MoodleDocs - User contributions [en]

Backpacks

2023-10-23T09:55:27Z

Jonb: Include known bug with backpacks

{{Badges}}
Enabling users to connect to an external backpack means they can add badges from their Moodle site to their backpack and also display badges from other sites in their Moodle profile.

'''! NOTE: There is a currently known problem with displaying badges from other sites - see https://tracker.moodle.org/browse/MDL-79302'''
[[File:ManageBackPacks.png|thumb|Manage backpacks]]
==Site administration settings==
The backpack badgr.io is provided by default. Admins can add additional backpacks, for users with an account on eu.badgr.io, ca.badgr.io or au.badgr.io.

For example, to add the eu.badgr.io follow the steps:
# Go to Site administration / Badges / Manage backpacks.
# Click the button 'Add a new backpack'.
# Create this backpack with the following details:
#* Backpack API URL - https://api.eu.badgr.io/v2
#* Backpack URL - https://eu.badgr.io
#* API version - Open Badges v2.0
#* (Leave 'Include authentication details with the backpack' unticked.)
Follow the same process for ca.badgr.io and au.badgr.io changing only the region letters (the ''eu'' in the above URLs to ''ca'' or ''au'').

Note the admin can set the order in which backpacks are listed for users.
==Individual user settings==
You can connect to your backpack as follows:
# In the user menu (top right), select Preferences, then 'Backpack settings' under Badges.
# If necessary, select your backpack provider.
# Enter your Badgr user account email and password.
# Look in your mailbox for a verification email and copy and paste the link to verify your connection to the backpack.
After the backpack connection is successfully established, badges from your backpack can be displayed on your badges page and your profile page. Go to Manage badges (via Preferences / Badges) and click the icon to add your badge to your backpack.

You can also select collections of badges from your backpack that you would like to display in your profile.
==Open Badges v 2.1==
Moodle is Open Badges v 2.1 compliant and a new [[OAuth 2 Open Badges service]] enables users to connect to their OB v 2.1 compliant backpack without having to enter their credentials into Moodle.

To connect to an OB v 2.1 compliant backpack such as badgr.com
# Go to Site administration / Badges / Manage backpacks.
# Click the button 'Add a new backpack'.
# Create this backpack with the following details:
#* API version - Open Badges v2.1
#* Backpack URL - https://badgr.com
When you connect to an OB v 2.1 compliant backpack, a Badges service in [[OAuth 2 services]] is created automatically.
[[https://docs.moodle.org/es/Mochilas]]
[[https://docs.moodle.org/de/Backpacks]]

Announcements forum

2020-06-27T06:03:25Z

Jonb: /* Removing Announcements */

{{Forum}}
The Announcements forum is a special forum for general news and announcements. A course may only have one Announcements forum unless it has been imported from another system which supports more than one Announcements forum.

This forum is automatically created in a new course. By default, it is placed in the top of the central section and only teachers and only users with appropriate permissions (by default teachers) can post in it. The forum has forced subscription set by default.

The [[Latest announcements block]] displays a [[Course_settings#News_items_to_show|specific number]] of recent discussions from the Announcements forum.

==Removing Announcements==

Announcements may be removed from a course as follows:

#In [[Course settings]] set "Number of announcements" to 0
#Delete Announcements from the course homepage
#Delete the Latest announcements block
#Alternatively - hide the Announcements forum
(To restore Announcements set the "Number of announcements" to a number greater than 0.)

==Stop the auto-creation of Announcements by default==

As a Site administrator, it is possible to set the “Number of announcements” to 0 in Course default settings, which means that an Announcements forum will not automatically be added to new courses. That can be overridden in individual courses.

[[de:Ankündigungen]]
[[eu:Berrien_foroa]]
[[fr:Forum des nouvelles]]
[[es:Anuncios]]

Announcements forum

2020-06-27T05:57:50Z

Jonb: /* Removing Announcements */

{{Forum}}
The Announcements forum is a special forum for general news and announcements. A course may only have one Announcements forum unless it has been imported from another system which supports more than one Announcements forum.

This forum is automatically created in a new course. By default, it is placed in the top of the central section and only teachers and only users with appropriate permissions (by default teachers) can post in it. The forum has forced subscription set by default.

The [[Latest announcements block]] displays a [[Course_settings#News_items_to_show|specific number]] of recent discussions from the Announcements forum.

==Removing Announcements==

Announcements may be removed from a course as follows:

#In [[Course settings]] set "Number of announcements" to 0
#Delete Announcements from the course homepage
#Delete the Latest announcements block
#Alternatively - hide the Announcements forum
(To restore Announcements set the "Number of announcements" to a number greater than 0.)

[[de:Ankündigungen]]
[[eu:Berrien_foroa]]
[[fr:Forum des nouvelles]]
[[es:Anuncios]]

Masquerading

2020-05-15T10:05:05Z

Jonb: /* HTTPS and HTTP? */

== Running Moodle Behind A Masquerading Firewall ==

You may be running Moodle behind a Masquerading Firewall (using Network Address Translation or NAT). In this case your internal Moodle server will most likely be assigned a non-routable (private) IP address in one of the following ranges:

* 10.0.0.0 - 10.255.255.255
* 172.16.0.0 - 172.31.255.255
* 192.168.0.0 - 192.168.255.255

You cannot use internal ip address or internal server name in config.php if you want to access the server from Internet too. If you want to use Moodle server from Internet, use real DNS hostname in $CFG->wwwroot.

===HTTPS and HTTP?===

Please note that you cannot use both https:// and http:// at the same time, and must choose one and use it from both sides. Using both http and https is not supported and fails in many cases.

Remember that it is more important to use https:// inside because the potential attackers are your students and it is also much easier to eavesdrop intranet communication.

Also note that UK data protection laws indicate that https:// is required for all outside access to internal school servers.

===First get real DNS hostname===
If you have static IP, your firewall might already have public DNS hostname.

If you do not have a DNS hostname, if you do not like it or if you have dynamic IP address you can use several free Dynamic DNS services to obtain DNS hostname that maps to your current IP address. See http://www.dyndns.com/ , http://www.no-ip.com , etc.

===Then tweak internal DNS server===
You can either tweak all PCs in your intranet by editing ''hosts'' files which can override the data returned from DNS server.

Or you can tweak your DNS server (or forwarder) to return the internal server IP instead of the public one.

==Windows DNS==

Assuming you already have your NAT firewall performing port forwarding to your moodle. If running Win200x Server in an AD domain, a domain controller must be running DNS. This DNS server should be configured with Forwarders to your ISP for resolving names it doesn't have in its own zones. And your Windows clients should be pointing to this DNS server. (If you're running AD and your Windows clients do not have DNS pointing to the DNS server running on your DC, that's why it's taking you 5+ minutes to logon to the domain)

To accomodate using the same URL for intranet and Internet access to your moodle, you can create a new zone with the domain your moodle is in on your DNS server. Create an A record for your moodle's internal IP address inside this zone. Since your internal clients are using this DNS server, they'll get the private IP address; and Internet clients will get your public IP address.

==See also==

* Comments in MDL-27003

[[Category:Administrator]]
[[Category:Installation]]

[[es:masquerading]]
[[ja:マスカレーディング]]

Configuration file

2020-05-15T06:46:57Z

Jonb: /* Setting $CFG->wwwroot correctly */

{{Installing Moodle}}
The name for Moodle's configuration file is config.php. The file is located in the moodle directory. It is not included in the Moodle download packages and is created by the installation process from the template file config-dist.php (which is included in Moodle packages).

==config-dist.php==
Although the installation process creates the config.php file for you, there may be times when you want to do this yourself. A sample config file, called config-dist.php, is shipped with Moodle.

To get started simply copy config-dist.php to config.php, then edit config.php with you favourite editor. The file is very well commented. The important options (which you must supply) are all nearer the top. Other less common options are further down.

==Setting $CFG->wwwroot correctly==
This setting must be a fixed URL (a string constant) that points to your site. Do not try to set this with any PHP code that can generate a variable URL. This is not supported, can cause strange problems and will stop command line scripts working completely. If your site is accessed from different IP addresses this should be done with a split DNS, see [[Masquerading]]

If you change your site from http to https, you '''MUST''' update this setting. If you don’t, you will have problems - for example (but not limited to) css scripts won’t load properly and you will also experience problems with logging in to your site. Also see [[Transitioning_to_HTTPS]]

==Enabling password salting==

See [[Password salting]].

==Including passwords in backups==

Hashed user passwords are no longer saved in backup files containing user data.

If you really need passwords to be saved (in the rare case of restoring a [[Backup of user data|backup with user data]] to a different site), the following line may be added to config.php:

$CFG->includeuserpasswordsinbackup = true;

Note regarding restoring Moodle 2.5 backups to sites with old PHP versions:

Because bcrypt is not supported in PHP versions below 5.3.7, course backups made using the $CFG->includeuserpasswordsinbackup setting on a site using PHP version 5.3.7+ that are subsequently restored to a site with PHP version < 5.3.7 will require a password reset.

==Changing default block layout for new courses==

See [[Block layout]].

==Adding extra theme directory location==
It is possible to add an extra themes directory stored outside of $CFG->dirroot. This local directory does not have to be accessible from internet. Themes placed in the directory specified by these variables will then be available for selection using the theme selector.

For example, should you wish to place extra themes in a subdirectory called 'my_moodle_themes', your config.php might look like this:
<pre>
$CFG->wwwroot = 'http://my.moodle.site.edu';
$CFG->dirroot = '/var/www/my.moodle.site.edu/public_html';
$CFG->themedir = $CFG->dirroot . '/my_moodle_themes';
</pre>

==Disabling update notifications==

See [[Notifications]].

==Enabling debugging==

See [[Debugging]].

==Forcing the value of admin settings==

As explained in config-dist.php, it is possible to specify normal admin settings here, the point is that they can not be changed through the standard admin settings pages any more. Just set the value in config.php like:

<code php>
$CFG->showuseridentity = 'email,idnumber,username';
</code>

==See also==

* Using Moodle [http://moodle.org/mod/forum/discuss.php?d=137889 Moodle Salting] forum discussion

[[de:Konfigurationsdatei]]
[[es:config.php]]
[[fr:Fichier de configuration]]
[[ja:設定ファイル]]

Configuration file

2020-05-15T06:45:03Z

Jonb: /* Setting $CFG->wwwroot correctly */

{{Installing Moodle}}
The name for Moodle's configuration file is config.php. The file is located in the moodle directory. It is not included in the Moodle download packages and is created by the installation process from the template file config-dist.php (which is included in Moodle packages).

==config-dist.php==
Although the installation process creates the config.php file for you, there may be times when you want to do this yourself. A sample config file, called config-dist.php, is shipped with Moodle.

To get started simply copy config-dist.php to config.php, then edit config.php with you favourite editor. The file is very well commented. The important options (which you must supply) are all nearer the top. Other less common options are further down.

==Setting $CFG->wwwroot correctly==
This setting must be a fixed URL (a string constant) that points to your site. Do not try to set this with any PHP code that can generate a variable URL. This is not supported, can cause strange problems and will stop command line scripts working completely. If your site is accessed from different IP addresses this should be done with a split DNS, see [[Masquerading]]

If you change your site from http to https, you '''MUST''' update this setting. If you don’t, you will have problems - for example (but not limited to) css scripts won’t load properly and you will also experience problems with logging in to your site.

