how to define parameters for external method calls

how to define parameters for external method calls

by Murad Jamal -
Number of replies: 5

after looking at your webservice client example, I tried to make another example (for self training purposes), using the method: moodle_user_create_users, I have two questions:

1) why is moodle_user_create_users method (and all other external methods) named like this ? i mean why is it different from its real name creat_users which is defined in the class path : moodle/user/externallib.php ?

 

2) I looked at the function create_users_parameters which builds up parameters for create_users method, I need an example of a valid $params variable to put into my webservice client, this $params  satisfies create_users function giving that the client will create two users.

thank you in advance

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In reply to Murad Jamal

Re: how to define parameters for external method calls

by RICHARD gillette -

I am using LWP to post through the REST web service and when I post to make a new user it looks something like this...

The param hash looks like this

$params = {
            'wstoken' => '99832h9h239h23890h',
            'wsfunction' => 'moodle_user_create_users',
            'users[0][username]' => 'theUserName',
            'users[0][firstname]' => 'theFirstName',
            'users[0][lastname]' => 'theLastName',
            'users[0][email]' => 'TheEmail',
            'users[0][password]' => 'soOnAndSoForth',
        };

Then I do an LWP post like so

$response = $userAgent->post($theURL, $params);

and the xml you get back goes into $response which you can then parse or do w/e

if you want to do multiple users at once then try incrementing the user array like - 'users[1][username]' => 'theUserName', though I am creating one user at a time and haven't tried that, i see no reason why it wont work.

Hope that helps

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In reply to RICHARD gillette

Re: how to define parameters for external method calls

by RICHARD gillette -

Forgot to mention, I'm doing all of this in PERL if that matters

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In reply to RICHARD gillette

Re: how to define parameters for external method calls

by Murad Jamal -

Richard, according to the structure of the function that is responsible for parameters (the function is defined in user/externallib.php file line 35), if I to follow this function exactly, your $params structure will not work, because the main function contains nested arrays ... I really find it hard to build paramters from these functions and many other similar functions, is there a specific approach that simplifies this process for us ?

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In reply to Murad Jamal

Re: how to define parameters for external method calls

by richard gillette -

I agree it is hard to build paramters. I spent about an hour today trying to find out how to build a parameter for get_courses and create_courses finally comming up with

get_courses = 'options[ids][0]' => '$id',

create_courses = 'courses[0][fullname]' => '$name',

                            'courses[0][shortname]' => '$name',

I used the externallib files too to try and figure out what format it wanted my paramter hash and that is what finally worked.


If you send me a list of the external functions you want to use I can share with you what I have come up with but I agree with you that it is very hard to get things properly formatted and that my solutions don't look like they will work.

 

Richard Gillette

www.OmniBond.com

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In reply to richard gillette

Re: how to define parameters for external method calls

by Murad Jamal -

thank you Richard for your help.

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