Moodle 3.x Developer's Guide: Build custom plugins, extensions, modules and more

Key Features

• Customize your Moodle 3.x app.
• Leverage the new features of Moodle 3.x by diving deep into the Moodle development eco-system.
• Cater to heavy user traffic, customize learning requirements and create custom third party plugins.

Book Description

The new and revamped Moodle is the top choice for developers to create cutting edge e-learning apps that cater to different user's segments and are visually appealing as well.

This book explains how the Moodle 3.x platform provides a framework that allows developers to create a customized e-learning solution. It begins with an exploration of the different types of plugin..

We then continue with an investigation of creating new courses. You will create a custom plugin that pulls in resources from a third-party repository. Then you'll learn how users can be assigned to courses and granted the necessary permissions.

Furthermore, you will develop a custom user home. At the end of the book, we'll discuss the Web Services API to fully automate Moodle 3.x in real time.

What you will learn

• Work with the different types of custom modules that can be written for Moodle 3.x
• Understand how to author custom modules so they conform to the agreed Moodle 3.x development guidelines
• Get familiar with the Moodle 3.x architecture―its internal and external APIs
• Customize Moodle 3.x so it can integrate seamlessly with third-party applications of any kind
• Build a new course format to specify the layout of a course
• Implement third-party graphics libraries in your plugins
• Build plugins that can be themed easily
• Provide custom APIs that will provide the means to automate Moodle 3 in real time

About the Author

Ian Wild is an experienced software developer, solutions architect, author, and educator with over 20 years' experience in the field of software design and implementation. Fifteen years working in private industry saw Ian specializing in the design and development of access and learning aids for blind, visually impaired, dyslexic, and dyscalculic computer users, while also working part-time as a tutor and lecturer. Teaching only part-time meant not spending as much time with his students as he would have wished and this, coupled with his background in the development of communication technologies, seeded his long-time interest in e-learning.

Ian is also, author of Moodle Course Conversion: Beginner's Guide and Moodle Math. He was also technical reviewer of Science Teaching with Moodle, Moodle Multimedia and Practical XMPP.

Table of Contents

1. Getting to grips with the Moodle 3 architecture
2. Moodle plugins – what can I plug in?
3. Internal interfaces
4. Course management
5. Creative teaching – developing custom resources and activities
6. Managing users – letting in the crowds
7. Creating a dashboard – developing a learner homepage
8. Creating a new skin
9. Moodle Analytics – what to report and how
10. Appendix

Ian Wild's career has always focused primarily on communication and learning. Ian, a physicist by profession, spent fifteen years in private industry designing communication systems software (Lucent Technologies, Avaya) before specializing in the development and deployment of learning management systems. Ian has a particular interest in the integration of legacy systems. He is currently the lead developer for Skills for Health, the Sector Skills Council for the UK's health sector. He is responsible for one of the country's busiest online learning platforms (the National Skills Academy for Health).

Ian is the author of Moodle 2.0 Course Conversion Beginner's Guide, Moodle 1.9 Math, and was the reviewer for Science Teaching with Moodle 2.0 and Practical XMPP