==Enabling password salting==

See [[Password salting]].

==Including passwords in backups==

Hashed user passwords are no longer saved in backup files containing user data.

If you really need passwords to be saved (in the rare case of restoring a [[Backup of user data|backup with user data]] to a different site), the following line may be added to config.php:

$CFG->includeuserpasswordsinbackup = true;

Note regarding restoring Moodle 2.5 backups to sites with old PHP versions:

Because bcrypt is not supported in PHP versions below 5.3.7, course backups made using the $CFG->includeuserpasswordsinbackup setting on a site using PHP version 5.3.7+ that are subsequently restored to a site with PHP version < 5.3.7 will require a password reset.

==Changing default block layout for new courses==

See [[Block layout]].

==Adding extra theme directory location==
It is possible to add an extra themes directory stored outside of $CFG->dirroot. This local directory does not have to be accessible from internet. Themes placed in the directory specified by these variables will then be available for selection using the theme selector.

For example, should you wish to place extra themes in a subdirectory called 'my_moodle_themes', your config.php might look like this:
<pre>
$CFG->wwwroot = 'http://my.moodle.site.edu';
$CFG->dirroot = '/var/www/my.moodle.site.edu/public_html';
$CFG->themedir = $CFG->dirroot . '/my_moodle_themes';
</pre>

==Disabling update notifications==

See [[Notifications]].

==Enabling debugging==

See [[Debugging]].

==Forcing the value of admin settings==

As explained in config-dist.php, it is possible to specify normal admin settings here, the point is that they can not be changed through the standard admin settings pages any more. Just set the value in config.php like:

<code php>
$CFG->showuseridentity = 'email,idnumber,username';
</code>

==See also==

* Using Moodle [http://moodle.org/mod/forum/discuss.php?d=137889 Moodle Salting] forum discussion

[[de:Konfigurationsdatei]]
[[es:config.php]]
[[fr:Fichier de configuration]]
[[ja:設定ファイル]]

Manual enrolment

2020-05-03T06:13:54Z

Jonb:

{{Enrolment}}
The manual enrolments plugin allows users to be enrolled manually via a link in the course administration settings. The plugin has to be enabled by the site administrator (see [[Enrolment plugins]]) and should normally be enabled as certain other enrolment plugins, such as self enrolment, require it.

{{MediaPlayer | url = https://youtu.be/PdQjI9i9N5s | desc = Course enrolment}}

==Course settings==

===Checking you have manual enrolment in your course===
*In a course, go to 'Enrolment methods' by clicking the gear menu in the nav drawer Participants link (or in ''Course administration > Users'' in the Administration block if you are using a theme other than Boost).
*Make sure Manual enrolments has its "eye" opened.

[[File:Manualenrolments.png]]

===Editing manual enrolment settings===

Managers (and any other users with the capability [[Capabilities/enrol/manual:config|enrol/manual:config]]) can edit the manual enrolment method in the course and set the default enrolment period and default role from the Enrolment methods link.

{|
|[[File:enrolmenexpirynotification.png|thumb|The manual enrolment screen (Click to enlarge)]]
|}

It is possible also for students and/or teachers to be notified when enrolments expire by selecting either "Enroller only" or "Enroller and enrolled user" from the dropdown "Notify before enrolment expires" and a time in "Notification threshold".

==Enrolling users==

'''Method 1'''
[[File:enrolusersoptions.jpg|thumb|Enrolling users method 1]]
# Go to the Participants page. Depending on your theme:
## Boost theme - click the Participants link in the nav drawer.
## non-Boost themes - either click the Participants link in the Navigation menu, or click the Enrolled users link in the Administration menu under Course administration > Users.
# Click the 'Enrol users' button at the top right or bottom right of the page.
# Use the 'Assign roles' dropdown if you wish to change the role. (do not need to mention the part about 'Browse user' and 'Browse cohort' buttons, since they are both on the same page now)
# Click 'Show more' to expand the enrolment options and set them as appropriate. These include the enrolment duration.
# Browse or search for the user with the dropdown menu next to 'Select users' (note that when searching for users, exact matches are listed first). Click the downward triangle to browser for users, or begin typing in the box to search for users.
# Click the user to select them. The user will appear above the dropdown menu, indicating that the user is enrolled.
# When you have finished, click the 'Enrol selected users and cohorts' button.

The user will then appear in the list of enrolled users.

Note: The enrolment option 'Recover user's old grades if possible' is not ticked by default and is easy to miss. An admin can make it so that the checkbox is ticked for all courses on the site by enabling the setting 'Recover grades default' in the Site administration.

'''Method 2'''
[[File:manually enrolling users.png|thumb|Enrolling users method 2]]
# Go to 'Enrolment methods' from the gear menu in the nav drawer Participants link (or in ''Course administration > Users'' in the Administration block if you are using a theme other than Boost)
# Click the 'Enrol users' icon in the edit column opposite manual enrolment
# Select users from the not enrolled users list, using Ctrl + click to select multiple users
# Click the add button to add the users to the enrolled users list

Note: When searching for users, by default the user's email address is displayed in addition to their name. If preferred, an admin can set other user identity fields such as ID number to be displayed in 'Show user identity' in [[User policies]] in the Site administration.

===Too many users to show... please use the search===
By default, Moodle shows up to 100 participants in the list. If you have more than 100 users, it can be difficult to enrol multiple users quickly.

Go to Site Administration > Users > Permissions > User Policies and change the value for “Maximum users per page”.

Warning! Significantly increasing this number may have an impact on your server’s performance.

===Editing individual enrolment start and end dates===

[[File:individualenrolment24.png|thumb|Editing enrolment start and end dates]]Enrolment start and end dates may be edited for individual students as follows:

# Go to 'Enrolled users' from the gear menu in the nav drawer Participants link (or in ''Course administration > Users'' in the Administration block if you are using a theme other than Boost)
# Click the edit icon in the enrolment methods column for a particular user.
# Edit dates as required, then click the 'Save changes' button.

==Admin settings==

The manual enrolment plugin may be enabled or disabled site-wide in 'Manage enrol plugins' in the Site administration.

Site-wide settings, including default settings for manual enrolment in new courses, may be set in 'Manual enrolments' in the Site administration.

* Enrolment expiration action - specifies what happens when user enrolments reach expiration date. Please note that option "Unenrol user from course" purges grades, group memberships, preferences and other user related data from the courses.
* Hour to send enrolment expiry notifications - specify hour for sending expiration notifications.
* Add instance to new courses- if this is enabled, then whenever a new course is created, manual enrolments will automatically added to new courses.
* Enable manual enrolments - this specifies if enrol instances are enabled by default in new courses, it is strongly recommended to keep this setting enabled.
* Default role - this sets the default role, which is normally student and may be altered by a teacher in a course.
* Default enrolment start - this feature sets the time for when students are enrolled in a course. The default is 'Now', but it can also be set to 'Today' and 'Course start'.
* Default enrolment duration - this sets the default length of enrolment in new courses.
* Notify before enrolment expires - specifies if teacher or optionally students should be notified before the expiration.
* Notification threshold - specify how many days should be users notified before the enrolment expiration.

==Manual enrolment capabilities==

*[[Capabilities/enrol/manual:config|Configure manual enrol instances]]
*[[Capabilities/enrol/manual:enrol|Enrol users]]
*[[Capabilities/enrol/manual:manage|Manage user enrolments]]
*[[Capabilities/enrol/manual:unenrol|Unenrol users from the course]]
*[[Capabilities/enrol/manual:unenrolself|Unenrol self from the course]]

==See also==

* [[Participants]]

[[fr:Inscription manuelle]]
[[de:Manuelle Einschreibung]]
[[es:Inscripción manual]]
[[ja:手動登録]]

Block settings

2020-04-11T09:46:54Z

Jonb: /* Making a block sticky throughout the whole site */

{{Blocks}}
==Adding a block to a page==

Blocks can be added to a page by turning editing on then using the 'Add a block' drop-down menu.

Please see [[Blocks]] for a list of all the blocks in a standard Moodle install. Your site may have added contributed blocks and or your site administrator has disabled specific blocks on your site.

Note: The ability to add a particular block to a page is controlled by an ''addinstance'' capability (e.g. [[Capabilities/block/comments:addinstance|block/comments:addinstance]]), which is allowed for the default role of teacher.

==Block actions==

After adding a block, click the edit icon in the block header to configure it.
{|
| [[File:block actions.png|thumb|Block actions]]
|}

===Block settings===

Certain blocks, such as the HTML block, allow a block title and more to be set.

===Where this block appears===

Depending upon the context and user permissions, this area determines where this block will appear. See this forum post [https://moodle.org/mod/forum/discuss.php?d=270526#p1166400 explaining block contexts] for more information.
*Original block location: provides information about where the block was initially created.
*Display on page types: allows the user to set the context that the block can appear in. These options will vary depending upon the permissions of the user. For example a site administrator might see a setting that will allow the block to appear on Any page, or any type of course main page, while a teacher may only see the option to place it on every page in the course.
*Default region: Usually a right column or left column option
*Default weight: Where in the column do you want it to appear if there are other blocks in that column. -10 will put it at the top, 10 will put it at the bottom. A zero is neutral.
[[File: Block configuration where appears.png]]

===On this page===
*Visible - Yes or No.
*Region - Here you can override the column preference on this page.
*Weight - Here you can override the default setting on this page.

=='Sticky blocks'==
The term 'sticky' block was used in older versions of Moodle to mean blocks which the admin added either site-wide or to the [[Dashboard]] and which could not be deleted by regular users. Although the term is no longer used, it is still possible to make blocks 'sticky' and in a wider variety of locations.

If an admin deletes a "sticky" block in a course, they receive a warning of the site-wide consequences of this action before it is deleted.

Here are a few examples:

===Making a block sticky throughout the whole site===
The Moodle administrator might wish for example to display support contact details site-wide using an [[HTML block]] called 'Helpdesk':

#As an administrator, turn on the editing on the front page and add the block you wish to make sticky to the front page.
#For ''Where this block appears > Page contexts'', choose 'Display throughout the entire site'.
#Decide other settings according to your preference and save.
#The block will now appear on all pages of your Moodle.
#TIP: if you want the block to appear throughout the site but NOT on the front page, you can hide it from that page (using the settings in the section “On this page”).

{|
| [[File:sitewidestickyblock.png|thumb|Making a block sticky throughout the site]]
|}

===Making a block sticky throughout a course===

A teacher might wish to display a block, such as the comments block, on the course page and all activity pages.

#As a teacher in the course, turn on the editing on the course main page and add the block you wish to make sticky.
#For ''Display on page types'', choose 'Any page'.
#Decide other settings according to your preferences and save.
#The block will now appear on all pages of the course.

===Making a block sticky in a category===
A user with category rights might for instance wish to display a [[Remote RSS feeds block]] in all of the courses within a particular category, such as a Head of Science adding Science news feeds to the Physics, Biology and Chemistry courses.

===Making a block sticky in a resource or an activity===
A teacher might wish to display a block in one particular resource or activity, for example a Head of Faculty might make create a [[Book]] for departmental policies and wish to add the comments block to every chapter/page of a book so colleagues can give quick feedback. (Note that such a comments block would be the ''same'' block on each chapter/page)
#As a teacher in the course, turn on the editing and click into the resource/activity -in this case a Book and add the block.
#For ''Display on page types'', you will see (for example) 'mod-book*'
#Decide other settings according to your preferences and save.
#The block will now appear on all related screens.

