Plugin help text: how to introduce a parameter?

Plugin help text: how to introduce a parameter?

by Pat Sej -
Number of replies: 8

Hello!

When added to a course as an activity, a module I'm working on displays help when clicking on the question mark close to its title. It looks like it's handled by Moodle. It just requires to set a $string['modulename_help'].

I would like to modify the module's modulename_help to introduce a variable information {$a}.
Like that:

"This module is awesome. Check how it works <a href="{$a}">here</a>"

Is there a way to make it work? If yes, how can I pass a value ?

I hope my explanations are clear enough.

Thanks in advance!

Cheers,

Patrice

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In reply to Pat Sej

Re: Plugin help text: how to introduce a parameter?

by Dominique Palumbo -
Picture of Particularly helpful Moodlers Picture of Plugin developers
Hi Patrice,

https://docs.moodle.org/dev/String_API

Run-time parameters

Strings can define placeholders like {$a} or {$a->foobar}. These placeholders are replaced with a value passed to the get_string() function call.

// Strings defined in the language file.
$string['greeting'] = 'Dear {$a}';
$string['info'] = 'There are {$a->count} new messages from {$a->from}.';

// Passing values for the placeholders.
echo get_string('greeting', 'tool_example', 'Mr. Anderson');
echo get_string('info', 'tool_example', ['count' => 42, 'from' => 'Mr. Smith']);

is this what you looking for ?

Dominique.
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In reply to Dominique Palumbo

Re: Plugin help text: how to introduce a parameter?

by Pat Sej -
Thanks Dominique, unfortunately, the modulename_help string is a bit special as I don't call myself the get_string.
It looks like it is called from course/lib.php (I've checked very quickly by looking for modulename_help in moodle's Github).
$defaultmodule->help = get_string('modulename_help', $modname);
Is there a way to override this behaviour by passing a parameter to the get_string in the plugin (changing Moodle's core code is not an option) ?
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In reply to Pat Sej

Re: Plugin help text: how to introduce a parameter?

by Davo Smith -
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If you are not able to change the code that is calling get_string() to add the parameter you want to pass, then there is no way to make a parameter magically appear in the string when it is output.

The best you can do would be to hard-code the URL into the language string, e.g.

"Check how it works <a href="https://www.example.com/">here</a>"


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In reply to Davo Smith

Re: Plugin help text: how to introduce a parameter?

by David Mudrák -
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Additionally to what Davo says, for cases when you need to point the user to a location with more options, there is support for https://docs.moodle.org/dev/String_API#More_help_links

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In reply to David Mudrák

Re: Plugin help text: how to introduce a parameter?

by Pat Sej -
Very interesting, thanks for the tip!
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In reply to Davo Smith

Re: Plugin help text: how to introduce a parameter?

by Pat Sej -
Yes, there nothing is magical smile Thx
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In reply to Pat Sej

Re: Plugin help text: how to introduce a parameter?

by Dominique Palumbo -
Picture of Particularly helpful Moodlers Picture of Plugin developers

It's a dirty trick,  I'm not proud of it, because it's dependant on Moodle version and theme.

But if it give you some ideas...

echo'<a class="btn btn-link p-0" role="button" data-container="body"
    data-toggle="popover" data-placement="right"
    data-content="'.get_string('namingscheme_help', 'mod_mymod').' "
    data-html="true" tabindex="0" data-trigger="focus"
    data-original-title="" title="">
    <i class="icon fa fa-question-circle text-info fa-fw " title="'.get_string('help').'" aria-label="'.get_string('help').'"></i>
</a>';

It'll be better if it use Moodle  HTML api.

Dominique.

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In reply to Dominique Palumbo

Re: Plugin help text: how to introduce a parameter?

by Pat Sej -
Thx Dominique!
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