Creating a block stub for our container

Let's take a look at some code. In this first section of code we are looking at the block's main file, block_repository.php. This file uses the PHPDoc format for commenting code, which can be used with tools like PHPXref to automatically generate documentation. In our initial function, we again define the minimum values for a block: title and version:

<?php // $Id: block_repository.php,v 1.2 2009/04/22 15:14:08 jfilip Exp $
/**
* Class for the repository control block.
*
* @version $Id: block_repository.php,v 1.2 2009/04/22 15:14:08 jfilip Exp $
* @author Open Knowledge Technologies - http://www.oktech.ca/
* @author Remote Learner - http://www.remote-learner.net/
* @author Justin Filip <jfilip@oktech.ca>
*/
class block_repository extends block_base {
function block_repository() {
$this->title = get_string('blockname', 'block_repository');
$this->version = 2009042100;
} //function block_repository

In the final section of our main file, we make sure that our block content is set to blank values so that the block will never display on screen:

function get_content() {
if($this->content !== NULL) {
return $this->content;
}
$this->content = new stdClass;
$this->content->text = ''; $this->content->footer = '';
return $this->content;
}

Creating capabilities for our container

As we can see, there is not much happening in the main block file. This is evidence of the fact that we are just using the block structure as a container. Next, let's take a look at the functional component of the block, which is defined in the db folder. We have a single file defined called access.php. This functions just as it does in our Hello World block. We simply define an array of access capabilities. Note that in the case of this block, we are using the riskbitmask value in the array. This provides the administrator with information about the risk associated with giving this capability to a particular role:

$block_repository_capabilities = array(
'block/repository:createsitecontent' => array(
'riskbitmask' => RISK_XSS| RISK_DATALOSS,
'captype' => 'write',
'contextlevel' => CONTEXT_SYSTEM,
'legacy' => array(
'admin' => CAP_ALLOW
)
),