Note: You are currently viewing documentation for Moodle 1.9. Up-to-date documentation for the latest stable version is available here: Student projects/Admin page cleanup.

Student projects/Admin page cleanup: Difference between revisions

From MoodleDocs
Line 230: Line 230:


  <moodleadmin>
  <moodleadmin>
   <category name="Some Language File Link" internalname="string" />
   <category name="Some Language File Link" />
     <settinggroup name="Something Else" internalname="string2" />
     <settinggroup name="Something Else" />
       <setting name="..." internalname="..." type="(text|select|htmledit)" selectoptions="option1=val1,option2=val2,option3=val3" description="..." upgrade="(flagged|acknowledged|none)" setoninstall="(true|false)" />
       <setting name="..." type="(text|select|htmledit)" selectoptions="option1,option2,option3" description="..." upgrade="(flagged|acknowledged|none)" setoninstall="(true|false)" writeproc="setconfig..." readproc="print..." />
     </category>
     </category>
     <settingpage name="Whatever" internalname="string3" hardcoded="filename.php" />
     <settingpage name="Whatever" internalname="string3" hardcoded="filename.php" />
   </category>
   </category>
  </moodleadmin>
  </moodleadmin>
The idea behind the XML format is to make it easy to add variables without having to modify raw PHP code. The "name", "selectoptions", "description", "writeproc", and "readproc" fields will be parsed as PHP, so we can easily define how we read or write the value of a variable in the XML file. (And, naturally, the "name" field has to be parsed since this is multi-lingual.)


The DTD (which I haven't yet verified) would look like
The DTD (which I haven't yet verified) would look like

Revision as of 01:37, 18 June 2006

Right now, I'm trying to work on a more "logical" reorganization of the settings accessible via the admin page. Slowly getting there... Please use the talk page to leave me any comments, I'll be checking it regularly.

Key Project Tasks/Deliverables

  • Re-organize moodle admin settings
  • Design XML DTD
  • Port moodle admin settings to XML
  • Code PHP script to output hierarchy
  • Code PHP script to display a setting-group
  • Code PHP script to write modifications to settings
  • Build a bookmarking system (per-user) for admin settings
  • Redo the user management interface
  • Code the necessary PHP to highlight changed settings after an upgrade

Current Admin Layout (from 1.5)

Admin

  • Configuration
    • Variables
      • Interface
        • lang (select)
        • langmenu (select)
        • langlist (text)
        • langcache (select)
        • locale (text)
        • timezone (select)
        • country (select)
        • framename (text)
        • themelist (text)
        • allowuserthemes (select)
        • allowcoursethemes (select)
        • allowuserblockhiding (select)
        • showblocksonmodpages (select)
        • tabselectedtofront (select)
      • Security
        • displayloginfailures
        • notifyloginfailures
        • notifyloginthreshold
        • secureforms
        • loginhttps
        • runclamonupload
        • pathtoclam
        • quarantinedir
        • clamfailureonupload
      • Operating System
        • gdversion
        • dbsessions
        • sessiontimeout
        • sessioncookie
        • zip
        • unzip
        • pathtodu
        • slasharguments
        • proxyhost
        • proxyport
      • Maintenance
        • longtimenosee
        • deleteunconfirmed
        • loglifetime
      • Mail
        • smtphosts
        • smtpuser
        • smtppass
        • noreplyaddress
        • digestmailtime
        • allowemailaddresses
        • denyemailaddresses
      • User
        • sitepolicy
        • fullnamedisplay
        • extendedusernamechars
        • autologinguests
      • Permissions
        • teacherassignteachers
        • allowunenroll
        • allusersaresitestudents
        • showsiteparticipantlist
        • forcelogin
        • forceloginforprofiles
        • opentogoogle
        • maxbytes
        • messaging
        • allowobjectembed
      • Miscellaneous
        • maxeditingtime
        • debug
        • perfdebug
        • enablerssfeeds
    • Site Settings
      • Full site name
      • Short name for site
      • Front page description
      • Front page format
      • Include a topic section
      • News items to show
      • Your word for teacher
      • Your word for teachers
      • Your word for student
      • Your word for students
    • Themes
      • Select a theme
    • Language
      • Update language pack from moodle.org
      • Check for missing strings
      • Edit strings (per file)
      • Edit help documents
    • Modules
      • Hide/show (per module)
      • Delete (per module)
      • Specific settings (per module)
    • Blocks
      • Hide/show (per block)
      • Multiple (per block)
      • Delete (per block)
      • Settings (per block)
    • Filters
      • Active/Inactive filters (and order)
      • Text cache lifetime
      • Filter uploaded files
      • Filter all strings
    • Backup
      • Include modules
      • Metacourse
      • Users
      • Logs
      • User files
      • Course files
      • Messages
      • Keep x files
      • Schedule SMTWTFS
      • Time to execute
      • Save to
    • Editor Settings
      • htmleditor
      • editorbackgroundcolor
      • editorfontfamily
      • editorfontsize
      • editorkillword
      • aspellpath
      • editorspelling
      • fonts in editor's dropdown menu
      • editorhidebuttons (hidden buttons)
    • Calendar
      • adminsseeall
      • startwday
      • weekenddays
      • upcoming_lookahead
      • upcoming_maxevents
      • timezones
      • timezone update/import
    • Maintenance Mode
      • enable/disable
      • message
  • Users
    • Authentication
      • (still looking into the different authentication methods)
    • Edit User Accounts
      • browse/edit/delete/add/search/alphasort users
    • Add a New User
      • (links to 'edit profile' for a new user)
    • Upload Users
      • import file
    • Enrolments
      • (still looking into different methods of enrolment)
    • Enrol Students
      • links to different courses (chosen via plain list) in admin mode
    • Assign Teachers
      • links through course cateogries to choose a course
    • Assign Creators
      • list to select from existing users
    • Assign Admins
      • list to select from existing users
  • Courses
    • shows course categories
    • add/view/move/rename/delete catgories
    • add a new course
    • delete a course/other tasks (double-check what exactly they are)
  • Logs
    • live logs
    • filter by date/site/participant/activity
  • Site Files
    • upload a file
    • rename/delete/move to folder/delete files
    • make a folder
  • Environment
    • evaluates current server environment for future moodle versions

