Site policies

• The site policies screen contains a number of options which may be enabled or disabled globally on your Moodle for the security and smooth running of your site:

Protect usernames

With this enabled, when people click on the "Forgotten your username or password?" link, no hints will be given that might allow people to guess usernames or email addresses.

Force users to login

If you turn this setting on, all users must login before they even see the Front Page of the site.

Force users to login for profiles

Leave this set to Yes to keep anonymous visitors away from user profiles.

Open to Google

Enabling this setting allows Google's search spiders guest access to your site. Any part of the site that allows guest access will then be searchable on Google. In addition, people coming in to your site via a Google search will automatically be logged in as a guest.

Profile visible roles

Any role which is checked/ticked here will be visible on user profiles and the Participation screen.

Maximum uploaded file size

Probably the most frequently asked question in the Moodle.org Using Moodle forums is "How do I increase the upload file size limit?"

Upload file sizes are restricted in a number of ways - each one in this list restricts the following ones:

1. The Apache server setting LimitRequestBody ... default in Apache 2.x or greater is set to 0 or an unlimited upload size

2. The PHP site settings post_max_size and upload_max_filesize in php.ini : modify php.ini in web server directories ( apache2.x.x/bin/php.ini ) not in php directories :

post_max_size = 128M;  to increase limit to 128 Megabytes;
upload_max_filesize = 128M;  to increase limit to 128 Megabytes;
max_execution_time = 600 ; Maximum execution time of each script, in seconds;

3. The Moodle site-wide maximum uploaded file size setting: Settings > Site administration > Security > Site policies > Maximum uploaded file size.

4. The Moodle course maximum uploaded file size setting in the course default settings: Settings > Site administration > Courses > Course default settings

5. The file size settings in each individual course in Course Administration>Settings.

5. Certain course activity module settings (for example, Assignment)

User quota

The maximum number of bytes that a user can store in their own private files area.

Enable HTML Purifier

This is an alternative way of "cleaning" untrusted text but it is more resource intensive. With this enabled, embed and object tags will not work and MathML tags and old lang tags are not supported.

Allow EMBED and OBJECT tags

Allowing these presents a security risk but if you wish normal users such as students to be able to use them then check the box here.

Enable trusted content

By default Moodle will always thoroughly clean text that comes from users to remove any possible bad scripts, media etc that could be a security risk. The Trusted Content system is a way of giving particular users that you trust the ability to include these advanced features in their content without interference. To enable this system, you need to first enable this setting, and then grant the Trusted Content permission to a specific Moodle role. Texts created or uploaded by such users will be marked as trusted and will not be cleaned before display. Please refer to Development:Trusttext cleaning bypass for further information.

Maximum time to edit posts

This sets the editing time for forum postings. The editing time is the amount of time users have to change forum postings before they are mailed to subscribers.

Please refer to the forum discussions Editing a forum post after the 30 minutes deadline and The philosophy underlying "no editing after 30 minutes"

Allow extended characters in usernames

The default here, unchecked = unenabled, can only contain alphabetical letters in lowercase, numbers, hypen '-', underscore '_', period '.', or at sign '@'. If you enable this, it will be possible to have any characters for the username.

Site policy URL

• If you have a site policy that all users must see and agree to before using this site, then specify the URL to it here, otherwise leave this field blank. The URL can point to any type of file anywhere online that can be accessed without a log in to your Moodle.

• It is recommended that the site policy is on the same domain as Moodle to avoid the problem of Internet Explorer users seeing a blank screen when the site policy is on a different domain.

Site policy URL for guests

This is similar to the Site policy URL as above but will be seen by those to whom you give guest access.

Keep tag name casing

If checked, then tags like the following will be displayed: SOCCER, gUiTaR, MacDonalds, music

If unchecked, then all tags will be displayed as follows: Soccer, Guitar, Macdonalds, Music

Tips:

• For English, off is useful.
• For Japanese, no changes are made either way.
• For languages where this kind of capitalization changes the meaning, it is best to keep this option on.

Profiles for enrolled users only

To prevent misuse by spammers, profile descriptions of users who are not yet enrolled in any course are hidden. New users must enrol in at least one course before they can add a profile description.

Cron execution via command line only

Cron is an action that runs various administrative jobs on your Moodle such as sending out forum posts. Normally Cron can be run by typing www.YOURMOODLE.com/admin/cron.php but as anyone logged in can do this, if you wish to prevent it, then check this box and only a admin can run Cron from the command line.

Cron password for remote access

Setting a password here will mean that users can only run cron from the browser if they know the password and add it like this: www.YOURMOODLE.com/admin/cron.php/?password=THEPASSWORDYOUSET

Password policy

A password policy may be set up, ensuring users choose passwords of a certain length etc.

Group enrolment key policy

If this is enabled then when a teacher sets a group enrolment key, they will have to set a key which follows the password policy set above.

Disable user profile images

Check/tick this box if you don't want your users to be able to change their profile images

Email change confirmation

A confirmation step is required for users to change their email address unless the emailchangeconfirmation box is unchecked.