New versions of Moodle Break existing plugins Sometimes a little Sometimes a lot How can you fix those plugins
The Question Practice Activity Uses standard Moodle Question types Teachers set up categories Students practice on their own (a social constructivists holy grail)
Breaks with > Moodle 2.5 Incomprehensible error messages Error messages about logging Features that didn’t seem to do anything
Biggest crime of all It didn’t work with MY Gapfill question type Or the dragdrop ordering type But I’m a busy person, whatever
It's Tim Hunts Fault He posted this at Moodle.org
How hard is it? Create a new plugin is Rock Hard Updating a plugin is fairly easy Depending on how much Moodle has changed Moodle 1.9 to 3.0 might be a bit tricky Moodle 2.5 to 3.0 fairly easy
Check on Github The maintainer might have already done it They may not have uploaded to Moodle.org Try to contact them
Put it into Git Easy for other people to see/advise Tracks changes Nice for backup
How long did it take me? I had two weeks leave at Christmas I don't like Downton or Strictly I do have friends :)* *Well I sort of know people on The moodle.org forums which is actually better than having real World friends.
Development Stack XAMPP/WAMPP/MAMP/LAMP/CAMP
You NEED an IDE
My Setup A test install of Moodle I use Windows 8.1 on a Laptop Turn Debugging to Developer Look in Admin/Development Install Xdebug Debugger It’s a fiddle but it is also close to magic
Logging add_to_log() has been deprecated, please rewrite your code to the new events API ls_in_plugins ls_in_plugins
/startattempt.php
This was more tricky Something in core Moodle had changed. I replaced it with my own code A bit of a bodgie job
Things you forget Backup and Export Question Practice generated an error Increment the version number version.php Sanity check strings This had been forgotten $table->caption = 'Hello';
Non Working Code A feature too far No point in keeping it Deleted it
My Enhancements Made my own question type work with it Gave it a “better” icon Add help buttons to documentation
Test Other Themes Conflicting CSS can break your plugin Clean is not enough Essential is by far the most downloaded
The End Marcus Green