Proposed Structure

Alrighty, here's the deal for how this is organized: I'm proposing a 2-or-3-level hierarchy for the reorganization. However, this list only contains what I'm calling "final" top-level categories. The stuff under the top-level categories isn't yet organized into second- and third-level categories; it's just a list of items from the "Current Structure" list.

  • User Interface
    • variables\interface
    • variables\user\sitepolicy
    • variables\user\fullnamedisplay
    • site settings
    • themes
    • language
    • editor settings
    • calendar (except calendar\adminsseeall)
    • site files
  • Server Interface (a.k.a. backend)
    • variables\maintenance
    • variables\operating system
    • variables\mail
    • variables\user\extendedusernamechars
    • variables\user\autologinguests (this might be better placed in security/auth)
    • variables\miscellaneous
    • test for future versions
  • Authentication & Security
    • variables\security
    • variables\permissions
    • calendar\adminsseeall
    • user management (to be completely redone)
  • Maintenance & Auditing
    • backups
    • maintenance mode
    • logs
  • Course Management
    • to be worked out
  • Plug-in Management
    • filters
    • blocks
    • modules
  • Bookmarks (per admin user)

XML File Format

Here's a sample of how the moodle admin configuration file will look 

<moodleadmin>
  <category name="Some Language File Link" />
    <settinggroup name="Something Else" />
      <setting name="..." type="(text|select|htmledit)" selectoptions="option1,option2,option3" description="..." upgrade="(flagged|acknowledged|none)" setoninstall="(true|false)" writeproc="setconfig..." readproc="print..." />
    </category>
    <settingpage name="Whatever" internalname="string3" hardcoded="filename.php" />
  </category>
</moodleadmin>

The idea behind the XML format is to make it easy to add variables without having to modify raw PHP code. The "name", "selectoptions", "description", "writeproc", and "readproc" fields will be parsed as PHP, so we can easily define how we read or write the value of a variable in the XML file. (And, naturally, the "name" field has to be parsed since this is multi-lingual.)

The DTD (which I haven't yet verified) would look like 

<!ELEMENT moodleadmin (category|settinggroup|settingpage)*>
<!ELEMENT category (category|settinggroup|settingpage)*>
  <!ATTLIST category name CDATA #REQUIRED>
  <!ATTLIST category internalname CDATA #REQUIRED>
<!ELEMENT settinggroup (setting*)>
  <!ATTLIST settinggroup name CDATA #REQUIRED>
  <!ATTLIST settinggroup internalname CDATA #REQUIRED>
  <!ELEMENT setting EMPTY>
    <!ATTLIST setting name CDATA #REQUIRED>
    <!ATTLIST setting internalname CDATA #REQUIRED>
    <!ATTLIST setting type (text|select|htmledit) #REQUIRED>
    <!ATTLIST setting selectoptions CDATA #REQUIRED>
    <!ATTLIST setting description CDATA #REQUIRED>
    <!ATTLIST setting upgrade (flagged|acknowledged|none) "none">
    <!ATTLIST setting setoninstall (true|false) "false">
<!ELEMENT settingpage EMPTY>
  <!ATTLIST settingpage name CDATA #REQUIRED>
  <!ATTLIST settingpage internalname CDATA #REQUIRED>
  <!ATTLIST settingpage hardcoded CDATA #REQUIRED>

