boxusername';
           $user_field->value = $ret->username;
           
           $passwd_field->label = get_string('password', 'repository_boxnet').': ';
           $passwd_field->id    = 'box_password';
           $passwd_field->type  = 'password';
           $passwd_field->name  = 'boxpassword';

           $ret = array();
           $ret['login'] = array($user_field, $passwd_field);
           return $ret;
       }
   }

This will help to generate a form by file picker which contains user name and password input elements.

If your plugin don't require logging in, you don't need to override it, it will call get_listing to list files automatically by default.

check_login

This function will return a boolean value to tell moodle whether the user has logged in. By default, this function will return true.

logout

When user clicked logout button in file picker, this function will be called, you may clean up session or disconnect connection with remote server here.

global_search

Moodle Repository API supports global search, this function will return a boolean value to tell Moodle if this plugin is ready to search, by default, it will return false, you need to override it to enable global search.

print_search

When user clicked search button on file picker, this function will be called to return a search form, by default, it will create a form with single search bar, you can override it to create a advanced search form.

search

This function will do the searching job, you can obtain the POST parameters from the from the form you created in print_search function This function will return a file list exactly like the one from get_listing.

get_file

When user clicked "Get" button to transfer the file, this function will be called, basically, it will download a file to Moodle, you can override it to modify the file then move to a proper location.

get_name

This function will return the name of the repository instance

APIs for Administration

Methods

All these methods are optional.

public static function has_multiple_instances()

Return true if you'd like to display multiple repositories into the file picker (for example Repository of Martin, Repository of Jerome,...). Parent function return false.

public static function has_instance_config()

Most of the time if your plugin supports multiple instances, you will want to have different settings per instance. In this case this function should return true. Parent function return false.

public static function get_instance_option_names()

Return an array of string. The strings are the name of your instance settings. Parent function return an empty array.

public function instance_config_form(&$mform)

You can modify the Moodle form displaying the instance settings.

For example, to add a required text box called public_url:

   $mform->addElement('text', 'public_url', get_string('publicurl', 'repository_boxnet'));
   $mform->addRule('public_url', $strrequired, 'required', null, 'client');
  

Note: mform has by default a name text box (cannot be removed).

Parent function does nothing.

public static function has_admin_config()

Do you want to set some config share by all repository instances (for example an API key). If yes return true. Parent function return false

public static function get_admin_option_names()

Return an array of string. The strings are the name of the plugin settings. Parent function return an empty array.

public function admin_config_form(&$mform)

Similar to instance_config_form(&$mform) for plugin settings.

public static function plugin_init()

This function is called when the administrator add a new plugin. So except if the administrator delete the plugin and readd it, it should be call only one time. It's for example a good place in order to create default instance. Parent function does nothing.

Officially supported repository plugins list

See: http://tracker.moodle.org/browse/MDL-16543

Standard repository plugins

This is the functional specification list of the officially supported repository plugins. For each plugins, the two mains part we are interesting in are:

• How do I administrate the plugin ( Repository Administration Specification - UC001-3)
• How do I setup an account for this repository ( Repository Interface for Moodle/Course/User)

Functional Specifications

• Box.net Repository Plugin
• Flickr Repository Plugin
• Moodle Local Repository Plugin
• Moodle MNET Repository Plugin