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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>
+</body>
+</html>
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