Messy sample for validation purposes (I'll be deleting this from the page soon): 

<?xml version="1.0"?>
<!DOCTYPE moodleadmin [
<!ELEMENT moodleadmin (category|settinggroup|settingpage)*>
<!ELEMENT category (category|settinggroup|settingpage)*>
  <!ATTLIST category name CDATA #REQUIRED>
  <!ATTLIST category internalname CDATA #REQUIRED>
<!ELEMENT settinggroup (setting*)>
  <!ATTLIST settinggroup name CDATA #REQUIRED>
  <!ATTLIST settinggroup internalname CDATA #REQUIRED>
  <!ELEMENT setting EMPTY>
    <!ATTLIST setting name CDATA #REQUIRED>
    <!ATTLIST setting internalname CDATA #REQUIRED>
    <!ATTLIST setting type (text|select|htmledit) #REQUIRED>
    <!ATTLIST setting selectoptions CDATA #REQUIRED>
    <!ATTLIST setting description CDATA #REQUIRED>
    <!ATTLIST setting upgrade (flagged|acknowledged|none) "none">
    <!ATTLIST setting setoninstall (true|false) "false">
<!ELEMENT settingpage EMPTY>
  <!ATTLIST settingpage name CDATA #REQUIRED>
  <!ATTLIST settingpage internalname CDATA #REQUIRED>
  <!ATTLIST settingpage hardcoded CDATA #REQUIRED>
]>
<moodleadmin>
  <category name="foo" internalname="bar">
    <category name="bar" internalname="foo">
      <settinggroup name="jal" internalname="jal">
        <setting name="blah" internalname="blah" type="select" selectoptions="One=1,Two=2,Three=3" description="whatever" />
      </settinggroup>
    </category>
    <settingpage name="jr" internalname="jr" hardcoded="blah.php" />
  </category>
</moodleadmin>

Random Ideas

  • I mentioned (in my proposal) using XML to store the hierarchy. I still think this is ideal (after all, XML seems to lend itself to hierarchical data), but I think there are a few ways to expand this. Notably, along with the settings, we can store
  1. whether a setting should appear on the initial (installation) config page (granted, this'll require a rewrite or modification of the initial config page)
  2. if a new setting has been set to the default because of an upgrade, then we can have a config page that appears when upgrading which shows only the flagged, new variables (i.e. those that were set to defaults)
  • Site settings and editor settings could be grouped together (but I won't jumble up settings between the two of them; they'll just have the same parent in the hierarchy).
  • Logs and Site Files sections look good as-is... probably won't make very many changes there
  • Will try to improve on course administration interface (ideas to come soon)
  • (Sort of) redo the user management interface so that we can get rid of the "Assign Teachers", "Assign Admins", etc. options on the main admin page (i.e. have a single link to a "User Management Interface" and do everything else from there.
  • Group Modules, Filters, and Blocks under a top-level category called Plug-Ins (similar to the way it's done on moodle.org)
  • Will probably use the PHP SimpleXML extension for reading XML files; variable data will be stored in current locations, not in XML, thus no XML changes will be made by PHP

Random Questions

  • There are no settings for specific filters? They're only active or inactive?
  • When it comes to the hierarchical menu, I mentioned JavaScript-based... custom-written or is there already some sort of open source framework for collapsible JavaScript hierarchies?
  • Anyone mind if I rewrite the user management pages? I'm thinking a single interface to do everything with regards to users. (details soon to be posted at Student projects/Admin page cleanup/User management interface)
  • XML Schema or DTD?
  • Are there changes to the admin section between the MOODLE_15_STABLE and MOODLE_16 interface? Which should I be working with primarily?

Links

  • Get back to the Student Projects listing.
  • You can get my official SoC app here.
  • My sample moodle setup (for fooling around & such) is here.
Retrieved from "https://docs.moodle.org/19/en/index.php?title=Student_projects/Admin_page_cleanup&oldid=12045"
Powered by MediaWiki