{|
|[[File:bookstickyblock.png|thumb|Making a block sticky throughout a book]]
|}

===Adding a block to all user profile pages===
See [[User profiles]].

===Adding a block to the dashboard for all users===
See [[Dashboard]]. Note that such a block would not be truly 'sticky', in that users can customise their dashboard and could, if wished, delete the block.

==Block permissions==

To change role permissions for a block

# Turn editing on in the course
# In the actions menu in the header of the block, click Permissions'.

See [[Blocks FAQ]] for details of how to hide front page blocks from non-logged-in users.

[[de:Blockeinstellungen]]
[[es:Configuraciones de bloque]]
[[fr:Paramètres des blocs]]

Tracker introduction

2019-03-27T13:04:02Z

Jonb: Undo revision 133414 by Jonb (talk)

#REDIRECT [[https://docs.moodle.org/dev/Tracker_introduction

Tracker introduction

2019-03-27T13:02:54Z

Jonb: Redirect to tracker introduction

#REDIRECT [[Tracker introduction]]

Tracker introduction

2019-03-27T13:00:34Z

Jonb: Created page with "#REDIRECT https://docs.moodle.org/dev/Tracker_introduction"

#REDIRECT [[https://docs.moodle.org/dev/Tracker_introduction

Upload courses

2019-03-08T09:22:31Z

Jonb: /* Course information fields */

{{Courses}}
{{Note|This page is about creating courses with a text (.csv) file. If you want to upload a course backup in .mbz or .tgz format, see [[Course restore]].}}

==Upload courses==

In addition to creating new courses, the upload courses functionality may also be used to update or delete courses, or import content from another course. For information on using this functionality to create course templates, see [[Adding a new course]].

To upload one or more courses

# Go to ''Administration > Site administration > Courses > Upload courses''
# Either drag and drop the CSV file or click the 'Choose a file' button and select the file in the file picker
# Select appropriate import options carefully, then click the preview button.

{|
|[[File:26uploadcourses.png|250px|thumb|Upload courses admin screen]]
|
|[[File:uploadcoursesresults.png|250px|thumb|Courses successfully uploaded]]
|}

Note: It is also possible to use the command-line tool ''admin/tool/uploadcourse/cli/uploadcourse.php''.

When using the web interface, use the ''Preview'' option to see if any errors were detected in the previewed rows. If you proceed with the upload and there were something wrong detected with a course, it will be ignored.

=== Short file example ===
uploadcourse.csv:

Note: shortname, fullname, and category are required.

The category field takes the id of the category, with the default category Miscellaneous having id 1. Categories must already exist. If you put a category id that does not exist, you will receive a "Could not resolve category by ID" error during upload preview, and courses in that category will not be created.

<code bash>
shortname,fullname,category,summary,enrolment_1,enrolment_1_role,enrolment_1_enrolperiod,role_student
courserestored,Course restored,1,a summary,manual,student,1 month,
courserestored2,Course restored 2,1,a summary,,,,
courserestored3,Course restored 3,1,a summary,,,,padawan
courserestored4,Course restored 4,1,"a summary, with comma",manual,student,1 month,padawan
</code>
Notice there are no spaces between the items.

==Creating the text file==

The text file to upload courses must be a CSV file. It accepts the following columns which are divided in two categories, the course information, and the course actions.

===Course information fields===

Most of those settings are available on the settings page of a course. Please refer to [[Course settings]] for more information. Field names must be lower-case.

;shortname
: The shortname
;fullname
: The full name
;idnumber
: The ID number (found on the ‘Edit Category’ page)
;category
: This is the ID of the category to place the course in. This takes precedence over ''category_idnumber'' and ''category_path''.
;category_idnumber
: The ID number of the category to place the course in (foundnin the category url). This takes precedence over ''category_path''.
;category_path
: The path of the category to place the course in. If you want to place the course in a category named "Science-Fiction" which is located under the category "Movies", the value to provide is: <code>Movies / Science-Fiction</code>. Note that the separator must be <code>[space]/[space]</code>. Also note that the category MUST exist, it will not be created. If you want to place the course in the top-level category "Movies", the value to provide is: <code>Movies</code>
;visible
: 1 if the course is visible, 0 if hidden
;startdate
: The time at which the course starts. Please note that this value is passed to the PHP function [http://php.net/manual/en/function.strtotime.php strtotime] to generate a timestamp. Example 01.12.2014 (1st December 2014)
;enddate
: The time at which the course ends. Please note as with startdate that this value is passed to the PHP function [http://php.net/manual/en/function.strtotime.php strtotime] to generate a timestamp. Example 01.12.2014 (1st December 2014)
;summary
: The summary of the course
;format
: The course format to use, this must be a valid course format plugin name. E.g. ''weeks'', ''topics''.
;theme
: The theme to use
;lang
: The language to use
;newsitems
: The number of news items
;showgrades
: 1 to show the gradebook to students, 0 to hide it.
;showreports
: 1 to show the activity reports, 0 to hide it.
;legacyfiles
: 1 to enable the legacy course files, 0 not to.
;maxbytes
: The maximum upload size of the course in bytes. Use 0 for the site limit.
;groupmode
: 0 for ''No groups'', 1 for ''Separate groups'' and 2 for ''Visible groups''.
;groupmodeforce
: 1 to force the group mode, otherwise enter 0.
;enablecompletion
: 1 to enable the activity completion, 0 not to.
;tags
: A comma-separated list of tags to add to the course. Existing tags will be deleted. Enclose multiple tags in quotes.

====Enrolment fields====

Some fields can be constructed to enable and configure enrolment methods. The fields must be named ''enrolment_[number]'' for the enrolment method name, and ''enrolment_[number]_property'' for its properties.

;enrolment_[number]
: The name of the enrolment method (eg, manual, guest, self)
;enrolment_[number]_delete
: 1 to delete this enrolment method from the course, if set to 1 all the other properties will be ignored.
;enrolment_[number]_disable
: 1 to disable this enrolment method from the course, if set to 1 all the other properties will be ignored.
;enrolment_[number]_startdate
: The enrolment start date. This value is passed to the PHP function strtotime().
;enrolment_[number]_enddate
: The enrolment end date. This value is passed to the PHP function strtotime().
;enrolment_[number]_enrolperiod
: Number of seconds, or if not a value understood by strtotime() such as "4 days".
;enrolment_[number]_role
: The role short name
;enrolment_[number]_[property]
: Where property is understood by the specified enrolment method
;enrolment_[number]_password
: The course enrolment key

Note: Upload courses is not yet compatible with all [[Enrolments|enrolment methods]] (MDL-43127).

'''Example'''

enrolment_1: manual
enrolment_1_role: student
enrolment_1_enrolperiod: 1 month

enrolment_2: self
enrolment_2_startdate: 2013-01-30

====Role renaming====

To rename some roles, using the following pattern:

;role_[shortname]
: The new name of the role ''[shortname]''.

'''Example'''

role_student: Apprentice
role_teacher: Master
role_mycustomrole: Jedi

It is worth noting that the short name for the teacher role is ''editingteacher'' and the short name for the non-editing teacher is ''teacher''.

===Course action fields===

Those settings take precedence over the ''Course process'' parameters.

;delete
: 1 to delete the course
;rename
: The shortname to rename the course to
;backupfile
: An absolute path to a backup file (.mbz) to import in the course.

(This means the full path to your course, for example ''/home/yourmoodle/public_html/moodle27/transfert/backup.mbz'' . If you are unsure of this, look at include_path in ''Site administration>Server>PHP info.)''
;templatecourse
: The short name of a course to import the content from
;reset
: 1 to reset the course

===Mandatory fields===

;shortname
: This field is mandatory for every operation, with the only exception of creating new courses. See details on the course process parameter ''Shortname template'' for more information.
;fullname
: Required when creating a new course.
;category, category_idnumber, category_path
: One of these is required when creating a course.

===Import options===

To prevent unexpected behaviour, you have to specify what you want the tool to be able to do.

;Upload mode
: This allows you to specify if courses can be created and/or updated.
;Update mode
: If you allow courses to be updated, you also have to tell the tool what to update the courses with.
;Allow deletes
: Whether the ''delete'' field is accepted or not
;Allow renames
: Whether the ''rename'' field is accepted or not
;Allow resets
: Whether the ''reset'' field is accepted or not

===Course process===

This allows you to specify actions to be taken for every course uploaded.

;Shortname template
: If you are creating courses without a shortname, you can use this field to automatically generate a shortname. This field accepts two placeholders: %i for the ID number, %f for the summary.
;Restore file
: A backup file (.mbz) to import in the course after create/update.
;Restore from course
: The shortname of a course to import content from after create/update.
;Reset after upload
: Whether to reset the course after creating/updating it.

===Default course values===

Those are values that can be set in the web interface for all the fields that are not specified in the CSV file. Note that they are always used when creating a course, but only when specified during update (see ''Update mode'').

==Increasing speed==

When importing the content of a backup file, or another course, you are advised to enable the setting ''keeptempdirectoriesonbackup''. This will considerably speed up the process of the upload if you are importing multiple times from the same source.

==See also==

* Demo screencast: [http://youtu.be/MzK2jb-9SwE Bulk course creation]
* [[Upload users]]
* [http://www.moodleblog.net/2013/11/24/creating-course-templates-in-moodle-2-6/ Creating course templates in Moodle 2.6] blog post by Mary Cooch

[[de:Kurse hochladen]]
[[es:Subir cursos]]
[[ja:コースをアップロードする]]

Upload courses

2019-03-08T09:21:36Z

Jonb: /* Course information fields */

{{Courses}}
{{Note|This page is about creating courses with a text (.csv) file. If you want to upload a course backup in .mbz or .tgz format, see [[Course restore]].}}

==Upload courses==

In addition to creating new courses, the upload courses functionality may also be used to update or delete courses, or import content from another course. For information on using this functionality to create course templates, see [[Adding a new course]].

To upload one or more courses

# Go to ''Administration > Site administration > Courses > Upload courses''
# Either drag and drop the CSV file or click the 'Choose a file' button and select the file in the file picker
# Select appropriate import options carefully, then click the preview button.

{|
|[[File:26uploadcourses.png|250px|thumb|Upload courses admin screen]]
|
|[[File:uploadcoursesresults.png|250px|thumb|Courses successfully uploaded]]
|}

Note: It is also possible to use the command-line tool ''admin/tool/uploadcourse/cli/uploadcourse.php''.

When using the web interface, use the ''Preview'' option to see if any errors were detected in the previewed rows. If you proceed with the upload and there were something wrong detected with a course, it will be ignored.

=== Short file example ===
uploadcourse.csv:

Note: shortname, fullname, and category are required.

The category field takes the id of the category, with the default category Miscellaneous having id 1. Categories must already exist. If you put a category id that does not exist, you will receive a "Could not resolve category by ID" error during upload preview, and courses in that category will not be created.

<code bash>
shortname,fullname,category,summary,enrolment_1,enrolment_1_role,enrolment_1_enrolperiod,role_student
courserestored,Course restored,1,a summary,manual,student,1 month,
courserestored2,Course restored 2,1,a summary,,,,
courserestored3,Course restored 3,1,a summary,,,,padawan
courserestored4,Course restored 4,1,"a summary, with comma",manual,student,1 month,padawan
</code>
Notice there are no spaces between the items.

