This page collects recommendations for authoring SCORM packages targetting Moodle.

:::If you add a recommendation that makes things work with Moodle, but are known to break with another LMS, it is worthwhile to note the incompatibility. While this page is mainly for content targeting Moodle, many authors care about creating portable SCORM packages.

== General authoring notes ==

== Tools ==

Brief list of tools we've had successes with, and tools people have had trouble with (and what kind of trouble)...

=== Captivate ===

Add here: options to use, types of content to avoid, tricks to take advantage of, bugs, gotchas...

=== Courselab ===

CourseLab version 2.4 has a few bugs. First is with audio. Sometimes (for some reason not known to CourseLab) the audio will restart, creating an echo effect. You will need to un-check the "autostart" mark of the Video object (vidoe object is used to insert audio too)and then define an action on some event that fits the case (for example on the slide's afterdisplay event) choose METHOD (yourvideoobject, PLAY. this will play the audio after the slide is displayed.

Another issue is with FireFox browsers displaying graphics with CourseLab. It is stated in user's manual that some objects utilize Explorer-specific features and author should avoid using them, if he wants to use the course in multi-browser environment. These are: Gradient Box and all AutoShapes. AutoShapes are VML-objects and VML (Vector Markup Language) is not supported by FireFox. SVG (Scalable Vector Graphics - another vector format) could be the good alternative, but there are still problems with displaying inline SVG-objects in both Gecko-family and IE. (from CourseLab Support)

If these FireFox/Image display problems are not an issue then be sure to install the latest browser plug-ins.

=== ToolBook ===

[Moodle 1.9 / ToolBook Instructor 9.01] Tracking and bookmarking work well. The content should be exported using the SCORM 1.2 option; AICC and SCORM 2004 do not seem to work properly. Scoring works and is viewable within the tracking details, but does not transfer correctly into the Gradebook.

[[Category:SCORM]]

2008-02-04T02:23:00Z

Martinlanghoff:

WebDAV access allows users which can edit course files to do so from a convenient WebDAV "Web Folder"/Mountpoint which acts like a local drive.

To set up WebDAV access in your Moodle installation:

* In Admin->Server->WebDAV Set webdavenable to Yes.
* The 'moodle/site:webdav' capability controls who can connect - by defauly the "Course Creator" role has it. Assign the role at the system level for users to be able to connect.
* If you want to restrict WebDAVaccess so it is only possible from the local LAN, use the webdavsubnet setting.

(This feature will be available after v1.9)

[[Category: Administrator]]

WebDAV Setup

2008-02-04T02:22:39Z

Martinlanghoff:

WebDAV access allows users which can edit course files to do so from a convenient WebDAV "Web Folder"/Mountpoint which acts like a local drive.

To set up WebDAV access in your Moodle installation:

* In Admin->Server->WebDAV Set webdavenable to Yes.
* The 'moodle/site:webdav' capability controls who can connect - by defauly the "Course Creator" role has it. Assign the role at the system level for users to be able to connect.
* If you want to restrict WebDAVaccess so it is only possible from the local LAN, use the webdavsubnet setting.

(This feature will be available after v1.9)

[[Category: Administrator]]

WebDAV Connect

2008-02-04T02:09:04Z

Martinlanghoff:

WebDAV Connect

2008-02-04T01:50:37Z

Martinlanghoff:

How to connect your course files directories using WebDAV/

WebDAV Setup

2008-02-04T01:49:21Z

Martinlanghoff:

Document setup for administrators

Development:Overview

2008-01-22T02:33:35Z

Martinlanghoff: /* How can you become a Moodle developer? */

A lot of people ask how the development of Moodle operates. This page should give you a working overview that should help in understanding a lot of other developer documentation.

(This page is under early construction, your help in linking to other pages from here would be welcome!)

==The key players==

;Martin Dougiamas: Martin is the lead developer of Moodle. Generally he tries to facilitate democracy and meritocracy but occasionally has to make executive decisions on things.

;Moodle HQ: The mostly-Australian team of developers who are directly funded by the Moodle project to work full-time on core developments. Developers include Martin Dougiamas (moodler), Yu Zhang (lazyfish), Petr Skoda (skodak), Nicolas Connault, Helen Foster (wildgirl) and occasionally Eloy Lafuente (stronk7), Jamie Pratt (jamiesensei).

;Catalyst: The team of developers working for Moodle clients via Catalyst Ltd in New Zealand, resulting in a lot of core development. Developers include Martin Langhoff, Penny Leach (mjollnir), Matt Clarkson, and Donal McMullan.

;Open University: The team of developers working on Moodle implementations at Open University in the UK. Developers include Tim Hunt, Sam Marshall, Nick Freear, Thanh Le and Jenny Gray.

There are many other people contributing to Moodle in many ways, these are just the main groups currently working on core development.

==Moodle versions==

Moodle major releases occur roughly 6 months or more apart, on no fixed schedule. Each major release increments the version number by 0.1. Minor releases (no new features, just fixes) on each stable branch can occur at any time, whenever enough bug fixes have been made to justify them. The full details can be seen in the [[Release notes]].

The current development version is always on the trunk of CVS (i.e. HEAD), while stable branches are split off for every major version (e.g. MOODLE_18_STABLE).

==Release cycles==

Generally a cycle works like this:
;Rapid Development:Long period of several months adding code to the HEAD version of Moodle. At the same time, all fixes that don't involve database changes or radical core changes are backported to the last two or three stable branches.
;Head Freeze:At some point Martin Dougiamas declares a freeze on new work for a while to stabilise the core. All database changes and all major core changes need to have explicit permission from Martin. All developers should be wrapping up work on new features and fixing bugs in new code. This period may be 1 or 2 weeks.
;Beta period:Once the HEAD version becomes fairly stable, Martin declares a BETA version and this point is marked on HEAD as MOODLE_XX_BETA (e.g. MOODLE_19_BETA). Install packages are generated daily from the latest version for wider testing and feedback via the tracker. The freeze continues, testing and bug fixing continues. This testing period may be anywhere from 2 to 6 weeks.
;Major release:When the core code passes all the testing we can throw at it, the MOODLE_XX_BETA flag is moved up to mark the current point as a branch point, and a new stable branch named MOODLE_XX_STABLE is created. Packages are created, and the release is announced.

Then it all starts again!

==Quality control==

Issue tracking is an important part of a continuous quality control process. It involves reporting of problems (bugs), ideas for improvement and new features. Unlike most proprietary software programs, Moodle issue reporting and tracking information is open to everyone. Moodle's issue tracking system is called the [[Tracker]].

All Moodle users are encouraged to be active participants when it comes to testing. Anyone with a Tracker user account can create, view, comment on, vote, and watch bugs.

===Testers===

Testers are responsible for verifying the accuracy of changes made by developers. Testers choose which bugs they want to test, according to their area of expertise, and use the QA Assignee field to identify themselves as the tester.

If the bug passes testing, then the tester changes the status of the bug from 'resolved' to 'closed'. If the bug fails testing, or if the fix is incomplete, then the tester reopens the bug.

A Moodle release will be deemed ready when all "blocker" bugs fixed for a particular version have been closed.

==Coding Standards==

The full [[Coding|Coding Guide]] gives all the details, but here are some of the major things your code needs to hit:

===XMLDB===

All our database schema are created using the XML ''install.php'' files, and upgraded using database-agnostic commands in ''upgrade.php'' files. Any version of any part of Moodle can be smoothly upgraded to any later version in this fashion (on a wide variety of supported databases).

===XHTML===

All output from Moodle must be compliant with XHTML Strict 1.0, and also compliant with all common accessibility guidelines (such as W3C WAG).

===Forms===

All forms should use the Moodleforms library if possible. This results in a standardised accessible output that designers can style consistently and well.

===Parameters===

All parameters should be checked using require_param() and optional_param() which will safely clean all incoming data for use and provide defaults to your code. Moodleforms will do this automatically for you.

===Output===

All textual output should be output using the format_text or format_string functions. This will ensure that text is cleaned and filtered appropriately.

