MoodleDocs - User contributions [en]

Question editing form improvements

2013-04-05T09:50:19Z

Colchambers: /* Questions */

Question editing form improvements

2013-04-05T09:43:58Z

Colchambers: /* Expandable Sections MDL-30637 */ Removed references to our work. Included link to LUNS mdl bug

File:choices grouped.jpg

2013-04-05T09:38:35Z

Colchambers:

Question editing form improvements

2013-04-05T09:37:57Z

Colchambers: /* Make the form sections more logical MDL-36534, MDL-36570, MDL-37466 */

{{Infobox Project
|name = Question editing form improvements MDL-37417
|state = Prototype implemented, feedback wanted
|tracker = MDL-37417, code at https://github.com/timhunt/moodle/tree/qforms
|discussion = [http://moodle.org/mod/forum/discuss.php?d=175290 Quiz forum thread]
|assignee = Colin Chambers
}}
{{Moodle 2.4}}

This page describes proposed improvements that have been done by Colin Chambers, with some input from Phil Butcher and Tim Hunt at the OU, so that is who is meant by 'we' below. Note also that the screen-grabs are a mixture of the OU theme and the Moodle standard theme.

==Introduction==

Many question type editing forms are long and unwieldy. The usability really needs to be improved, and so we have been experimenting with several ideas:

# Making all sections of the forms collapsible.
# Re-grouping the elements on the forms into sections, so the collapsible sections are more useful.
# Grouping some fields onto the same line to save space. For example, putting answer, grade and tolerance on the same line for numerical questions.
# Hiding the editing tools for 'small' html editors by default. For example for multiple choice choices. This saves a huge amount of space.
# Pre-filling the 'Overall feedback' form fields with some standard text.

Overall, we think we have made big improvements to the usability of these forms, but before such major changes could be made in Moodle, we need to know what everyone else thinks.

If you have any more ideas for making things even better, please let us know.

==Expandable Sections MDL-30637==

This is the ability for the user to collapse and expand form sections.

We developed a solution (outlined below). So did LUNS [http://moodle.org/mod/forum/discuss.php?d=191549 LUNS implementation of the same thing] (MDL-30637). Great minds think alike!

The functionality is almost identical. Their work is nearing integration and thus replaces our work.

We're leaving the description of our work below for reference and in case the LUNS work isn't integrated.

To the left of each section title a + or - icon controls the visibility of that particular section. The icon used indicates what will happen when it is clicked. - indicates the section will collapse. + indicates it will expand.

Fig 1. All sections collapsed

[[File:Toggles-collapsed.jpg]]

With all sections collapsed it's possible to see on one page all sections in the form and gauge its complexity.

Fig 2. Sections expanded

[[File:Toggles-expanded.jpg]]

You can expand only the sections you want to see. The answers section often takes up one or two screens. So it's collapsed here.

===The subtleties about collapsing forms===

We could collapse all sections when the form loads but this wouldn't be very helpful. So we've added some additional logic to set the form up for easy editing straight away.

====Required sections should be expanded by default====

Collapsing a section can hide required form fields. So required sections are marked with *

Fig 3. Required section collapsed

[[File:Required-collapsed.jpg]]

This section contains a required field so a * appears after its title.

Fig 4. Required section expanded

[[File:Required-expanded.jpg]]

Expanding the section reveals the required field.

====Whether a section is expanded remembered as a user preference====

the collapsed or expanded state of each section is remembered for example if the answers section was collapsed last time you used a question editing form it will be collapsed for the next question editing form. The type of question doesn't matter.

====Sections that contain a validation error expanded by default====

Remembering section visibility can cause issues. Particularly if sections with required fields or errors are collapsed. You may not realise why you're having problems submitting a form.

To prevent this problem all sections with validation errors are expanded by default. They will also be expanded if they contain empty required fields or fields with errors.

====Always expanded sections====

Regardless of previous user preference the 'General' section (more generally the first section of the form) is always expanded initially.

====Always collapsed sections====

If no user preference is recorded the 'Combined feedback' section will load collapsed.

As you can see, to makes things "just work the way you would naturally expect", a lot of details have to be considered. We are still not sure we have got it quite right. There may be more tinkering to do.

==Make the form sections more logical MDL-36534, MDL-36570, MDL-37466==

Once you have collapsible sections of the form, it becomes really important that the sections of the form that you expand or collapse are logical units.

In the past, for example, we had a separate section for each choice in multiple choice questions, or each unit in a numerical question. These sections are too small, so we merged them.

Here is the new grouping on part of the numerical question type form:

[[File:choices_grouped.jpg]]

And here is how the form used to look: (note that there was only space to show two choices in this screen-grab!)

[[File:choices_original.png]]

Obviously, the specific changes depend on each question type, but we followed a general principle. For a typical question type we now have the following sections on the form:

* General - question text, general feedback, and any other settings like 'Shuffle answers'
* Answers / Choices / ... - all together in one section, for those question types that have such things.
* Combined feedback - that is, the 'Feedback for any correct response' etc. - for those question types that have this section.
* Settings for multiple tries - this now contains the penalty and all the hints.
* Tags - as currently, the last section on the form.

==Group some fields on the same line MDL-37422==

This change is also visible in the previous section. The Answer, Grade and Accepted error are all on the same line. In fact the forms used to be like this way back in the days of Moodle <=1.7 and the fields got spread out in Moodle 1.8. The old arrangement seems like a better use of space, and Colin has finally tamed formslib to make that possible.

==Hide editing tools from some html fields MDL-32750==

For 'small' HTML editor, the HTML editor starts with the editing toolbar hidden:

[[File:editorscollapsed.png]]

You can click to reveal it if necessary:

[[File:editorsexpanded.png]]

At the moment this is implemented by having a 'whitelist' of form elements on the question editing forms to apply this to. The question is, should we do this automatically throughout Moodle. For example, we could apply this to any HTML editor that was smaller than X px high? Or we could require a 'collapsible' property to be set in the form definition.

==Pre-fill the combined feedback fields MDL-31726==

We would like to pre-fill the combined feedback fields as shown in this screen-grab.

[[File:combinedfeedback.png]]

This is a change that clearly makes sense for the OU, but may not be a good idea for anyone else. Note that these strings would be language strings, and so could be customised using Site administration ► Language ► Language customization.

==Questions==

This is a summary of the questions posed above:

# Do we want to make all sections of all forms collapsible in Moodle 2.3? If so, which bits of logic do we want?
## Auto-expand all sections with required fields?
## ... or just those where the required field is currently empty?
## Auto-expand any section containing a validation error? (We think this is obviously 'yes'.)
## Always start with the first section of the form expanded?
## Are there other sections of forms which should always start expanded? If so, how do we mark them?
## Do we need the bit about user-preferences to remember which sections you had expanded last time?
# Any objection to re-grouping the fields into sections? (We think the new grouping is just better.)
# Any objection to grouping some fields on the same line? (Again, we think this is just better.)
# Is the collapsible editor a good idea?
## If so, to we apply it everywhere in Moodle?
## If so, how to we decide which editors to apply it to? By initial size? By requiring the form creator to add a class="..." attribute to the form elements to modify?
# Is pre-filling the combined feedback fields a good idea?

Question editing form improvements

2013-04-05T09:29:12Z

Colchambers: /* Make the form sections more logical MDL-36534, MDL-36570, MDL-37466 */

{{Infobox Project
|name = Question editing form improvements MDL-37417
|state = Prototype implemented, feedback wanted
|tracker = MDL-37417, code at https://github.com/timhunt/moodle/tree/qforms
|discussion = [http://moodle.org/mod/forum/discuss.php?d=175290 Quiz forum thread]
|assignee = Colin Chambers
}}
{{Moodle 2.4}}

This page describes proposed improvements that have been done by Colin Chambers, with some input from Phil Butcher and Tim Hunt at the OU, so that is who is meant by 'we' below. Note also that the screen-grabs are a mixture of the OU theme and the Moodle standard theme.

==Introduction==

Many question type editing forms are long and unwieldy. The usability really needs to be improved, and so we have been experimenting with several ideas:

# Making all sections of the forms collapsible.
# Re-grouping the elements on the forms into sections, so the collapsible sections are more useful.
# Grouping some fields onto the same line to save space. For example, putting answer, grade and tolerance on the same line for numerical questions.
# Hiding the editing tools for 'small' html editors by default. For example for multiple choice choices. This saves a huge amount of space.
# Pre-filling the 'Overall feedback' form fields with some standard text.

Overall, we think we have made big improvements to the usability of these forms, but before such major changes could be made in Moodle, we need to know what everyone else thinks.

If you have any more ideas for making things even better, please let us know.

==Expandable Sections MDL-30637==

This is the ability for the user to collapse and expand form sections.

We developed a solution (outlined below). So did LUNS [http://moodle.org/mod/forum/discuss.php?d=191549 LUNS implementation of the same thing] (MDL-30637). Great minds think alike!

The functionality is almost identical. Their work is nearing integration and thus replaces our work.

We're leaving the description of our work below for reference and in case the LUNS work isn't integrated.

To the left of each section title a + or - icon controls the visibility of that particular section. The icon used indicates what will happen when it is clicked. - indicates the section will collapse. + indicates it will expand.