==Creating the text file==

The text file to upload courses must be a CSV file. It accepts the following columns which are divided in two categories, the course information, and the course actions.

===Course information fields===

Most of those settings are available on the settings page of a course. Please refer to [[Course settings]] for more information. Field names must be lower-case.

;shortname
: The shortname
;fullname
: The full name
;idnumber
: The ID number
;category
: Found on the ‘Edit Category’ page, this is the ID of the category to place the course in. This takes precedence over ''category_idnumber'' and ''category_path''.
;category_idnumber
: The ID number of the category to place the course in (foundnin the category url). This takes precedence over ''category_path''.
;category_path
: The path of the category to place the course in. If you want to place the course in a category named "Science-Fiction" which is located under the category "Movies", the value to provide is: <code>Movies / Science-Fiction</code>. Note that the separator must be <code>[space]/[space]</code>. Also note that the category MUST exist, it will not be created. If you want to place the course in the top-level category "Movies", the value to provide is: <code>Movies</code>
;visible
: 1 if the course is visible, 0 if hidden
;startdate
: The time at which the course starts. Please note that this value is passed to the PHP function [http://php.net/manual/en/function.strtotime.php strtotime] to generate a timestamp. Example 01.12.2014 (1st December 2014)
;enddate
: The time at which the course ends. Please note as with startdate that this value is passed to the PHP function [http://php.net/manual/en/function.strtotime.php strtotime] to generate a timestamp. Example 01.12.2014 (1st December 2014)
;summary
: The summary of the course
;format
: The course format to use, this must be a valid course format plugin name. E.g. ''weeks'', ''topics''.
;theme
: The theme to use
;lang
: The language to use
;newsitems
: The number of news items
;showgrades
: 1 to show the gradebook to students, 0 to hide it.
;showreports
: 1 to show the activity reports, 0 to hide it.
;legacyfiles
: 1 to enable the legacy course files, 0 not to.
;maxbytes
: The maximum upload size of the course in bytes. Use 0 for the site limit.
;groupmode
: 0 for ''No groups'', 1 for ''Separate groups'' and 2 for ''Visible groups''.
;groupmodeforce
: 1 to force the group mode, otherwise enter 0.
;enablecompletion
: 1 to enable the activity completion, 0 not to.
;tags
: A comma-separated list of tags to add to the course. Existing tags will be deleted. Enclose multiple tags in quotes.

====Enrolment fields====

Some fields can be constructed to enable and configure enrolment methods. The fields must be named ''enrolment_[number]'' for the enrolment method name, and ''enrolment_[number]_property'' for its properties.

;enrolment_[number]
: The name of the enrolment method (eg, manual, guest, self)
;enrolment_[number]_delete
: 1 to delete this enrolment method from the course, if set to 1 all the other properties will be ignored.
;enrolment_[number]_disable
: 1 to disable this enrolment method from the course, if set to 1 all the other properties will be ignored.
;enrolment_[number]_startdate
: The enrolment start date. This value is passed to the PHP function strtotime().
;enrolment_[number]_enddate
: The enrolment end date. This value is passed to the PHP function strtotime().
;enrolment_[number]_enrolperiod
: Number of seconds, or if not a value understood by strtotime() such as "4 days".
;enrolment_[number]_role
: The role short name
;enrolment_[number]_[property]
: Where property is understood by the specified enrolment method
;enrolment_[number]_password
: The course enrolment key

Note: Upload courses is not yet compatible with all [[Enrolments|enrolment methods]] (MDL-43127).

'''Example'''

enrolment_1: manual
enrolment_1_role: student
enrolment_1_enrolperiod: 1 month

enrolment_2: self
enrolment_2_startdate: 2013-01-30

====Role renaming====

To rename some roles, using the following pattern:

;role_[shortname]
: The new name of the role ''[shortname]''.

'''Example'''

role_student: Apprentice
role_teacher: Master
role_mycustomrole: Jedi

It is worth noting that the short name for the teacher role is ''editingteacher'' and the short name for the non-editing teacher is ''teacher''.

===Course action fields===

Those settings take precedence over the ''Course process'' parameters.

;delete
: 1 to delete the course
;rename
: The shortname to rename the course to
;backupfile
: An absolute path to a backup file (.mbz) to import in the course.

(This means the full path to your course, for example ''/home/yourmoodle/public_html/moodle27/transfert/backup.mbz'' . If you are unsure of this, look at include_path in ''Site administration>Server>PHP info.)''
;templatecourse
: The short name of a course to import the content from
;reset
: 1 to reset the course

===Mandatory fields===

;shortname
: This field is mandatory for every operation, with the only exception of creating new courses. See details on the course process parameter ''Shortname template'' for more information.
;fullname
: Required when creating a new course.
;category, category_idnumber, category_path
: One of these is required when creating a course.

===Import options===

To prevent unexpected behaviour, you have to specify what you want the tool to be able to do.

;Upload mode
: This allows you to specify if courses can be created and/or updated.
;Update mode
: If you allow courses to be updated, you also have to tell the tool what to update the courses with.
;Allow deletes
: Whether the ''delete'' field is accepted or not
;Allow renames
: Whether the ''rename'' field is accepted or not
;Allow resets
: Whether the ''reset'' field is accepted or not

===Course process===

This allows you to specify actions to be taken for every course uploaded.

;Shortname template
: If you are creating courses without a shortname, you can use this field to automatically generate a shortname. This field accepts two placeholders: %i for the ID number, %f for the summary.
;Restore file
: A backup file (.mbz) to import in the course after create/update.
;Restore from course
: The shortname of a course to import content from after create/update.
;Reset after upload
: Whether to reset the course after creating/updating it.

===Default course values===

Those are values that can be set in the web interface for all the fields that are not specified in the CSV file. Note that they are always used when creating a course, but only when specified during update (see ''Update mode'').

==Increasing speed==

When importing the content of a backup file, or another course, you are advised to enable the setting ''keeptempdirectoriesonbackup''. This will considerably speed up the process of the upload if you are importing multiple times from the same source.

==See also==

* Demo screencast: [http://youtu.be/MzK2jb-9SwE Bulk course creation]
* [[Upload users]]
* [http://www.moodleblog.net/2013/11/24/creating-course-templates-in-moodle-2-6/ Creating course templates in Moodle 2.6] blog post by Mary Cooch

[[de:Kurse hochladen]]
[[es:Subir cursos]]
[[ja:コースをアップロードする]]

Global search

2018-07-27T11:59:24Z

Jonb: /* See also */

{{More features}}
==What is Global search?==
*Global search lets you search everywhere on the Moodle site that you have access to. A student can search their courses for particular lecture notes, for example, or a teacher could search for subject-related activities.
*The feature needs to be enabled by the administrator in Advanced features and then, from the Manage Global search page, the search engine must be selected.

When Global search is enabled, search box is then available next to the user menu.

[[File:NFGlobalsearchbox.png|thumb|center|480px|Searching the site (when global search is enabled)]]

*A [[Global search block]] may also be added to course pages.

==What can I search for?==
You can search for your courses, activities information and some activities contents like forum posts, book chapters, glossary entries or collaborative wikis pages.

HTML block content may be searched and, if the administrator sets the setting "Searchable courses" to ''Search within all courses the user can access'' then courses which are visible to users but which they are not enrolled in may also be searched. (These courses are courses with guest access or if the user has the capability to view all courses.)

==How does it work?==
*Click the search icon by the user menu and type a search term into the box that appears, or type into the box in the [[Global search block]] if enabled.
*On the next screen, you can simply click the search button to search everywhere, or expand the Filter to search in specific areas:

[[File:NFFilteringGlobalSearch2.png|thumb|center|600px|Filtering the search]]

*You will then see results displayed from all areas of Moodle you have access to:

[[File:31GSResults2a.png|thumb|center|600px|Search results]]

===Solr-specific features===
''These features are only available if you use '''Solr''' as your search engine.''

====Search query features====
You can improve your search using any of the following search query features:

* Specifying the field to be searched by prefixing the search query with 'title:', 'content:', 'name:', or 'intro:' e.g.'title:news' returns results with the word 'news' in the title
* Boolean operators ('AND', 'OR', 'NOT') to combine or exclude keywords
* Wildcard characters ('*' or '?' ) to represent characters in the search query
* Proximity searches ('~') e.g. mood~2 returns "moodle" (2 letters away from "mood"), Moodle Australia~3 returns results containing "Moodle HQ in Perth, Australia" (the queried terms were within 3 words of each other)
* Boosting terms ('^') to boost certain words or phrases e.g. "Perth Australia"^5 "Australia" will return results with the phrase "Perth Australia" as more relevant.

====File contents indexing====
Solr has the ability to index the contents of files, such as File resources and attachments to Forum posts.

====Extra filters====
'''New in 3.5''' : New fields now facilitate filtering by user ID and searching by group.

==How is it set up?==

Note: Global search needs a search engine. It's recommended you set everything up first, index the site contents ''and only then'' enable Global search.

Moodle core includes two search engines: Simple Global search and Solr. See the [https://docs.moodle.org/dev/Search_engines Developer docs on Search engine plugins] if you wish to write your own.

===Setting up Simple search===

{{New features}}
Simple Global search provides global search features without the need to install an external search engine.

{{MediaPlayer | url = https://youtu.be/4JJhOd2XAiY | desc = Simple global search}}

===Setting up Solr===

* The latest Solr 5 available version is the recommended one.
* Moodle supports Solr server from 4.0 onwards, although you can only use the Solr schema setup script that we provide with Moodle from Solr 5. The latest Solr 5 available version is the recommended one; the same will apply to Solr 6 once it is released.
* Solr 7 is not currently supported as the field type 'int' has been removed.

====General Setup====

# Set the feature up in ''Site administration > Plugins > Search > Manage global search'' by selecting Solr as the search engine and ticking search area checkboxes as required
# In ''Site administration > Plugins > Search > Solr'', set '''Host name''' to localhost, '''Port''' to 8983 and '''Index name''' to 'moodle' (the name of the index in Solr)
# If you are using Solr with SSL encryption, you will need to configure Moodle as such. This is important if solr is not installed in the web server server.
## You will need a separate key file and cacert file, both in pem format, located on your server Moodle, and readable by the PHP process.
## Go to ''Site administration > Plugins > Search > Solr''
## Set '''Secure mode''' to Yes
## '''SSL certificate''' to /path/to/certs/solr-ssl.cacert.pem
## '''SSL key''' to /path/to/certs/solr-ssl.key.pem
## '''SSL key Password''' to The password used to lock the SSL Key
## '''SSL CA certificates name''' to /path/to/certs/solr-ssl.cacert.pem
# You now need to populate the created Solr index with your site's data. You can do it via the web interface by going to ''Site administration > Reports > Global search info'' or from the CLI by running the <tt>search/cli/indexer.php</tt> script. The CLI script is the recommended option for big sites.<br><code># sudo -u www-run php search/cli/indexer.php --force</code>
# Enable Global search in ''Site administration > Advanced features''

====File Indexing====

Solr has the ability to index the contents of files, such as File resources and attachments to Forum posts. This uses the [https://tika.apache.org/ Tika] engine which comes bundled with Solr. To enable this feature:
# In ''Site administration > Plugins > Search > Solr'' enable the checkbox '''Enable file indexing'''
# Set '''Maximum file size to index (kB)''' to some value - the default is '''2097152''' (2GB)
#* Files larger than this limit will not be sent for Solr for indexing, but the file name will still be indexed.

