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.

Documentation

MNet