Fig 1. All sections collapsed

[[File:Toggles-collapsed.jpg]]

With all sections collapsed it's possible to see on one page all sections in the form and gauge its complexity.

Fig 2. Sections expanded

[[File:Toggles-expanded.jpg]]

You can expand only the sections you want to see. The answers section often takes up one or two screens. So it's collapsed here.

===The subtleties about collapsing forms===

We could collapse all sections when the form loads but this wouldn't be very helpful. So we've added some additional logic to set the form up for easy editing straight away.

====Required sections should be expanded by default====

Collapsing a section can hide required form fields. So required sections are marked with *

Fig 3. Required section collapsed

[[File:Required-collapsed.jpg]]

This section contains a required field so a * appears after its title.

Fig 4. Required section expanded

[[File:Required-expanded.jpg]]

Expanding the section reveals the required field.

====Whether a section is expanded remembered as a user preference====

the collapsed or expanded state of each section is remembered for example if the answers section was collapsed last time you used a question editing form it will be collapsed for the next question editing form. The type of question doesn't matter.

====Sections that contain a validation error expanded by default====

Remembering section visibility can cause issues. Particularly if sections with required fields or errors are collapsed. You may not realise why you're having problems submitting a form.

To prevent this problem all sections with validation errors are expanded by default. They will also be expanded if they contain empty required fields or fields with errors.

====Always expanded sections====

Regardless of previous user preference the 'General' section (more generally the first section of the form) is always expanded initially.

====Always collapsed sections====

If no user preference is recorded the 'Combined feedback' section will load collapsed.

As you can see, to makes things "just work the way you would naturally expect", a lot of details have to be considered. We are still not sure we have got it quite right. There may be more tinkering to do.

==Make the form sections more logical MDL-36534, MDL-36570, MDL-37466==

Once you have collapsible sections of the form, it becomes really important that the sections of the form that you expand or collapse are logical units.

In the past, for example, we had a separate section for each choice in multiple choice questions, or each unit in a numerical question. These sections are too small, so we merged them.

Here is the new grouping on part of the numerical question type form:

[[File:choices_grouped.jpeg]]

And here is how the form used to look: (note that there was only space to show two choices in this screen-grab!)

[[File:choices_original.png]]

Obviously, the specific changes depend on each question type, but we followed a general principle. For a typical question type we now have the following sections on the form:

* General - question text, general feedback, and any other settings like 'Shuffle answers'
* Answers / Choices / ... - all together in one section, for those question types that have such things.
* Combined feedback - that is, the 'Feedback for any correct response' etc. - for those question types that have this section.
* Settings for multiple tries - this now contains the penalty and all the hints.
* Tags - as currently, the last section on the form.

==Group some fields on the same line MDL-37422==

This change is also visible in the previous section. The Answer, Grade and Accepted error are all on the same line. In fact the forms used to be like this way back in the days of Moodle <=1.7 and the fields got spread out in Moodle 1.8. The old arrangement seems like a better use of space, and Colin has finally tamed formslib to make that possible.

==Hide editing tools from some html fields MDL-32750==

For 'small' HTML editor, the HTML editor starts with the editing toolbar hidden:

[[File:editorscollapsed.png]]

You can click to reveal it if necessary:

[[File:editorsexpanded.png]]

At the moment this is implemented by having a 'whitelist' of form elements on the question editing forms to apply this to. The question is, should we do this automatically throughout Moodle. For example, we could apply this to any HTML editor that was smaller than X px high? Or we could require a 'collapsible' property to be set in the form definition.

==Pre-fill the combined feedback fields MDL-31726==

We would like to pre-fill the combined feedback fields as shown in this screen-grab.

[[File:combinedfeedback.png]]

This is a change that clearly makes sense for the OU, but may not be a good idea for anyone else. Note that these strings would be language strings, and so could be customised using Site administration ► Language ► Language customization.

==Questions==

This is a summary of the questions posed above:

# Do we want to make all sections of all forms collapsible in Moodle 2.3? If so, which bits of logic do we want?
## Auto-expand all sections with required fields?
## ... or just those where the required field is currently empty?
## Auto-expand any section containing a validation error? (We think this is obviously 'yes'.)
## Always start with the first section of the form expanded?
## Are there other sections of forms which should always start expanded? If so, how do we mark them?
## Do we need the bit about user-preferences to remember which sections you had expanded last time?
# Any objection to re-grouping the fields into sections? (We think the new grouping is just better.)
# Any objection to grouping some fields on the same line? (Again, we think this is just better.)
# Is the collapsible editor a good idea?
## If so, to we apply it everywhere in Moodle?
## If so, how to we decide which editors to apply it to? By initial size? By requiring the form creator to add a class="..." attribute to the form elements to modify?
# Is pre-filling the combined feedback fields a good idea?

File:choices grouped.jpeg

2013-04-05T09:28:33Z

Colchambers: Example of question choice fields grouped together.

Example of question choice fields grouped together.

Question editing form improvements

2013-04-05T09:24:14Z

Colchambers: /* Always collapsed sections */

{{Infobox Project
|name = Question editing form improvements MDL-37417
|state = Prototype implemented, feedback wanted
|tracker = MDL-37417, code at https://github.com/timhunt/moodle/tree/qforms
|discussion = [http://moodle.org/mod/forum/discuss.php?d=175290 Quiz forum thread]
|assignee = Colin Chambers
}}
{{Moodle 2.4}}

This page describes proposed improvements that have been done by Colin Chambers, with some input from Phil Butcher and Tim Hunt at the OU, so that is who is meant by 'we' below. Note also that the screen-grabs are a mixture of the OU theme and the Moodle standard theme.

==Introduction==

Many question type editing forms are long and unwieldy. The usability really needs to be improved, and so we have been experimenting with several ideas:

# Making all sections of the forms collapsible.
# Re-grouping the elements on the forms into sections, so the collapsible sections are more useful.
# Grouping some fields onto the same line to save space. For example, putting answer, grade and tolerance on the same line for numerical questions.
# Hiding the editing tools for 'small' html editors by default. For example for multiple choice choices. This saves a huge amount of space.
# Pre-filling the 'Overall feedback' form fields with some standard text.

Overall, we think we have made big improvements to the usability of these forms, but before such major changes could be made in Moodle, we need to know what everyone else thinks.

If you have any more ideas for making things even better, please let us know.

==Expandable Sections MDL-30637==

This is the ability for the user to collapse and expand form sections.

We developed a solution (outlined below). So did LUNS [http://moodle.org/mod/forum/discuss.php?d=191549 LUNS implementation of the same thing] (MDL-30637). Great minds think alike!

The functionality is almost identical. Their work is nearing integration and thus replaces our work.

We're leaving the description of our work below for reference and in case the LUNS work isn't integrated.

To the left of each section title a + or - icon controls the visibility of that particular section. The icon used indicates what will happen when it is clicked. - indicates the section will collapse. + indicates it will expand.

Fig 1. All sections collapsed

[[File:Toggles-collapsed.jpg]]

With all sections collapsed it's possible to see on one page all sections in the form and gauge its complexity.

Fig 2. Sections expanded

[[File:Toggles-expanded.jpg]]

You can expand only the sections you want to see. The answers section often takes up one or two screens. So it's collapsed here.

===The subtleties about collapsing forms===

We could collapse all sections when the form loads but this wouldn't be very helpful. So we've added some additional logic to set the form up for easy editing straight away.

====Required sections should be expanded by default====

Collapsing a section can hide required form fields. So required sections are marked with *

Fig 3. Required section collapsed

[[File:Required-collapsed.jpg]]

This section contains a required field so a * appears after its title.

Fig 4. Required section expanded

[[File:Required-expanded.jpg]]

Expanding the section reveals the required field.

====Whether a section is expanded remembered as a user preference====

the collapsed or expanded state of each section is remembered for example if the answers section was collapsed last time you used a question editing form it will be collapsed for the next question editing form. The type of question doesn't matter.

====Sections that contain a validation error expanded by default====

Remembering section visibility can cause issues. Particularly if sections with required fields or errors are collapsed. You may not realise why you're having problems submitting a form.

To prevent this problem all sections with validation errors are expanded by default. They will also be expanded if they contain empty required fields or fields with errors.

====Always expanded sections====

Regardless of previous user preference the 'General' section (more generally the first section of the form) is always expanded initially.

====Always collapsed sections====

If no user preference is recorded the 'Combined feedback' section will load collapsed.

As you can see, to makes things "just work the way you would naturally expect", a lot of details have to be considered. We are still not sure we have got it quite right. There may be more tinkering to do.

==Make the form sections more logical MDL-36534, MDL-36570, MDL-37466==

Once you have collapsible sections of the form, it becomes really important that the sections of the form that you expand or collapse are logical units.

In the past, for example, we had a separate section for each choice in multiple choice questions, or each unit in a numerical question. These sections are too small, so we merged them.

Here is the new grouping on part of the numerical question type form:

[[File:choices_grouped.png]]

And here is how the form used to look: (note that there was only space to show two choices in this screen-grab!)

[[File:choices_original.png]]

Obviously, the specific changes depend on each question type, but we followed a general principle. For a typical question type we now have the following sections on the form:

* General - question text, general feedback, and any other settings like 'Shuffle answers'
* Answers / Choices / ... - all together in one section, for those question types that have such things.
* Combined feedback - that is, the 'Feedback for any correct response' etc. - for those question types that have this section.
* Settings for multiple tries - this now contains the penalty and all the hints.
* Tags - as currently, the last section on the form.