===Access===

All permissions-checking should use the "Access library" to check against current capabilities. The most common function you'll use is has_capability() which checks the permissions of the current user in an efficient way to see if they are allowed to do this specific operation. Do not check for specific roles in your code (e.g. teacher/student) as that will make your code useless.

===Other core libraries===

The other major libraries you should get familiar with are:
# ''moodlelib.php'' - a useful bin of all kinds of useful functions and constants
# ''datalib.php'' - all the functions you need to interface with the database
# ''weblib.php'' - all the functions you'll need to create and output XHTML

===Plugins===

Moodle has about 22 different types of plugins last time I counted. Plugins can generally be self-contained in a single directory containing scripts, images, stylesheets and language files all in one package that can be dropped into the Moodle script directory in the right place. After that the admin just needs to visit the admin page to install them.

Most plugins work in one of two ways, they either provide a ''lib.php'' filled with common functions and some scripts with standard names, or they subclass a proto-plugin and override a few method functions to achieve their goals.

The best way to learn is to pick an example from the core code that is similar to what you want to do and start playing with it. There are also some template plugins to help get you started.

==Development processes==
Not all Moodle development happens exactly like this, but it really should. :-)

===Major Development===
A major development is a significant piece of new code, adding new functionality to Moodle.

====Make sure it's a good idea====
Firstly, you should look at the roadmap and talk the idea over with some Moodle developers to see if someone else is working on it already and whether others think the general idea has merit. Use the forums if you wish, or whatever means you have. If you have a client, you may need to work with them to work out what they REALLY want (perhaps it isn't actually a new development for Moodle).

====Create a specification in Moodle Docs====
Start a new page in the Moodle Docs wiki, similar to [[Development:Grades]]. Your page should outline the database table design, the GUI, the hows and whys etc. Include as much detail as you need (even mock screenshots) but try to keep it clear and logically organised.

====Seek and absorb community feedback====
Post about the new page in the appropriate forums on [http://moodle.org/course/view.php?id=5 Using Moodle] to help draw attention to it and to stimulate some discussion around your development. The more feedback you have the better, especially if it includes a wide variety of users (developers, teachers, students etc).

Edit your page in response to the feedback, or invite people to do so themselves. try to evolve the specification into something that all users are happy with. Sometimes it's worth working harder to find the "best" way to do something without adding Yet Another Option.

====Set up tasks in the Moodle Tracker====
Once the specification has settled down, it's time to start work. Create a new task for yourself in the Moodle Tracker, and add sub-tasks in roughly chronological order for all the different parts of the job. This not only helps you keep track of where you are, but allows the community to "watch you" develop and to help you where they can. If there are different people working on different parts, you can assign subtasks to different people. It's really very convenient to use once you get the hang of it.

====Use CVS and link commits to Tracker====
If possible, develop the code in an open code repository (and preferably Moodle CVS!). If you need CVS write access to the core code or the contrib repository, contact support@moodle.com with details. Gaining access to the main core code is quite difficult, but we are generally very free with access to the contrib area.

Every time you make a commit, include a detailed message about the new code and always include a Moodle Tracker bug number (e.g. MDL-7777). This will ensure that the Moodle Tracker is able to detect your commit and attach it to the relevant bug report.

====Comment on milestones in forums and tracker====
If you hit a major milestone, or want testers to try something, feel free to post about it in the relevant forum on Using Moodle. The more people you can attract to look and try out your code the better it will be, trust me.

====Respond to bug reports====
Of course you need to listen to your users (well, most of them :-)). Encourage people to file bugs, and fix them. If you need help setting up a project category in the Tracker contact support@moodle.com. This will ensure that all your bugs are easy to find and to track.

===Minor Development===

For smaller modules, fixes, improvements and other issues.

====Create a new issue in the tracker====

You should definitely create an issue in the tracker to describe your development and to act as a focus point for all discussion. You can reference the bug number from forum discussions and in commit messages etc. This way everyone can easily find out exactly what they are talking about.

====Attach a patch====

If you have some code, please attach it to the tracker issue, or if it's on your own site then link to it from the tracker issue. Don't attach code in the Moodle forums ... it will "rot" quickly there and just clogs up moodle.org with useless old code.

====Promote the patch====

By all means draw attention to your work in the Moodle forums (mentioning the bug number) or email developers directly to help make them aware of it. You can also add developers as "watchers" to the tracker issue if you want, this means they will get email for every change on the issue.

==See also==

* [[Development:Finding your way into the Moodle code]]
* [[Development:Working with the Community]]

[[Category:Developer|Overview]]

Managing roles

2008-01-21T20:31:38Z

Martinlanghoff: /* Testing a new role */

{{Roles}}
Location: ''Administration > Users > Permissions > Define roles''

The define roles page has three tabs, for managing roles, [[Allow role assignments|allowing role assignments]] and [[Allow role overrides|allowing role overrides]].

The manage roles tab contains a list of roles on your site. The edit column contains icons for editing and deleting roles, and for moving them up or down in the list (affecting the way that roles are listed around Moodle).

==Predefined roles==
Moodle comes with 7 predefined roles:
*[[Assign administrators|Administrator]]
*[[Course creator]]
*[[Teacher]]
*[[Teacher#Non-editing teacher| Non-editing teacher]]
*[[Student]]
*[[Guest access|Guest]]
*[[Authenticated user]] (from 1.8 onwards)

==Editing a role==
[[Image:manage roles.png|thumb|Managing roles]]
To edit a role:
#Click on Permissions in the Site Administration block, then Define roles.
#Click the edit icon opposite the role you want to edit e.g. student.
#On the edit role page, change permissions as required.
#Scroll to the bottom of the page and click the "Save changes" button.

==Adding a new role==

To add a new role:
#Click on Permissions in the Site Administration block, then Define roles.
#Click the "Add a new role" button.
#On the add a new role page, give the role a name. If you need to name the role for multiple languages you can use [[Multi language content|multi-lang syntax]] if you wish, such as <code><nowiki>Teacher Profesor</nowiki></code>. If multi-lang syntax is used then ''Filter all strings'' should be set in [[Filter settings]].
#Give the role a meaningful short name. The short name is necessary for other plugins in Moodle that may need to refer to the role (e.g. when uploading users from a file or setting enrolments via an enrolment plugin).
#Give the role a description (optional).
#Set permissions as required.
#Scroll to the bottom of the page and click the "Add a new role" button.

==Creating a duplicate role==
{{Moodle 1.8}}In Moodle 1.8 onwards, a new role may be quickly created by making a copy of an existing role.

To create a duplicate role:
#Click on Permissions in the Site Administration block, then Define roles.
#Click on the role to be duplicated, for example "Guest".
#Click the "Duplicate role" button near the top of the "View role details" page.
#Answer Yes to the question "Are you sure you want to duplicate the role ...?"
#The list of roles will now show the "... copy 1" at the bottom, for example "Guest copy 1".
#Edit the duplicated role to meet your needs.

==Legacy role types==

* Legacy role types were implemented for backward compatibility.
* Selecting a legacy role type in 1.8 (or allowing a legacy capability in 1.7) does NOT provide a new role with all capabilities of a pre-Moodle 1.7 role.
*It is recommended that a legacy role type is selected only for roles that are similar to pre-Moodle 1.7 student/teacher/admin/creator roles.
* It is not necessary to select a legacy role type unless using old 3rd party code that was not designed for Moodle 1.7 and doesn't yet support roles.

==New role considerations==

A newly created or copied role does not have the ability to override or assign any other roles. You should consider if you need to allow the role such rights.

New roles will not by default be listed in course descriptions (even if copied from a role that already is, such as the [[Teacher]] role). This is set via ''Administration > Appearance > [[Course managers]]''.

==Testing a new role==

To test a new role:
#Create test user and assign new role to them.
#Either logout as admin and then login as test user or use a different browser to login as test user.

Alternatively, use Switch roles to test the new role. This will only work with Moodle 1.9 and newer, and is only useful with course-scoped capabilities (ie: it will not be usable to test 'moodle/user:edit').

