Moodle in English: How does the Output function work?

How does the Output function work?

by Alexandra Kathy Schidzick - Monday, January 25, 2021, 10:59 PM

Good day folks,

i got a Problem with a design / template that has buggy elements in it which seems unfixable if i dont give them a proper class or move the div elsewhere. I wanted to ask how the output function works because most of these blocks are coded with f.e. output.navbar or such. These dont tell me where they get build neither how. The Moodle documentation doesnt particular help me at this point. I'd like to know how these block get generated so i can move the divs or give these extra classes because if i use their classes i change more objects then i intend do change etc.. The one problem i have is the message counter in the Eguru design / template. The notification counter for system notifications is working properly and is shown above the bell. The message counter is shown to the right of the message icon which should or is wanted to be above like the bell. I post an example screenshot of this issue too. Both elements have the same class and are coded exactly the same as in the boost design tho in boost both are above and in Eguru not. If i move the message counter i move the bell counter too etc..

The design / template i use is Eguru and both the theme and moodle version are 3.10.

Re: How does the Output function work?

by Mark Johnson - Tuesday, January 26, 2021, 12:11 AM

Hi Alexandra, You refer to "the output function", but in moodle code, $OUTPUT is an object, and instance of the core_renderer class, not a function. You may also see $output (lowercase), which is an instance of a plugin's renderer.

How it works depending on what you are doing with it. You can call one of its methods to produce output directly, such as $OUTPUT->navbar(), in which case you can see what it does inside that method. You call the render method passing an object that implements renderable, as in $OUTPUT->render($action_link) in which case it produces output according to the core_renderer::render_action_link() method (or the appropriate method for the type of object). The reccomended way is to pass in an object that implements templatable, in which case it produces output according to the export_for_template() method of that object, and the associated mustache template file.

Render methods and templates can also be overridden by your theme, so you may find that the output you're seeing is defined in the theme.

If you haven't already found them, try reading the Output API and Templates documentation.

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Re: How does the Output function work?

by Alexandra Kathy Schidzick - Tuesday, January 26, 2021, 1:10 AM

I did say the documentation doesnt help me plus i send a screen with the code saying output.something not like your examples. I also wasnt able to find any clue in all the files of the theme plus moodle is not good at having any kind of overview in the code.

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Re: How does the Output function work?

by Mark Johnson - Tuesday, January 26, 2021, 5:57 PM

Ok, what you're looking at there is a mustache template. The output object there is part of the context being passed in to the template. output.search_box, output.custom_menu etc are, in this case, strings of HTML being included in the template. What is the name of the file you are looking at? That will help you find where this HTML is being generated.

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Re: How does the Output function work?

by Alexandra Kathy Schidzick - Tuesday, January 26, 2021, 6:02 PM

The Name is "navbar.mustache".

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Re: How does the Output function work?

by Mark Johnson - Tuesday, January 26, 2021, 6:52 PM

Ok, so that template is "core/navbar". However, that doesn't look like the base core/navbar template, so I'm guessing its overridden in the theme, which is also passing in the additional data to output. Search for "core/navbar" within the theme's folder to see where it is used.

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How does the Output function work?