core_reportbuilder (subsystem) Upgrade notes

5.2

Added

• The text filter "Contains" and "Not contains" operators now support * and ? wildcard characters for better text content filtering

  For more information see MDL-84082

• The base entity class now implements a default initialise method, that will automatically call each of the following methods to load entity report data:

  • get_available_columns()
  • get_available_filters()
  • get_available_conditions()

  This change allows for a lot of boilerplate to be removed from report entity classes

  For more information see MDL-86678

• There are two new entities intended for reports specific to course module data, in order to provide a baseline in terms of module reporting and API usage:

  • core_course\reportbuilder\local\entities\{course_module,course_module_base}

  For more information see MDL-86699

Changed

• The order in which $entitynames are passed to the datasource add_all_from_entities() method is now observed, taking precedence over the order in which they were already added to the report

  For more information see MDL-87263

• The following methods now support both string or entity instance types for parameters referring to entities by name, which prevents lookups of instances which most report sources will already have:

  • add_all_from_[entity|entities]()
  • add_[columns|filters|conditions]_from_entity()

  For more information see MDL-87451

Deprecated

• The following user_filter_manager methods have been deprecated:

  • reset_all() - to be replaced by new reset() method
  • reset_single()
  • merge()

  For more information see MDL-86997

• The following enrolment entity formatter methods have been deprecated:

  • enrolment_status()
  • enrolment_values()

  For more information see MDL-87000

Removed

• The following deprecated report helper methods have been removed:

  • audience::get_all_audiences_menu_types()
  • report::get_available_columns()

  The stub get_default_table_aliases() method of the base entity class has also been removed as it hasn't been supported for some time

  For more information see MDL-87425

5.1

Added

• The count[distinct] aggregation types support optional 'callback' value to customise the formatted output when applied to columns

  For more information see MDL-82464

• The report_action class now accepts a pix_icon to include inside the rendered action element

  For more information see MDL-85216

• Report schedule types are now extendable by third-party plugins by extending the core_reportbuilder\local\schedules\base class in your component namespace: <component>\reportbuilder\schedule\<type>

  For more information see MDL-86066

• The report column class has a new get_effective_type() method to determine the returned column type, taking into account applied aggregation method

  For more information see MDL-86151

Deprecated

• The following methods from the schedule helper class have been deprecated, in favour of usage of the new schedule type system:

  • create_schedule
  • get_report_empty_options
  • send_schedule_message

  For more information see MDL-86066

5.0

Added

• New report helper class get_report_row_count method for retrieving row count of custom or system report, without having to retrieve the report content

  For more information see MDL-74488

• New get_deprecated_tables method in base entity, to be overridden when an entity no longer uses a table (due to column/filter re-factoring, etc) in order to avoid breaking third-party reports

  For more information see MDL-78118

• The base report class, used by both \core_reportbuilder\system_report and \core_reportbuilder\datasource, contains new methods for enhancing report rendering

  • set_report_action allows for an action button to belong to your report, and be rendered alongside the filters button;
  • set_report_info_container allows for content to be rendered by your report, between the action buttons and the table content

  For more information see MDL-82936

• The base aggregation class has a new column_groupby method, to be implemented in aggregation types to determime whether report tables should group by the fields of the aggregated column

  For more information see MDL-83361

• There is a new date aggregation type, that can be applied in custom and system reports

  For more information see MDL-83361

• The core_reportbuilder_testcase class has been moved to new autoloaded core_reportbuilder\tests\core_reportbuilder_testcase location, affected tests no longer have to manually require /reportbuilder/tests/helpers.php

  For more information see MDL-84000

• Columns added to system reports can render help icons in table headers via [set|get]_help_icon column instance methods

  For more information see MDL-84016

• The groupconcat[distinct] aggregation types support optional 'separator' value to specify the text to display between aggregated items

  For more information see MDL-84537

Changed

• The get_active_conditions method of the base report class has a new $checkavailable parameter to determine whether to check the returned conditions availability

  For more information see MDL-82809

• When the select filter contains upto two options only then the operator field is removed, switching to a simpler value selection field only (this may affect your Behat scenarios)

  For more information see MDL-82913

• Report table instances no longer populate the countsql and countparams class properties. Instead calling code can access totalrows to obtain the same value, or by calling the helper method report::get_report_row_count

  For more information see MDL-83718

• For columns implementing custom sorting via their set_is_sortable method, the specified sort fields must also be part of the columns initially selected fields