==Group some fields on the same line MDL-37422==

This change is also visible in the previous section. The Answer, Grade and Accepted error are all on the same line. In fact the forms used to be like this way back in the days of Moodle <=1.7 and the fields got spread out in Moodle 1.8. The old arrangement seems like a better use of space, and Colin has finally tamed formslib to make that possible.

==Hide editing tools from some html fields MDL-32750==

For 'small' HTML editor, the HTML editor starts with the editing toolbar hidden:

[[File:editorscollapsed.png]]

You can click to reveal it if necessary:

[[File:editorsexpanded.png]]

At the moment this is implemented by having a 'whitelist' of form elements on the question editing forms to apply this to. The question is, should we do this automatically throughout Moodle. For example, we could apply this to any HTML editor that was smaller than X px high? Or we could require a 'collapsible' property to be set in the form definition.

==Pre-fill the combined feedback fields MDL-31726==

We would like to pre-fill the combined feedback fields as shown in this screen-grab.

[[File:combinedfeedback.png]]

This is a change that clearly makes sense for the OU, but may not be a good idea for anyone else. Note that these strings would be language strings, and so could be customised using Site administration ► Language ► Language customization.

==Questions==

This is a summary of the questions posed above:

# Do we want to make all sections of all forms collapsible in Moodle 2.3? If so, which bits of logic do we want?
## Auto-expand all sections with required fields?
## ... or just those where the required field is currently empty?
## Auto-expand any section containing a validation error? (We think this is obviously 'yes'.)
## Always start with the first section of the form expanded?
## Are there other sections of forms which should always start expanded? If so, how do we mark them?
## Do we need the bit about user-preferences to remember which sections you had expanded last time?
# Any objection to re-grouping the fields into sections? (We think the new grouping is just better.)
# Any objection to grouping some fields on the same line? (Again, we think this is just better.)
# Is the collapsible editor a good idea?
## If so, to we apply it everywhere in Moodle?
## If so, how to we decide which editors to apply it to? By initial size? By requiring the form creator to add a class="..." attribute to the form elements to modify?
# Is pre-filling the combined feedback fields a good idea?

Question editing form improvements

2013-04-05T09:23:24Z

Colchambers: /* Make the form sections more logical MDL-36534, MDL-36570, MDL-37466 */

{{Infobox Project
|name = Question editing form improvements MDL-37417
|state = Prototype implemented, feedback wanted
|tracker = MDL-37417, code at https://github.com/timhunt/moodle/tree/qforms
|discussion = [http://moodle.org/mod/forum/discuss.php?d=175290 Quiz forum thread]
|assignee = Colin Chambers
}}
{{Moodle 2.4}}

This page describes proposed improvements that have been done by Colin Chambers, with some input from Phil Butcher and Tim Hunt at the OU, so that is who is meant by 'we' below. Note also that the screen-grabs are a mixture of the OU theme and the Moodle standard theme.

==Introduction==

Many question type editing forms are long and unwieldy. The usability really needs to be improved, and so we have been experimenting with several ideas:

# Making all sections of the forms collapsible.
# Re-grouping the elements on the forms into sections, so the collapsible sections are more useful.
# Grouping some fields onto the same line to save space. For example, putting answer, grade and tolerance on the same line for numerical questions.
# Hiding the editing tools for 'small' html editors by default. For example for multiple choice choices. This saves a huge amount of space.
# Pre-filling the 'Overall feedback' form fields with some standard text.

Overall, we think we have made big improvements to the usability of these forms, but before such major changes could be made in Moodle, we need to know what everyone else thinks.

If you have any more ideas for making things even better, please let us know.

==Expandable Sections MDL-30637==

This is the ability for the user to collapse and expand form sections.

We developed a solution (outlined below). So did LUNS [http://moodle.org/mod/forum/discuss.php?d=191549 LUNS implementation of the same thing] (MDL-30637). Great minds think alike!

The functionality is almost identical. Their work is nearing integration and thus replaces our work.

We're leaving the description of our work below for reference and in case the LUNS work isn't integrated.

To the left of each section title a + or - icon controls the visibility of that particular section. The icon used indicates what will happen when it is clicked. - indicates the section will collapse. + indicates it will expand.

Fig 1. All sections collapsed

[[File:Toggles-collapsed.jpg]]

With all sections collapsed it's possible to see on one page all sections in the form and gauge its complexity.

Fig 2. Sections expanded

[[File:Toggles-expanded.jpg]]

You can expand only the sections you want to see. The answers section often takes up one or two screens. So it's collapsed here.

===The subtleties about collapsing forms===

We could collapse all sections when the form loads but this wouldn't be very helpful. So we've added some additional logic to set the form up for easy editing straight away.

====Required sections should be expanded by default====

Collapsing a section can hide required form fields. So required sections are marked with *

Fig 3. Required section collapsed

[[File:Required-collapsed.jpg]]

This section contains a required field so a * appears after its title.

Fig 4. Required section expanded

[[File:Required-expanded.jpg]]

Expanding the section reveals the required field.

====Whether a section is expanded remembered as a user preference====

the collapsed or expanded state of each section is remembered for example if the answers section was collapsed last time you used a question editing form it will be collapsed for the next question editing form. The type of question doesn't matter.

====Sections that contain a validation error expanded by default====

Remembering section visibility can cause issues. Particularly if sections with required fields or errors are collapsed. You may not realise why you're having problems submitting a form.

To prevent this problem all sections with validation errors are expanded by default. They will also be expanded if they contain empty required fields or fields with errors.

====Always expanded sections====

Regardless of previous user preference the 'General' section (more generally the first section of the form) is always expanded initially.

====Always collapsed sections====

If no user preference is recorded the 'Combined feedback' section will load collapsed.

As you can see, to makes things "just work the way you would naturally expect", a lot of details have to be considered. We are still not sure we have got it quite right. There may be more tinkering to do.

[[File:Example.jpg]]==Make the form sections more logical MDL-36534, MDL-36570, MDL-37466==

Once you have collapsible sections of the form, it becomes really important that the sections of the form that you expand or collapse are logical units.

In the past, for example, we had a separate section for each choice in multiple choice questions, or each unit in a numerical question. These sections are too small, so we merged them.

Here is the new grouping on part of the numerical question type form:

[[File:choices_grouped.png]]

And here is how the form used to look: (note that there was only space to show two choices in this screen-grab!)

[[File:choices_original.png]]

Obviously, the specific changes depend on each question type, but we followed a general principle. For a typical question type we now have the following sections on the form:

* General - question text, general feedback, and any other settings like 'Shuffle answers'
* Answers / Choices / ... - all together in one section, for those question types that have such things.
* Combined feedback - that is, the 'Feedback for any correct response' etc. - for those question types that have this section.
* Settings for multiple tries - this now contains the penalty and all the hints.
* Tags - as currently, the last section on the form.

==Group some fields on the same line MDL-37422==

This change is also visible in the previous section. The Answer, Grade and Accepted error are all on the same line. In fact the forms used to be like this way back in the days of Moodle <=1.7 and the fields got spread out in Moodle 1.8. The old arrangement seems like a better use of space, and Colin has finally tamed formslib to make that possible.

==Hide editing tools from some html fields MDL-32750==

For 'small' HTML editor, the HTML editor starts with the editing toolbar hidden:

[[File:editorscollapsed.png]]

You can click to reveal it if necessary:

[[File:editorsexpanded.png]]

At the moment this is implemented by having a 'whitelist' of form elements on the question editing forms to apply this to. The question is, should we do this automatically throughout Moodle. For example, we could apply this to any HTML editor that was smaller than X px high? Or we could require a 'collapsible' property to be set in the form definition.

==Pre-fill the combined feedback fields MDL-31726==

We would like to pre-fill the combined feedback fields as shown in this screen-grab.

[[File:combinedfeedback.png]]

This is a change that clearly makes sense for the OU, but may not be a good idea for anyone else. Note that these strings would be language strings, and so could be customised using Site administration ► Language ► Language customization.

==Questions==

This is a summary of the questions posed above:

# Do we want to make all sections of all forms collapsible in Moodle 2.3? If so, which bits of logic do we want?
## Auto-expand all sections with required fields?
## ... or just those where the required field is currently empty?
## Auto-expand any section containing a validation error? (We think this is obviously 'yes'.)
## Always start with the first section of the form expanded?
## Are there other sections of forms which should always start expanded? If so, how do we mark them?
## Do we need the bit about user-preferences to remember which sections you had expanded last time?
# Any objection to re-grouping the fields into sections? (We think the new grouping is just better.)
# Any objection to grouping some fields on the same line? (Again, we think this is just better.)
# Is the collapsible editor a good idea?
## If so, to we apply it everywhere in Moodle?
## If so, how to we decide which editors to apply it to? By initial size? By requiring the form creator to add a class="..." attribute to the form elements to modify?
# Is pre-filling the combined feedback fields a good idea?

