Hi,
Within my block I have an "api.php" which will run some functions in the background. I need to pass through the course id in some of the functions, but I am not sure how to do this without using required_param to get the id. The user will not able to access this api.php. Is there a moodle function that will just return the id of the course the block is in?
I want to store the course id so I can run some functions in the background via cron and access the resources saved in the course folder in, for example, "/moodledata/$course->id/" etc?
Thanks.
Megan
I have solved this by simply using $COURSE->id 
Ha! so that DOES work. Useful to know
Hi Megan,
Does the block appear in the course? if so then you can just use $course_id = $_GET['id']; and do a few checks for the security of value retrived. All courses urls look like so: example.com/course/view.php?id=101 where 101 is the course id. So using $course_id = $_GET['id'] will give u a value of 101in this case.
If you want to use the moodle api then use $course_id = required_param('id'); ...which probably uses $_GET['id'] somewhere inside but runs the checks for you, ie value is integer, protection against sql attacks, etc.
The only other way to do it that I can think of is maybe like so: I know it works with the user object - to get a userid at anytime just do:
global $USER;
$id = $USER->id;
so maybe you can use
global $COURSE;
$cid = $COURSE->id;
but i have never tried it before.
Ignore the first half of the post I am replying to. It is really dangerous advice.
The only safe way to find the current course/user in a block is to use the globals.
(In Moodle 2.0 you should use $this->page->coures to access the course, instead of the globals.)
Yes $_GET['id'] isnt the safest method but thats why the developer would add security to the incoming values if they chose to use $_GET
required_param is written into the moodle API so i guess its probably safe to use - can always read through it in lib.php to make sure.
Im using moodle 1.9 and have seen required_param used in various core modules.
It's not safe because blocks can appear on lots of different types of page (think stickyblocks) and not all of those pages have a URL parameter called 'id', and some of the pages that have a parameter called id refer to something other than course id.
And, most inportantly, there is an alternative ($COURSE->id) that will always work. So, use that.
Good call. Ill start using that from now on. Just out of interest, the $USER and $COURSE objects can be accessed in moodle 1.9 like
global $USER;
$id = $USER->id;
Are there any other useful objects in moodle we can call in the same way?