Note: In Moodle 1.7.x and 1.8.x role changes only take effect after the next login from that user, so new roles may not be tested using the "Switch role to..." feature.

==Example roles==

*[[Inspector role|Inspector]] - for providing external inspectors with permission to view all courses (without being required to enrol)
*[[Parent role|Parent]] - for providing parents/mentors/tutors with permission to view certain information about their children/mentees/tutees
*[[Demo teacher role|Demo teacher]] - for providing a demonstration teacher account with a password which can't be changed
*[[Forum moderator role]] - for providing a user with permission in a particular forum to edit or delete forum posts, split discussions and move discussions to other forums
*[[Keyholder role]] - for setting the person named as holding a course [[Enrolment key|enrolment key]]
*[[Calendar editor role]] - for enabling a user to add site events to the calendar.

==See also==

*Using Moodle [http://moodle.org/mod/forum/discuss.php?d=66782 What happens if a user has multiple roles in a course?] forum discussion

[[Category:Administrator]]
[[Category:Roles]]

[[es:Gestionar_roles]]
[[fr:Définir les rôles]]
[[ja:ロールの管理]]

Roles FAQ

2008-01-21T20:26:57Z

Martinlanghoff: /* Why isn't my role change taking effect? */

{{Roles}}

==What is the definition of a...==

;Role
:An identifier of the user's status in some context, for example Teacher, Student and Forum moderator
;Capability
:A description of a particular Moodle feature, for example [[Capabilities/moodle/blog:create|moodle/blog:create]]
;Permission
:A setting for a capability - inherit, allow, prevent or prohibit
;Context
:A "space" in Moodle, such as courses, activity modules or blocks

==Why isn't my role change taking effect?==

In Moodle 1.9 and newer role changes are immediate; in Moodle 1.7.x and 1.8.x role they are not, and will take effect after the next login from that user. Regarding testing new roles, please refer to the information in [[Manage roles]].

Also, please check the context in which the role is assigned. Certain capabilities e.g. [[Capabilities/moodle/user:update|moodle/user:update]] may only be applied in the system context, so assigning a role in the course context will result in the role change not taking effect.

==Why are participants being added automatically when a new course is created?==

If a user is assigned a global role or a role in the course category context then the user has this role in ALL courses in that context. Thus users who are students or teachers at the category level appear as course participants in all courses in that category.

Please check ''Administration > Users > Permissions > Assign global roles'' and also the Assign roles link in course categories page and unassign users as necessary.

==Why are all students enrolled in all courses?==

Either
*Users are assigned the role of student in the site/system context rather than the course context (see FAQ above)
Or
*The default role for all users in ''Administration > Users > Permissions > User policies'' is set to Student rather than Authenticated user (Moodle 1.8 onwards).

==Why are there differences in the users listed as course participants and users assigned roles in a course?==

Users assigned roles in a higher context, for example users assigned the role of teacher in a course category context, may appear as course participants. The discussion [http://moodle.org/mod/forum/discuss.php?d=59900 Discrepancies between Assign Roles lists and Participants list] contains a longer explanation.

==How can I prevent administrators being listed as course participants?==

Ensure that administrators are not assigned another role in addition to their admin role.

==Why are hidden assignments still visible?==

Hidden assignments are not hidden from admins or teachers i.e. users with the [[Capabilities/moodle/role:viewhiddenassigns|viewhiddenassigns capability]].

==Where are permissions inherited from?==

Permissions are inherited from a role assigned in a higher-level context which has permissions set to allow for particular capabilities. If permission is never allowed/not set in any context (in particular, if you are creating or editing a role at the site level), then a user will have no permission for that capability.

For example, the Student role has permission not set for the change site configuration capability. The permission is never allowed in any context so users assigned the role of Student cannot change the site configuration.

==What is a hierarchy of permissions?==

This determines which permission wins or is going to be in effect if there is an apparent conflict. For example, the site allows all students the permission to post in forums, but a teacher might prevent that right in a particular course. The hierarchy of permissions would allow a student to post in one course but not in another course.

==Are there any differences in Roles in Moodle 1.7 and 1.8?==

In addition to many Roles fixes and refinements (see the list of [http://tracker.moodle.org/secure/IssueNavigator.jspa?mode=hide&requestId=10221 Roles improvements] in the Tracker), in Moodle 1.8 the ''system'' context is separated from the ''site'' context.

The site context in Moodle 1.8 is the "front page course" and its activities. Roles may be assigned in the site context via ''Administration > Front Page > Front Page roles''.

A "Duplicate role" button has been added in Moodle 1.8, which makes creating new roles based on predefined roles much quicker.

==How do I change the name for "teacher" in the course description?==

Either
* Edit the role of Teacher via ''Administration > Users > Permissions > Define roles'' and rename it. The new name will apply site-wide.
Or
* Create a duplicate teacher role with an alternative name and assign users the duplicate teacher role as appropriate in the course context. In ''Administration > Appearance > Course manager'' select the alternative name for teacher that you wish to be displayed in the course description.
Or
* One more way to do it in 1.8 is to create new "dummy" roles (no capabilities) with those names and assign them to teachers along with the real roles. In the course manager settings you can choose which roles display on the front page under each course. (The feature request [http://tracker.moodle.org/browse/MDL-9182 Ability to assign or display custom title for role of person in course] contains this further method.)

{{Moodle 1.9}}From Moodle 1.9 onwards, names for different roles in a course may be changed in the [[Course settings|course settings]].

==How do I enable teachers to set role overrides?==

#Access ''Administration > Users > Permissions > Define roles''.
#Edit the teacher role and change the capability [[Capabilities/moodle/role:override|moodle/role:override]] to allow.
#Click the button "Save changes".
#Click the tab "Allow role overrides" (in ''Administration > Users > Permissions > Define roles'').
#Check the appropriate box to allow a teacher to override the student role.
#Click the button "Save changes".

==How do I enable teachers to assign other teachers in a course?==

This is disabled by default but it can be switched on by modifying the teacher's role. In ''Administration > Users > Permissions > Define roles'' select the "Allow role assignments" tab and tick the checkbox where Teacher and Teacher intersect.

==Why doesn't "Switch role to.." within a course seem to work properly for a Course Creator?==

This feature is intended for Teachers assigned at the course level. Users assigned at "higher" contexts should not expect reliable results from this function.

==Are there any example roles?==

Yes, as follows:

*[[Inspector role|Inspector]] - for providing external inspectors with permission to view all courses (without being required to enrol)
*[[Parent role|Parent]] - for providing parents/mentors/tutors with permission to view certain information about their children/mentees/tutees
*[[Demo teacher role|Demo teacher]] - for providing a demonstration teacher account with a password which can't be changed
*[[Forum moderator role]] - for providing a user with permission in a particular forum to edit or delete forum posts, split discussions and move discussions to other forums
*[[Keyholder role]] - for setting the person named as holding a course [[Enrolment key|enrolment key]]

==Logged-in users can't read the site news. What can I do?==

#Access ''Site Administration > Front Page > Front Page roles''
#Follow the "Override roles" link
#Click on "Authenticated User"
#Change the capability [[Capabilities/mod/forum:viewdiscussion|mod/forum:viewdiscussion]] to ''allow''
#Click the "Save changes" button at the bottom of the page

==How do I enable logged-in users to participate in front page activities?==

Either:
#Access ''Site Administration > Front Page > Front Page roles''
#Follow the "Override roles" link
#Click on "Authenticated User"
#Change capabilities to ''allow'' for all required activities e.g. record a choice, reply to posts
#Click the "Save changes" button at the bottom of the page

Note that for this to work, you need to make the default role for all users "authenticated user". This is the default for new versions of Moodle. In older versions, the default setting is guest, so if you have recently upgraded, you may have to change this setting. You can change the setting via ''Site Administration > Permissions > User Policies''.