Question editing form improvements

2013-01-21T11:23:14Z

Colchambers: /* Group some fields on the same line */

{{Infobox Project
|name = Question editing form improvements MDL-37417
|state = Prototype implemented, feedback wanted
|tracker = MDL-37417, code at https://github.com/timhunt/moodle/tree/qforms
|discussion = [http://moodle.org/mod/forum/discuss.php?d=175290 Quiz forum thread]
|assignee = Colin Chambers
}}
{{Moodle 2.4}}

This page describes proposed improvements that have been done by Colin Chambers, with some input from Phil Butcher and Tim Hunt at the OU, so that is who is meant by 'we' below. Note also that the screen-grabs are a mixture of the OU theme and the Moodle standard theme.

==Introduction==

Many question type editing forms are long and unwieldy. The usability really needs to be improved, and so we have been experimenting with several ideas:

# Making all sections of the forms collapsible.
# Re-grouping the elements on the forms into sections, so the collapsible sections are more useful.
# Grouping some fields onto the same line to save space. For example, putting answer, grade and tolerance on the same line for numerical questions.
# Hiding the editing tools for 'small' html editors by default. For example for multiple choice choices. This saves a huge amount of space.
# Pre-filling the 'Overall feedback' form fields with some standard text.

Overall, we think we have made big improvements to the usability of these forms, but before such major changes could be made in Moodle, we need to know what everyone else thinks.

If you have any more ideas for making things even better, please let us know.

==Expandable Sections MDL-30637==

This is the ability for the user to collapse and expand form sections.

We developed a solution (outlined below). So did LUNS [http://moodle.org/mod/forum/discuss.php?d=191549 LUNS implementation of the same thing] (MDL-30637). Great minds think alike!

The functionality is almost identical. Their work is nearing integration and thus replaces our work.

We're leaving the description of our work below for reference and in case the LUNS work isn't integrated.

To the left of each section title a + or - icon controls the visibility of that particular section. The icon used indicates what will happen when it is clicked. - indicates the section will collapse. + indicates it will expand.

Fig 1. All sections collapsed

[[File:Toggles-collapsed.jpg]]

With all sections collapsed it's possible to see on one page all sections in the form and gauge its complexity.

Fig 2. Sections expanded

[[File:Toggles-expanded.jpg]]

You can expand only the sections you want to see. The answers section often takes up one or two screens. So it's collapsed here.

===The subtleties about collapsing forms===

We could collapse all sections when the form loads but this wouldn't be very helpful. So we've added some additional logic to set the form up for easy editing straight away.

====Required sections should be expanded by default====

Collapsing a section can hide required form fields. So required sections are marked with *

Fig 3. Required section collapsed

[[File:Required-collapsed.jpg]]

This section contains a required field so a * appears after its title.

Fig 4. Required section expanded

[[File:Required-expanded.jpg]]

Expanding the section reveals the required field.

====Whether a section is expanded remembered as a user preference====

the collapsed or expanded state of each section is remembered for example if the answers section was collapsed last time you used a question editing form it will be collapsed for the next question editing form. The type of question doesn't matter.

====Sections that contain a validation error expanded by default====

Remembering section visibility can cause issues. Particularly if sections with required fields or errors are collapsed. You may not realise why you're having problems submitting a form.

To prevent this problem all sections with validation errors are expanded by default. They will also be expanded if they contain empty required fields or fields with errors.

====Always expanded sections====

Regardless of previous user preference the 'General' section (more generally the first section of the form) is always expanded initially.

====Always collapsed sections====

If no user preference is recorded the 'Combined feedback' section will load collapsed.

As you can see, to makes things "just work the way you would naturally expect", a lot of details have to be considered. We are still not sure we have got it quite right. There may be more tinkering to do.

==Make the form sections more logical MDL-36534, MDL-36570, MDL-37466==

Once you have collapsible sections of the form, it becomes really important that the sections of the form that you expand or collapse are logical units.

In the past, for example, we had a separate section for each choice in multiple choice questions, or each unit in a numerical question. These sections are too small, so we merged them.

Here is the new grouping on part of the numerical question type form:

[[File:choices_regrouped.png]]

And here is how the form used to look: (note that there was only space to show two choices in this screen-grab!)

[[File:choices_original.png]]

Obviously, the specific changes depend on each question type, but we followed a general principle. For a typical question type we now have the following sections on the form:

* General - question text, general feedback, and any other settings like 'Shuffle answers'
* Answers / Choices / ... - all together in one section, for those question types that have such things.
* Combined feedback - that is, the 'Feedback for any correct response' etc. - for those question types that have this section.
* Settings for multiple tries - this now contains the penalty and all the hints.
* Tags - as currently, the last section on the form.

==Group some fields on the same line MDL-37422==

This change is also visible in the previous section. The Answer, Grade and Accepted error are all on the same line. In fact the forms used to be like this way back in the days of Moodle <=1.7 and the fields got spread out in Moodle 1.8. The old arrangement seems like a better use of space, and Colin has finally tamed formslib to make that possible.

==Hide editing tools from some html fields MDL-32750==

For 'small' HTML editor, the HTML editor starts with the editing toolbar hidden:

[[File:editorscollapsed.png]]

You can click to reveal it if necessary:

[[File:editorsexpanded.png]]

At the moment this is implemented by having a 'whitelist' of form elements on the question editing forms to apply this to. The question is, should we do this automatically throughout Moodle. For example, we could apply this to any HTML editor that was smaller than X px high? Or we could require a 'collapsible' property to be set in the form definition.

==Pre-fill the combined feedback fields MDL-31726==

We would like to pre-fill the combined feedback fields as shown in this screen-grab.

[[File:combinedfeedback.png]]

This is a change that clearly makes sense for the OU, but may not be a good idea for anyone else. Note that these strings would be language strings, and so could be customised using Site administration ► Language ► Language customization.

==Questions==

This is a summary of the questions posed above:

# Do we want to make all sections of all forms collapsible in Moodle 2.3? If so, which bits of logic do we want?
## Auto-expand all sections with required fields?
## ... or just those where the required field is currently empty?
## Auto-expand any section containing a validation error? (We think this is obviously 'yes'.)
## Always start with the first section of the form expanded?
## Are there other sections of forms which should always start expanded? If so, how do we mark them?
## Do we need the bit about user-preferences to remember which sections you had expanded last time?
# Any objection to re-grouping the fields into sections? (We think the new grouping is just better.)
# Any objection to grouping some fields on the same line? (Again, we think this is just better.)
# Is the collapsible editor a good idea?
## If so, to we apply it everywhere in Moodle?
## If so, how to we decide which editors to apply it to? By initial size? By requiring the form creator to add a class="..." attribute to the form elements to modify?
# Is pre-filling the combined feedback fields a good idea?

Question editing form improvements

2013-01-21T11:22:46Z

Colchambers: /* Make the form sections more logical MDL-36534, MDL-36570, MDL-37466, MDL-37422 */

{{Infobox Project
|name = Question editing form improvements MDL-37417
|state = Prototype implemented, feedback wanted
|tracker = MDL-37417, code at https://github.com/timhunt/moodle/tree/qforms
|discussion = [http://moodle.org/mod/forum/discuss.php?d=175290 Quiz forum thread]
|assignee = Colin Chambers
}}
{{Moodle 2.4}}

This page describes proposed improvements that have been done by Colin Chambers, with some input from Phil Butcher and Tim Hunt at the OU, so that is who is meant by 'we' below. Note also that the screen-grabs are a mixture of the OU theme and the Moodle standard theme.

==Introduction==

Many question type editing forms are long and unwieldy. The usability really needs to be improved, and so we have been experimenting with several ideas:

# Making all sections of the forms collapsible.
# Re-grouping the elements on the forms into sections, so the collapsible sections are more useful.
# Grouping some fields onto the same line to save space. For example, putting answer, grade and tolerance on the same line for numerical questions.
# Hiding the editing tools for 'small' html editors by default. For example for multiple choice choices. This saves a huge amount of space.
# Pre-filling the 'Overall feedback' form fields with some standard text.

Overall, we think we have made big improvements to the usability of these forms, but before such major changes could be made in Moodle, we need to know what everyone else thinks.

If you have any more ideas for making things even better, please let us know.

==Expandable Sections MDL-30637==

This is the ability for the user to collapse and expand form sections.

We developed a solution (outlined below). So did LUNS [http://moodle.org/mod/forum/discuss.php?d=191549 LUNS implementation of the same thing] (MDL-30637). Great minds think alike!

The functionality is almost identical. Their work is nearing integration and thus replaces our work.

We're leaving the description of our work below for reference and in case the LUNS work isn't integrated.

To the left of each section title a + or - icon controls the visibility of that particular section. The icon used indicates what will happen when it is clicked. - indicates the section will collapse. + indicates it will expand.

Fig 1. All sections collapsed

[[File:Toggles-collapsed.jpg]]

With all sections collapsed it's possible to see on one page all sections in the form and gauge its complexity.

Fig 2. Sections expanded

[[File:Toggles-expanded.jpg]]

You can expand only the sections you want to see. The answers section often takes up one or two screens. So it's collapsed here.

===The subtleties about collapsing forms===

We could collapse all sections when the form loads but this wouldn't be very helpful. So we've added some additional logic to set the form up for easy editing straight away.

====Required sections should be expanded by default====

Collapsing a section can hide required form fields. So required sections are marked with *

Fig 3. Required section collapsed

[[File:Required-collapsed.jpg]]

This section contains a required field so a * appears after its title.

