component, filearea and itemid are now optional parameters.
In some contexts those parameteres are not necessary because is not
required to do a file rewrite via file_rewrite_pluginfile_urls
This also clarified that developers can decide to force filters
to be ignored when using external_format_text, though they cannot
force filters to be turned on as the clients should be able to
opt-out from filtering should they want to.
1. Improve upgrade note
2. Don't abuse $PAGE to get the current course/cm
3. Use validate_context, never $PAGE->set_context()
4. Reset current coursemodule in validate_context().
5. Respect moodlepageclass when calling an external function.
Fix:
$PAGE->context must be reset when calling validate_context
Improve:
Provide wrapper for calling an external function
The wrapper correctly checks the function parameters and return type against
the description of the external function, and stores the PAGE and COURSE global
state variables, restoring them before the function returns.
Fix: buggy unit tests.
These tests are expecting debugging from a bug that was fixed, and calling web
service functions with no user or session.
Optional params are not allowed as the top level value for external_function_parameters.
This is because stricter protocols (xmlrpc and soap) cannot handle optional parameters, only
optional properties in a structure.
Now the db/service.php array can contain these extra keys to provide information
on how a webservice may be called:
'ajax' => true (Default is false)
Replaces the xx_is_allowed_from_ajax callback.
'loginrequired' => false (Default is true)
Means that this webservice can be called through lib/ajax/service-nosession.php
which sets NO_MOODLE_COOKIES to true (faster). This is only safe for webservices returning
static public data (e.g. get_string).
Some webservice functions need to be available without a login, e.g.
fetching strings and templates.
External functions must call validate_context if they require a valid login etc.
Added a new parameter to services.php: "loginrequired". Default is true.
API functions do not know if they are being called from a web page, or a
web-service. They need a single function to call to correctly apply
filters, strip tags etc that knows the correct way to do this based on
the way it was called (e.g. webservices allow parameters for skipping
filters etc).
So here we are fixing the default for the filter argument used in
external_format_text and adding a matching external_format_string.
This is a new script that can call any function in the built-in AJAX webservice. This is
a new system service that is added at install time (like the mobile webservice). It has no
protocols added to it, but it accessible by a new ajax script /lib/ajax/service.php.
Requests and responses to the script are required to be in json format, and multiple functions can
be called in a single request.
Also:
- We don't allow users to add deprecated functions to WS
- We show a debugging message when deprecated functions
are already being used in web services.
