Moodle Block: Module Library

A Moodle block plugin that lets you use a template course or template modules as a library, and copy modules (activities/resources) from that template into your current course.

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Table of Contents

• Features
• Requirements & Compatibility
• Installation
• Configuration
• Usage
• Developer Notes
• Behat & Testing
• Limitations & Known Issues
• License & Credits

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Features

• Designate a template category and template course(s) to act as libraries of modules.
• Display modules of a template course grouped by section.
• Copy selected modules into a target course with UI (choose target section).
• Uses Moodle’s backup/restore API for copying activities.
• JavaScript / AMD front-end to dynamically load module lists.
• Mustache templates for UI rendering.

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Requirements & Compatibility

• Moodle 4.x (tested with Moodle 4.5+)
• PHP version compatible with your Moodle instance
• The user performing copy operations must have backup/restore capabilities (see Developer Notes)

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Installation

1. Clone or download this block into blocks/modulelibrary in your Moodle code tree.
2. Run the Moodle upgrade (Site administration → Notifications).
3. Ensure file permissions are correct (especially for backups to moodledata).
4. Configure the block (see next section).

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Configuration

After installation:

1. Go to Site administration → Plugins → Blocks → Module Library
2. Set the Template category to a category with your template courses.
3. Optionally configure other settings (if needed).

Once configured, you can add the block to courses and copy modules from templates.

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Usage

1. Add the Module Library block to a course where you want to import modules.
2. In the block, select a template course from the dropdown.
3. Sections and modules load via AJAX.
4. For each module, press Copy.
5. A form appears to select the target section and confirm copy.
6. The module is backed up and restored into your course, and placed in the section you chose.

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Developer Notes

Capabilities & Permissions

• Copying modules uses Moodle’s backup & restore APIs, requiring capabilities like:
  • moodle/backup:backupactivity
  • moodle/restore:restoreactivity
  • moodle/course:manageactivities
• If a user is only a teacher but doesn’t have these capabilities in relevant contexts, copy will fail with error/backup_user_missing_capability.
• In testing (e.g. Behat), you may need to temporarily assign capabilities or impersonate an admin user to allow the operation to succeed.

Caching & Cleanup

• The block sets keeptempdirectoriesonbackup = true temporarily so backup folders persist until cleanup.
• After restore, it cleans up the backup path if keeptempdirectoriesonbackup was originally false.
• Always restore CFG->keeptempdirectoriesonbackup to its original value.

Templating & UI

• Uses Mustache templates (block_content.mustache, modules.mustache, copy_form.mustache).
• Ensure the first <option> in any required <select> has value="" (placeholder) to satisfy HTML validation.
• Avoid deprecated Bootstrap 4 classes (e.g. form-group, font-weight-bold) — use Bootstrap 5 equivalents (mb-3, fw-bold).

AJAX / Front-end

• The block’s JS module (AMD) loads module lists and copy forms via AJAX calls to external functions.
• Must handle loading, errors, and dynamic rendering properly.

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Behat & Testing

To write Behat tests for this block:

• Use a behat_hooks.php in blocks/modulelibrary/tests/behat/ to set up the template category, template courses, and configuration automatically.
• If the copy fails with backup_user_missing_capability, ensure the Behat test user is site admin or has required capabilities.
• Use Behat steps like:

  And I select "Template Course Name" from the "Select template course" singleselect  
  When I click on "button[data-name='Test Quiz']" "css_element"  
  And I select "Section 1" from the "target-section" singleselect  
  And I press "Confirm copy"