Or:
#Access ''Site Administration > Front Page > Front Page roles''
#Click on Student
#Select all users in the potential users list, and use the left-facing arrow button to add them to the existing users list

{{Moodle 1.9}}Or, in Moodle 1.9 onwards:
#Access ''Site Administration > Front Page > Front Page settings''
#Set the default front page role to student.

[[Category:FAQ]]

[[es:FAQ_roles]]
[[fr:FAQ des rôles]]
[[ja:ロールFAQ]]
[[ru:FAQ по ролям]]

Development:Fast portable SQL

2008-01-14T20:44:52Z

Martinlanghoff: /* Portable examples */

This is a work in progress! We keep notes here of bits of SQL that we know that

* Work on all supported DBs (this is tricky!)
* Are scalable and fast

A key strategy for scalability is to ensure we do as much work as possible in the DB with minimal back-and-forth with PHP. Modern DB engines have very smart optimizers and if we play to their strenghts, can process millions of records in milliseconds. To hit those strenghts we want to reduce chattiness with the DB -- one "smart" SQL query (even if complex) is thousand of times better than a foreach loop in PHP that issues a thousand SQL queries. At least it will be more than a thousand times faster ;-)

=UPDATE with JOINs=

A good scalable way to update a lot of data is to combine the UPDATE with a SUBSELECT, to UPDATE the data directly from the DB itself. The rows never need to go back and forth to PHP, so this is extremely fast. The problem is that it is very hard to get it portable across DBs.

Problems

* Pg and MySQL disagree on the extended syntax of UPDATE with JOIN
* MySQL does not support to have the table being updated in a subselect (but it supports it as JOINed table with a different alias - Pg does not support this)

==Portable examples==

Fix a broken relation - this is roughly equivalent to a subselect with a LEFT OUTER JOIN:

UPDATE {$CFG->prefix}course
SET category = $defaultcategory
WHERE
NOT EXISTS (SELECT id FROM {$CFG->prefix}course_categories WHERE id={$CFG->prefix}course.category)
AND {$CFG->prefix}course.id != $SITEID

Delete chat_messages older than the (optional) keepdays setting in the related table chat. chat.keepdays the setting can be NULL or 0, both of which mean 'keep forever', so we have to be careful. This is somewhat clunky, but replaces hundreds of queries with 1. Notes...

* If the subselect returns NULL or 0 it won't satisfy '>0' - so we handle both cases in one check
* We substract $keepdays - 24 * 3600 ... if we add it we can sometimes exceed the boundaries of an int in PostgreSQL
* Could be improved to run the subselect only once
** Is there any DB that won't optimize this?
** How can we do this portably?
* The subselect works on MySQL because it does not refer to the table we are deleting from

$subselect = "SELECT c.keepdays
FROM {$CFG->prefix}chat c
WHERE c.id = {$CFG->prefix}chat_messages.chatid";
$sql = "DELETE
FROM {$CFG->prefix}chat_messages
WHERE ($subselect) > 0 AND timestamp < ( ".time()." -($subselect) * 24 * 3600)";

Development:Fast portable SQL

2008-01-14T05:41:02Z

Martinlanghoff: /* UPDATE with JOINs */

This is a work in progress! We keep notes here of bits of SQL that we know that

* Work on all supported DBs (this is tricky!)
* Are scalable and fast

A key strategy for scalability is to ensure we do as much work as possible in the DB with minimal back-and-forth with PHP. Modern DB engines have very smart optimizers and if we play to their strenghts, can process millions of records in milliseconds. To hit those strenghts we want to reduce chattiness with the DB -- one "smart" SQL query (even if complex) is thousand of times better than a foreach loop in PHP that issues a thousand SQL queries. At least it will be more than a thousand times faster ;-)

=UPDATE with JOINs=

A good scalable way to update a lot of data is to combine the UPDATE with a SUBSELECT, to UPDATE the data directly from the DB itself. The rows never need to go back and forth to PHP, so this is extremely fast. The problem is that it is very hard to get it portable across DBs.

Problems

* Pg and MySQL disagree on the extended syntax of UPDATE with JOIN
* MySQL does not support to have the table being updated in a subselect (but it supports it as JOINed table with a different alias - Pg does not support this)

==Portable examples==

Fix a broken relation - this is roughly equivalent to a subselect with a LEFT OUTER JOIN:

UPDATE {$CFG->prefix}course
SET category = $defaultcategory
WHERE
NOT EXISTS (SELECT id FROM {$CFG->prefix}course_categories WHERE id={$CFG->prefix}course.category)
AND mdl_course.id != $SITEID

Delete chat_messages older than the (optional) keepdays setting in the related table chat. chat.keepdays the setting can be NULL or 0, both of which mean 'keep forever', so we have to be careful. This is somewhat clunky, but replaces hundreds of queries with 1. Notes...

* If the subselect returns NULL or 0 it won't satisfy '>0' - so we handle both cases in one check
* We substract $keepdays - 24 * 3600 ... if we add it we can sometimes exceed the boundaries of an int in PostgreSQL
* Could be improved to run the subselect only once
** Is there any DB that won't optimize this?
** How can we do this portably?
* The subselect works on MySQL because it does not refer to the table we are deleting from

$keepdays = "SELECT c.keepdays
FROM {$CFG->prefix}chat c
WHERE c.id = {$CFG->prefix}chat_messages.chatid";
$sql = "DELETE
FROM {$CFG->prefix}chat_messages
WHERE ($subselect) > 0 AND timestamp < ( ".time()." -($subselect) * 24 * 3600)";

2007-09-19T04:07:53Z

Martinlanghoff: /* Capability-locality changes in v1.9 */

{{Moodle 1.7}}
'''Roles and permissions''' is in Moodle 1.7 onwards.

==Definitions==

A role is an identifier of the user's status in some context. For example: Teacher, Student and Forum moderator are examples of roles.

A capability is a description of some particular Moodle feature. Capabilities are associated with roles. For example, ''mod/forum:replypost'' is a capability.

A permission is some value that is assigned for a capability for a particular role. For example, allow or prevent.

A context is a "space" in the Moodle, such as courses, activity modules, blocks etc.

==The existing system==

In versions prior to v1.7, Moodle uses a fixed set of roles i.e. primary admin, admins, course creators, editing teachers, non-editing teachers, students, and guests. For each role, the capability or actions that they can perform are fixed. For example, the role student allows the user to submit an assignment, but doesn't allow the user to browse/edit other users' work. By using this setup we limit ourselves to a rather rigid set of capabilities for each role. If we want, say a particular student or group to be able to mark assignments in a particular course, we can't do that without giving these users teacher privileges.

==The new roles and capability system==

With v1.7 and greater, Moodle introduces a roles and capabilities system.

Role has two primary functions:
# define list of permissions - role definition is global for all contexts, but can be changed by local context overrides
# replace old course enrolments - role assignment in course context is simitar to the old enrolment process

The new system will allow authorized users to define an arbitrary number of roles (eg a teacher)

A role consists of a list of permissions for different possible actions within Moodle (eg delete discussions, add activities etc)

Roles can be applied to users in a context (eg assign Fred as a teacher in a particular course)

Here are the possible contexts, listed from the most general to the most specific.

#CONTEXT_SYSTEM -- the whole site
#CONTEXT_PERSONAL -- yourself
#CONTEXT_USER -- another user
#CONTEXT_COURSECAT -- a course category
#CONTEXT_COURSE -- a course
'''#CONTEXT_GROUP -- a group
#CONTEXT_MODULE -- an activity module
#CONTEXT_BLOCK -- a block

[[Image:Moodle-contexts-1.8.png|right|thumb|A diagram of the contexts in Moodle 1.8, based on the [[Talk:Roles_and_capabilities|text diagram by Martin Dougiamas]]. Click on the diagram to see a more detailed view of it.]]

An authorized user will be able to assign an arbitrary number of roles to each user in any context.

Capabilities can have the following permissions:

#CAP_INHERIT
#CAP_ALLOW
#CAP_PREVENT
#CAP_PROHIBIT

If no permission is defined, then the capability permission is inherited from a context that is more general than the current context. If we define different permission values for the same capability in different contexts, we say that we are overriding the capability in the more specific context.

