Mnet 1.0 progress

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Status

General functionality is complete, though some config screens are _very_ raw (and yet others quite polished). Looking forward we have

• Polish configuration aspects
• Polish some usability aspects
• More meaningful errors for end users - and easier to debug
• Some internal changes
• Some bugfixing (not many so far - cross fingers!)
• Get some extra eyes on this and aim for a merge!
  • MultiAuth is 99% ready - reviews and testers welcome
  • RPC aspects are 90% ready - will be looking for review soon, testers welcome
  • Hub Services (SSO and Enrolment) are 80% ready - undergoing minor rework and fixups

Internals - Naming & conventions

• Tables and functions following moodle conventions
  • DM Done: mnet_host.description - rename to mnet_host.name
  • DM Done: mnet.service.service_name rename to 'name'
  • DM Done: rename mdl_mnet_enrol_assignments.studentid to userid

• should some of our mnet/enrol stuff be in auth/sso?

• DM Done: $MNET_CLIENT instead of $MNET Note - we renamed to $MNET_REMOTE_CLIENT

• ML Done: Database: when we are done with schema changes, write upgrade.php

Internals - correctness

• ML Done: walk our delta to check for required_param() and optional_param() without PARAM_TYPE

  git-diff MOODLE_17_STABLE...master | pcregrep '\+.*(required_param|optional_param)'

• ML Done: walk our delta to check for camelCase
• multi auth
  • JH Done: initial install should enable email-based self-reg and manual accts
  • JH Tested: if they are disabled, it should _break_ and not allow users in
  • update 1.7 -> 1.8 auth migration guide

• mnet rpc -
  • DM Done: don't dispatch if module/plugin is disabled
  • ML Done: figure out handling of xml-rpc reported errors
  • DM Done: why does the xmlrpc client have to call it 'enrol/mnet/enrol/foo'? the 2nd instance of enrol is superfluous
  • DM Done (Testing required): key rotation

• enrol/mnet
  • ML Done: available_courses() needs review
  • enrol_user()/unenrol_user()
    • get rid of ob_ hack
    • only unenrol if enrol ='mnet'
    • Error handling if xmlrpc reported error
    • Error handling if remote host does not have networking ok?
    • maybe implement a 'default role override' (low pri)

• block/courses_list needs to be reworked a bit for correctness
  • the "my courses" in the main page should follow
  • abstrace "get_my_remote_courses()" functionality

• auth/mnet
  • JH Done: prevent jump if username === 'guest' or if mnethost!= localhost

• Review capabilities and privileges - and relationship with whitelist / blacklist

• JH Testing: MAJOR - user.username uniqueness - check with MartinD

• Backup & REstore - check with Eloy

Architecture / Design

• discuss mnet host services configuration and service data caching
  • DM Done: goal: simplify host to service mapping
  • DM Done: bug: Once we've seen a remote service, we think we have it to offer too?
  • DM Done: goal for MartinD: a "Moodle Hub" host may just offer sso and enrol to any remote host?

UI

• simplify mnet host configuration
  • partially done - how do we bring the ability to run promiscuous?
  • DM Done: use submit-redirect scheme re-enable the back-button
  • DM Done: admin sidebar link should be Networking->Hosts
• DM Done: admin/mnet - do NOT show IDs anywhere in the page
• DM Done: admin/mnet - make sure we trim trailing slashes at form input time, and also at RPC incoming call
• enrol/mnet -
  • pull/cache enrolments from remote hosts
    • maybe as logs?
  • display in my courses
  • more advanced dance to enrol to remote hosts...
• Make enrol/mnet interfaces nicer
  • remote_hosts.php
    • tidy up tables
    • add cached counts of courses available and enrolments
    • add links to logs view
  • remote_courses.php
    • should look & behave similar to courses/index.php -- steal CSS
  • remote_enrolment.php
    • tidy up
  • These 3 scripts above need a bit of a scrubbing and a whole lot of lang strings
    • To consider - these 3 scripts may need to be split off outside of enrol/mnet.
      • UI - wise, I think it will make sense to make them show up in the main admin block, so it shows up under Network -> Remote enrolments

    MartinD is likely to want it to be Network -> Hub enrolments or something like that.
    We may leave this until we talk with him -- it's not a big problem if we have to
    move the files around.

• • JH Done: Replace course / category selection in enrol/mnet/config.html with a separate page with 2 panes, similar to remote_enrolment.php
    • Storage of that info needs to be reworked
  • consider splitting out log handling to a separate page for scalability (low pri)

Further Functionality

• Exchange more enrolment info during jump
  • IdP needs to current roles in SP to display in My Courses and reports
  • SP needs to know about enrolments in IdP (and perhaps even other SPs) to make My Courses more useful
  • Related My Courses improvements
  • Might need to tweak mnet_enrol_role_assignments table

• Mnet Dispatcher (low pri)
  • Expose core moodle calls via lib/publiclib.php or similar?
  • Allow mnet-specific drop-ins via mnet/plugins/ ?

• Content sharing
  • ML: Defer Come up with a simple + useful plan or defer

• Forum post mailings
  • Tweak read / reply URLs - possible?
    • JH: If we can get jump.php to use ?wwwroot=foo as well as ?hostid=n otherwise the cron() function in enrol/mnet will need to query remote host for the mnet_host_id...
    • Other mailouts with links?

User feedback

• RWyles
  • Allow request remote host logo for theme displkay
  • LOGINAS is broken on SP
  • Think about gradebook service to export final grades