thank you orvil, yes it should open a lot of possibilities, and in a simple and clean way.
Denis. That's an interesting request, that will show the main differences between Object Oriented Modules based on inheritance VS Plugins based on events. As you know, that's the main change I want to do in LimeSurvey since years, and as you know, external coders who don't understand that difference are the ones who blocked me to do it since LS 2.5. Else, it will done since years. So I will take a bit of time to answer you as clearly as possible.
1. Layout is defined by view parameter
Very first thing, to avoid confusion:
The "surveyid" parameter in the aData array is not a way to select which controller is called (survey / question / question / question group etc). The controller is selected via the route in the url (for survey controller:
index.php?r=admin/survey/, for question:
index.php?r=admin/survey/question, etc ). The surveyid parameter is only a way to switch between the 2 layouts of the LimeSurvey admin interface. We have one full page layout, and we have the survey layout (with breadcrumb + left side bar). That's all. If there is a surveyid parameter, Survey Common Action will load the views to render the left side bar, the top bar, before calling the controller that will render the content in the central column. You can see its logic here:
github.com/LimeSurvey/LimeSurvey/blob/de...Action.php#L330-L342
Here the two layout files:
github.com/LimeSurvey/LimeSurvey/blob/de...uper/layout_main.php
github.com/LimeSurvey/LimeSurvey/blob/de.../layout_insurvey.php
So if you don't provide a surveyid in $aData, your views will be render inside layout_main. If you provide a surveyid in $aData, your view will be render inside layout_insurvey (the left bar / breadcrumb bar corner.)
without leftbar/breadcrumb layout:
with leftbar/breadcrumb layout:
2. Should I use plugin for everything or modules for everything?
Module is not really about quickly modifying the question / question group / user pages.If you just want a slight modification of a page, you can write a plugin (events on those pages). Events are perfect for those kind of small tasks. It can be coded quickly and easily. So a plugin based on event should be a very small piece of code doing a very simple task.
Object Oriented Module is more about creating entirely new pages for question / question group, etc, or about modifying deeply their rendering. It's about making a lot of changes, that will require a lot of code, that will be complex.
3. Can I still modify the question / question group pages with a Module?
I must check if it's already working (it should be the case), but a module is able to extend any core controller. So you can have your own Question / Question Group / User Controller that override the existing ones, or just override some of their methods, or (and I think that's what you want) just add new methods to those controllers with new views. Notice you can also modify an existing method in a controller, and then call its core view. Notice you can modify an existing method, render a module view, and from this module view render some core subviews.
So it's all about inheritance in the normal OOP way of doing, not an approach based on events modifying the logic/render flow on the fly. It's harder to write than just adding a small script based on events. But the result is much more solid, stable, easy to read, to understand and to maintain. It's very similar to what we're doing in LimeSurvey when we extend a Yii Class to modify it (just imagine how messy it will be if all the LimeSurvey Core Classes will be just plugins interacting with events in the Yii Core classes... :silly: : Well that the way we were taking by only allowing modification of the admin interface via events plugins)
3. Ok but how do I add a new menu in the question page to reach my new methods?
As said in the short tutorial: one of the main missing point is the menu definitions. It will be possible to add menus by defining them in the XML (just like in a joomla component). Then, you'll can add a menu link to one of your module action in the the top navbar, in the configuration menu, in the survey menus, in the question menus, in the question groups menu, in the token menus, etc etc .
I hope it make it easier to understand.
Again, I'm telling since years that using only events to extends limesurvey was a wrong way to do. My personal experience with Drupal 7 vs Joomla convinced me that all the hype around the observer alike pattern was wrong. I must say that the industry today is going to the same conclusion:
www.semaphore-software.com/blog/drupal-vs-joomla/
(again this article, after 4 years)
conferences.oreilly.com/software-archite...chedule/detail/77779
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