Moodle stands as one of the premier LMS platforms. Established in 2002, this LMS allows training providers to deliver training efficiently and flexibly across diverse audiences.
Digital learning environments (DLEs) may be thought of as digital versions of online training providers; DLEs offer self-contained environments designed for educational establishments but now find use across industries like retail, healthcare, local government, and nonprofits as a powerful business tool.
Moodle LMS allows you to develop and upload e-learning materials, distribute them among students, grade them based on them, track student development as they move along their academic paths, and celebrate their successes.
Though Moodle may contain additional features that enhance its user-friendliness for content delivery purposes, its main draw is as an e-learning content delivery to user management platform.
What do You think about Moodle LMS Development? Join us this month as we cover necessary abilities and recommended resources that can get the ball rolling for Moodle LMS development by online learning experience.
Make an account on Moodle.org before proceeding further - this allows you to download plugins into your development instance of Moodle and access by user experience the General Developer forum, where you can post questions and receive assistance.
Moodle LMS Development Capabilities
To progress with Moodle, the following technological skills will be essential - which form its core here are some essential skills for successful moodle development:
PHP 7.4+: Moodle was written using PHP; keep in mind, however, that Moodle is a wide range advanced application.
MySQL/MariDB or PostgreSQL: Although PostgreSQL or MySQL/MariDB might not seem essential initially, their use will become necessary over time due to Moodle's complex database structure.
HTML5: Like everything that shows in your web browser, HTML5 can also be seen here.
CSS/Bootstrap 4: While not necessary to get started, CSS/Bootstrap 4 will make any work you create look better.
AMD/JavaScript/jQuery: While not strictly required, having these technologies at your fingertips might allow Moodle to connect more closely with external websites as educational institutions can use and services as time progresses or make your user interface a little more dynamic like custom plugins.
Mustache: Moodle LMS employs the Mustache templating system increasingly with each release, using templates more frequently for its development and administration of courses.
Git/GitHub (optional): Git/GitHub allows you to publish plugins and themes of your creation, obtain Moodle plugins from third parties, and contribute source code back into its sources.
Although Moodle development can occur without it, you will soon realize how useful Git/GitHub can be. At the same time, some GUI interfaces might provide quick solutions, but most people find the command prompt more suitable.
Markdown: Markdown is an increasingly popular writing format used for documentation, such as README files for plugins or any other forms of external system documentation.
Moodle utilizes XML, JSON, and Ajax; those with more experience should understand how to use Travis, NodeJS/npm, and PHPUnit testing tools for moodle workplace additional evaluation purposes.
Starting doesn't necessarily require expertise in all these areas to become proficient with Moodle development; however, having a solid basis for developing these abilities helps speed up the learning curve by plugin development.
Also Read: Rise of No-Code/Low-Code: Implications for Moodle Development
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Tool Chest For Moodle LMS Development
An operational instance needs to exist as part of an environment's resources to enable development environments with Moodle instances to run efficiently powerful tools;
Operating System: Linux is often considered the optimal platform for development; however, Windows or Mac OS can also be utilized.
As for choosing your web server, Apache or NGINX should work perfectly well and serve your live site/production environment.
Database Server: Popular databases include PostgreSQL, MariaDB, and MySQL; therefore, the server you will use on your live/production website must support these three.
PHP: Moodle's back end is written using PHP; check its compatibility with Moodle by reviewing system requirements, command line usage, and terminal/shell technical knowledge information on your operating system's command line terminal or shell interfaces and command lines before selecting your PHP version to run with Moodle.
Moodle provides an example of an LMS: newcomers might find it more straightforward to set up and use when installed locally on a PC as they become familiarized with its operations.
Both GitHub and Git: are source code version control systems available on Windows, with the former hosting most third-party plugins and Moodle LMS courses, respectively.
Code editors; like phpStorm, Eclipse PDT, NetBeans, and Visual Studio Code dedicated developers (VSCode).
