Front page

The front page is the initial page seen by someone reaching a Moodle site.

The site settings determine which user roles can reach it. For example, the demo.moodle.org allows visitors (guests) to see it's front page and asks them to log in. A user clicking on the course is taken to the "Returning to this website" Moodle login in screen. Other sites may require a login before showing the front page.

Many functions of a front page are similar to those found in a course. The site administration block will allow topics to be added to a Front Page.

The Site administration block is located on the Front page as a block. Users who have teacher rights on the front page, will only see the "Front page" settings in this block.

Backup topic section tips

In earlier versions of Moodle, there is no obvious way to backup or move something placed in a topic on the front page. One trick is to go to any course and click on the backup icon. Change the id in the address bar of the browser to 1.

For example http://demo.moodle.org/backup/backup.php?id=2

Change to http://demo.moodle.org/backup/backup.php?id=1

Go to that page. This will show a standard backup menu for the Front Page's activities and resources. It will behave just like any Course backup and Restore process. The backup file will be located with the site files (admin block >Server>Sitefiles) in a folder called backupdata. You will need the correct permissions to be able to do this.

Front page format examples

A Moodle site's front page can be reconfigured from the default standard to give it a different look and or change how it functions. Depending upon the changes, this can be a simple or a more complex process. Here are some examples

The one column, no block format

The standard Moodle page format of Blocks on the left and blocks on the right is not always appropriate or considered pretty. The site administrator can change this basic format by simply deleting or hiding blocks that can be seen by a teacher or student.

The two column format

The Administrator decides which blocks should appear on the front page and moves all of them to the left or right side.

Tip: It is possible to force a block column to assume a specific width. For example, placing an image of 400 px in a block will force that column to 400 px.

The clean look

Some sites want an uncluttered look, one which appears to be a single HTML page. Or a site administrator wants to start with the most basic look and then add features.

One example:

The site administrator will turn on editing and hide or delete all blocks that can be see by teachers or students on the front page.
Then go to the Site administration block► Front Page ► Front Page settings and:
1. Set the "Front page" list to None, None, None, None
2. Set "Front page items when logged in" list to the same
3. Uncheck the box for "Include Topic section"
4. Edit the "Front page description with the HTML editor tool
5. Save

A variation on the above:

Follow the above steps except:
1. Keep the Front page description blank
2. Check the box to "Include Topic a section",
3. Save
Return to the front page
1. Use the edit hand link to call up the HTML edit tool to create a page that looks like an HTML page.
2. Add any resources or activities that are appropriate for the site.

Documentation