Top Active Courses Block - Release Notes

🚀 New Features

Mustache Templating

• Switched to modern templating system: Replaced inline HTML generation with Mustache templates for better maintainability and customization
• Template-based course tiles: Course tiles are now rendered using templates/course_tiles.mustache

Course Tags Display

• Tag display per course: Shows up to configurable number of tags under each course title
• Configurable tag limit: New setting max_tags allows administrators to control how many tags are displayed per course (default: 5)
• Modern tag design: Tags are displayed as stylish badges with hover effects

Enhanced Enrolment Method Support

• Flexible enrolment filtering: Improved from hardcoded 'self' enrolment to dynamic can_self_enrol() method checking
• Ignore enrolment methods option: New setting ignore_enrolment_methods allows showing all active courses regardless of enrolment method
• Better compatibility: Works with various Moodle enrolment plugins that implement can_self_enrol()

🎨 UI/UX Improvements

Responsive Design

• Drawer optimization: Course tiles automatically adapt to sidebar/drawer layout
• Improved CSS specificity: Fixed text decoration issues in various Moodle Themes
• Modern badge styling: Course tags use consistent design language with other Moodle components

⚙️ New Settings

1. Max Tags per Course (max_tags)

   • Controls number of tags displayed per course
   • Default: 5 tags
   • Validation: Must be numeric and > 0

2. Ignore Enrolment Methods (ignore_enrolment_methods)

   • Checkbox to bypass enrolment method filtering
   • Shows all active courses when enabled
   • Useful for open course catalogs

🔧 Code Quality Improvements

Refactoring for Maintainability

• Reduced cyclomatic complexity: Split complex methods into smaller, focused functions
• Better separation of concerns: Course data preparation, enrolment checking, and rendering are now separate methods
• Improved testability: Smaller functions make unit testing easier

New Helper Methods

• prepare_course_data(): Prepares course data for template rendering
• can_user_access_course(): Centralized course access checking
• get_course_image(): Course image retrieval with fallback
• get_max_tags_limit(): Tag limit configuration helper
• get_course_tags(): Tag retrieval and limiting
• should_include_course(): Course inclusion logic
• can_self_enrol_in_course(): Self-enrolment possibility checking

🐛 Bug Fixes

• CSS specificity issues: Fixed text-decoration conflicts with core Moodle styles
• Parameter validation: Improved handling of invalid configuration values

📚 Documentation

• Enhanced code documentation: All new methods have comprehensive PHPDoc blocks
• Template documentation: Mustache template includes usage examples and context description

Installation/Upgrade Notes

1. Clear caches after installation/upgrade
2. Review new settings in Site Administration → Plugins → Blocks → Top Active Courses
3. Check custom CSS if you have theme customizations targeting course tiles
4. Test enrolment filtering with your specific enrolment methods

Author

• Sadik Mert
  E-Mail: sadikmert@hotmail.de

License

This plugin is licensed under the GNU General Public License v3.0. See the LICENSE file for details.