Fig 4. Required section expanded

[[File:Required-expanded.jpg]]

Expanding the section reveals the required field.

====Whether a section is expanded remembered as a user preference====

the collapsed or expanded state of each section is remembered for example if the answers section was collapsed last time you used a question editing form it will be collapsed for the next question editing form. The type of question doesn't matter.

====Sections that contain a validation error expanded by default====

Remembering section visibility can cause issues. Particularly if sections with required fields or errors are collapsed. You may not realise why you're having problems submitting a form.

To prevent this problem all sections with validation errors are expanded by default. They will also be expanded if they contain empty required fields or fields with errors.

====Always expanded sections====

Regardless of previous user preference the 'General' section (more generally the first section of the form) is always expanded initially.

====Always collapsed sections====

If no user preference is recorded the 'Combined feedback' section will load collapsed.

As you can see, to makes things "just work the way you would naturally expect", a lot of details have to be considered. We are still not sure we have got it quite right. There may be more tinkering to do.

==Make the form sections more logical MDL-36534, MDL-36570, MDL-37466==

Once you have collapsible sections of the form, it becomes really important that the sections of the form that you expand or collapse are logical units.

In the past, for example, we had a separate section for each choice in multiple choice questions, or each unit in a numerical question. These sections are too small, so we merged them.

Here is the new grouping on part of the numerical question type form:

[[File:choices_regrouped.png]]

And here is how the form used to look: (note that there was only space to show two choices in this screen-grab!)

[[File:choices_original.png]]

Obviously, the specific changes depend on each question type, but we followed a general principle. For a typical question type we now have the following sections on the form:

* General - question text, general feedback, and any other settings like 'Shuffle answers'
* Answers / Choices / ... - all together in one section, for those question types that have such things.
* Combined feedback - that is, the 'Feedback for any correct response' etc. - for those question types that have this section.
* Settings for multiple tries - this now contains the penalty and all the hints.
* Tags - as currently, the last section on the form.

==Group some fields on the same line==

This change is also visible in the previous section. The Answer, Grade and Accepted error are all on the same line. In fact the forms used to be like this way back in the days of Moodle <=1.7 and the fields got spread out in Moodle 1.8. The old arrangement seems like a better use of space, and Colin has finally tamed formslib to make that possible.

==Hide editing tools from some html fields MDL-32750==

For 'small' HTML editor, the HTML editor starts with the editing toolbar hidden:

[[File:editorscollapsed.png]]

You can click to reveal it if necessary:

[[File:editorsexpanded.png]]

At the moment this is implemented by having a 'whitelist' of form elements on the question editing forms to apply this to. The question is, should we do this automatically throughout Moodle. For example, we could apply this to any HTML editor that was smaller than X px high? Or we could require a 'collapsible' property to be set in the form definition.

==Pre-fill the combined feedback fields MDL-31726==

We would like to pre-fill the combined feedback fields as shown in this screen-grab.

[[File:combinedfeedback.png]]

This is a change that clearly makes sense for the OU, but may not be a good idea for anyone else. Note that these strings would be language strings, and so could be customised using Site administration ► Language ► Language customization.

==Questions==

This is a summary of the questions posed above:

# Do we want to make all sections of all forms collapsible in Moodle 2.3? If so, which bits of logic do we want?
## Auto-expand all sections with required fields?
## ... or just those where the required field is currently empty?
## Auto-expand any section containing a validation error? (We think this is obviously 'yes'.)
## Always start with the first section of the form expanded?
## Are there other sections of forms which should always start expanded? If so, how do we mark them?
## Do we need the bit about user-preferences to remember which sections you had expanded last time?
# Any objection to re-grouping the fields into sections? (We think the new grouping is just better.)
# Any objection to grouping some fields on the same line? (Again, we think this is just better.)
# Is the collapsible editor a good idea?
## If so, to we apply it everywhere in Moodle?
## If so, how to we decide which editors to apply it to? By initial size? By requiring the form creator to add a class="..." attribute to the form elements to modify?
# Is pre-filling the combined feedback fields a good idea?

Question editing form improvements

2013-01-21T11:17:59Z

Colchambers: Add mdl tracker number

{{Infobox Project
|name = Question editing form improvements MDL-37417
|state = Prototype implemented, feedback wanted
|tracker = MDL-37417, code at https://github.com/timhunt/moodle/tree/qforms
|discussion = [http://moodle.org/mod/forum/discuss.php?d=175290 Quiz forum thread]
|assignee = Colin Chambers
}}
{{Moodle 2.4}}

This page describes proposed improvements that have been done by Colin Chambers, with some input from Phil Butcher and Tim Hunt at the OU, so that is who is meant by 'we' below. Note also that the screen-grabs are a mixture of the OU theme and the Moodle standard theme.

==Introduction==

Many question type editing forms are long and unwieldy. The usability really needs to be improved, and so we have been experimenting with several ideas:

# Making all sections of the forms collapsible.
# Re-grouping the elements on the forms into sections, so the collapsible sections are more useful.
# Grouping some fields onto the same line to save space. For example, putting answer, grade and tolerance on the same line for numerical questions.
# Hiding the editing tools for 'small' html editors by default. For example for multiple choice choices. This saves a huge amount of space.
# Pre-filling the 'Overall feedback' form fields with some standard text.

Overall, we think we have made big improvements to the usability of these forms, but before such major changes could be made in Moodle, we need to know what everyone else thinks.

If you have any more ideas for making things even better, please let us know.

==Expandable Sections MDL-30637==

This is the ability for the user to collapse and expand form sections.

We developed a solution (outlined below). So did LUNS [http://moodle.org/mod/forum/discuss.php?d=191549 LUNS implementation of the same thing] (MDL-30637). Great minds think alike!

The functionality is almost identical. Their work is nearing integration and thus replaces our work.

We're leaving the description of our work below for reference and in case the LUNS work isn't integrated.

To the left of each section title a + or - icon controls the visibility of that particular section. The icon used indicates what will happen when it is clicked. - indicates the section will collapse. + indicates it will expand.

Fig 1. All sections collapsed

[[File:Toggles-collapsed.jpg]]

With all sections collapsed it's possible to see on one page all sections in the form and gauge its complexity.

Fig 2. Sections expanded

[[File:Toggles-expanded.jpg]]

You can expand only the sections you want to see. The answers section often takes up one or two screens. So it's collapsed here.

===The subtleties about collapsing forms===

We could collapse all sections when the form loads but this wouldn't be very helpful. So we've added some additional logic to set the form up for easy editing straight away.

====Required sections should be expanded by default====

Collapsing a section can hide required form fields. So required sections are marked with *

Fig 3. Required section collapsed

[[File:Required-collapsed.jpg]]

This section contains a required field so a * appears after its title.

Fig 4. Required section expanded

[[File:Required-expanded.jpg]]

Expanding the section reveals the required field.

====Whether a section is expanded remembered as a user preference====

the collapsed or expanded state of each section is remembered for example if the answers section was collapsed last time you used a question editing form it will be collapsed for the next question editing form. The type of question doesn't matter.

====Sections that contain a validation error expanded by default====

Remembering section visibility can cause issues. Particularly if sections with required fields or errors are collapsed. You may not realise why you're having problems submitting a form.

To prevent this problem all sections with validation errors are expanded by default. They will also be expanded if they contain empty required fields or fields with errors.

====Always expanded sections====

Regardless of previous user preference the 'General' section (more generally the first section of the form) is always expanded initially.

====Always collapsed sections====

If no user preference is recorded the 'Combined feedback' section will load collapsed.

As you can see, to makes things "just work the way you would naturally expect", a lot of details have to be considered. We are still not sure we have got it quite right. There may be more tinkering to do.

==Make the form sections more logical MDL-36534, MDL-36570, MDL-37466, MDL-37422==

Once you have collapsible sections of the form, it becomes really important that the sections of the form that you expand or collapse are logical units.

In the past, for example, we had a separate section for each choice in multiple choice questions, or each unit in a numerical question. These sections are too small, so we merged them.

Here is the new grouping on part of the numerical question type form:

[[File:choices_regrouped.png]]

And here is how the form used to look: (note that there was only space to show two choices in this screen-grab!)

[[File:choices_original.png]]

Obviously, the specific changes depend on each question type, but we followed a general principle. For a typical question type we now have the following sections on the form:

* General - question text, general feedback, and any other settings like 'Shuffle answers'
* Answers / Choices / ... - all together in one section, for those question types that have such things.
* Combined feedback - that is, the 'Feedback for any correct response' etc. - for those question types that have this section.
* Settings for multiple tries - this now contains the penalty and all the hints.
* Tags - as currently, the last section on the form.

==Group some fields on the same line==

This change is also visible in the previous section. The Answer, Grade and Accepted error are all on the same line. In fact the forms used to be like this way back in the days of Moodle <=1.7 and the fields got spread out in Moodle 1.8. The old arrangement seems like a better use of space, and Colin has finally tamed formslib to make that possible.

==Hide editing tools from some html fields MDL-32750==

For 'small' HTML editor, the HTML editor starts with the editing toolbar hidden:

[[File:editorscollapsed.png]]

You can click to reveal it if necessary:

[[File:editorsexpanded.png]]

At the moment this is implemented by having a 'whitelist' of form elements on the question editing forms to apply this to. The question is, should we do this automatically throughout Moodle. For example, we could apply this to any HTML editor that was smaller than X px high? Or we could require a 'collapsible' property to be set in the form definition.