  For more information see MDL-83718

• The select filter type is now stricter in it's filtering, in that it will now discard values that aren't present in available filter options

  For more information see MDL-84213

• Aggregation types can access passed options set via the base class constructor in the $this->options[] class property. As such, their format_value method is no longer static and is always called from an instantiated class instance

  For more information see MDL-84537

• New $options argument added to the column::set_aggregation method for system reports, to set aggregation type-specific options

  Report entities can call new column::set_aggregation_options to achieve the same

  For more information see MDL-84537

Deprecated

• The schedule helper class get_schedule_report_count method is now deprecated, existing code should instead use report::get_report_row_count

  For more information see MDL-74488

• The render_new_report_button method of the core_reportbuilder renderer has been deprecated. Instead, refer to the report instance set_report_action method

  For more information see MDL-82936

• Use of the course_completion table is deprecated in the completion entity, please use course_completions instead

  For more information see MDL-84135

Removed

• The following deprecated report entity elements have been removed:

  • comment:context
  • comment:contexturl
  • enrolment:method (plus enrolment formatter enrolment_name method)
  • enrolment:role
  • file:context
  • file:contexturl
  • instance:context (tag)
  • instance:contexturl (tag)

  Use of the context table is also deprecated in the file and instance (tag) entities

  For more information see MDL-78118

• Various Oracle-specific support/workarounds in APIs and component report entities have been removed

  For more information see MDL-80173

• Final removal of support for get_default_table_aliases method. Entities must now implement get_default_tables, which is now abstract, to define the tables they use

  For more information see MDL-80430

4.5

Added

• The return type of the set_checkbox_toggleall callback, defined by system reports, can now be null. Use if the checkbox should not be shown for the row.

  For more information see MDL-52046

• System reports now support native entity column aggregation via each columns set_aggregation() method

  For more information see MDL-76392

• The following external methods now return tags data relevant to each custom report:

  • core_reportbuilder_list_reports
  • core_reportbuilder_retrieve_report

  For more information see MDL-81433

• Added a new database helper method sql_replace_parameters to help ensure uniqueness of parameters within a SQL expression.

  For more information see MDL-81434

• A new static method, \core_reportbuilder\local\helpers\format::format_time(), has been added for use in column callbacks that represent a duration of time (for example "3 days 4 hours").

  For more information see MDL-82466

• The following methods have been moved from \core_reportbuilder\datasource class to its parent class \core_reportbuilder\base to make them available for use in system reports:

  • add_columns_from_entity()
  • add_filters_from_entity()
  • report_element_search()

  For more information see MDL-82529

Changed

• In order to better support float values in filter forms, the following filter types now cast given SQL prior to comparison:

  • duration
  • filesize
  • number

  For more information see MDL-81168

• The base datasource \core_reportbuilder\datasource::add_all_from_entities() method accepts a new optional array $entitynames parameter to specify which entities to add elements from.

  For more information see MDL-81330

• All time-related code has been updated to the PSR-20 Clock interface, as such the following methods no longer accept a $timenow parameter (instead please use \core\clock dependency injection):

  • core_reportbuilder_generator::create_schedule
  • core_reportbuilder\local\helpers\schedule::create_schedule()
  • core_reportbuilder\local\helpers\schedule::calculate_next_send_time()

  For more information see MDL-82041

• The following classes have been moved to use the new exception API as a L2 namespace:

  Old class	New class
  \core_reportbuilder\report_access_exception	\core_reportbuilder\exception\report_access_exception
  \core_reportbuilder\source_invalid_exception	\core_reportbuilder\exception\source_invalid_exception
  \core_reportbuilder\source_unavailable_exception	\core_reportbuilder\exception\source_unavailable_exception

  For more information see MDL-82133

Removed

• Support for the following entity classes, renamed since 4.1, have now been removed completely:

  • \core_admin\local\entities\task_log
  • \core_cohort\local\entities\cohort
  • \core_cohort\local\entities\cohort_member
  • \core_course\local\entities\course_category
  • \report_configlog\local\entities\config_change

  For more information see MDL-74583

• The following previously deprecated local helper methods have been removed and can no longer be used:

  • \core_reportbuilder\local\helpers\audience::get_all_audiences_menu_types()
  • \core_reportbuilder\local\helpers\report::get_available_columns()

  For more information see MDL-76690