'''New in 34:''' File indexing now works retroactively -ie, if you set up Global search without file indexing enabled and a later date you enable file indexing, files associated with existing objects will be included.

====How to install Solr====

You need PHP Solr extension installed. You can download the official latest versions from [http://pecl.php.net/package/solr PECL: Package: solr]. The minimum required version is PECL Solr 2.1 for PHP 5 branch and PECL Solr 2.4 for PHP 7 branch.

Basic installation steps (using apache web server):

===== Linux (Debian/Ubuntu) =====
With PHP5.x
sudo apt-get install libpcre3-dev libxml2-dev libcurl4-openssl-dev
sudo apt-get install php5-dev
sudo apt-get install php-pear
sudo pecl install solr
sudo sh -c "echo 'extension=solr.so' > /etc/php5/apache2/conf.d/solr.ini"
sudo sh -c "echo 'extension=solr.so' > /etc/php5/cli/conf.d/solr.ini"
sudo service apache2 restart

With PHP 7
sudo apt-get install libpcre3-dev libxml2-dev libcurl4-openssl-dev
sudo apt-get install php7.0-dev
sudo apt-get install php-pear
sudo pecl install solr
sudo sh -c "echo 'extension=solr.so' > /etc/php/7.0/apache2/conf.d/solr.ini"
sudo sh -c "echo 'extension=solr.so' > /etc/php/7.0/cli/conf.d/solr.ini"
sudo service apache2 restart

===== Linux (Redhat/Centos 6 & 7) =====

====== Using built in php5 packages ======
yum install php-pecl-solr2
service httpd restart

====== Using 3rd party php7 packages (webtactic) ======
yum install libxml2-devel pcre-devel libcurl-devel php70w-devel php70w-pear
pecl install solr
echo "extension=solr.so" > /etc/php.d/solr.ini
service httpd restart

===== OSX using macports =====

sudo port install apache-solr4
sudo port install php54-solr

===== OSX using homebrew =====

brew install homebrew/php/php56-solr

===== Windows =====

Install the pecl package as usual. (This has not yet been tested.)

===== The Solr server =====

Note that for medium/large sites you may need to increase maxBooleanClauses setting. In [https://tracker.moodle.org/browse/MDL-54992 MDL-54992] we are working on an alternative way to query the server.

The following example snippet (feel free to copy & paste into a .sh script with execution permissions) will download Solr 5.4.1 (replace it with latest 5.x) in the current directory, start the solr server and create an index in it named '''moodle''' to add moodle data to it. If wget gives an error, check http://www-us.apache.org/dist/lucene/solr and update SOLRVERSION

#!/bin/bash
set -e
SOLRVERSION=5.5.5
SOLRNAME=solr-$SOLRVERSION
SOLRTAR=$SOLRNAME'.tgz'
INDEXNAME=moodle
if [ -d $SOLRNAME ]; then
echo "Error: Directory $SOLRNAME already exists, remove it before starting the setup again."
exit 1
fi
if [ ! -f $SOLRTAR ]; then
wget http://www-us.apache.org/dist/lucene/solr/$SOLRVERSION/$SOLRTAR
fi
tar -xvzf $SOLRTAR
cd $SOLRNAME
bin/solr start
bin/solr create -c $INDEXNAME
# After setting it up and creating the index use:
# - "/yourdirectory/solrdir/bin/solr start" from CLI to start the server
# - "/yourdirectory/solrdir/bin/solr stop" from CLI to stop the server.

======Solr 5/6 schema setup======

Moodle will use Solr's managed schema interface to install the required fields. You will be directed on what to do from the Manage global search page.

For very large or busy sites, it is recommended that you manually remove the '''_text_''' field, and associated copy directive from, the default Solr schema. This field is not used by Moodle, and will significantly slow indexing, and increase the size of the resulting Solr core.

======Solr 4 schema setup======

You cannot use the schema setup script when using a Solr 4 server. If you really want to use the Solr 4x branch, here are the field types descriptions:

Extracted from search/classes/document.php

{| class="nicetable"
|-
! Field name
! Field type
! Stored
! Indexed
! Query field
|-
| id
| org.apache.solr.schema.StrField
| true
| false
| false
|-
| itemid
| org.apache.solr.schema.TrieIntField
| true
| true
| false
|-
| title
| org.apache.solr.schema.TextField
| true
| true
| true
|-
| content
| org.apache.solr.schema.TextField
| true
| true
| true
|-
| contextid
| org.apache.solr.schema.TrieIntField
| true
| true
| false
|-
| areaid
| org.apache.solr.schema.StrField
| true
| true
| false
|-
| type
| org.apache.solr.schema.TrieIntField
| true
| true
| false
|-
| courseid
| org.apache.solr.schema.TrieIntField
| true
| true
| false
|-
| owneruserid
| org.apache.solr.schema.TrieIntField
| true
| true
| false
|-
| modified
| org.apache.solr.schema.TrieDateField
| true
| true
| false
|-
| userid
| org.apache.solr.schema.TrieIntField
| true
| true
| false
|-
| description1
| org.apache.solr.schema.TextField
| true
| true
| true
|-
| description2
| org.apache.solr.schema.TextField
| true
| true
| true
|-
| solr_filegroupingid
| org.apache.solr.schema.StrField
| true
| true
| false
|-
| solr_fileid
| org.apache.solr.schema.StrField
| true
| true
| false
|-
| solr_filecontenthash
| org.apache.solr.schema.StrField
| true
| true
| false
|-
| solr_fileindexstatus
| org.apache.solr.schema.TrieIntField
| true
| true
| false
|-
| solr_filecontent
| org.apache.solr.schema.TextField
| false
| true
| true
|}

======Memory and File indexing considerations======

For large sites, and particularly if you are using the File indexing feature, it's a good idea to give Solr plenty of memory, eg aound 10-20GB. To start Solr with more than its default 512MB of RAM, use the ''-m'' option:
solr start -m 12g

See the documents for your version of Solr on how to increases memory when Solr is started automatically.

======Too many boolean clauses error======

Because of the way Moodle handles permissions for searches, if you have non-admin users with access to a large number of activities (>1000), they may an error similar to the following:

The query you provided could not be parsed by the search engine: org.apache.solr.search.SyntaxError: Cannot parse
...
too many boolean clauses

To correct this, you need to increase the ''maxBooleanClauses'' setting in your Solr core. The setting is located in ''corename/conf/solrconfig.xml''.

This important note is included in the config file:
** WARNING **

This option actually modifies a global Lucene property that
will affect all SolrCores. If multiple solrconfig.xml files
disagree on this property, the value at any given moment will
be based on the last SolrCore to be initialized.

This means that for consistent behavior you should update this value for all cores in the Solr server.

=====Commannd for installing Solr Server on Centos 7=====
First of all install java (openjdk)
yum install java-1.8.0-openjdk
Add user for solr
adduser solr
Download solr server, find latest here : http://lucene.apache.org/solr/mirrors-solr-latest-redir.html, from the list there download latest solr-[version].tgz

Here is the list of needed commands (note that latest solr is suggested, change command to appropriate version)
cd /opt
wget http://www-eu.apache.org/dist/lucene/solr/6.6.0/solr-6.6.0.tgz
tar zxvf solr-6.6.0.tgz
cp solr-6.6.0/bin/install_solr_service.sh .
rm -rf solr-6.6.0
./install_solr_service.sh solr-6.6.0.tgz
chkconfig solr on
Create the index
su - solr -c "/opt/solr/bin/solr create_core -c moodle"
Then go to your Moodle and set index name as created (moodle)

==See also==

Forum discussions:
* [https://moodle.org/mod/forum/discuss.php?d=334938 Global search doesn't index plugins?]
* [https://moodle.org/mod/forum/discuss.php?d=339819 Global Search on Moodle 3.1]

A quick introduction to Moodle global search, followed by a description of the new features and fixes in Moodle 3.4 (and some of those in Moodle 3.5).
*[https://www.slideshare.net/sammarshall_ou/moodle-global-search-nows-the-time-to-jump-in Presentation by Sam Marshall from the Open University]

[[es:Búsqueda global]]
[[de:Globale Suche]]

Badges FAQ

2017-04-03T16:56:43Z

Jonb: /* How can teachers award site badges? */

{{Badges}}
==How can teachers award site badges?==

By default, teachers can only award course badges. Only users with capabilities to manage badges in the system are able to do this, so if you wish teachers to award site badges you need to create a new role as follows:

# Go to ''Administration > Site administration > Users > Permissions > Define roles'' and click 'Add a new role'
# Leave 'Use role or archetype' as No role' and click the continue button
# Give the role a name e.g. "Site badge awarder"
# Tick the '''System''' box to allow the role to be assigned in the System context
# Set the following capabilities to "allow": moodle/badges:awardbadge, moodle/badges:viewbadges, moodle/badges:configurecriteria
# Click the button 'Create this role".
# Assign the "Site badge awarder" role as a system role to the teachers you wish to award site badges.

Teachers with the role of "Site badge awarder" will see a link in the Administration block ''Site administration > Badges > Manage badges''.

==Can more than one teacher in a course award the same badge?==
''(copied from MDL-39189'') It's not the user who issues the badge, but a role. Users with multiple roles will have an option to use both of them to issue badges. If the badge is awarded twice by different roles, both roles are displayed and criteria (ALL/ANY) is given. In some cases it will be required for a badge to be awarded by several different roles. When there are, let's say, three teachers in the course and they go to award a badge as a teacher, each of them will see the list of users who already got the badge from a teacher, so they won't need to award the badge again.
==What's the difference between a backpack and a collection?==
When you upload a badge to the [http://backpack.openbadges.org/ Openbadges site] you are adding it to your backpack, which is the general area you put your badges in (like a backpack!. You then organise them into collections (like separate little bags in your backpack) and you choose which to display on your Moodle profile. So a badge may be in your backpack and not in a collection, but it must be in your backpack before it can be in a collection (note the 'public' box must be ticked too). Collections allow you to control which badges you share with people.
{|
|[[File:mozillabackpack.png|thumb|A user's online backpack]]
|[[File:collections.png|thumb|Drag badges into a new collection to display on Moodle]]
|}

==What size is a badge?==

A badge is displayed with dimensions 100 X 100 pixels. However, a larger image may be uploaded, which will then be cropped to be a square, and then resized.

See also [https://moodle.org/mod/forum/discuss.php?d=230591 Badge image size] discussion.

==Can I award a badge based on a specific grade?==

There are two ways of awarding a badge based on a specific grade.

Method 1:

Set a passing grade for the quiz in the gradebook, as explained in section 1.3 of [[Activity completion settings]].

Method 2:

# Create a page resource and set the restrict access conditions so that it only appears if the user obtains a certain activity grade or course total
# Set the activity completion for the page as "view"
# Set the badge criteria such that the page has to be completed (i.e. viewed)

==Do I have to use my Moodle email for my backpack?==
No, but you have to log in via your Persona account to authenticate via your backpack, in order to ensure you are only displaying badges belonging to you.

==Which roles can see which badges?==
See this forum post on [https://moodle.org/mod/forum/discuss.php?d=234155&parent=1017187#p1017363 viewing badges]

==Can I change a badge image once awarded?==
The short answer is 'no', but see this forum post on [https://moodle.org/mod/forum/discuss.php?d=228553 changing badge images] for more information.

