News block
==========

Copyright 2012 The Open University


This is a news block that you can install into standard Moodle. 

It does not replace the existing 'Latest news' feature. To use this block, you
should simply add it to the course and remove the existing course.

This block has the following features:

* Independent: not linked to a forum, has its own interface.
* You can have multiple blocks per page.
* Add posts manually, or use RSS/Atom feeds to include posts from elsewhere,
  or both.
* Provides RSS/Atom format feed output - you can chain blocks together to
  repeat the same news on multiple sites. 
* Add posts that only appear at specific date. If restoring to a new course
  to create a 'new presentation' of the same course for next year, these dated
  posts (only) will be automatically updated so you can repeat the standard
  messages next time.
* Set posts that only appear to specific groupings.


Branch:

This is the development branch including latest, untested code. If you would
like a tested version equivalent to an OU live release, please switch to a
branch that matches your Moodle version (e.g. MOODLE_22_STABLE) using the
above dropdown.

This branch is designed to run against the Moodle version that we (the OU) are
currently using on our development servers. This is not always the latest
Moodle version: typically, our development servers are updated about four
months after a Moodle release. 

Support:

We cannot offer direct support. Please do not contact me directly. If you
need assistance, try an appropriate forum on moodle.org.

Documentation:

We don't provide any documentation. Please feel free to contribute
documentation to the relevant areas of the MoodleDocs wiki.

Bug reports:

Please report bugs using the GitHub 'Issues' tab. Before reporting a bug,
please try the latest version to verify that the problem hasn't already been
fixed. In each bug, please remember to give:

1. Exact steps to reproduce your problem, starting from creating a new wiki
   with default or specified settings.
2. The news block version you are using (from version.php or Blocks admin
   screen).
3. The Moodle version you are using.

Reliability:

Please note that this code is tested on OU systems but we rely on the
community for testing on other systems.

Requires:

Moodle 2.3+
Postgres / MySQL

Install:

Place the contents of this source tree into your Moodle installation so that
within your Moodle root, this file is blocks/news/README. Then visit the
Moodle notifications page to install.