==Pre-fill the combined feedback fields MDL-31726==

We would like to pre-fill the combined feedback fields as shown in this screen-grab.

[[File:combinedfeedback.png]]

This is a change that clearly makes sense for the OU, but may not be a good idea for anyone else. Note that these strings would be language strings, and so could be customised using Site administration ► Language ► Language customization.

==Questions==

This is a summary of the questions posed above:

# Do we want to make all sections of all forms collapsible in Moodle 2.3? If so, which bits of logic do we want?
## Auto-expand all sections with required fields?
## ... or just those where the required field is currently empty?
## Auto-expand any section containing a validation error? (We think this is obviously 'yes'.)
## Always start with the first section of the form expanded?
## Are there other sections of forms which should always start expanded? If so, how do we mark them?
## Do we need the bit about user-preferences to remember which sections you had expanded last time?
# Any objection to re-grouping the fields into sections? (We think the new grouping is just better.)
# Any objection to grouping some fields on the same line? (Again, we think this is just better.)
# Is the collapsible editor a good idea?
## If so, to we apply it everywhere in Moodle?
## If so, how to we decide which editors to apply it to? By initial size? By requiring the form creator to add a class="..." attribute to the form elements to modify?
# Is pre-filling the combined feedback fields a good idea?

Question editing form improvements

2013-01-21T11:06:00Z

Colchambers: /* Make the form sections more logical MDL-36534, 36570 */

{{Infobox Project
|name = Question editing form improvements
|state = Prototype implemented, feedback wanted
|tracker = TBA, but code at https://github.com/timhunt/moodle/tree/qforms
|discussion = [http://moodle.org/mod/forum/discuss.php?d=175290 Quiz forum thread]
|assignee = Colin Chambers
}}
{{Moodle 2.3}}

This page describes proposed improvements that have been done by Colin Chambers, with some input from Phil Butcher and Tim Hunt at the OU, so that is who is meant by 'we' below. Note also that the screen-grabs are a mixture of the OU theme and the Moodle standard theme.

==Introduction==

Many question type editing forms are long and unwieldy. The usability really needs to be improved, and so we have been experimenting with several ideas:

# Making all sections of the forms collapsible.
# Re-grouping the elements on the forms into sections, so the collapsible sections are more useful.
# Grouping some fields onto the same line to save space. For example, putting answer, grade and tolerance on the same line for numerical questions.
# Hiding the editing tools for 'small' html editors by default. For example for multiple choice choices. This saves a huge amount of space.
# Pre-filling the 'Overall feedback' form fields with some standard text.

Overall, we think we have made big improvements to the usability of these forms, but before such major changes could be made in Moodle, we need to know what everyone else thinks.

If you have any more ideas for making things even better, please let us know.

==Expandable Sections MDL-30637==

This is the ability for the user to collapse and expand form sections.

We developed a solution (outlined below). So did LUNS [http://moodle.org/mod/forum/discuss.php?d=191549 LUNS implementation of the same thing] (MDL-30637). Great minds think alike!

The functionality is almost identical. Their work is nearing integration and thus replaces our work.

We're leaving the description of our work below for reference and in case the LUNS work isn't integrated.

To the left of each section title a + or - icon controls the visibility of that particular section. The icon used indicates what will happen when it is clicked. - indicates the section will collapse. + indicates it will expand.

Fig 1. All sections collapsed

[[File:Toggles-collapsed.jpg]]

With all sections collapsed it's possible to see on one page all sections in the form and gauge its complexity.

Fig 2. Sections expanded

[[File:Toggles-expanded.jpg]]

You can expand only the sections you want to see. The answers section often takes up one or two screens. So it's collapsed here.

===The subtleties about collapsing forms===

We could collapse all sections when the form loads but this wouldn't be very helpful. So we've added some additional logic to set the form up for easy editing straight away.

====Required sections should be expanded by default====

Collapsing a section can hide required form fields. So required sections are marked with *

Fig 3. Required section collapsed

[[File:Required-collapsed.jpg]]

This section contains a required field so a * appears after its title.

Fig 4. Required section expanded

[[File:Required-expanded.jpg]]

Expanding the section reveals the required field.

====Whether a section is expanded remembered as a user preference====

the collapsed or expanded state of each section is remembered for example if the answers section was collapsed last time you used a question editing form it will be collapsed for the next question editing form. The type of question doesn't matter.

====Sections that contain a validation error expanded by default====

Remembering section visibility can cause issues. Particularly if sections with required fields or errors are collapsed. You may not realise why you're having problems submitting a form.

To prevent this problem all sections with validation errors are expanded by default. They will also be expanded if they contain empty required fields or fields with errors.

====Always expanded sections====

Regardless of previous user preference the 'General' section (more generally the first section of the form) is always expanded initially.

====Always collapsed sections====

If no user preference is recorded the 'Combined feedback' section will load collapsed.

As you can see, to makes things "just work the way you would naturally expect", a lot of details have to be considered. We are still not sure we have got it quite right. There may be more tinkering to do.

==Make the form sections more logical MDL-36534, MDL-36570, MDL-37466, MDL-37422==

Once you have collapsible sections of the form, it becomes really important that the sections of the form that you expand or collapse are logical units.

In the past, for example, we had a separate section for each choice in multiple choice questions, or each unit in a numerical question. These sections are too small, so we merged them.

Here is the new grouping on part of the numerical question type form:

[[File:choices_regrouped.png]]

And here is how the form used to look: (note that there was only space to show two choices in this screen-grab!)

[[File:choices_original.png]]

Obviously, the specific changes depend on each question type, but we followed a general principle. For a typical question type we now have the following sections on the form:

* General - question text, general feedback, and any other settings like 'Shuffle answers'
* Answers / Choices / ... - all together in one section, for those question types that have such things.
* Combined feedback - that is, the 'Feedback for any correct response' etc. - for those question types that have this section.
* Settings for multiple tries - this now contains the penalty and all the hints.
* Tags - as currently, the last section on the form.

==Group some fields on the same line==

This change is also visible in the previous section. The Answer, Grade and Accepted error are all on the same line. In fact the forms used to be like this way back in the days of Moodle <=1.7 and the fields got spread out in Moodle 1.8. The old arrangement seems like a better use of space, and Colin has finally tamed formslib to make that possible.

==Hide editing tools from some html fields MDL-32750==

For 'small' HTML editor, the HTML editor starts with the editing toolbar hidden:

[[File:editorscollapsed.png]]

You can click to reveal it if necessary:

[[File:editorsexpanded.png]]

At the moment this is implemented by having a 'whitelist' of form elements on the question editing forms to apply this to. The question is, should we do this automatically throughout Moodle. For example, we could apply this to any HTML editor that was smaller than X px high? Or we could require a 'collapsible' property to be set in the form definition.

==Pre-fill the combined feedback fields MDL-31726==

We would like to pre-fill the combined feedback fields as shown in this screen-grab.

[[File:combinedfeedback.png]]

This is a change that clearly makes sense for the OU, but may not be a good idea for anyone else. Note that these strings would be language strings, and so could be customised using Site administration ► Language ► Language customization.

==Questions==

This is a summary of the questions posed above:

# Do we want to make all sections of all forms collapsible in Moodle 2.3? If so, which bits of logic do we want?
## Auto-expand all sections with required fields?
## ... or just those where the required field is currently empty?
## Auto-expand any section containing a validation error? (We think this is obviously 'yes'.)
## Always start with the first section of the form expanded?
## Are there other sections of forms which should always start expanded? If so, how do we mark them?
## Do we need the bit about user-preferences to remember which sections you had expanded last time?
# Any objection to re-grouping the fields into sections? (We think the new grouping is just better.)
# Any objection to grouping some fields on the same line? (Again, we think this is just better.)
# Is the collapsible editor a good idea?
## If so, to we apply it everywhere in Moodle?
## If so, how to we decide which editors to apply it to? By initial size? By requiring the form creator to add a class="..." attribute to the form elements to modify?
# Is pre-filling the combined feedback fields a good idea?

Question editing form improvements

2013-01-21T11:03:26Z

Colchambers: /* Make the form sections more logical */

{{Infobox Project
|name = Question editing form improvements
|state = Prototype implemented, feedback wanted
|tracker = TBA, but code at https://github.com/timhunt/moodle/tree/qforms
|discussion = [http://moodle.org/mod/forum/discuss.php?d=175290 Quiz forum thread]
|assignee = Colin Chambers
}}
{{Moodle 2.3}}

This page describes proposed improvements that have been done by Colin Chambers, with some input from Phil Butcher and Tim Hunt at the OU, so that is who is meant by 'we' below. Note also that the screen-grabs are a mixture of the OU theme and the Moodle standard theme.

==Introduction==

Many question type editing forms are long and unwieldy. The usability really needs to be improved, and so we have been experimenting with several ideas:

# Making all sections of the forms collapsible.
# Re-grouping the elements on the forms into sections, so the collapsible sections are more useful.
# Grouping some fields onto the same line to save space. For example, putting answer, grade and tolerance on the same line for numerical questions.
# Hiding the editing tools for 'small' html editors by default. For example for multiple choice choices. This saves a huge amount of space.
# Pre-filling the 'Overall feedback' form fields with some standard text.