==Can I revoke a badge once it has been awarded?==

Yes - see the section on revoking a badge in [[Using badges]].

==How can I get badges with participants' profiles like on Moodle.org?==
[[File:profilebadges.png|thumb|500px|center]]

These are not badges. These are group avatars/pictures. When you create a group in your course - see the documentation on [[Groups]] - you can add a picture to represent that group. In places such as forums this picture is then displayed for each participant. If they are a member of several groups then several pictures will be displayed.
==See also==

* [http://www.somerandomthoughts.com/blog/2013/05/06/open-badges-and-moodle/ Open Badges and Moodle] blog post from Gavin Henrick
* [http://badg.us/en-US/ badg.us] - a service for creating and issuing badges
* [https://p2pu.org/en/groups/how-do-i-make-a-badge/ P2PU Badge Maker] - a step by step guide on how to make a badge
* [https://www.openbadges.me/ OpenBadges.me] - An open-access image creator from MyKnowledgeMap to support all of your Open Badge building needs.
* [http://moodlebadges.com/ Badges For Your Moodle] - CC-licensed badges available for free download

Moodle forum discussions:
* Moodle in English [https://moodle.org/mod/forum/view.php?id=8085 Badges forum]
* [https://moodle.org/mod/forum/discuss.php?d=252377 Badges Backup Requires "Include Enrolled Users"?]

[[Category:FAQ]]

[[es:Insignias FAQ]]
[[ja:バッジFAQ]]

Import glossary entries

2016-08-06T14:38:50Z

Jonb:

{{Glossary}}Glossary entries can be exported and then imported into another glossary via an XML file.

==Importing glossary entries==

*As an editing teacher, access your glossary
*Go to ''Administration > Glossary administration > Import entries''

[[File:glossaryimport29.png]]

*Click the "Choose a file" button and browse for the exported entries XML file on your computer
*Select the destination for the new entries: either the current glossary or a new one
*If you want to import category information, click the checkbox.
*Click the "Submit" button.

[[File:xmlimportscreen.png]]

You'll then see a report of the entries and categories added to the glossary. If you enabled duplicate entries when you created the glossary, the import process will add all of the new definitions. Otherwise, it will not allow you to import any duplicate entries.

You will be listed as author of all the entries.

If your exported glossary included embedded images and/or attached files, these will also be imported into the new glossary.

== Troubleshooting ==

Possible causes of problems importing entries:
* If there are mistakes in the XML file such as the <entries> tag being missing or the <info> tag being in the wrong place. May happen if you have constructed the XML file manually or with some sort of tool like mailmerge in Word and your template is wrong.
* If there are top bit set characters in the text of the entities like concepts, definitions or keywords. Replace things like & with &amp;
* If there are tabs or spaces between entries. Not sure if spaces cause problems but best to remove any between the end of one tag and start of the next. e.g. Search and replace > < with >< via a text editor.
* In most cases the import is halted if any of these errors occur.
* Duplicates in the entries which clash with entries already when merging a glossary is usually not a problem.
* Warnings like <code>Warning: exec() has been disabled for security reasons in /moodle/lib/uploadlib.php on line 603</code> may not be the problem when importing but may distract one from dealing with problems with the format of the XML file.
* HTML and XHTML tags written within CONCEPT or DEFINITION elements will fail on import, showing "Array" instead of the desired content. To remedy this, try writing the (X)HTML tags within <![CDATA[ ]]> markup.
* If the glossary entries contain images, image paths will need amending by doing a search and replace in the XML file in order for the images to be displayed when the file is imported.

==Restoring a glossary activity backup==

An alternative method of importing glossary entries is to restore a glossary [[Activity backup|activity backup]] containing enrolled users. This method includes categories, images and attachments within glossary entries. When the glossary is restored, the authors of the entries will be the same as in the original glossary.

== See also ==

* Glossary - Excel to XML converter [http://www.focusedonlearning.com/share/glossaryimport.html]
* [http://moodle.org/mod/glossary/view.php?id=851 Glossary of common terms] with entries download link for importing to other Moodle sites
* [[Import and export FAQ]]
* [[XML FAQ]]

Using Moodle forum discussions:
*[http://moodle.org/mod/forum/discuss.php?d=79120 Excel to Glossaries]
*[http://moodle.org/mod/forum/discuss.php?d=142346 Backup a glossary]
*[http://moodle.org/mod/forum/discuss.php?d=123277 Importing into Moodle] contains an explanation of how to manually create an XML file from an Excel spreadsheet

[[de:Glossar erstellen#Glossareinträge_importieren]]
[[es:Importar entradas del glosario]]
[[fr:Importer/exporter un glossaire]]

Import glossary entries

2016-08-06T14:38:05Z

Jonb:

{{Glossary}}Glossary entries can be exported and then imported into another glossary via an XML file.

==Importing glossary entries==

*As an editing teacher, access your glossary
*Go to ''Administration > Glossary administration > Import entries''

[[File:glossaryimport29.png]]

*Click the "Choose a file" button and browse for the exported entries XML file on your computer
*Select the destination for the new entries: either the current glossary or a new one
*If you want to import category information, click the checkbox.
*Click the "Submit" button.

[[File:xmlimportscreen.png]]

You'll then see a report of the entries and categories added to the glossary. If you enabled duplicate entries when you created the glossary, the import process will add all of the new definitions. Otherwise, it will not allow you to import any duplicate entries.

You will be listed as author of all the entries.

If your exported glossary included embedded images and/or attached files, these will also be imported into the new glossary.

== Troubleshooting ==

Possible causes of problems importing entries:
* If there are mistakes in the XML file such as the <entries> tag being missing or the <info> tag being in the wrong place. May happen if you have constructed the XML file manually or with some sort of tool like mailmerge in Word and your template is wrong.
* If there are top bit set characters in the text of the entities like concepts, definitions or keywords. Replace things like & with &amp;
* If there are tabs or spaces between entries. Not sure if spaces cause problems but best to remove any between the end of one tag and start of the next. e.g. Search and replace > < with >< via a text editor.
* In most cases the import is halted if any of these errors occur.
* Duplicates in the entries which clash with entries already when merging a glossary is usually not a problem.
* Warnings like <code>Warning: exec() has been disabled for security reasons in /moodle/lib/uploadlib.php on line 603</code> may not be the problem when importing but may distract one from dealing with problems with the format of the XML file.
* HTML and XHTML tags written within CONCEPT or DEFINITION elements will fail on import, showing "Array" instead of the desired content. To remedy this, try writing the (X)HTML tags within <![CDATA[ ]]> markup.
* If the glossary entries contain images, image paths will need amending by doing a search and replace in the XML file in order for the images to be displayed when the file is imported.

==Restoring a glossary activity backup==

An alternative method of importing glossary entries is to restore a glossary [[Activity backup|activity backup]] containing enrolled users. This method includes categories, images and attachments within glossary entries. When the glossary is restored, the authors of the entries will be the same as in the original glossary.

== See also ==

* [http://www.focusedonlearning.com/share/glossaryimport.html] Glossary - Excel to XML converter
* [http://moodle.org/mod/glossary/view.php?id=851 Glossary of common terms] with entries download link for importing to other Moodle sites
* [[Import and export FAQ]]
* [[XML FAQ]]

Using Moodle forum discussions:
*[http://moodle.org/mod/forum/discuss.php?d=79120 Excel to Glossaries]
*[http://moodle.org/mod/forum/discuss.php?d=142346 Backup a glossary]
*[http://moodle.org/mod/forum/discuss.php?d=123277 Importing into Moodle] contains an explanation of how to manually create an XML file from an Excel spreadsheet

[[de:Glossar erstellen#Glossareinträge_importieren]]
[[es:Importar entradas del glosario]]
[[fr:Importer/exporter un glossaire]]

Publish as LTI tool

2016-08-05T06:08:39Z

Jonb: Added instructions for adding activity to the LTI consumer site

{{Enrolment}}{{New features}}The 'Publish as LTI tool' enrolment plugin, together with the LTI authentication plugin, allows remote users on a different site (known as an LTI consumer) to access selected courses and activities. In other words, Moodle functions as an LTI tool provider. Grades are sent back to the remote system. See the screencast [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cMQiKjXdm3A Publish as LTI tool] for a demonstration.

==Enabling 'Publish as LTI tool' at site level==

An administrator can enable the 'Publish as LTI tool' for use across the site:

# Go to ''Site administration > Plugins > Authentication > Manage authentication'' and enable LTI
# Go to ''Site administration > Plugins > Enrolments > Manage enrol plugins'' and enable 'Publish as LTI tool'

It is recommended that the site administration setting 'Allow frame embedding' is enabled so that tools are displayed within a frame rather than in a new window.

==Sharing access to a course or activity==

# Go to the course and in ''Course administration > Users > Enrolment methods'' add 'Publish as LTI tool' as an enrolment method
# In 'Tool to be published' select the course or activity to be shared
# Click the 'Add method' button
# Go to ''Course administration > Published as LTI tools'' and make note of the URL and secret for the LTI consumer site.
# You will also need to give the LTI consumer site a consumer key - this can be anything you want.

The LTI consumer can be another Moodle site or any other LTI-consumer-compliant LMS, such as Sakai.

==On the LTI consumer site (See MDL-53977)==

# Visit a course.
# Add a LTI activity and use the URL and secret from the LTI provider site and enter any consumer key you want.
# Log in as a student.
# Visit the course and click on the LTI activity.
# Check the activity displays as expected.

==See also==

* [[LTI and Moodle]]

[[es:Herramienta publicar como LTI]]
[[de:Als LTI-Tool bereitstellen]]

Forum FAQ

2015-11-23T21:50:30Z

Jonb: /* Can I set up forum moderation or an approval process before a post appears? */

{{Forum}}

==How can I easily see which posts I have read and not read?==
#Go to the user menu top right and select 'Preferences'.
#Click 'Forum preferences' and for 'Forum tracking' select: ''Yes; highlight new posts for me''
#Unread posts will now display on your [[Dashboard]] and in a forum itself you will be see which posts are read and unread.

[[File:forumtracking2.png]]

==Why are students unable to post in the forum?==

The most likely reason is that the forum is a [[News forum]] i.e. a special forum for general announcements which is automatically created for each course, and which by default only teachers and administrators can post in.

To create a standard forum in which students can post, turn editing on for the course, click the 'Add an activity or resource' link and then choose Forum.

Students may also be unable to post to a forum where a [[Forum_settings#Common_module_settings|Group Mode]] other than 'No Groups' has been used but the student is not a member of any group in the course. They will see the message "Adding discussions to this forum requires group membership". In this case, either add the student to a [[Groups|group]] or change the [[Forum_settings#Common_module_settings|Group Mode]] to 'No Groups'.

==How do I enable students to rate forum posts?==

In ''Administration > Forum administration > Permissions'' click the + symbol opposite the capability to rate posts and allow the role of student.

===How can I have a 'Like' button for my forum discussions?===

*From ''Course administration>Grades>Scales'' add a new scale with just one item. This could be 'Like' or it could be 'Useful' for example.
*Enable ratings in your forum and if you want students to 'like' the posts, in ''Administration > Forum administration > Permissions'' click the + symbol opposite the capability to rate posts and allow the role of student.

