There are three basic types of variables available within module:
module variables
object variables
local variables
The major difference between them is their lifetime.
Module variables will keep their values after each processing, as long as module is being initialized (ie. displayed or used).
Object variables are available within class objects and each processing unsets them.
Local variables are available only within function that created them and each processing unsets them.
Local and object variables are defined in casual way, just like in pure php. I assume you have basic knowledge of local and object variables so I'll move on to module variables description.
To initialize module variable simply assign it any value:
$this->set_module_variable('<variable name>','<value>');Now you can retrieve your variable with
$this->get_module_variable('<variable name>');Each module variable value is kept separately for each instance of a module (not module as abstract model). You can read and write to the variable anytime, as long as you are inside regular module function (module variables are inaccessible within static functions). If you want two modules to share a variable (ei. if one module changes the value, the other one will receive new value) you can use function
$this->share_module_variable('<my variable>', $other_module_instance);After this code is executed, the other module will be able to retrieve <variable> with
$this->get_module_variable('<variable>');