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-<h1>Manuel du développeur</h1>
-<blockquote>
- <p>Ce document décrit en quelques mots le design à la base de Moodle et
- comment vous pouvez contribuer à son développement.</p>
- <p>Il est un peu mince pour l'instant. Une meilleure documentation est prévue !</p>
- <p>Sections de ce document :</p>
- <ol>
- <li><a href="#architecture">Architecture de Moodle</a></li>
- <li><a href="#contribute">Comment vous pouvez aider</a>
- <ul>
- <li><a href="#activities">Activités d'apprentissage</a></li>
- <li><a href="#themes">Thèmes</a></li>
- <li><a href="#languages">Langues</a></li>
- <li><a href="#database">Schémas de bases de données</a></li>
- <li><a href="#courseformats">Formats de cours</a></li>
- <li><a href="#doc">Documentation et articles</a></li>
- <li><a href="#bugs">Participer à la traque des bogues</a></li>
- </ul>
- </li>
- </ol>
-</blockquote>
-<p> </p>
-<h2><a name="architecture"></a>1. Architecture de Moodle</h2>
-<blockquote>
- <p>From a system administrator's perspective, Moodle has been designed according
- to the following criteria:</p>
- <ol>
- <li><strong>Moodle should run on the widest variety of platforms</strong><br>
- <br>
- The web application platform that runs on most platforms is PHP combined
- with MySQL, and this is the environment that Moodle has been developed in
- (on Linux, Windows, and Mac OS X). Moodle also uses the ADOdb library for
- database abstraction, which means Moodle can use <a href="http://php.weblogs.com/ADOdb_manual#drivers">more
- than ten different brands of database</a> (unfortunately, though, it can
- not yet <em><strong>set up tables</strong></em> in all these databases -
- more on this later). <br>
- <br>
- </li>
- <li><strong>Moodle should be easy to install, learn and modify</strong><br>
- <br>
- Early prototypes of Moodle (1999) were built using <a target="_top" href="http://www.zope.org/">Zope</a>
- - an advanced object-oriented web application server. Unfortunately I found
- that although the technology was pretty cool, it had a very steep learning
- curve and was not very flexible in terms of system administration. The PHP
- scripting language, on the other hand, is very easy to get into (especially
- if you've done any programming using any other scripting language). Early
- on I made the decision to avoid using a class-oriented design - again, to
- keep it simple to understand for novices. Code reuse is instead achieved
- by libraries of clearly-named functions and consistent layout of script
- files. PHP is also easy to install (binaries are available for every platform)
- and is widely available to the point that most web hosting services provide
- it as standard.<br>
- <br>
- </li>
- <li><strong>It should be easy to upgrade from one version to the next</strong><br>
- <br>
- Moodle knows what version it is (as well as the versions of all plug-in
- modules) and a mechanism has been built-in so that Moodle can properly upgrade
- itself to new versions (for example it can rename database tables or add
- new fields). If using CVS in Unix for example, one can just do a "cvs
- update -d" and then visit the site home page to complete an upgrade.<br>
- <br>
- </li>
- <li><strong>It should be modular to allow for growth</strong><br>
- <br>
- Moodle has a number of features that are modular, including themes, activities,
- interface languages, database schemas and course formats. This allows anyone
- to add features to the main codebase or to even distribute them separately.
- More on this below in the next section.<br>
- <br>
- </li>
- <li><strong>It should be able to be used in conjunction with other systems</strong><br>
- <br>
- One thing Moodle does is keep all files for one course within a single,
- normal directory on the server. This would allow a system administrator
- to provide seamless forms of file-level access for each teacher, such as
- Appletalk, SMB, NFS, FTP, WebDAV and so on. The authentication modules allow
- Moodle to use LDAP, IMAP, POP3, NNTP and other databases as sources for
- user information. Otherwise, there is work yet to do. Features planned for
- Moodle in future versions include: import and export of Moodle data using
- XML-based formats (including IMS and SCORM); and increased use of style
- sheets for interface formatting (so that it can be integrated visually into
- other web sites).</li>
- </ol>
-</blockquote>
-<p> </p>
-<h2><a name="contribute" id="contribute"></a>2. Comment vous pouvez aider</h2>
-<blockquote>
- <p>As mentioned above, Moodle has a number of features that are modular. Even
- if you are not a programmer there are things you can change or help with.</p>
- <h3><a name="activities" id="activities"></a>Activités d'apprentissage</h3>
- <blockquote>
- <p>These are by far the most important modules, and reside in the 'mod' directory.