[[File:forumlike.png|thumb|center|500px]]

==Why can I not get ratings to work on my forums?==
Assuming you have followed the instructions above correctly and still cannot see ratings, then check you have json support enabled on your server. You can see this in ''Settings>Site administration>Server>PHP info.''

[[File:Json.png]]

See also this discussion:[ http://moodle.org/mod/forum/discuss.php?d=170563]

==How can I create a teacher-only forum?==

A teacher/tutor-only forum may be added to a course by creating a hidden forum. Teachers are able to view hidden course activities whereas students cannot.

==My users can't add attachments to my forum, either with drag and drop or with the file picker.==

Check that in the forum settings that you have changed the maximum number of attachments allowed to a number greater than 0 ;)

==How can I remove the news forum from a course?==

#Delete the news forum from the course homepage.
#In ''Administration > Course administration > Edit settings'' set "News items to show" to 0.
#Delete the Latest news block.

==How can I remove test messages from a new forum?==
There are several options ([https://moodle.org/mod/forum/discuss.php?d=95470#p421687 Here is a nice graphic]). Remember you can
*Move the discussion/thread to another forum
*Edit the post with your moderator powers
*Delete the post with your moderator powers
*Split the thread at a particular post and move it to another thread
*Split>move>delete your test messages.

==How can I set a display period for news forum announcements?==

Timed posts are disabled by default, but the feature can be enabled by checking the ''forum_enabletimedposts'' checkbox in ''Administration > Site administration > Plugins > Activity modules > Forum''. Timed posts can then be created by users with the [[Capabilities/mod/forum:viewhiddentimedposts|capability to view hidden timed posts]] (normally managers and teachers). '''New in 3.0''': the display period includes a time as well as date.

==Why are email copies of forum posts not being sent?==

The most likely reason is that the cron is not set up. Please refer to the [[Cron|cron instructions]].

Tips:
* Try the default settings in ''Settings > Site administration > Plugins > Message outputs > Email''. This generally works.
*Make sure that 'Allow user to select character set' in ''Settings > Site administration > Plugins > Message outputs > Email'' is set to No.

==How do I enable guests to post in a forum?==

It's not possible to enable guests to post in a forum, though there is a workaround. Please see [[Forum poster role]] for details.

==How can I close/archive a forum?==
*You might want to do this if, for example, you want to put an end to a student discussion topic but still want them to be able to see posts which had been made without being able to reply any more.

*In ''Administration > Forum administration > Permissions'' click the Prevent icon (X) for the student role for the capabilites 'Start new discussions' and 'Reply to posts'.

{|
|[[File:forum-permissions-page1.gif|thumb|The screen and relevant capabilities. (Click to enlarge]]
|}

'''NOTE:''' If you are a teacher in a course, you should be able to do this by default, but if you don't see these options, ask your admin to do the following:
#Go to ''Administration > Site Administration > Users > Permissions > Define roles''
#Edit the teacher role and change the capability moodle/role:safeoverride to allow
#Click the button "Save changes"
#Click the tab "Allow role overrides" (in ''Settings > Site administration > Users > Permissions > Define roles'')
#Check the appropriate box(s) in the teacher row to set which role(s) they can override. Most likely it will just be the student role, so check the box where the teacher row intersects with the student column
#Click the button "Save changes"

To make a single thread read only, you need a forum which has already been closed/archived. Move the the thread to this read-only forum.

==How can I quarantine a forum post?==
If a student makes an inappropriate post, rather than deleting it, you can "quarantine" it by sending it to a hidden forum and then alerting your superior and the child's guardians. To do this you first need to create a forum "Hidden forum for Offensive Posts" (for example) and hide it with its eye.
**Find the offensive post and click 'split' (between 'edit' and 'delete')
**This will take you to a second page where you will be asked to verify the split. Confirm it by pressing the 'split' button near the top of the page.
**The post(s) will now be split. You should see the post/discussion individually on a separate page. In the right-hand corner will be a dropdown bar and a button that says 'move.'
**Choose 'Hidden Forum for Offensive Posts' in the dropdown and click 'move.'

Make sure you inform the child why their post has been quarantined, as well as your superior and the child's guardians.
''
(with thanks to Ben Reynolds)''

==Can I set up forum moderation or an approval process before a post appears?==
Not in core Moodle.
*Check out the tracker item https://tracker.moodle.org/browse/MDL-35378
*And https://tracker.moodle.org/browse/CONTRIB/component/10440
*And https://tracker.moodle.org/browse/CONTRIB-2260
*If anyone discovers a plugin to allow this, please post details

==Can I subscribe to just one discussion in a forum?==

Yes. Please see [[Forum settings]]

==How can I receive forum emails in digest form?==

A daily digest of either complete forum posts or with subjects only can be enabled in ''Settings > My profile settings > Edit profile''.

==How can I allow students to add new questions in a Q & A forum type?==

Only teachers and managers by default see the "add a new question" button. If you wish students to be able to add new questions, they need to be given the capability [[Capabilities/mod/forum:addquestion|mod/forum:addquestion]]

==How can I make sure my students are notified of forum posts?==

For students to be notified of forum posts, they need to be ''subscribed'' to the forum. A teacher can choose to force subscription on a particular forum either initially (auto subscription) or permanently (forced subscription) using the subscription mode setting. See the section on subscription mode in [[Forum settings]] for further details.

A teacher can also subscribe selected students to the forum via ''Settings > Forum administration > Show/edit current subscribers''.

==How can I change the 'From' address for forum notifications sent via email?==

By default, a user's email is set as the 'From' address for forum notifications (unless the user has hidden their email address in their profile) so that recipients can choose to reply personally rather than via the forum. To set noreply@yourmoodlesite.org as 'From' address for all forum notification emails, untick the forum_replytouser checkbox in ''Administration > Site administration > Plugins > Activity modules > Forum''.

==How can I remove the words "Site news"?==
You can change the words to something else from ''Administration>Forum administration>Edit settings'' but to have no words at all - and without touching the code - do the following:
*As admin go to ''Administration>Site administration>Appearance>HTML settings'' and uncheck/untick ''Remove HTML tags from all activity names''
*Go to ''Administration>Forum administration<Edit settings'' (for the site news) and type:
[[File:sitenewsname.png]]

*Save. What this does is code a space into the name field so Moodle thinks there is something in the required field - but that something is a space, not words.
==Can I have different email digests for different forums?==

This is possible, although there is not currently a setting for it. In the course you wish to manage the daily digests, type into your browser ''http://YOURMOODLESITE/mod/forum/index.php?id=2'' (where ''YOURMOODLESITE'' is your Moodle and the ''=number'' is the course ID) This will bring you to the index page of all your subscribed forums and you can specify how you want to receive notifications from there.
{|
|[[File:26forumdigest.png|thumb|Per forum digest settings]]
|}

==How can a teacher see all of a student's forum posts in a course?==
If a teacher clicks on the profile of a particular student, for example via the Participants link, they can then access a link ''Forum posts'' from the Navigation block. Expanding this link will offer the option either to see all posts or any discussions started by that student.

[[File:studentforumposts.png]]

==How can a user see all their forum posts on Moodle?==
A user can view all their forum posts by going to the Navigation block and clicking ''My profile>Forum posts.'' Expanding this link will offer the option either to see all posts or any discussions started.

[[File:seeallforumposts.png]]

==How can I remove a rating from a forum post?==
It is not currently possible to remove a rating which might have been made by mistake or by malice. However, if a certain poster gives inappropriate ratings on a regular basis, it is possible to create a custom system role preventing them from rating posts and applying this role to the specified posters.

==See also==

* Using Moodle [http://moodle.org/mod/forum/view.php?f=116 Forum module forum]

Using Moodle forum discussions:

* [http://moodle.org/mod/forum/discuss.php?d=148055 Ability to post anonymously]
* [http://moodle.org/mod/forum/discuss.php?d=178331 How to resend forum posts]
* [http://moodle.org/mod/forum/discuss.php?d=196698 Discussion Count]

[[Category:FAQ]]
[[de:Forum FAQ]]
[[fr:FAQ sur le forum]]
[[es:Foro FAQ]]

Development:Wikindx

2007-04-20T13:30:35Z

Jonb:

'''Notes on the possible integration of [http://wikindx.sourceforge.net/index2.html WIKINDX] with Moodle.'''

[http://wikindx.sourceforge.net/index2.html WIKINDX]is a free BiblioGraphic and quotations/notes management and article authoring system designed either for single use (on a variety of operating sytems) or multi-user collaborative use across the internet.

Please also see the Moodle Discussion at http://moodle.org/mod/forum/discuss.php?d=23022

==Wikindx filter for Moodle==

Dan Stowell has created a "Wikindx filter" for Moodle which allows you to cross-link to a wikindx entry by typing (for example) wikindx:646. The filter is in contrib CVS, named "filter_wikindx" or can be downloaded at http://download.moodle.org/download.php/modules/filter_wikindx.zip

From MG:
Some design considerations for a moodle filter that enables a wikindx to be searched, a reference to be selected, page number(s) to be added and the in-text or footnote citation and full reference to be returned formatted to the user's requirements.

NB With everything else I have going on (PhD, Wikindx, life) I have no intention of setting up Moodle for testing this (no prior experience in Moodle let alone moodle filters) but, if someone is willing to a) write the moodle filter code and b) be prepared to run beta wikindx code to test the interface, then I would be more than happy to do whatever needs to be done in the wikindx code. The wikindx code will be easy: I can't speak for the moodle code (but, see below, imagine that quite a bit of it could be pulled from wikindx). I also have no idea if moodle filters alone can accomplish what I've suggested below or if the code needs greater integration in the moodle core code.

1/ The Moodle filter needs to provide 3 basic functions:
:a) an icon in the HTML text editor that opens a pop-up,
:b) the pop up should provide a simple search/select interface to wikindx resources,
:c) once the selected wikindx resource has been inserted into the text, the moodle HTML editor text is saved and the filter sends the reference (and style and page number(s)) to wikindx for formatting and insertion into the moodle text.

2/ Because what is supplied to the pop-up (see below) requires a connection to wikindx, the filter should have a config file for the wikindx database connection details. wikindx 3.4 now allows admins to lock out read-only users so this config file may also have the option to add a wikindx username::password pair (I would not favour this though).

