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FreeMind filter

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Revision as of 21:57, 30 August 2007 by John Isner (talk | contribs)

Introduction

The FreeMind filter allows Moodle to display "mind maps" (a kind of graphic organizer) created by the open source program FreeMind. After creating the mind map on your Windows, Linux, or Mac desktop, save it to your hard drive. Then upload the file to your course. To display the mind map anywhere in your course (e.g., in a Lesson or a Web page resource), just link to the file at the point where you want the mind map to appear. The filter searches for links to files with the .mm suffix and replaces them by an embedded applet. The applet displays the mind map and allows users to interact with it. For example, users can collapse and expand nodes (users cannot change the structure).

The FreeMind filter has no version dependencies. It should run with any version of Moodle and any browser having the Java plugin.

Get the FreeMind desktop application

You'll need a copy of the FreeMind app on your own machine in order to create mind maps. After you create a mind map, File->save will create f file with an .mm extension (e.g., my_novel.mm). Download the FreeMind app from sourceforge by clicking [[1]] and choosing the appropriate version (there are versions for Window, Linux, and Mac OS). You can get documentation and other resources from [[2]].

Installation in Moodle

In order for Moodle to be able to display mind maps created by the FreeMind desktop application, you (or your administrator) must install certain server-side components in Moodle. There are two components which are installed separately:

  1. the freemind-browser package, which you get from sourceforge
  2. the freemind-filter package, which you get from the Modules and Plugins database

Installing the freemind-browser package

  • Download the latest version of the freemind-browser package from [[3]]
  • create a new directory $CFG->dirroot/filter/freemind (where $CFG->dirroot is your "moodle" directory, as defined in config.php)
  • unzip the downloaded package in the newly-created directory.

Installing the freemind-filter package

  • download the freemind-filter package from

[[4]]

  • unzip the file in $CFG->dirroot/filter/freemind

=Activating the filter

Login to Moodle as administrator and activate the filter (Site Administration -> Modules -> Filters).

How the filter works

The filter searches text for links to files with the '.mm' suffix and replaces them with the mind map. Specifically:

  • Any text before the link will be placed above the applet
  • Any text following link will be placed below the applet
  • The text of the link (if any) will be discarded

For example, suppose the original text looks like this (to see this, you would have to toggle your HTML browser into HTML mode by pressing the <> button on the browser toolbar):

Here's the outline of my novel <a href=...>Hahaha</a>How do you like it?

After filtering, the text will look like this:

Here's the outline of my novel<br/> <applet> .... </applet><br/>How do you like it?

and will display like this:

Here's the outline of my novel

FreeMind example

How do you like it?

Adjusting the size of the display

By default, the applet's height and width are 100% of its parent element (the element in which the applet is embedded). As a result, one way of controlling the size of the mind map is by controlling the size of the parent element. A table cell in a 1 x 1 table can be used, but you must be sure to set the cell height and width properties to 100%. These properties can only be set through the Cell properties dialog, which is accessed from the Table toolbar of the Enlarged HTML editor.

Alternatively, you can specify the applet's size in pixels by appending a 'height' and/or 'width' parameter to the right of the file location. For example, to make a mindmap 300 pixels wide and 450 pixels high, type the following into the Location box when creating the link: http://mysite/file.php/2/my_novel.mm width=300 height=450 The parameters may be written in any order, but must follow the URL.

The only disadvantage of using the height and width parameters is that you can only change them by toggling into html mode in the editor. Using the 1 x 1 table method, you can adjust the size by dragging the table handles.

Interacting with the applet

The mind map displayed by the applet is dynamic. Left click on a node and it will fold. Left click again and it will open. Left click and drag to move the map. Right click in a node, branch, or on the canvas for an appropriate context menu. Read the FreeMind applet FAQ to find out what else you can do. One thing you cannot do is modify the underlying structure of the map. That can only be done in the FreeMind desktop application.