- There are seven default modules: assignment, choice, forum, journal, quiz,
- resource, and survey. Each module is in a separate subdirectory and consists
- of the following mandatory elements (plus extra scripts unique to each module):</p>
- <ul>
- <li>mod.html: a form to set up or update an instance of this module</li>
- <li>version.php: defines some meta-info and provides upgrading code</li>
- <li>icon.gif: a 16x16 icon for the module</li>
- <li>db/: SQL dumps of all the required db tables and data (for each database
- type) </li>
- <li>index.php: a page to list all instances in a course</li>
- <li>view.php: a page to view a particular instance</li>
- <li>lib.php: any/all functions defined by the module should be in here.
- If the modulename if called widget, then the required functions include:
- <ul>
- <li>widget_add_instance() - code to add a new instance of widget</li>
- <li>widget_update_instance() - code to update an existing instance</li>
- <li>widget_delete_instance() - code to delete an instance</li>
- <li>widget_user_outline() - given an instance, return a summary of a
- user's contribution</li>
- <li>widget_user_complete() - given an instance, print details of a user's
- contribution<br>
- </li>
- <li>To avoid possible conflict, any module functions should be named
- starting with widget_ and any constants you define should start with
- WIDGET_ </li>
- </ul>
- </li>
- <li>Lastly, each module will have some language files that contain strings
- for that module. See below.</li>
- </ul>
- <p>The easiest way to start a new learning activity module is to use the template
- in <strong><a href="http://moodle.org/mod/newmodule_template.zip">mod/newmodule_template.zip</a>.</strong>
- Unzip it and follow the README inside. </p>
- <p>You might also like to post first in the <a href="http://moodle.org/mod/forum/view.php?id=44" target="_top">Activities
- modules forum on Using Moodle</a>.</p>
- <p> </p>
- </blockquote>
- <h3><a name="themes" id="themes"></a>Thèmes</h3>
- <blockquote>
- <p>Themes (or skins) define the look of a site. A number of simple themes
- are provided in the main distribution, but you may want to create your own
- theme with your own colours, logo, styles and graphics. </p>
- <p>Each theme is in a subdirectory of the "theme" directory, and
- contains at least the following files:</p>
- <ul>
- <li><strong>config.php</strong>: defines the theme colours used throughout
- the site</li>
- <li><strong>styles.php</strong>: the style sheet, containing CSS definitions
- for standard HTML elements as well as many Moodle elements.</li>
- <li><strong>header.html</strong>: Included at the top of each page. This
- is what you need to edit to add a logo at the top of pages, for example.</li>
- <li><strong>footer.html</strong>: Included at the bottom of each page.</li>
- </ul>
- <p>To create your own themes for current versions of Moodle:</p>
- <ol>
- <li>Copy one of the existing theme folders to one with a new name. I recommend
- starting with one of the standard themes. </li>
- <li>Edit config.php and insert your own colours. </li>
- <li>Edit styles.php and change your CSS styles. </li>
- <li>Edit header.html and footer.html to add new logos, or change the layout.
- </li>
- </ol>
- <p>Note that all these steps are optional - you can make a radically different
- look to your site simply by editing the colours in config.php</p>
- <p>Note also that Moodle upgrades <em>may</em> break themes slightly, so check
- the release notes carefully if you are using a custom theme.</p>
- <p>In particular, Moodle 2.0 will have a completely new display system, probably
- based on XSL transformations of XML output from Moodle. It is likely that
- the themes for this will be a completely different format, but the advantage
- will be a much higher possible degree of customisation (including moving
- elements around the page).</p>
- <p>More discussion about this in the <a target="_top" href="http://moodle.org/mod/forum/view.php?id=46">Themes
- forum on Using Moodle</a>. If you create a nice theme that you think others
- might want to use, please post your zip file on the themes forum!<br>
- </p>
- </blockquote>
- <h3><a name="languages" id="languages"></a>Langues</h3>
- <blockquote>
- <p>Moodle has been designed for internationalisation. Each 'string' or 'page'
- of text that is displayed as part of the interface is drawn from a set of
- language files. Each language is a subdirectory of the directory 'lang'.