Overall, we think we have made big improvements to the usability of these forms, but before such major changes could be made in Moodle, we need to know what everyone else thinks.

If you have any more ideas for making things even better, please let us know.

==Expandable Sections MDL-30637==

This is the ability for the user to collapse and expand form sections.

We developed a solution (outlined below). So did LUNS [http://moodle.org/mod/forum/discuss.php?d=191549 LUNS implementation of the same thing] (MDL-30637). Great minds think alike!

The functionality is almost identical. Their work is nearing integration and thus replaces our work.

We're leaving the description of our work below for reference and in case the LUNS work isn't integrated.

To the left of each section title a + or - icon controls the visibility of that particular section. The icon used indicates what will happen when it is clicked. - indicates the section will collapse. + indicates it will expand.

Fig 1. All sections collapsed

[[File:Toggles-collapsed.jpg]]

With all sections collapsed it's possible to see on one page all sections in the form and gauge its complexity.

Fig 2. Sections expanded

[[File:Toggles-expanded.jpg]]

You can expand only the sections you want to see. The answers section often takes up one or two screens. So it's collapsed here.

===The subtleties about collapsing forms===

We could collapse all sections when the form loads but this wouldn't be very helpful. So we've added some additional logic to set the form up for easy editing straight away.

====Required sections should be expanded by default====

Collapsing a section can hide required form fields. So required sections are marked with *

Fig 3. Required section collapsed

[[File:Required-collapsed.jpg]]

This section contains a required field so a * appears after its title.

Fig 4. Required section expanded

[[File:Required-expanded.jpg]]

Expanding the section reveals the required field.

====Whether a section is expanded remembered as a user preference====

the collapsed or expanded state of each section is remembered for example if the answers section was collapsed last time you used a question editing form it will be collapsed for the next question editing form. The type of question doesn't matter.

====Sections that contain a validation error expanded by default====

Remembering section visibility can cause issues. Particularly if sections with required fields or errors are collapsed. You may not realise why you're having problems submitting a form.

To prevent this problem all sections with validation errors are expanded by default. They will also be expanded if they contain empty required fields or fields with errors.

====Always expanded sections====

Regardless of previous user preference the 'General' section (more generally the first section of the form) is always expanded initially.

====Always collapsed sections====

If no user preference is recorded the 'Combined feedback' section will load collapsed.

As you can see, to makes things "just work the way you would naturally expect", a lot of details have to be considered. We are still not sure we have got it quite right. There may be more tinkering to do.

==Make the form sections more logical MDL-36534, 36570==

Once you have collapsible sections of the form, it becomes really important that the sections of the form that you expand or collapse are logical units.

In the past, for example, we had a separate section for each choice in multiple choice questions, or each unit in a numerical question. These sections are too small, so we merged them.

Here is the new grouping on part of the numerical question type form:

[[File:choices_regrouped.png]]

And here is how the form used to look: (note that there was only space to show two choices in this screen-grab!)

[[File:choices_original.png]]

Obviously, the specific changes depend on each question type, but we followed a general principle. For a typical question type we now have the following sections on the form:

* General - question text, general feedback, and any other settings like 'Shuffle answers'
* Answers / Choices / ... - all together in one section, for those question types that have such things.
* Combined feedback - that is, the 'Feedback for any correct response' etc. - for those question types that have this section.
* Settings for multiple tries - this now contains the penalty and all the hints.
* Tags - as currently, the last section on the form.

==Group some fields on the same line==

This change is also visible in the previous section. The Answer, Grade and Accepted error are all on the same line. In fact the forms used to be like this way back in the days of Moodle <=1.7 and the fields got spread out in Moodle 1.8. The old arrangement seems like a better use of space, and Colin has finally tamed formslib to make that possible.

==Hide editing tools from some html fields MDL-32750==

For 'small' HTML editor, the HTML editor starts with the editing toolbar hidden:

[[File:editorscollapsed.png]]

You can click to reveal it if necessary:

[[File:editorsexpanded.png]]

At the moment this is implemented by having a 'whitelist' of form elements on the question editing forms to apply this to. The question is, should we do this automatically throughout Moodle. For example, we could apply this to any HTML editor that was smaller than X px high? Or we could require a 'collapsible' property to be set in the form definition.

==Pre-fill the combined feedback fields MDL-31726==

We would like to pre-fill the combined feedback fields as shown in this screen-grab.

[[File:combinedfeedback.png]]

This is a change that clearly makes sense for the OU, but may not be a good idea for anyone else. Note that these strings would be language strings, and so could be customised using Site administration ► Language ► Language customization.

==Questions==

This is a summary of the questions posed above:

# Do we want to make all sections of all forms collapsible in Moodle 2.3? If so, which bits of logic do we want?
## Auto-expand all sections with required fields?
## ... or just those where the required field is currently empty?
## Auto-expand any section containing a validation error? (We think this is obviously 'yes'.)
## Always start with the first section of the form expanded?
## Are there other sections of forms which should always start expanded? If so, how do we mark them?
## Do we need the bit about user-preferences to remember which sections you had expanded last time?
# Any objection to re-grouping the fields into sections? (We think the new grouping is just better.)
# Any objection to grouping some fields on the same line? (Again, we think this is just better.)
# Is the collapsible editor a good idea?
## If so, to we apply it everywhere in Moodle?
## If so, how to we decide which editors to apply it to? By initial size? By requiring the form creator to add a class="..." attribute to the form elements to modify?
# Is pre-filling the combined feedback fields a good idea?

Question editing form improvements

2013-01-21T11:01:17Z

Colchambers: /* Pre-fill the combined feedback fields */

{{Infobox Project
|name = Question editing form improvements
|state = Prototype implemented, feedback wanted
|tracker = TBA, but code at https://github.com/timhunt/moodle/tree/qforms
|discussion = [http://moodle.org/mod/forum/discuss.php?d=175290 Quiz forum thread]
|assignee = Colin Chambers
}}
{{Moodle 2.3}}

This page describes proposed improvements that have been done by Colin Chambers, with some input from Phil Butcher and Tim Hunt at the OU, so that is who is meant by 'we' below. Note also that the screen-grabs are a mixture of the OU theme and the Moodle standard theme.

==Introduction==

Many question type editing forms are long and unwieldy. The usability really needs to be improved, and so we have been experimenting with several ideas:

# Making all sections of the forms collapsible.
# Re-grouping the elements on the forms into sections, so the collapsible sections are more useful.
# Grouping some fields onto the same line to save space. For example, putting answer, grade and tolerance on the same line for numerical questions.
# Hiding the editing tools for 'small' html editors by default. For example for multiple choice choices. This saves a huge amount of space.
# Pre-filling the 'Overall feedback' form fields with some standard text.

Overall, we think we have made big improvements to the usability of these forms, but before such major changes could be made in Moodle, we need to know what everyone else thinks.

If you have any more ideas for making things even better, please let us know.

==Expandable Sections MDL-30637==

This is the ability for the user to collapse and expand form sections.

We developed a solution (outlined below). So did LUNS [http://moodle.org/mod/forum/discuss.php?d=191549 LUNS implementation of the same thing] (MDL-30637). Great minds think alike!

The functionality is almost identical. Their work is nearing integration and thus replaces our work.

We're leaving the description of our work below for reference and in case the LUNS work isn't integrated.

To the left of each section title a + or - icon controls the visibility of that particular section. The icon used indicates what will happen when it is clicked. - indicates the section will collapse. + indicates it will expand.

Fig 1. All sections collapsed

[[File:Toggles-collapsed.jpg]]

With all sections collapsed it's possible to see on one page all sections in the form and gauge its complexity.

Fig 2. Sections expanded

[[File:Toggles-expanded.jpg]]

You can expand only the sections you want to see. The answers section often takes up one or two screens. So it's collapsed here.

===The subtleties about collapsing forms===

We could collapse all sections when the form loads but this wouldn't be very helpful. So we've added some additional logic to set the form up for easy editing straight away.

====Required sections should be expanded by default====

Collapsing a section can hide required form fields. So required sections are marked with *

Fig 3. Required section collapsed

[[File:Required-collapsed.jpg]]

This section contains a required field so a * appears after its title.

Fig 4. Required section expanded

[[File:Required-expanded.jpg]]

Expanding the section reveals the required field.

====Whether a section is expanded remembered as a user preference====

the collapsed or expanded state of each section is remembered for example if the answers section was collapsed last time you used a question editing form it will be collapsed for the next question editing form. The type of question doesn't matter.

====Sections that contain a validation error expanded by default====

Remembering section visibility can cause issues. Particularly if sections with required fields or errors are collapsed. You may not realise why you're having problems submitting a form.

To prevent this problem all sections with validation errors are expanded by default. They will also be expanded if they contain empty required fields or fields with errors.

====Always expanded sections====

Regardless of previous user preference the 'General' section (more generally the first section of the form) is always expanded initially.

====Always collapsed sections====

If no user preference is recorded the 'Combined feedback' section will load collapsed.

As you can see, to makes things "just work the way you would naturally expect", a lot of details have to be considered. We are still not sure we have got it quite right. There may be more tinkering to do.

