Student projects/Admin page cleanup: Difference between revisions

Revision as of 03:10, 23 June 2006

Apologies for the mess on this page. I'll sort it out soon.

Right now, I'm trying to work on a more "logical" reorganization of the settings accessible via the admin page and simultaneously coding the PHP for the hierarchy (as a block) and for processing the XML file. 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 (as a block that replaces the current admin block)
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)

This'll be updated soon. I'm working with 1.6 now.

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="php_code_must_return_string" 
            auth="php_code_must_return_boolean">
    <settinggroup name="php_code_must_return_string" 
                  auth="php_code_that_must_return_boolean">
      <setting name="php_code_must_return_string" 
               type="(text|select|htmledit|checkbox)" 
               selectoptions="option1,option2,option3" 
               description="php_code_must_return_string" 
               setoninstall="(true|false)" 
               writeproc="php_code_must_return_boolean"
               readproc="php_code_must_return_string" />
    </settinggroup>
    <settingpage name="php_code_must_return_string" 
                 hardcoded="filename.php" 
                 auth="php_code_must_return_boolean" />
  </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 auth CDATA #REQUIRED>
<!ELEMENT settinggroup (setting*)>
  <!ATTLIST settinggroup name CDATA #REQUIRED>
  <!ATTLIST settinggroup auth CDATA #REQUIRED>
  <!ELEMENT setting EMPTY>
    <!ATTLIST setting name CDATA #REQUIRED>
    <!ATTLIST setting type (text|select|htmledit|checkbox) #REQUIRED>
    <!ATTLIST setting selectoptions CDATA #IMPLIED>
    <!ATTLIST setting description CDATA #REQUIRED>
    <!ATTLIST setting setoninstall (true|false) "false">
    <!ATTLIST setting writeproc CDATA #REQUIRED>
    <!ATTLIST setting readproc CDATA #REQUIRED>
<!ELEMENT settingpage EMPTY>
  <!ATTLIST settingpage name CDATA #REQUIRED>
  <!ATTLIST settingpage auth CDATA #REQUIRED>
  <!ATTLIST settingpage hardcoded CDATA #REQUIRED>

Regarding the ideas that Martin & I had thrown around about flagging settings added during an upgrade, I think we could very easily do this through a second XML file (following the same DTD format) called, say, "upgrade.xml". This file will be created/modified on upgrades and list only those variables that were added. Then, it's a simple matter of a PHP frontend to let the admin modify all the settings affected by the upgrade.

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

whether a setting should appear on the initial (installation) config page (granted, this'll require a rewrite or modification of the initial config page)
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 (and other 16 types of plugins) 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? A: There can be, just none have any yet.
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? A: Settled -- I've already custom-written a JS hierarchy
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? A: Yup, use MOODLE_16.

Block Code

Here's the current code for the new block. This is pre-alpha stage, it doesn't fully work yet.

Links

Get back to the Student Projects listing.
You can get my official SoC app here.
My sample moodle setups are here for 1.5 and here for 1.6.
A beta hierarchy script (actually, a PHP hierarchy object) that I created for this is available here.
Useful link for me to learn about module programming.

Documentation