STACK installation instructions: Difference between revisions

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==Install GNUPlot and Maxima==
==Install GNUPlot and Maxima==
** Ensure GNUPlot and [http://maxima.sourceforge.net/ Maxima] are installed on your server. Currently Maxima 5.25.1,to 5.31.3 are supported. Please contact the developers to request support for other versions.
** Ensure [http://gnuplot.info/ GNUPlot] and [http://maxima.sourceforge.net/ Maxima] are installed on your server. Currently Maxima 5.25.1,to 5.31.3 are supported. Please contact the developers to request support for other versions.


** Please note, there are problems with older versions of Maxima. In particular, Maxima 5.23.2 has some differences which result in (1/\sqrt{x} \neq \sqrt{1/x}), and similar problems. This means that we have an inconsistency between questions between versions of maxima. Of course, we can argue about which values of (x) make (1/\sqrt{x} = \sqrt{1/x}), but currently the unit tests and assumption is that these expressions should be considered to be algebraically equivalent! So, older versions of Maxima are not supported for a reason. Please test thoroughly if you try to use an older version, and expect some errors in the mathematical parts of the code.
** Please note, there are problems with older versions of Maxima. In particular, Maxima 5.23.2 has some differences which result in (1/\sqrt{x} \neq \sqrt{1/x}), and similar problems. This means that we have an inconsistency between questions between versions of maxima. Of course, we can argue about which values of (x) make (1/\sqrt{x} = \sqrt{1/x}), but currently the unit tests and assumption is that these expressions should be considered to be algebraically equivalent! So, older versions of Maxima are not supported for a reason. Please test thoroughly if you try to use an older version, and expect some errors in the mathematical parts of the code.

Revision as of 01:32, 3 December 2014

You must setup Moodle 2.6.0 or later

  • It is recommended to use the latest version from your stable branch.
  • Please ensure LaTeX can be displayed. We currently support MathJax. The MathJax filter parses Moodle texts and will fully render TeX expressions that it finds appearing within specific tokens.

Install GNUPlot and Maxima

    • Ensure GNUPlot and Maxima are installed on your server. Currently Maxima 5.25.1,to 5.31.3 are supported. Please contact the developers to request support for other versions.
    • Please note, there are problems with older versions of Maxima. In particular, Maxima 5.23.2 has some differences which result in (1/\sqrt{x} \neq \sqrt{1/x}), and similar problems. This means that we have an inconsistency between questions between versions of maxima. Of course, we can argue about which values of (x) make (1/\sqrt{x} = \sqrt{1/x}), but currently the unit tests and assumption is that these expressions should be considered to be algebraically equivalent! So, older versions of Maxima are not supported for a reason. Please test thoroughly if you try to use an older version, and expect some errors in the mathematical parts of the code.
    • Maxima can be downloaded as a self-contained installer program for Windows, RPMs for Linux or as source for all platforms. Maxima and GNUPlot will install themselves in suitable directories.
    • Instructions for installing a more recent version of Maxima on Centos 6 are available on the moodle forum (Oct 2014).

Add some additional question behaviours:

    • Deferred feedback with explicit validation behaviour code
    • Obtain Deferred feedback with CBM and explicit validation behaviour code
    • Obtain adaptivemutlipart behaviour code
    • Login to Moodle as the admin user and click on Notifications in the Site Administration panel

Add the STACK question type:

    • STACK is a question type for the Moodle quiz.
    • Obtain the code. Either download the zip file, unzip it, and place it in the directory moodle\question\type\stack. (You will need to rename the directory moodle-qtype_stack -> stack.) Alternatively, get the code using git by running the following command in the top level folder of your Moodle install: git clone git://github.com/maths/moodle-qtype_stack.git question/type/stack.
    • As the admin user, navigate to Home > Site administration > Plugins > Question types > Stack. Please choose and save the appropriate options.
    • On the same page, click on the link to the healthcheck script. This writes local configuration files and then helps you verify that all aspects of STACK are working properly.
    • You must be able to connect to the CAS, and for the CAS to successfully create plots, before you can use STACK. You might want to try optimising Maxima access times.
    • You should now have a question type available to the Moodle quiz.

Add the STACK quiz report {#Report}

    • The reports are still in a beta development stage and you can skip this step. If you wish to take advantage of bespoke reports on attempts at an individual STACK question you will need to install the STACK quiz report format separately. This is distributed as quiz_stack.
    • Obtain the code. Either download the zip file, unzip it, and place it in the directory moodle\mod\quiz\report\stack. (You will need to rename the directory quiz_stack -> stack.) Alternatively, get the code using git by running the following command in the top level folder of your Moodle install: git clone git://github.com/maths/quiz_stack.git mod/quiz/report/stack.
    • Login to Moodle as the admin user and click on Notifications in the Site Administration panel

Add the STACK question format:

    • This is for legacy questions from Version 2 of STACK. You can probably skip this step. If you wish to import STACK 2 questions into STACK 3 you will need to install the STACK question format separately. This is distributed as qformat_stack. It provides a different question format for the Moodle quiz importer.
    • Obtain the code. Either download the zip file, unzip it, and place it in the directory moodle\question\format\stack. (You will need to rename the directory moodle-qformat_stack -> stack.) Alternatively, get the code using git by running the following command in the top level folder of your Moodle install: git clone git://github.com/maths/moodle-qformat_stack.git question/format/stack.
    • Login to Moodle as the admin user and click on Notifications in the Site Administration panel.
    • There have been a number of changes between STACK 2 and STACK 3. Please read the notes on the importer before using it.

Confirming the installation is successful

    • At this stage it is important to confirm that the PHP scripts are connecting to the CAS. To facilitate this we have special scripts which provide confirmation and trouble-shooting data. Now is the time to test the installation.

See also

This information was copied from https://github.com/maths/moodle-qtype_stack/blob/master/doc/en/Installation/index.md