Note:

If you want to create a new page for developers, you should create it on the Moodle Developer Resource site.

MNet

From MoodleDocs
(Redirected from Moodle Network)

Moodle1.8


Random notes for Moodle networking (MNet). Should get these organised...

Key config variables and functions

    // what mnethostid should "local" users have?
    // this is guaranteed to be set, except during the 1.7->1.8 upgrade
    $id = $CFG->mnet_localhost_id; 
    
    // a quick way to check if our user is remote:
    is_mnet_remote_user($user); 
    // internally is_mnet_remote_user() does
    // if ($user->mnethostid != $CFG->mnet_localhost_id)
    // Are we listening to mnet requests? Nothing else works if we aren't.
    if ($CFG->mnet_dispatcher_mode === 'strict') {
        // Moodle is listening to mnet requests. Nothing else works if we aren't.
    }
    // Are we allowing remote users in via auth/mnet?
    if (is_enabled_auth('mnet')) {
         // yes indeed
    }
    // Will auth/mnet autocreate new user accts?
    if (get_config('auth/mnet', 'auto_add_remote_users')) {
        // yes it will!
    }

I have never seen a config variable name like 'auth/mnet'. Everywhere else we use 'auth_mnet' style names. And increasingly we are trying to move stuff that can be moved to config_plugins instead of the main $CFG.

Protocols

MNET handshake

Authentication/SSO

Enrolment

To Do

Some immediate items that would add polish without major surgery

  • Exchange more enrolment info at log-entry exchange time on cron
  • Special default role
    • Add a new "remote student" role
    • Add a config var to enrol/mnet: "defaultremoterole" to use "remote student"
    • Add a config var to the courses table to optionally override defaultremoterole
  • Nicer CSS in the "my courses" listing in moodle homepage for remote hosts and remote courses. See course/lib.php print_remote_course() and print_remote_host().

Roadmap

A bit more work, and a whole lot more features. From easy to hard...

  • Better per-host stats and log views for administrators. This is relatively easy using data we already have.
  • In mod/forum craft a special URL for remote users so that the post URL is in the wantsurl parameter, so they can bounce-off their IDP in one go.
    • According to Jonathan Harker, this requires that we modify jump to accept the remote wwwroot as a parameter. Also: will this be safe enough?
  • Display aggregated calendar on the IDP
  • Exchange grades. Needs a bit of design.
  • Build a SCORM/IMSCP/MoodleZip repository scheme.
maybe: the suggested MoodleCORE scheme ?
    • MartinL has some ideas on how to get this done in easy and super-scalable.