3/ The search interface could be similar to the wikindx Quick Search interface less the ordering options (to save on space). [WIKINDX code (filling the pop-up)]

4/ The results of a search should be displayed with multiple resources next to radio buttons, a select box to choose the formatting style and text boxes to enter page number(s). Each radio button has a value that is the unique resource ID in the wikindx. [WIKINDX code]

5/ Once the appropriate resource has been selected and other details added, clicking on a 'process' button will add the appropriate filter mark-up which may be something like:
:wikindx:34:12[APA]
:wikindx:56:34-35[CHICAGO]

where the first number is the wikindx resource ID, the second number(s) is the page and [...] is the bibliographic style chosen. [WIKINDX code]

6/ On saving the moodle text, that markup is extracted and sent to the wikindx server (something like http://....index.php&externalResourceGrab&id=56&pages=34-35&style=CHICAGO) which then formats the requested resource and provides a string in return which would consist of a serialized/base64_encoded PHP multi-dimensional array which, when unpacked, would have something like the following (if APA for example):
:array(
::[style] = array(
:::[type] => "inText"
::),
::[citation] = array(
:::[56] => "(Martin et al. 1978, pp.34--35)"
::),
::[reference] = array(
:::[0] => "Martin, R. L., Thrift, N. J., & Bennett, R. J. (Eds.). (1978). ''Towards the dynamic analysis of spatial systems''. London: Pion."
::)
:);

for a footnote-type citation (e.g. Chicago), it might be:
:array(
::[style] = array(
:::[type] => "footnote",
:::[textMarkup] => "superscript",
:::[textStart] => "[",
:::[textEnd] => "] ",
:::[footnoteMarkup] => "normal",
:::[footnoteStart] => "",
:::[footnoteEnd] => ". "
::),
::[citation] = array(
:::[56] => "''Towards the Dynamic Analysis of Spatial Systems''. 1978. Edited by R. L. Martin, N. J. Thrift and R. J. Bennett. London: Pion. pp.34--35"
::),
::[reference] = array(
:::[0] => "''Towards the Dynamic Analysis of Spatial Systems''. 1978. Edited by R. L. Martin, N. J. Thrift and R. J. Bennett. London: Pion."
::)
:);

:NB 1/ The italics (and any underline, bold etc.) would be returned as HTML markup. [WIKINDX code]
:NB 2/ For footnote-type styles, [style][textMarkup] indicates whether the in-text reference ([1] for example should be 'superscript', 'subscript' or 'normal' (default)) -- for the footnote, such formatting could be HTML-encoded in [citation][56]. Ditto for the footnote.
:NB 3/ [style][textStart] and [style][textEnd] are characters that are printed before and after the in-text reference number. Ditto for the footnote. They may be blank.

7/ Moodle would take this array and, if [style][type] == 'footnote', insert something like '[1]' in the body of the text, [citation] as a footnote and, if required, append [reference] to a bibliography (perhaps this is just future-proofing in this case). However, if [style][type] == 'inText', [citation] would be inserted in the body of the text and [reference] appended.

8/ In the case of multiple citations, wikindx should be able to provide the second element of the array correctly ordered as per the style requirements. So you might have something like:

:array(
::[style] = array(
:::[type] => "inText"
::),
::[citation] = array(
:::[56] => "(Martin et al. 1978, pp.34--35)",
:::[34] => "(Aarseth et al. 2003)"
::),
::[reference] = array(
:::[0] => "Aarseth, E., Smedstad, S. M., & Sunnanå, L. (2003, November 4—6). ''A multi-dimensional typology of games''. Paper presented at Level Up, Utrecht Universiteit.",
:::[1] => "Martin, R. L., Thrift, N. J., & Bennett, R. J. (Eds.). (1978). ''Towards the dynamic analysis of spatial systems''. London: Pion."
::)
:);

In this way separate orders are maintained for the citation and the appended bibliography. Additionally, having [citation][56] and [citation][34] allows for a quick search and replace, once the array has been returned, on the moodle text using something like "/\Wwikindx:$citationIndex.*\s/Ui"
[WIKINDX code]

Perhaps the above is not do-able as a simple moodle filter?

It should be noted that the footnote type display of citations above is a simplified version of what the full WIKINDX/OSBib code offers where, in addition to deciding on endnote/footnote types, there is also the possibility for in-text footnote references to be repeated/reused if they refer to the same reference, for in-text citations to be manipulated or even dropped entirely on a whole set of conditions (title/author name in same sentence, that reference already referred to in the text body etc. etc. etc.) just to name a few of the extra processing on offer. All of this is, of course, in the case of multiple citations within the same body of text. To get this functionality, the whole body of text would need to be sent to wikindx for processing -- this may be a step too far in this case.

::Perhaps sending the complete body of text would be easiest. I can simply set the wikindx code to ignore markup outside the wikindx::xxxx tag. --[[User:Mark Grimshaw|Mark Grimshaw]] 13:31, 3 September 2006 (CDT)

==Outline thoughts on integration...==

1. Do we need to allowing a user already logged into a Moodle site to be seamlessly logged in to a wikindx? Or maybe just use the same login details between the two (like the way that Moodle.org and MoodleDocs works). If necessary, something could be added to wikindx to enable this. In most cases though, with the right config settings, wikindx will allow any read only request without requiring login.

2. Another issue is how to integrate the paper writing function of Wikindx into Moodle. What about use of the HTML editor? Could it be integrated some way with the Netpublish module? Imagine students or professors being able to use it to write academic papers and then publish those on the Moodle site. Currently wikindx publishes papers solely to RTF. It should be simple to publish to HTML since that's what the raw document is anyway (a matter of adding HTML header/footer, formatting citations and appending bibliographies -- most of this code is already in wikindx but not (yet) made available to the word processor). Compared to other HTML editors, the only additional options wikindx offers in its version are buttons to import citations, metadata and insert footnotes. All the rest (barring stats, timestamps, save etc.) are font/text formatting.

3. For the filter above, how do you decide what bibliographic style to present in (APA, Chicago, IEEE etc.)? Presumably, this is something that could be set in the filter config file. (Although I haven't seen the filter in operation, I'm assuming it picks up a properly formatted reference for insert. Either short (Grimshaw, 2006) or long (Grimshaw, Mark N. 2006, WIKINDX [OSS].) for example. Is the only method of citation available parenthetical? Is it possible to use endnotes (or footnotes) as well? Yes, endnote/footnote styles are available as well.

:''Note from DS: No, at present the Wikindx filter simply displays the text "wikindx:646" (for example). It's a very simple start and I hope that people with more knowledge of Wikindx will be able to modify it to extract the properly-formatted reference direct from Wikindx. If wikindx had a system whereby a certain URL call would supply the reference text in whatever style was configured for wikindx, this would be a good way to display the citation nicely within Moodle. Does such a call exist? I don't think so. Something like mywikindx.com/index.php?'''action=resourceGrabCitation'''&id=501 would be required.''

:''Note from JB: As the wikindx admin can set the default bibliographic style in the config, the filter will just present that style. The filter is simple but oh so useful! So when I type '''wikindx:1''' into my moodle installation, it creates an automatic link to http://www.baillie.org.uk/wikindx//index.php?action=resourceView&id=1

:''Note from MG: action=resourceGrabCitation can be added and the default citation formatting applied. A possible gotcha in that there may be a problem with footnote/endnote style citation is that not only would you need the footnote marker (e.g. [1]) but you would also need the full reference to be appended to the text as a footnote (I'm assuming this is required rather than just using [1] as a hyperlink to the wikindx resource -- presumably you would want to use the same strict referencing that students are required to use). Hence, in this case, the returned values would consist of two values -- one the citation to be hyperlinked and the other the full reference to be appended.''

:''Note from MG: In wikindx, inserting a citation into metadata or the word processor involves clicking on an icon which opens a popup. In this, there is a select box listing short entries of all available resources and some text fields for users to enter cited page numbers. Perhaps something similar could be used in the moodle wikindx filter to avoid the hassle of having to look up the wikindx resource id before entering it into moodle. This pop-up could also list the available citation/bibliographic styles on the wikindx allowing the user to select the style with which the citation should be formatted prior to insertion into moodle.''

4. Mark, your remarks in 2 have gotten me thinking. Although not everyone likes the Moodle HTML area editor that much, it still is the standard way of creating text in Moodle and perhaps a way of integrating Wikindx would be to add buttons for Wikindx to it, just like the kind described above in Wikindx's native editor. I needed to integrate a hieroglyph editor into my site and Janne Mikkonen helped me to add it through a button in the html editor that pops up a window, in which the student type the hieroglyphs they need, and then click a button to have them inserted back into the editor-similar to the way the insert image popup works. I would imagine something similar could be done with Wikindx. The advantage of this is that it would make Wikindx accessible anywhere within Moodle, rather than just as a separate module. You might also want a standalone module option whereby students could collaborate on creating bibliographies together.

:''Note from MG: Adding the appropriate buttons would be my suggestion. In wikindx, citations are added by the popup automatically adding something like''
:''[cite]146:22-23[/cite]''
:''where 146 is the resource ID in the database and 22-23 are the page nos. This can be added via a cite button or will be appended to an inserted quotation/paraphrase via the wikindx 'insert metadata' button. Footnotes (i.e. parenthetical thoughts as opposed to citation footnotes - WIKINDX does handle those footnotes/endnotes as well) are inserted via a button which encloses the inserted footnote in:''
:''[footnote]....[/footnote]''

:''Exporting to RTF, the cite tags are substituted with the formatted citation marker (in-text or footnote/endnote), bibliographic information is extracted and appended to a bibliography and footnote tags are converted to RTF footnotes. Of course, all HTML code (font/text formatting, tables, lists, images etc.) are converted to their appropriate RTF code too.''

5. Re the citation/bibliographic formatting, the PHP code for this has been extracted from wikindx and made available to other OSS apps at http://bibliophile.sourceforge.net (I think Aigaion and Bibliograph use it or are about to) so it may be easy enough for Moodle to use this too. In fact doubly easy if moodle interfaces with a wikindx because the quickest way to set up the formatting engine is to provide data to it in exactly the same PHP associative array that wikindx natively expects.

6. What capabilities are there in Wikindx at this time for different capabilities in using bibliographies? Can bibliographies be shared by a predefined group/all users? Can some people be given the ability to add to a bibliography while others can only use the bibilography? Can bibliography entries be required to have approval by some person before they are displayed to all? These would be nice features to have.

:''MG: WIKINDX recognizes two types of bibliography; the master bibliography (MB) and user bibliographies (UB). The MB holds the resources while UBs merely have references to resources from the MB. Currently both the MB and UBs are readable by all users. A UB is owned by a user and only he/she can add/delete references to resources. All write enabled users can add to the MB. Because I'm aiming towards collaborative authoring in the word processor (SUWP), a long-standing feature to be implemented is to add user groups (i.e. research teams). Then, the owner of a UB can add other users with write access to the UB and only those users can browse the UB. Additionally, a user can make comments and musings private, shared with a group or public. Of course, a SUWP article can be shared among a group. This hasn't been implemented yet -- I need to find someone familiar with wiki technology to help implement the collaborative authoring first.''

[[Category:Developer]]

Development:Wikindx

2006-08-09T11:09:38Z

Jonb: /* Outline thoughts on integration... */

Development:Developer notes

2006-08-08T15:19:53Z

Jonb:

<p class="note"> '''Note for contributors:''' This area is for developers to work on various bits of code and documentation as necessary. Once material has matured it should be linked to from the main [[Developer documentation]] page.
Initial text has been taken from [http://moodle.org/course/view.php?id=5 Using Moodle] Developer Wiki. If you find any text missing, please email docs AT moodle DOT org.</p>

*[[Forum development|Forum functional upgrade]]
*[[Other lang issues|Language issues]]
*[[MoodleDocs development]]
*[[Datalib Notes]]
*[[Usability]]
*[[Blogs and forums|Blogs, forums and the nature of discussion]]
*[[Document Management API]]
*[[Filters schema]]
*[[Filterall support]]
*[[Application/session variables]]
*[[Wiki development|Wiki module development]]
*[[Conditional activities]]
*[[Roles]]
*[[Improved Payment Plugin]]
*[[Moodle forms library]]
*[[Martin form notes]]
*[[wikindx|Possible integration of WIKINDX with Moodle]]

[[Category:Developer]]

Development:Developer notes

2006-08-08T15:18:47Z

Jonb:

Development:Wikindx

2006-08-08T15:07:22Z

Jonb: Notes on the possible integration of WIKINDX with Moodle