Since the capabilities in each role could be different, there could be conflict in capabilities. This is resolved by enforcing the rule that the capability defined for a more specific context will win, unless a prohibit is encountered in a less specific context.

For example, Mark has a student role at course level, which allows him to write into a wiki. But Mark also got assigned a Visitor role at a module context level (for a particular wiki) which prevents him from writing to the wiki (read only). Therefore, for this particular wiki, Mark will not be able to write to the wiki since the more specific context wins.

If we set a PROHIBIT on a capability, it means that the capability cannot be overridden and will ALWAYS have a permission of prevent (deny). Prohibit always wins. For example, Jeff has a naughty student role that prohibits him from postings in any forums (for the whole site), but he's also assigned a facilitator role in "Science forum" in the course Science and Math 101. Since prohibit always wins, Jeff is unable to post in "Science forum".

Allow and prevent will cancel each other out if set for the same capability at the same context level. If this happens, we refer to the previous context level to determine the permission for the capability.

This may sound more complex than it really is in practice. The upshot is that the system can be flexible enough to allow pretty much any combination of permissions.

===Capability-locality changes in v1.9===

When resolving conflicts between "allow" and "prevent" in v1.7 and v1.8 the locality of the capability is taken into account, although with less weight than the locality of the role assignment. In v1.9 the process has been simplified, we consider locality of the role assignment when dealing with allow/prevent conflicts, but ignore where the capability has been defined (as long as it applies to the context).

For example - for the situation where there is

* two roles assigned to one user in a context (eg student role and teacher role)
* one override on one of those roles ( eg student role), at the same context

then

* '''1.7/1.8''' The override used to ''always'' win over the settings from the combined roles.

* '''1.9''' The override is combined with the student role first. and then the roles are combined. This is more logical, as the override is acting like a modification to the student role.

For more details, see [http://tracker.moodle.org/browse/MDL-11218 MDL-11218]

==Upgrading from 1.6==

A smooth upgrade will be provided with 1.7. The existing roles (admin, teacher, student, etc), and the existing capabilities will be automatically retained. This is done by creating default roles at site/course levels, and assigning the current users to these roles accordingly. The default roles will have default capabilities associated with them, mirroring what we have in 1.6. With no modifications, Moodle will operate exactly the same before and after the upgrade.

===Admins===

Admin users will be assigned the default legacy admin role in the system (site) context

===Course Creators===

Course Creators will be assigned the default legacy course creator role in the system (site) context

===Teachers===

Users who were teachers will be assigned the default legacy teacher role (or non-editing teacher role) in all courses they were teacher.

===Students===

Users who were students will be assigned the default student role in all courses they were student.

===Guests===

There will still be a single guest user with no default role at site level. For each course that allows guest access, the guest role will be assigned to the guest user for that course context. The guest control for the course will be modified from three to two options (guests always need to enter enrolment key - on/off). This setting is checked as now to force guests to enter key.

==Capabilities==

This will be a comprehensive list of capabilities (it's not complete yet). It is important that capability names are unique.

===Core-level Capabilities===

Moodle core capability names start with 'moodle/'. The next word indicates what type of core capability it is, and the last word is the actual capability itself. The capabilities for the Moodle core are defined in lib/db/access.php

#moodle/legacy:guest - legacy capabilities are used to transition existing users to the new roles system during the upgrade to Moodle 1.7
#moodle/legacy:student
#moodle/legacy:teacher
#moodle/legacy:editingteacher
#moodle/legacy:coursecreator
#moodle/legacy:admin
#moodle/site:doanything - special capability, meant for admins, if is set, overrides all other capability settings
#moodle/site:config - applicable in admin/index.php and config.php (might break down later) : 1)admin/config.php 2)admin/configure.php 3)blocks/admin/block_admin.php load_content_for_site()
#moodle/site:readallmessages - reads all messages and history
#moodle/site:approvecourse - approves a pending course
#moodle/site:manageblocks - adding/removing/editing blocks (site, course contexts only for now) : 1)_add_edit_controls moodleblock.class.php
#moodle/site:backup - can create a course backup : 1)course/category.php 2)block_admin.php
#moodle/site:restore - can restore into this context : 1)course/category.php 2)block_admin.php
#moodle/site:import - can import other courses into this context : 1)block_admin.php
#moodle/site:accessallgroups - able to access all groups irrespective of what group the user is in
#moodle/site:accessdb - directly accessing db (phpmyadmin)
#moodle/site:viewfullnames - able to see fullnames of other users
#moodle/site:viewparticipants - able to view participants
#moodle/site:viewreports - able to view site/course reports
#moodle/site:trustcontent - ability to use trusttext feature and bypass cleaning in specific areas
#moodle/site:uploadusers - ability to upload/update users from text file; moodle/role:assign capability is needed for course enrolling
#moodle/blog:view - read blogs (usable in system or course context)
#moodle/blog:create - write new blog posts (usable in system context only)
#moodle/blog:manageofficialtags - create/delete official blog tags that others can use (usable in system context only)
#moodle/blog:managepersonaltags - delete personal blog tags that others can use (usable in system context only) Note: users can always add own personal tags. This setting should be off for students by default.
#moodle/blog:manageentries - edit/delete all blog entries (usable in system context only)
#moodle/course:setcurrentsection - mark course section
#moodle/course:create - create courses : 1)course/edit.php 2)course/category.php 3)course/index.php
#moodle/course:delete - create courses : 1)course/category.php
#moodle/course:update - update course settings
#moodle/course:view - can use this to find participants
#moodle/course:viewparticipants - allows a user to view participant list
#moodle/course:viewscales - view scales (i.e. in a help window?) : 1)course/scales.php
#moodle/course:manageactivities - adding/removing/editing activities and resources (don't think it makes any sense to split these)
#moodle/course:managescales - add, delete, edit scales, move scales up and down : 1)blocks/block_admin.php 2)course/scales.php
#moodle/course:managegroups - managing groups, add, edit, delete : 1)course/groups.php 2)course/group.php
#moodle/course:managefiles - manage course files and folders
#moodle/course:managequestions - manage course questions
#moodle/course:managemetacourse - manage child courses in metacourse
#moodle/course:reset - able to reset the course
#moodle/course:useremail - Can use the enable/disable email stuff
#moodle/course:visibility - hide/show courses : 1)course/category.php
#moodle/course:viewhiddencourses - see hidden courses
#moodle/course:activityvisibility - hide/show activities within a course
#moodle/course:viewhiddenactivities - able to see activities that have been hidden
#moodle/course:sectionvisibility - hide/show sections
#moodle/course:viewhiddensections - view hidden sections
#moodle/course:viewcoursegrades - views all grades in course
#moodle/course:viewhiddenuserfields - view all hidden user fields
#moodle/course:managegrades - manages grades settings in course
#moodle/category:create - create category : 1)course/index.php
#moodle/category:delete - delete category : 1)course/index.php
#moodle/category:update - update category settings (sort and rename) this is currently an admin capability : 1)course/category.php
#moodle/category:visibility - hide/show categories : 1)course/index.php
#moodle/user:viewusergrades - view your own, or other user's grades (with specified context)
#moodle/user:create - create user : 1) user/edit.php
#moodle/user:delete - delete user : 1) admin/user.php
#moodle/user:readuserblogs - read blog entries
#moodle/user:update - update user settings : 1) user/edit.php
#moodle/user:viewdetails - view personally-identifying user details (e.g. name, photo).
#moodle/user:viewhiddendetails - view user details marked as "hidden"
#moodle/calendar:manageownentries - create/edit/delete
#moodle/calendar:manageentries - create/edit/delete
#moodle/role:assign - assign roles to users
#moodle/role:override - can override role capabilities (depending on context)
#moodle/role:manage - create/edit/delete roles, set capability permissions for each role
#moodle/role:unassignself - unassign yourself from your own roles
#moodle/role:viewhiddenassigns - view role assignments that have been marked as hidden
#moodle/question:import - imports questions (course level?) - Yes, question permissions currently need to be course-level.--[[User:Tim Hunt|Tim Hunt]]
#moodle/question:export - exports questions (course level?)
#moodle/question:managecateory - add/delete/edit question categories (course level?)
#moodle/question:manage - add/edit/delete a question (course level)

===User-level Capabilities===
# moodle/user:readuserposts -read individual user posts on profile page (parent?)
# moodle/user:readuserblogs -read individual user blogs on profile page (parent?)
# moodle/user:viewuseractivitiesreport-read individual activity report on profile page (parent?)
# moodle/user:editprofile - edit profile (normally used in CONTEXT_USERID and CONTEXT_SYSTEM)

===Module-level Capabilities===
The capabilities are cached into a database table when a module is installed or updated. Whenever the capability definitions are updated, the module version number should be bumped up so that the database table can be updated.

