Really Really good blocks manual

Really Really good blocks manual

by Ger Tielemans -
Number of replies: 7

Testing 1.5 for the next schoolyear, I also read for the first time the manual for the blocks. I must say that is a very good stuff! Compliments to the writer! The first chapter of the long awaited Moodle Bible!

Some questions:

  • I love the idea of having blocks also on the activity pages: that way the teacher can discirminate between offering mainstream resources/activities in the sections and supporting/sideline activities! Question: must every activity be adapted before it works like it does on the quizz page?
  • The HTML-Blocks-content under teacher control are very nice. Under 1.4.4 there was a html-block, where the content and the title did depend of the course where it was attached: how easy can the HTML-block be adapted toshow this behavior? (That way the teacher has the choice between course related support and global support blockssmile)
  • From student perspectiv the shared files and bookmark modules are great collab tools: I managed to change the parts mentioned in the guide, the blocks come up, but with empty bodies.. so there must be done more to bring them to life? (In dfWiki also only the dfWiki blocks show up?)
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In reply to Ger Tielemans

Re: Really Really good blocks manual

by N Hansen -
Are you talking about the Stephen Frech bookmark block that you made before? If so, if it isn't appearing in the block, is it otherwise working, ie if you type the address of the related pages, can you see them? The reason I ask is because I am about to upgrade to 1.5 and I'm afraid I'll have to delete this block entirely (and move my bookmarks elsewhere) or it will break my entire Moodle. Even if the 1.5 version isn't working properly I'd be interested in having it simply so I can upgrade and keep my bookmarks (I'm not using this module publicly but rather as a prepping spot for bookmarks to be converted to resources so I don't really care if the block itself is working). If you could post it I would really appreciate it.
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In reply to Ger Tielemans

Re: Really Really good blocks manual

by John Papaioannou -
Hi Ger,

Thanks for the review, I 'm glad you found it useful. blush

About your questions:

  • Yes, every activity must be adapted. It's not difficult but it needs to be done.
  • You can adapt any block to do that in the specialization() method. After you have retrieved $course from the database, you can use any information such as the course id to set the block's title or whatever else. All this is also mentioned in the guide (see the specialization() method and Appendix B).

Jon
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In reply to John Papaioannou

Re: Really Really good blocks manual

by lisa wright -
Could you post a link to this alleged block manual?  Thx!
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In reply to lisa wright

Re: Really Really good blocks manual

by Daryl Hawes -
It's in your 1.5 distribution in the folder named "blocks" - the filename is HOWTO.html (yes, tough to figure out what that means, of course).

You can also find it at cvs://moodle/blocks/HOWTO.html

edited: had to add a missing smiley to make sure the humor is apparent smile
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In reply to Ger Tielemans

Re: Really Really good blocks manual

by Jan Dierckx -
Ger, I already started updating the block to make it compatible with 1.5 when N requested it and I am having the same results. Manually replacing the list of items with text makes the block behave. That's why, I believe it has something to do with some last minute changes in the way blocks with lists of items are displayed. More informations in bug 2547. I Can't get it to work with the list of items, which seems necessary for a list of bookmarks ... Some more thoughts on that block are here



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In reply to Jan Dierckx

Upgrading list blocks for 1.5

by John Papaioannou -
Maybe the missing link is this information?

In short, you have to derive from class block_list if you have a list block. smile
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In reply to John Papaioannou

Re: Upgrading list blocks for 1.5

by Jan Dierckx -
blush Oops, I missed that one.
That's the solution. I should have Read The Fantastic Manual' more carefully.

Thanks, Jon!


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