Event Monitor specification
| Event Monitor | |
|---|---|
| Project state | Specification/Prototyping |
| Tracker issue | MDL-45758 |
| Discussion | https://moodle.org/mod/forum/discuss.php |
| Assignee | Ankit, Simey |
Note: This page is a work-in-progress. Feedback and suggested improvements are welcome. Please join the discussion on moodle.org or use the page comments.
The Event Monitor report will allow users to select events and receive notifications in real time* when the chosen event happens.
This report will be built on top of the new Events_2 infrastructure.
How it works
- The user or site admin creates a specific set of “rules” that can be subscribed to.
- Each rule defines a event and frequency parameters.
- The users select the rules they are interested in and then subscribe to it at course level for a specific module or all modules.
- Whenever the event occurs in the system , in the frequency specified in the rule, a message is sent out to all the subscribers.
- Since we would be using Moodle messaging system to send out these notifications, it can be delivered in any format supported by Moodle (Mobile notification, popup, email etc)
- There would be some default rules that would be shipped with the report, that users can subscribe to straight away.
User interface mock-ups
List rules
This is the main page of Event Monitor where users can see list of rules. This page lets you subscribe/un-subscribe to the rules. And this also lets you manage the rules if you have appropriate permissions (create/edit/delete/copy)
This is roughly how the page would look like:-
Add/Edit a rule
This is the form where users can create a new rule, customise the filters (frequency and time) and personalise the notification message.
A specific example
Consider the case when you want to be notified when active discussions are going on in the forums.
The figure above show the creation of a new rule called 'My Student Discussions', which is set to monitor 'Post Created event' on 'Forum Module'.
In this case, any user subscribed to this rule will receive notifications whenever '30 posts are created in 60 minutes' on the forum they are subscribed to.
The notification will contain the customised message as configured in the rule.
Benefits
- Real time monitoring of events happening in Moodle.
- Admin can be notified when there is heavy activity on the site or they can monitor specific actions that interests them (ex:- course delete).
- Notification can be sent straight to users' mobile if needed to inform them of situation that needs their immediate attention.
- The report would be designed to trigger an event when a given subscription criteria are met. This will allow developers to build really powerful scripts on top of the report. For example, say a block displaying “Hot forums”, or something more complex like load balancing when there is lot of activity in the forum or quiz.
Usage scenarios
- Send notification when more than X posts in any forum are made in a given course in Y minutes.
- Send notification when assignment is submitted in their course.
- Send notification (to admin) when a course is deleted.
- Send notification (to students) that a particular activity has been updated.
See also
- Event 2
- Moodlerooms developed a "Personalized Learning Designer" that has some of these features (mostly for individual students only).
- Real time means “as soon as possible” - this depends on the cron configuration of the site.