The naming convention for capabilities that are specific to modules and blocks is 'mod/mod_name:capability'. The part before the colon is the full path to the module in the Moodle code. The module capabilities are defined in mod/mod_name/db/access.php.

#Assignment
##mod/assignment:view- reading the assignment description
##mod/assignment:submit - turn assignment in
##mod/assignment:grade - grading, viewing of list of submitted assignments
#Chat
##mod/chat:chat - allows a user to participate in this chat
##mod/chat:readlog - allows a user to read past chat session logs
##mod/chat:deletelog - allows a user to delete past chat logs
#Choice
##mod/choice:choose - make a choice
##mod/choice:readresponses - read all responses
##mod/choice:deleteresponses - deletes all responses
##mod/choice:downloadresponses - download responses
#Database
##mod/data:viewentry - reads other people's entry
##mod/data:writeentry - add / edit and delete (own) entries
##mod/data:managetemplates - add, delete, edit fields and templates
##mod/data:manageentries - edit/delete all entries
##mod/data:comment - comment
##mod/data:managecomments - edit/delete all comments
##mod/data:rate - rate an entry
##mod/data:viewrating
##mod/data:approve - approves an entry
##mod/data:uploadentries - batch upload of entries
#Exercise
##mod/exercise:assess
#Forum
##mod/forum:viewdiscussion
##mod/forum:viewdiscussionsfromallgroups
##mod/forum:viewhiddentimedposts
##mod/forum:startdiscussion
##mod/forum:replypost
##mod/forum:viewrating
##mod/forum:viewanyrating
##mod/forum:rate
##mod/forum:createattachment
##mod/forum:deleteownpost
##mod/forum:deleteanypost
##mod/forum:splitdiscussions
##mod/forum:movediscussions
##mod/forum:editanypost
##mod/forum:viewqandawithoutposting
##mod/forum:viewsubscribers
##mod/forum:managesubscriptions
##mod/forum:throttlingapplies
#Glossary
##mod/glossary:write - add entries
##mod/glossary:manageentries - add, edit, delete entries
##mod/glossary:managecategories - create, delete, edit categories
##mod/glossary:comment - comment on an entry
##mod/glossary:managecomments - edit, delete comments
##mod/glossary:import - import glossaries
##mod/glossary:export - export glossaries
##mod/glossary:approve - approve glossaries
##mod/glossary:rate - rates glossary
##mod/glossary:viewrating - view ratings
#Hotpot
##mod/hotpot:attempt - attempt a hotpot
##mod/hotpot:viewreport - review and view reports
##mod/hotpot:grade - (grade? and) regrade
##mod/hotpot:deleteattempt - deletes attempts
#Label
##none
#Lams
##mod/lams:participate - original student
##mod/lams:manage - original teacher
#Lesson
##mod/lesson:edit - add and edit pages
##mod/lesson:manage - view student attempts
#Quiz
##mod/quiz:grade - comment, override grade, manual grade
##mod/quiz:preview - previews the quiz
##mod/quiz:viewreports - view quiz result reports
##mod/quiz:manage - add/delete/move (up or down) questions for a quiz
##mod/quiz:attempt - attempt the quiz--[[User:Tim Hunt|Tim Hunt]]
#Resource
#Scorm
##mod/scorm:viewgrades
#Survey
##mod/survey:download - downloads survery result
##mod/survey:participate - participate/ do survey
##mod/survey:readresponses - read all user's responese
#Wiki
##mod/wiki:participate - original student, meaning depends of type and course setting
##mod/wiki:manage - original teacher, manages assigned group; moodle/site:accessallgroups is needed to manage all groups
##(Waiting on new wiki)
#Workshop
##mod/workshop:participate - original student, allows user to submit and assess
##mod/workshop:manage - original teacher, user can manage others
##(Waiting on new Workshop)

===Enrolment-level Capabilities===

The naming convention for capabilities that are specific to enrolment is 'enrol/enrol_name:capability'. The enrolment capabilities are defined in enrol/enrol_name/db/access.php.

#Authorize.net Payment Gateway
##enrol/authorize:managepayments - manage user payments, capture, void, refund, delete etc.

===Blocks===
#activity_modules
##None
#admin
#admin_2
#admin_bookmarks
#blog_menu
#blog_tags
#calendar_month
#calendar_upcoming
#course_list
#course_summary
#glossary_random
#html
#loancalc
#login
#messages
#news_items
#online_users
#participants
#quiz_results
#recent_activity
#rss_client
##block/rss_client:createprivatefeeds
##block/rss_client:createsharedfeeds
##block/rss_client:manageownfeeds
##block/rss_client:manageanyfeeds
#search
#search_forums
#section_links
#site_main_menu
#social_activities

===Questions===
I am adding question categories here because they seem to have been forgotten in the whole scheme of things since having been removed from the quiz module itself. I've made a suggestion on how these could be handled in [http://www.moodle.org/bugs/bug.php?op=show&bugid=6118&pos= bug 6118].

See [http://moodle.org/mod/forum/discuss.php?d=51143 this forum thread] for a discussion about the current problems wth publishing question categories.[[User:Tim Hunt|Tim Hunt]] 18:50, 8 August 2006 (WST)

==Programming Interface==

Although the Roles system may look complicated at first glance, implementing it in Moodle code is fairly simple.

* You need to define each capability once, so that Moodle can upgrade existing roles to take advantage of it. You do this in an access.php inside the db folder of any module (eg see mod/forum/db/access.php). The array contains entries like this (note the descriptions for the legacy roles which provides forward compatibility):
'mod/forum:viewforum' => array(
'captype' => 'read',
'contextlevel' => CONTEXT_MODULE,
'legacy' => array(
'guest' => CAP_PREVENT,
'student' => CAP_ALLOW,
'teacher' => CAP_ALLOW,
'editingteacher' => CAP_ALLOW,
'coursecreator' => CAP_ALLOW,
'admin' => CAP_ALLOW
)
),
* To load/change these capabilities you need to bump the module version. There's no need to provide changes or differences as Moodle will scan the whole array and sort it out.
* On each page you need to find the context the user is working in, using the get_context_instance() function. For example, in the forum module:

$context = get_context_instance(CONTEXT_MODULE, $cm->id);
* or to at the course level:
$context = get_context_instance(CONTEXT_COURSE, $id);
* Then, whenever you want to check that the current user has rights to do something, call has_capability() like this:
if (!has_capability('mod/forum:viewforum', $context)) {
print_error('nopermissiontoviewforum');
}
* If you just want to assert a capability and then finish with an error message if it's not met (as we did above), then a shorter way it to use require_capability() like this:

require_capability('mod/forum:viewforum', $context);

* Note that there are extra parameters you can specify to get a custom error message, otherwise users get an automated "No permissions" message that lists the permission they were missing.

As a result of the new Roles System, all calls to isadmin(), iscoursecreator, isteacheredit(), isteacher(), isstudent(), and isguest() will have to be replaced with calls to has_capability() or require_capability(). However, these functions will be retained for some backward compatibility with old code, using the legacy capabilities to try and work out what to do.