Having helpful features like Xdebug, code highlighting, and completion is ideal, especially given Moodle libraries tend to contain large source code files.
Web services: Postman can be highly beneficial if you intend to develop web services.
Sending email: Moodle provides its email server; however, a local SMTP server and client, such as Papercut SMTP for Windows or SMTP4DEV, which supports Linux/Mac, will likely prove more helpful for sending mail out than traditional methods alone.
Moosh: An administrative tool for Moodle that you can access using a command-line interface, much like WP-CLI for WordPress or Drush for Drupal sites.
Remember, though, that its Windows compatibility may limit its usefulness.
Moodle Development Kit (MDK): The Moodle Development Kit (MDK) is a simple yet indispensable tool that will save time-consuming and laborious tasks from being repeated repeatedly.
File Comparison Tool: If your code editor does not already include file comparison functionality, alternative tools like WinMerge for Windows are free; Meld is also like digital literacy freely available, and Beyond Compare ($$$) covers Windows, Mac OS, and Linux users.
A Password Manager: Password managers like Roboform, LastPass, 1Password, and Dashlane provide additional protection and convenience when troubleshooting pages with forms.
Ensure the one you select works with your browser and does not require copying and pasting content manually, hire moodle developers who have skill and knowledge of tools and by their deep understanding.
The following are some suggested Moodle plugins to install on your development site:
- Here are a few Moodle plugins we suggest installing for development: Moodle Plugin Skeleton Generator:
- With this tool, you can either clone and modify existing Moodle plugins or generate many types of them simultaneously.
- Verify your work complies with Moodle's coding standards using the Code-Checker and PHPdoc Check.
- These two services detect essential code documentation.
Theme Tester is a valuable tool for developing themes, while Theme Selector makes switching between custom themes and Boost easier for business owners.
- Moodle Administrator enables Moodle administrators and Moodle Adminer to alter the Moodle database from within Moodle itself directly, thus simplifying LMS development on the Internet.
Moodle LMS Development Web-Based Tools
Here are a few helpful online and browser tools. Here are some key tools for efficient moodle development.
It is kind of a moodle mentor.
Xdebug Helper: is an easier and quicker way to turn Xdebug on and off for Chrome, Firefox, Edge, and Safari browsers.
Testing accessibility compliance by user soft skill management has never been more straightforward with WAVE Evaluation Tool - an accessible compliance-checking plugin available on Chrome, Firefox, and Edge browsers.
Accessible Color Generator: Accessible Colour Generator as a helpful way of choosing accessible colors! Simply feed in your choices, and it will tell which ones most closely meet accessibility guidelines - saving time and guesswork when business goals make compliant decisions! Choosing Approachable Colors Has Been Made Much Easier Now
SCSS Compiler: Although Moodle will automatically compile SCSS, identifying errors in it and compiling it using an online SCSS compiler such as Regex101 provides another means.
It offers workbench support for regular expressions.
Regex101: is an invaluable regular expression workbench designed for PHP, JavaScript, and other languages, offering text string translation into other custom reports languages using Deepl.
One of its most significant benefits lies in translating text strings found within plugins into other languages - one online resource providing this capability is Regex101 itself!
AMOS: Translate Moodle.org plugins into other languages by contributing your language skills (all plugins must first be developed in English).
Pixlr and Photopea: If you want a free online Photoshop-like editor, Pixlr/Photopea provides one.
Try PhotoRoom's Remove Object From Photo tool to eliminate someone or an object from an image.
Base64 Encode and Decode Tool: Utilizing this tool may simplify life. You will be ready to learn Moodle for development by possessing these abilities and resources.
opment, LMS, of course, after you've had your coffee with strong understanding.
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General Guidelines For Moodle Coding Style
In general, code editors can be configured with PSR-12 and PSR-1 standards as the basis of their settings to understand 90% of Moodle's Coding Style.
