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Version: 4.5

Moodle 4.5 developer update

This page highlights the important changes that are coming in Moodle 4.5 for developers.

Badges​

Deprecated badges/newbadge.php​

Since 4.5

The badges/newbadge.php and badges/edit.php pages have been combined to make things easier to maintain since both were pretty similar (newbadge.php for creating badges and edit.php for editing them).

As a result, badges/newbadge.php is now deprecated and will be removed in Moodle 6.0. Please update your code to use badges/edit.php instead.

info

Visiting

https://yourmoodlesite/badges/newbadge.php?id=x

will now automatically redirect to

https://yourmoodlesite/badges/edit.php?courseid=x&mode=new

Deprecated badges/view.php​

Since 4.5

The badges/index.php and badges/view.php pages have been combined to make things easier to maintain since both were pretty similar and the workflow for accessing badges from the course page was confusing in some cases.

As a result, badges/view.php is now deprecated and will be removed in Moodle 6.0. Please update your code to use badges/index.php instead.

Apart from that, the course_badges system report has been merged with badges system report. It has been deprecated too and will be removed in Moodle 6.0. Please update your code to use badges system report instead.

info

Visiting

https://yourmoodlesite/badges/view.php?type=x&id=x

will now automatically redirect to

https://yourmoodlesite/badges/index.php?type=x&id=x

Core changes​

Autoloader​

ABORT_AFTER_CONFIG​

Since 4.5

Prior to Moodle 4.5 only a small number of classes were compatible with scripts using the ABORT_AFTER_CONFIG constant.

MDL-80275 modifies the location of the class Autoloader in the Moodle bootstrap to make it available to scripts using the ABORT_AFTER_CONFIG constant.

note

Please note that the same limitations regarding access to the Database, Session, and similar resources still exist.

Autoloading legacy classes​

Since 4.5

The Moodle class autoloader is now able to load legacy classes defined in the relevant db/legacyclasses.php. Files should only contain a single class.

Example entry in lib/db/legacyclasses.php
$legacyclasses = [
    // The legacy \moodle_exception class can be loaded from lib/classes/exception/moodle_exception.php.
    \moodle_exception::class => 'exception/moodle_exception.php',

    // The legacy \cache class can be loaded from cache/classes/cache.php.
    \cache::class => [
        'core_cache',
        'cache.php',
    ],
];

See MDL-81919 for further information on the rationale behind this change.

SMS API​

A new SMS API was introduced. See the SMS API documentation for more information.

Course​

Reset course page​

The reset course page has been improved. The words "Delete", and "Remove" have been removed from all options to make it easier to focus on the type of data to be removed and avoid inconsistencies and duplicated information. Third party plugins implementing reset methods might need to:

  • Add static element in the _reset_course_form_definition method before all the options with the Delete string:

    $mform->addElement('static', 'assigndelete', get_string('delete'));

  • Review all the strings used in the reset page to remove the Delete or Remove words from them.

caution

Starting from Moodle 4.5, the Reset course page form defined in the _reset_course_form_definition method should be reviewed because their options should not contain the Delete or Remove words. Check changes in any of the core plugins that implement the reset course method.

Deprecations​

Icon deprecation​

Since 4.5

A new mechanism for deprecating icons has been introduced. More information can be found in the icon deprecation documentation.

Filter Plugins​

Since 4.5

Filter plugins and the Filter API have been updated to use the standard Moodle Class Autoloading infrastructure.

To ensure that your plugin continues to work in Moodle 4.5, you should move the filter_[pluginname] class located in filter/[pluginname]/filter.php to filter/[pluginname]/classes/text_filter.php, setting the namespace to filter_[pluginname] and renaming the class to text_filter.

Codebases supporting multiple versions of Moodle

If your codebase also supports Moodle 4.4 and earlier then you will also need to create a file in the 'old' location (filter/[pluginname]/filter.php) with the following content:

filter/[pluginname]/filter.php
class_alias(\filter_[pluginname]\text_filter::class, \filter_[pluginname]::class);

This will ensure that the plugin class is available at both the old and new locations.

TinyMCE plugins​

The helplinktext language string is no longer required by editor plugins, instead the pluginname will be used in the help dialogue

Theme​

Context header​

Since 4.5

The method core_renderer::render_context_header($contextheader) has been deprecated, core_renderer::render($contextheader) should be used instead.

Plugins can still modify the context header by:

  • Overriding core_renderer::context_header() method in their class extending core_renderer
  • Adding core_renderer::render_context_header() method to their class extending core_renderer
  • Overriding the core/context_header.mustache template
theme/example/classes/output/core_renderer.php
class core_renderer extends \core_renderer {
    [...]
    public function context_header($headerinfo = null, $headinglevel = 1): string {
        $output = parent::context_header($headerinfo, $headinglevel);
        return $output . '<div class="badge badge-info">Hi!</div>';
    }
    [...]
}

Refactoring BS4 features dropped in BS5 using a "bridge"​

Since 4.5

Some of the Bootstrap 4 classes will be deprecated or dropped in its version 5. To prepare for this, some of the current Bootstrap 4 classes usages have been replaced with version 5 compatible classes using a "bridge". This will help us to upgrade to Bootstrap 5 in the future.

See more information in Bootstrap 5 migration.

Support FontAwesome families​

Since 4.5

Upon upgrading Font Awesome (FA) from version 4 to 6, the solid family was selected by default. However, FA6 includes additional families such as regular and brands. Support for these families has now been integrated, allowing icons defined with icon_system::FONTAWESOME to use them. Icons can add the FontAwesome family (fa-regular, fa-brands, fa-solid) near the icon name to display it using this styling:

Example of FA families from lib/classes/output/icon_system_fontawesome.php
            'core:i/rss' => 'fa-rss',
            'core:i/rsssitelogo' => 'fa-graduation-cap',
            'core:i/scales' => 'fa-scale-balanced',
            'core:i/scheduled' => 'fa-regular fa-calendar-check',
            'core:i/search' => 'fa-magnifying-glass',
            'core:i/section' => 'fa-regular fa-rectangle-list',
            'core:i/sendmessage' => 'fa-regular fa-paper-plane',
            'core:i/settings' => 'fa-gear',
            'core:i/share' => 'fa-regular fa-share-from-square',
            'core:i/show' => 'fa-regular fa-eye-slash',
            'core:i/siteevent' => 'fa-solid fa-globe',

FontAwesome icons updated​

Since 4.5

The icons in Moodle core have been updated according to the UX team's specifications in MDL-77754. The team reviewed and proposed updates to leverage the new icons in Font Awesome 6, ensuring greater consistency.

In addition to updating the icons, the following changes have been made:

  • The SVG files have been updated to SVG FA6 for better alignment and improved appearance.
  • PNG, JPG, and GIF files have been removed from the repository where possible, leaving only SVG files to simplify maintenance.

For third-party plugins utilizing their own icons via the callback get_fontawesome_icon_map(), it is advisable to review and align these icons with the core icons for consistency. Here are some guidelines followed by the UX team that may be useful:

  • The pencil icon has been replaced by a pen.
  • The cog icon is used exclusively for settings; otherwise, use the pen icon.
  • Import/Upload actions should use the fa-upload icon, while Export/Download actions should use the fa-download icon.
  • The eye icon is used for both visibility and preview actions.
Icons in Component library

On the Icons page of the Component library, you can find a comprehensive list of all the icons available in Moodle core.