==Metacourses==

The behaviour of metacourses in Moodle 1.7 changed slightly, in that where it used to just synch students from child courses to the parent course, it will now synch ALL roles. Teachers etc of the child courses will have the same role in the meta course. Technically metacourse synchronises all role assignments in CONTEXT_COURSE with its child courses; the only exception are users with moodle/course:managemetacourse capability, these users are synchronized only upwards, they are not unenrolled from metacourse when unenroling from child course or when removing the child from metacourse.

In order to import/enrol other courses into metacoure you need to have moodle/course:managemetacourse capability. You can add manually only participants with moodle/course:managemetacourse, all other participants are automatically synced with child courses - if you try to manually enrol user without this capability error is displayed. Similar error is shown also when you try to manually unenrol participant from meta course while still being enrolled in child course.

Sample setup:
* metacourse manager has been assigned role with moodle/course:managemetacourse capability in system or course category context
* students are enrolled in several child courses
* teachers are enrolled in separate child course(s)

==Problem areas we are working on ==

===Student view===

The "Student view" button has been removed completely.

If there is time and a secure way can be found, it will be replaced by a menu to let the user assume a temporary role in the context of that course.

===Teacher forum===

Teacher forums were always a curious exception to normal forums, as they were not part of a course as such, and were not backed up.

We're taking the opportunity to rectify this. The upgrade converts teacher forums with content to normal forums in section 0 of the course, and ensures that only teachers can access them. If the teacher forum had not been used in the course then it's not converted and will just dissappear.

===Enrolment plugins===

====Process of logging in====

# load_user_capability() is called to load all the capabilities
# check_enrolment_plugins() is called at the top of load_user_capability() to check all the enrolment plugins.
# For each active plugin:
##Check for setup_enrolments($user) and run it. This function will do all the processing needed to assign or unassign roles from the current user.
# load_user_capability() continues and loads up all the roles
# load_defaultuser_role() is called to add default site permissions (all users)

====Process of checking access to a course====

require_login($course->id) is called by the script and has logic like this:

# Is the user a guest at site level?
## Yes: Does the course allow guests?
### Yes: return true (and further capabilities are checked by the script)
### No: send the user to course/enrol.php for enrolment
## No: continue below

# Does the user have moodle/course:view in that (course) context?
## Yes: then they can enter (and further capabilities are checked by the script)
## No: is guest access allowed on the course?
### Yes: assign temporary guest role to that user for that context (in session cache).
### No: send the user to course/enrol.php for enrolment.

====Process of enrolling====

(more soon)

==Scenario brainstorming==

This section is for brainstorming some example roles that we would like to support. Note some of these *may* not be possible in 1.7.

===Student===
Obviously.

===Site Designers===
Is there a role for people involved in how the site looks but not full administrators? Thinking here of online control of themes rather than FTP theme uploading. But in either case they caneditlogos, caneditcss, candeditlevelatwhichthemeapplies.

===Educational Authority Adviser===
Someone who would want to browse the site and may be asked to comment or contribute to particular discussions or developments in school. Access for this role would be controlled by the school in the case of school level moodles but may be different if there were to be a Local Authority wide Moodle.

===Educational Inspector===
Someone who will visit the site to verify the school's self review that comments on home school relationships, extending the classroom etc. They may want to see summaries of usage and reports from surveys garnering parent and pupil views.

===Second Marker / Moderator===
A teacher within ths site that has access to assignments and quizzes from another teacher's course for second marking purposes. This may need additional functionality adding to the assignment module so that two sets of grades/feedback can be given to one set of assignments.

===Peer observer of teaching===
Many institutions encourage peer observation of teaching, to encourage reflection on practice. In online environments this will be similar to moderation or inspection. The peer observer would need to be able to experience the course "as a student", but also to be able to view summaries of usage, transcripts of interactions (forums/surveys/polls etc), grades assigned (e.g. in assignments).

===External Examiner===
Has all the rights of inspectors, but would also need to be able to review assignments and feedback, view forums, glossaries etc. However, would not want to post, feedback onto the site at all.

===Parent===
A parent will have one or more children in one or more institutions which could be using one or more moodle instances or a mixture of Learning Platforms. A parent's role will vary depending on the age of their children and whether they are contributing as a parent or a school supporter.

In Early Years (EY=3+4 yr olds) and Key Stage 1 (KS1=5+6 yr olds) they may play/learn on an activity or write for the child. Parents often interpret homework tasks and read to their children perhaps filling in a joint reading diary. In Key Stage 2 (KS2=7-11 yr olds) parents would be more monitoring but may join in as well.

In Key stages 3 (KS3=12-14 yr olds) and 4 (KS4=15+16 yr olds) this changes to more of a monitoring/awareness role where a parent would expect to have a summary report of attendance, attainment and general achievement on a weekly/monthly/termly or annual basis. Parents will often be asked to sign and write back comments about this review report.

In all Key Stages there is a great need for parents to receive communication from the school which they can confirm they have received by signing a form. In some cases this may also involve making choices from a list. It may also involve payment for a trip or disco being returned so there could be the possibility of electronic payments. Also in all Key Satges there may be a home-school agreement which may be signed up to. Could this form part of a site policy system that incorporates a tickable list of activities the parent agrees to the child using (blogs/wikis/forums etc.)?

Parent's evenings often involve complex booking systems that attempt to get parent's and teachers together. Easy for EY/KS1/KS2 very difficult for KS3/KS4. Wow would this help if it was built into the Learning Platform.

In some cases there needs to be confidential communication between the parent and the teacher without the child being party to this. It may involve teaching and learning but could also involve a behaviour or medical issue. Often this may be done via a sealed letter or face to face.

The latest incarnation of OfSTED with the Self Review Framework (SEF) there is a greater emphasis on schools gathering parent voice via surveys and discussion. There is a clear match here with parents have access to parental votes, questionnaires and discussions and for schools to be able to publish news, results and reports back to parents.

In the UK the LP framework and agenda as being pushed by the DfES via Becta emphasises that within the mandatory groups and roles functionality the parent role is likely to be required to meet the LP Framework procurement standard.

Again in the UK, parents have their own independent right of access to a child's educational records. Obviously, children's records must not be made available to other parties, including the parents of other children in the same class. Thus it would be necessary to associate parent accounts with their own child's accounts in such a way that they could, if so desired, have read access to their child's grades, answers and contributions, but generally not those of other children - this may be problematic in the case of wiki activities or forum posts.

There is some concern that children's forum contributions etc may be constrained if their parents are able to read all that they write; this may be particularly problematic in areas such as Personal, Social and Health Education (PSHE), where some schools may choose to use obfuscated usernames.

===Manager===
''Please add text here...''

===Weekly Seminar Leader===
''In a university seminar, typically 8-15 students in their 3rd/4th year, each student is responsible for leading one topic in a study series. I ask each student to research 5-10 resources, then give a powerpoint presentation to the other students. This is followed by an in-class discussion and then online homework. The homework involves some fun quiz questions and then some reflective journal questions. I ask each seminar leader to prepare the quiz questions and journal questions as well as their presentation. To do that, I would like to assign activity-making/authoring roles to the student--either for a short period, or for duration of the whole course. Thus "Allow Quiz Authoring Role" or "Allow Assignment Authoring Role" at the course level or, if possible, even the Topic level (in a topic or week format course) would be important.''

===Mentor/Mentee===
''Please add text here...''

===Community-Designed Rating Criteria===
''The gradebook tends to be the domain of the teacher. What if community/peer ratings/marks could also be entered there? What if peer assessment criteria could be designed by the students, not just the teacher?''

===Visitor===

This would be a role whereby one could allow a visitor to visit one's classroom. This might be a colleague interested in seeing your course, or a journalist who might be writing an article about one's site. They should not be able to see the names of any students anywhere (eg recent activity, forum posts) for privacy reasons. They should be able to try out things like quizzes, and lessons but no grades would be recorded (like in teacher preview mode). They would not be able to participate in choices and forums but could view them. It would be read only in a way like former-student role below but without access to a particular student's records that former student role would grant.