You can learn more about any unique adaptations by Moodle here:
PHP Development in General: Make sure the following Moodle plugins are installed to assist with development:
Code: inspector This tool lets you compare your code with Moodle Coding Style Guideline, installed via GitHub (which often lags behind Moodle.org's version), with integration instructions available on its page for Eclipse, PHPstorm, and SublimeText editors.
Moodle Developer Toolbox: Here is a selection of Windows programs to assist with developing with Moodle, including 64-bit versions wherever possible.
Don't be misled by their "free" price tags - all these tools can genuinely come in handy, and should you find any especially beneficial, consider contributing back by contributing either financially, volunteering time, or doing other ways that would support our project such as:
If the entire/pro version is available, purchase it if using it to generate income. If there's no premium version yet, consider donating, reporting bugs as necessary, and providing bug reports/fixes/feature requests as soon as possible for moodle theme development.
- Spread the news of an incredible/useful tool you found.
- Spreading awareness will ensure it remains available.
At least show your appreciation to those behind a tool by acknowledging their time and efforts invested into its creation and release to users like yourself! Developers enjoy hearing that users like yourself find value in what they created - something doesn't automatically lose its worth just because something is free.
For instance, Greenshot provides a free yet lightweight screenshot-capturing capability, which is excellent for documenting processes or reporting issues.
ScreenToGIF: An extremely user-friendly video capture and editing program that makes recording videos effortless; great for reporting issues or showing a visual representation of a problem.
Color Contrast Analyzer: this is an accessibility testing tool used to assess the contrast and readability of visual elements like controls or indicators, providing color-picking functionality.
File Locator Pro: Moodle API source code contains most of its best documentation examples and is often an excellent place to search quickly for them.
With over a business model of 37,000 source files, including PHP, JavaScript, HTML, CSS/SCSS, JSON Mustache Mustache, etc., it provides an efficient method for quick searching. This tool is convenient for quickly scanning them all!
WinMerger: WinMerger is an exceptional tool for quickly finding differences among files or entire folders and performing three-way comparisons.
Visual Studio Code Editor (VSCode): These days, one of the world's most commonly used code editors is Visual Studio Code (VSCode).
Its usage increases significantly when configured with extensions like PHPCS or additional ones.
Visual Studio (VSCode): Today's most-preferred code editor worldwide is Visual Studio, or "VS." Developers commonly compare it with an IDE when configured with extensions like PHPCS for Moodle development; additionally it's faster, much less costly (free!) and far superior in many respects to Java-based IDEs like PhpStorm or Eclipse; each code editing tool offers distinct benefits; many developers take advantage of multiple editing tools at the same time.
Summary
Businesses of all shapes and sizes utilize Moodle-based learning management systems (LMSs) as tech tools due to their highly configurable, feature-packed nature.
Being open source ensures that anyone, including programmers from around the globe, can inspect it. Open-source codes also facilitate more secure development environments by making edits to code at will and by giving anyone who accesses them the freedom of change within them.
As it's an open-source product, developers around the globe transparently review the Moodle learning platform and make it accessible for editing to advance further development of features that enhance feature richness and security, furthering the development of its learning platform.
The above skills and tools which are moodle developer proficiency requirements are used in Moodle LMS users from management, administrators, and learners add plugins regularly to meet changing demands for features and functionalities. Thanks to one of the world's largest open-source communities, users are connected with millions of others for answers and staying abreast of Moodle's newest updates and features.
Paul is a highly skilled Full Stack Developer with a solid educational background that includes a Bachelor's degree in Computer Science and a Master's degree in Software Engineering, as well as a decade of hands-on experience. Certifications such as AWS Certified Solutions Architect, and Agile Scrum Master bolster his knowledge. Paul's excellent contributions to the software development industry have garnered him a slew of prizes and accolades, cementing his status as a top-tier professional. Aside from coding, he finds relief in her interests, which include hiking through beautiful landscapes, finding creative outlets through painting, and giving back to the community by participating in local tech education programmer.
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