Web services:Files
These APIs will be used to browse Moodle files by Moodle Web Services.
class moodle_file_external()
This class implements the interface to moodle files, for browsing, downloading and uploading files. It is defined in files/externals.php.
We cannot return the whole files tree by web service API, because to make sure the web services working in every language and platform, we need to define a fixed data structure of return value, but the files tree can change all the time. See more information about web services at: External_services_description.
The class contains following methods:
get_files
This function is used to browse files.
It takes 5 parameters, all of them are optional, if you provide no parameters, it will return the top level content of moodle repository.
- contextid
- itemid
- filename
- filepath
- filearea
It will return an array, can be described as PHP array:
$files = array( 'path' => array(array('name'=>'root', 'path=>'/'), array('name'=>'subdir', 'path=>'/sub/')), 'files' => array( array('filename'=>'readme', 'filepath'=>'/', 'filearea'=>'forum', 'itemid'=>110, 'contextid'=>1, 'isdir'=>true), array('filename'=>'changes', 'filepath'=>'/', 'filearea'=>'forum', 'itemid'=>112, 'contextid'=>1, 'isdir'=>false), ) );
The service name is "moodle_file_get_files", defined in lib/db/services.php.
get_url
This function is used to get the download url of a sepcific file.
It takes 5 parameters, all of them are mandatory, invaild parameter will raise an exception
- contextid
- itemid
- filename
- filepath
- filearea
It will return the URL of the file.
The service name is "moodle_file_get_url", defined in lib/db/services.php
put_file
This function is used to upload a file.
We have two choice to upload a file to moodle (need a decision)
- Encoding the file in a base64 string, and encapsulate it in xmlrpc/soap/rest request body, it is not quite reliable to deal with large files
- Uploading a file to moodle draft area first, got the file information, and pass the file information by web service
It takes 5 parameters, all of them are mandatory:
- contextid
- filename
- filepath
- filearea
- itemid
It will return a boolean value, true/false.
The service name is "moodle_file_put_file", defined in lib/db/services.php