Moodle, PHP and using external APIs

I am new to Moodle and PHP, so I may be asking for the impossibl开发者_如何学编程e or just the impractical.

I am wondering how I might go about allowing client applications (written, perhaps, in C++, Java, AS3/Flash) to make calls to Moodle's Gradebook module, for example.

Does Moodle run as a server or does it rely on Apache or some other webserver?

Any pointers to examples of this kind of thing, as well as advice on books for learning PHP, Moodle, etc. would be greatly appreciated.

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Moodle is a mere web application written in PHP. It relies on Apache (or any other web server) to serve PHP pages.

You might use something like Thrift to implement the communication between "C++, Java, Python, PHP, Ruby, Erlang, Perl, Haskell, C#, Cocoa, JavaScript, Node.js, Smalltalk, and OCaml".

Regarding PHP, start with the official documentation:

http://www.php.net/manual/en/

Regarding Moodle, here is a list of available books:

http://moodle.org/mod/data/view.php?id=7246

Have a look to "Moodle 1.9 Extension Development" to write your custom extensions (blocks, modules, assignments):

http://moodle.org/mod/data/view.php?d=55&rid=3796

Hope this helps a bit.