- The structure of the lang directory is as follows:</p>
- <p><strong>lang/en</strong> - directory containing all files for one language
- (eg English)</p>
- <ul>
- <li>moodle.php - strings for main interface</li>
- <li>assignment.php - strings for assignment module</li>
- <li>choice.php - strings for choice module</li>
- <li>forum.php - strings for forum module</li>
- <li>journal.php - strings for journal module </li>
- <li>quiz.php - strings for quiz module</li>
- <li>resource.php - strings for resource module</li>
- <li>survey.php - strings for survey module</li>
- <li>.... plus other modules if any.<br>
- <br>
- A string is called from these files using the <strong><em>get_string()</em></strong><em>
- </em>or<em> <strong>print_string()</strong> </em>functions. Each string
- supports variable substitution, to support variable ordering in different
- languages.<em><br>
- <br>
- </em>eg $strdueby = get_string("assignmentdueby", "assignment",
- userdate($date)); <br>
- <br>
- If a string doesn't exist in a particular language, then the equivalent
- in English will automatically be used instead.</li>
- </ul>
- <p><strong>lang/en/help</strong> - contains whole help pages (for popup context-sensitive
- help)</p>
- <blockquote>
- <p>Main help pages are situated here, while help pages specific to each
- module are located in subdirectories with the module's name.</p>
- <p>You can insert a helpbutton in a page with the helpbutton function.</p>
- <p>eg helpbutton("text", "Click here for help about text");</p>
- <p>and for modules:</p>
- <p>helpbutton("forumtypes", "Forum types", "forum");</p>
- </blockquote>
- <p>Note that you can edit languages online, using the administration web tools
- under "Check this language". This makes it easy to not to only
- create new languages but to refine existing ones. If you are starting a
- new language, please contact me, <a target="_top" href="http://dougiamas.com/">Martin
- Dougiamas</a>. </p>
- <p>You might also like to post in the <a target="_top" href="http://moodle.org/mod/forum/view.php?id=43">Languages
- forum on Using Moodle</a>. </p>
- <p>If you are maintaining a language an ongoing basis, I can give you <a href="?file=cvs.html">CVS
- write access to the Moodle source code</a> so that you can directly maintain
- the files.</p>
- </blockquote>
- <h3><a name="database" id="database"></a>Schémas de bases de données</h3>
- <blockquote>
- <p>Given a working database with defined tables, the intentionally simple
- SQL used in Moodle should work fine with a wide variety of database brands.</p>
- <p>A problem exists with <strong>automatically creating</strong> new tables
- in a database, which is what Moodle tries to do upon initial installation.
- Because every database is very different, there doesn't yet exist any way
- to do this in a platform-independent way. To support this automation in
- each database, schemas can be created that list the required SQL to create
- Moodle tables in a particular database. These are files in <strong>lib/db</strong>
- and inside the <strong>db</strong> subdirectory of each module.</p>
- <p>Currently, only MySQL and PostgreSQL are fully supported in this way (no-one
- wrote the schemas for other brands).</p>
- <p>Moodle 1.2 will use a new method of database-independent XML schemas that
- will make all this unnecessary.</p>
- </blockquote>
- <p> </p>
- <h3><a name="courseformats" id="courseformats"></a>Formats de cours</h3>
- <blockquote>
- <p>Moodle currently supports three different course formats: weekly, topics
- and social. </p>
- <p>These are a little more connected to the rest of the code (and hence, less
- "pluggable") but it is still quite easy to add new ones.</p>
- <p>If you have any ideas for different formats that you need or would like
- to see, get in touch with me and I'll do my absolute best to have them available
- in future releases.</p>
- </blockquote>
- <p> </p>
- <h3><a name="doc" id="doc"></a>Documentation et articles</h3>
- <blockquote>
- <p>If you feel like writing a tutorial, an article, an academic paper or anything
- else about Moodle, please do! </p>
- <p>Put it on the web and make sure you include links to <a target="_top" href="http://moodle.org/">http://moodle.org/</a></p>
- </blockquote>
- <p> </p>
- <h3><a name="bugs" id="bugs"></a>Participer à la traque des bogues</h3>
- <blockquote>
- <p>Finally, I would like to invite you to register on the "bug tracker"
- at <a target="_top" href="http://moodle.org/bugs/">http://moodle.org/bugs</a>
- so you can file any bugs that you find and perhaps participate in discussing
- and fixing them. </p>
- <p>"Bugs" not only includes software bugs with current versions
- of Moodle, but also new ideas, feature requests and even constructive criticism
- of existing features. The beauty of open source is that anyone can participate
- in some way and help to create a better product for all of us to enjoy.
- In this project, your input is very welcome!</p>
- </blockquote>
-</blockquote>
-<p> </p>
-<blockquote>
- <blockquote>
- <blockquote>
- <p align="center">Nous vous remercions d'utiliser Moodle !<br>
- <br>
- <a target="_top" href="http://dougiamas.com/">Martin Dougiamas</a>, développeur
- principal</p>
- </blockquote>
- </blockquote>
-</blockquote>
-<p> </p>
-<blockquote>
- <p> </p>
-</blockquote>
-<p align="CENTER"><font size="1"><a href="." target="_top">Documentation Moodle</a></font></p>
-<p align="CENTER"><font size="1">Version: $Id$</font></p>
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