Development talk:My Moodle 2.0

Why CONTEXT_MYPAGE?

I don't see the need for CONTEXT_MYPAGE. I think it is fine if all of My Moodle is in the user context, just like all of the pages of the forum module are in CONTEXT_MODULE.

Of course, different capabilities for whether different bits of My Moodle are visible to a given user makes perfect sense.--Tim Hunt 18:54, 9 October 2009 (UTC)

With an extra context level, one could assign different roles to different sub-pages. If we just used the user context, then the permissions would apply to all of a user's My Moodle pages. It could also add the possibility of applying permissions to "'locked' pages that would always be the same layout for all users" ("sticky" pages?), which would not be associated with a specific user context. (Though I'm not sure if this is how Mike was planning on implementing that feature.) --Hubert Chathi 20:35, 9 October 2009 (UTC)

Yes, you could do that, but why would you want to? Give me some use-cases expressed in the user's vocabulary.--Tim Hunt 18:54, 10 October 2009 (UTC)

Assuming we want to do this with block functionality as much as possible (and I assume we do), then you would want to be able to restrict the editing of some subpages to specific roles. For example, the course listing page you will want to always display the course listing information. This would be by pre-configured blocks. You would not want the user to be able to remove this block from that subpage. On the other hand, the home page subpage you would want to give the user free reign over what blocks would be displayed there as well as how they are ordered. I can't think of any other way to do this except through contexts for the My Moodle pages. --Mike Churchward 14:40, 13 October 2009 (UTC)

Should we move this discussion to the My Moodle forum? Anyway, I disagree. This feature is called My Moodle. Not 'the teacher's Moodle' - that is the course page - nor 'the admin's Moodle', that is the site front page. This is a space for user's to create their personal dashboard. If they don't want the My courses list, they should be able to delete it. If they suddenly regret deleting it, it should be really easy for them to add that block back. At most, the admin should be able to control the default layout for new users.--Tim Hunt 21:05, 13 October 2009 (UTC)

One example is that the admin creates a global "Local News" page, and allows certain people to add content (add RSS feeds or other various blocks), but doesn't want those users to the global "Site News" page. --Hubert Chathi 14:42, 13 October 2009 (UTC)

But surely what you really mean is that the admin will configure a Local News block. And blocks already have a context. In fact, see the OU's newsfeed block, I think it is in contrib.--Tim Hunt 21:05, 13 October 2009 (UTC)

No, I do mean a "Local News" page, in which certain people may have permission to manage the blocks on that page, and add, remove, or manage content (e.g. a new local news site opened up, so someone can create a new RSS feed block. Or someone with the right privileges can rearrange the blocks on the page). --Hubert Chathi 21:16, 13 October 2009 (UTC)

Can we do it all with blocks?

I think it would be architecturally very elegant, and maximally flexible, if the whole of My Moodle could be done as blocks. That is, My Moodle would just be a set of empty pages (subpages, or canvases, call them what you will) and all the functionality we might want there would be in the form of blocks.

I cannot immediately see why that would not work, however, I freely admit that I have not thought about this as much as you.--Tim Hunt 18:54, 9 October 2009 (UTC)

I think that is what we are saying too. The subpages or canvases are the new elements for My Moodle; everything else is a block. Some can sit in the centre. --Mike Churchward 19:42, 13 October 2009 (UTC)

Including functionality from other myMoodle modifications

Ideally, this should include all the additional features that have been added to myMoodle (myCourses sub-page). For instance, people have made it possible to show more details about the course, such as the teacher, last access date, etc. There are modifications of myMoodle that group courses by category (with different background colours) or sort them by title, or allow user to move them, like topics within a course. Maybe it would be worth looking at pagination of courses for users with lots of courses (>50)

I agree. These would be sub-tasks of this entire task to update all of this functionality into new blocks for the My Moodle functions. Then, the effort to make those correct could be added/tracked in those subtasks. --Mike Churchward 14:42, 13 October 2009 (UTC)