===Guest Speaker===

This role would be similar to the Visitor role above, but would allow seeing student names, and also allow both reading and posting to a specific forum or forums. We often have "guest speakers" who read and respond to student forum posts. Right now we have to add them as students, which isn't ideal.

===Former Student===
This role would be of particular use for courses with rolling enrollments. This role would be one where a student had completed all of the requirements of a course (ie assignments, quizzes etc.) but wished to have continued access to the course material for review or consultation. The key factor is that one would give access to the completed student to the notes he read, his work and the teacher's comments on it, but he would not be allowed to do anything that would take up the teacher's time. In other words, a sort-of read-only access to the course. How forums, which might contain pertinent information and would continue to grow, would be handled is a question. Perhaps the student would be shown only what was in the forums at the time he completed the course. He would not be allowed to see any new posts or add any himself. Same thing for database and glossary entries. In other words, a snapshot of the course at the time his regular enrollment ended. He shouldn't be able to see the names or profiles of any newly enrolled students for privacy reasons-hence the restrictions on forum access. One issue that would have to be dealt with would be changes to existing modules-such as resources. Does the student get access to the module as it was or as it is? We have no versioning of resources in Moodle so this would be a problem. What about a teacher changing a quiz question so that the answer is different? What would a former student see?

===Alumnus=== An ALUMNUS should be able to search for all other ALUMNI of the school, interact with them and be enrolled in a seperate course - which is like a META course with all the content of his learning and interaction - as well as capabilities to be a part of this ALUMNI only course. All the teachers of courses during school years should automatically be a part of the ALUMNI course .. which means when an ALUMNUS is enrolled in a course, the original teachers of all his courses get enrolled ? --[[User:Anil Sharma|Anil Sharma]] 20:54, 15 July 2006 (WST)

===Librarian===

Reference Librarians have an active role in most of the courses taught at some schools such as Earlham College (with Bibliographic Instruction). The Librarian role within Moodle could encompass default read access to all courses (unless prohibited by course teacher) and read access to all components of the course unless access is barred (again by teacher). The Librarians would also perhaps have a block called perhaps Reference Services or Reference Desk with write access where they could deposit resources. Also this block might have a chat applet whereby enrolled students could chat to the Reference Librarian on duty about their bibliographic research needs.

In schools there is often a book review system. This may be covered by the lending system database but may not in which case a librarian may neeed to have a course area they can create a database template to handle the reviews in which case they may have a normal teacher style role? Off topic but course an integration with common schools database systems would be great.

===Teacher===

Teachers should have read access to other Teacher's courses unless explictly prohibited. They should be able to set parts of their own course to be totally private (perhaps even to admin?). Just as each activity can currently be set to have group access, each activity could have a permissions field. Teachers could set default permissions for all activities on their course (eg they might disallow Librarian access for example) and then change the access permission for an individual activity.

I think that what is needed is a simple heirarchy of permissions and levels of granularity.

I would take issue with "teachers should have read access to other teacher's courses unless explicitly prohibited." This is a violation of the students' privacy as how they perform and what they do in one class isn't the business of another teacher. Moreover, in the real world a teacher wouldn't suddenly go sit in on a colleague's class without asking permission first. I would not have appreciated such an invasion of privacy as either a teacher or a student. It could be an option, but shouldn't be default.--[[User:N Hansen|N Hansen]] 19:54, 12 June 2006 (WST)

===Community Education Tutors/Trainers===
Teachers may be community adult education trainers making use of a school moodle so must only have access to their courses unless given access elsewhere. They would not necessarily get the default teacher privileges.

===Secretary/Student Worker===

We often have faculty who want their departmental secretary or student worker to scan and upload files and perhaps create resources. Currently they have to be given teacher access to the course. This is dangerous from a FERPA standpoint since they could easily get access to grades.

===Teaching Assistant===

Our Faculty frequently have undergraduate students acting as Teaching Assistants. These students need to be able to add resources, create assignments, and possibly grade assignments. However, due to FERPA they cannot have access to other students' overall grade information. I think the requirements here are slightly different than those of Secretary/Student Worker

===Student - FERPA rights===

A student that has asserted their FERPA rights to non-disclosure. Typically includes not publishing their name
in any public place. Could include this student only being seen with an "alias" within course spaces. Is this an attribute rather
than a role?

===Help Desk===

Help desk agents that have read access for the purposes of trouble shooting. Some care in placing this role within a hierarchy
of inheritance is needed, full access will be problematic with FERPA.

===Admin - Catgory based===

Basically a person in between full Admin and Creator that has the permissions of an Admin but only with respect to courses and students. Currently a Creator has permissions site-wide which does not always meet the requirements of a given organisation (e.g. Department A may not be happy that a person from Department B can create/modify courses within Department A's area). The ability to designate a Creator within a specific category would allow areas to be set up for a faculty/department/organisation and allow the Admin for that area to create/delete courses, upload users, add site-wide entries to the calendar etc.

===Process Roles===

organising the learning process for a group you wish to have the choice to place students in differnt roles: examples of this are:
* Give a student the role of forum-moderator with edit and chunk-rights
* Give students different roles & rights in a Webquest design (and change these roles next week
* Give students different resources, depending of their roles in a rolegame/simulation
* Give a student the rights to create the section content of next week (and only that week..)

==Things to finish for 1.7 Beta==
'''18 Sept 2006'''

#Remove core references to user_student, user_teacher, user_admin, user_coursecreator tables. [Yu]
#Address function: isteacher, isadmin, isstudent [Yu]
#Remove "view" capabilities from all modules unless required [Vy]
#Remove all old references from remaining Blocks [Vy]
#Metacourses [Skodak]
#Add risks to GUI[Skodak]
#Enrolment plugins [Martin and Alastair]
#[[Development:Stats_roles_1.7|Statistics]] [Penny]
#Fix Loginas
#Add category-level assigns [Yu]
#[[Development:Backup_roles_1.7|Backups]] [Eloy?]

===Proposal for interface enhancement===
Martin asked some questions, here are my answers. The sketches below are not worked out proposals. Their task is to visualize the idea. The exact colours and functionality may be defined after possible agreement about the proposals. The Green, orange and red columns support the meaning of the options from "allow" to "prohibit" (If you may want to see larger images please click onto the image or the "Enlarge" icon below the image.)

The list of possible settings is very long and '' "... the problem is not to overwhelm people with information" ''.

[[Image:01_moodle_define_roles_structured.png|thumb=01_moodle_define_roles_structured_pre.png]]

1) One proposal is to use colour to structure the sections and the columns. Picture 1 shows that the user can keep a much better overview when the list is divided into meaningful different coloured columns and clear sections.
 

[[Image:02_moodle_define_roles_collapsed.png|thumb=02_moodle_define_roles_collapsed_pre.png]]

2) A second proposal is to reduce the amount of information the user is shown at the same time. The YUI interface library offers great support to show/hide sections of the page by clicking on specific elements.

For example click on an icon beside the sub heading "Course categories" and show/hide all table rows with the CLASS "course-category".
 

[[Image:03_moodle_define_roles_tooltip.png|thumb=03_moodle_define_roles_tooltip_pre.png]]

3) '' "The main problem is the last column for risk ... we were thinking of putting little icons in there ..." ''
Icons are good when they tell the user more about possible actions/meanings then the letters. I am not sure if this is the case here. For both - icons or letters - the YUI tool-tip function would be able to give the user valuable information about the meaning.
 

==See also==

*[[Development:Hardening new Roles system]]
*[[Development:Roles and modules]]
*Using Moodle course:
**[http://moodle.org/mod/forum/view.php?f=941 Roles and Capabilities forum]
**Key discussions at Using Moodle forums:
***[http://moodle.org/mod/forum/discuss.php?d=38788 Roles and Permissions architecture]
***[http://moodle.org/mod/forum/discuss.php?d=56302#256313 An example of admin roles as set in the database]

[[Category:Developer|Roles]]
[[Category:Roles]]

[[fr:Developpement:Roles]]