I have found that recently every time I code a block or a module I end up writing up some sort of notification system to inform the user of errors or to inform the user that something worked successfully.

So, I thought that a standard API would be nice to have because I have noticed that other modules are also having to create custom code for informing the user of what has happened. Also, by having a standard API, the look and feel of Moodle will be more singular.

The proposed API has a method for setting any number of messages. These messages are stored in the session to allow for calling a redirect before printing the message. And of course, the API has a method for printing all of the messages. All messages are printed with notify().

Note: The function for printing the messages could even be called in the theme header or in print_header so that all messages are printed in the same location.

Here is the PHPdoc of the two functions:

/**

• Sets a message to be printed. Messages are printed
• by calling {@link print_messages()}

  .
  *

• @uses $SESSION
• @param string $message The message to be printed
• @param string $class Class to be passed to {@link notify()}. Usually notifyproblem or notifysuccess.
  * @param string $align Alignment of the message
  * @return boolean
  **/
  function set_message($message, $class="notifyproblem", $align='center')
  
  /**
  * Print all set messages.
  *
  * See {@link set_message()} for setting messages.
  *
  * Uses {@link notify()}

  to print the messages.
  *

• @uses $SESSION
• @return boolean
  **/
  function print_messages()