==Make the form sections more logical==

Once you have collapsible sections of the form, it becomes really important that the sections of the form that you expand or collapse are logical units.

In the past, for example, we had a separate section for each choice in multiple choice questions, or each unit in a numerical question. These sections are too small, so we merged them.

Here is the new grouping on part of the numerical question type form:

[[File:choices_regrouped.png]]

And here is how the form used to look: (note that there was only space to show two choices in this screen-grab!)

[[File:choices_original.png]]

Obviously, the specific changes depend on each question type, but we followed a general principle. For a typical question type we now have the following sections on the form:

* General - question text, general feedback, and any other settings like 'Shuffle answers'
* Answers / Choices / ... - all together in one section, for those question types that have such things.
* Combined feedback - that is, the 'Feedback for any correct response' etc. - for those question types that have this section.
* Settings for multiple tries - this now contains the penalty and all the hints.
* Tags - as currently, the last section on the form.

==Group some fields on the same line==

This change is also visible in the previous section. The Answer, Grade and Accepted error are all on the same line. In fact the forms used to be like this way back in the days of Moodle <=1.7 and the fields got spread out in Moodle 1.8. The old arrangement seems like a better use of space, and Colin has finally tamed formslib to make that possible.

==Hide editing tools from some html fields MDL-32750==

For 'small' HTML editor, the HTML editor starts with the editing toolbar hidden:

[[File:editorscollapsed.png]]

You can click to reveal it if necessary:

[[File:editorsexpanded.png]]

At the moment this is implemented by having a 'whitelist' of form elements on the question editing forms to apply this to. The question is, should we do this automatically throughout Moodle. For example, we could apply this to any HTML editor that was smaller than X px high? Or we could require a 'collapsible' property to be set in the form definition.

==Pre-fill the combined feedback fields MDL-31726==

We would like to pre-fill the combined feedback fields as shown in this screen-grab.

[[File:combinedfeedback.png]]

This is a change that clearly makes sense for the OU, but may not be a good idea for anyone else. Note that these strings would be language strings, and so could be customised using Site administration ► Language ► Language customization.

==Questions==

This is a summary of the questions posed above:

# Do we want to make all sections of all forms collapsible in Moodle 2.3? If so, which bits of logic do we want?
## Auto-expand all sections with required fields?
## ... or just those where the required field is currently empty?
## Auto-expand any section containing a validation error? (We think this is obviously 'yes'.)
## Always start with the first section of the form expanded?
## Are there other sections of forms which should always start expanded? If so, how do we mark them?
## Do we need the bit about user-preferences to remember which sections you had expanded last time?
# Any objection to re-grouping the fields into sections? (We think the new grouping is just better.)
# Any objection to grouping some fields on the same line? (Again, we think this is just better.)
# Is the collapsible editor a good idea?
## If so, to we apply it everywhere in Moodle?
## If so, how to we decide which editors to apply it to? By initial size? By requiring the form creator to add a class="..." attribute to the form elements to modify?
# Is pre-filling the combined feedback fields a good idea?

Question editing form improvements

2013-01-21T11:00:45Z

Colchambers: /* Hide editing tools from some html fields */

{{Infobox Project
|name = Question editing form improvements
|state = Prototype implemented, feedback wanted
|tracker = TBA, but code at https://github.com/timhunt/moodle/tree/qforms
|discussion = [http://moodle.org/mod/forum/discuss.php?d=175290 Quiz forum thread]
|assignee = Colin Chambers
}}
{{Moodle 2.3}}

This page describes proposed improvements that have been done by Colin Chambers, with some input from Phil Butcher and Tim Hunt at the OU, so that is who is meant by 'we' below. Note also that the screen-grabs are a mixture of the OU theme and the Moodle standard theme.

==Introduction==

Many question type editing forms are long and unwieldy. The usability really needs to be improved, and so we have been experimenting with several ideas:

# Making all sections of the forms collapsible.
# Re-grouping the elements on the forms into sections, so the collapsible sections are more useful.
# Grouping some fields onto the same line to save space. For example, putting answer, grade and tolerance on the same line for numerical questions.
# Hiding the editing tools for 'small' html editors by default. For example for multiple choice choices. This saves a huge amount of space.
# Pre-filling the 'Overall feedback' form fields with some standard text.

Overall, we think we have made big improvements to the usability of these forms, but before such major changes could be made in Moodle, we need to know what everyone else thinks.

If you have any more ideas for making things even better, please let us know.

==Expandable Sections MDL-30637==

This is the ability for the user to collapse and expand form sections.

We developed a solution (outlined below). So did LUNS [http://moodle.org/mod/forum/discuss.php?d=191549 LUNS implementation of the same thing] (MDL-30637). Great minds think alike!

The functionality is almost identical. Their work is nearing integration and thus replaces our work.

We're leaving the description of our work below for reference and in case the LUNS work isn't integrated.

To the left of each section title a + or - icon controls the visibility of that particular section. The icon used indicates what will happen when it is clicked. - indicates the section will collapse. + indicates it will expand.

Fig 1. All sections collapsed

[[File:Toggles-collapsed.jpg]]

With all sections collapsed it's possible to see on one page all sections in the form and gauge its complexity.

Fig 2. Sections expanded

[[File:Toggles-expanded.jpg]]

You can expand only the sections you want to see. The answers section often takes up one or two screens. So it's collapsed here.

===The subtleties about collapsing forms===

We could collapse all sections when the form loads but this wouldn't be very helpful. So we've added some additional logic to set the form up for easy editing straight away.

====Required sections should be expanded by default====

Collapsing a section can hide required form fields. So required sections are marked with *

Fig 3. Required section collapsed

[[File:Required-collapsed.jpg]]

This section contains a required field so a * appears after its title.

Fig 4. Required section expanded

[[File:Required-expanded.jpg]]

Expanding the section reveals the required field.

====Whether a section is expanded remembered as a user preference====

the collapsed or expanded state of each section is remembered for example if the answers section was collapsed last time you used a question editing form it will be collapsed for the next question editing form. The type of question doesn't matter.

====Sections that contain a validation error expanded by default====

Remembering section visibility can cause issues. Particularly if sections with required fields or errors are collapsed. You may not realise why you're having problems submitting a form.

To prevent this problem all sections with validation errors are expanded by default. They will also be expanded if they contain empty required fields or fields with errors.

====Always expanded sections====

Regardless of previous user preference the 'General' section (more generally the first section of the form) is always expanded initially.

====Always collapsed sections====

If no user preference is recorded the 'Combined feedback' section will load collapsed.

As you can see, to makes things "just work the way you would naturally expect", a lot of details have to be considered. We are still not sure we have got it quite right. There may be more tinkering to do.

==Make the form sections more logical==

Once you have collapsible sections of the form, it becomes really important that the sections of the form that you expand or collapse are logical units.

In the past, for example, we had a separate section for each choice in multiple choice questions, or each unit in a numerical question. These sections are too small, so we merged them.

Here is the new grouping on part of the numerical question type form:

[[File:choices_regrouped.png]]

And here is how the form used to look: (note that there was only space to show two choices in this screen-grab!)

[[File:choices_original.png]]

Obviously, the specific changes depend on each question type, but we followed a general principle. For a typical question type we now have the following sections on the form:

* General - question text, general feedback, and any other settings like 'Shuffle answers'
* Answers / Choices / ... - all together in one section, for those question types that have such things.
* Combined feedback - that is, the 'Feedback for any correct response' etc. - for those question types that have this section.
* Settings for multiple tries - this now contains the penalty and all the hints.
* Tags - as currently, the last section on the form.

==Group some fields on the same line==

This change is also visible in the previous section. The Answer, Grade and Accepted error are all on the same line. In fact the forms used to be like this way back in the days of Moodle <=1.7 and the fields got spread out in Moodle 1.8. The old arrangement seems like a better use of space, and Colin has finally tamed formslib to make that possible.

==Hide editing tools from some html fields MDL-32750==

For 'small' HTML editor, the HTML editor starts with the editing toolbar hidden:

[[File:editorscollapsed.png]]

You can click to reveal it if necessary:

[[File:editorsexpanded.png]]

At the moment this is implemented by having a 'whitelist' of form elements on the question editing forms to apply this to. The question is, should we do this automatically throughout Moodle. For example, we could apply this to any HTML editor that was smaller than X px high? Or we could require a 'collapsible' property to be set in the form definition.

==Pre-fill the combined feedback fields==

We would like to pre-fill the combined feedback fields as shown in this screen-grab.

[[File:combinedfeedback.png]]

This is a change that clearly makes sense for the OU, but may not be a good idea for anyone else. Note that these strings would be language strings, and so could be customised using Site administration ► Language ► Language customization.

==Questions==

This is a summary of the questions posed above:

# Do we want to make all sections of all forms collapsible in Moodle 2.3? If so, which bits of logic do we want?
## Auto-expand all sections with required fields?
## ... or just those where the required field is currently empty?
## Auto-expand any section containing a validation error? (We think this is obviously 'yes'.)
## Always start with the first section of the form expanded?
## Are there other sections of forms which should always start expanded? If so, how do we mark them?
## Do we need the bit about user-preferences to remember which sections you had expanded last time?
# Any objection to re-grouping the fields into sections? (We think the new grouping is just better.)
# Any objection to grouping some fields on the same line? (Again, we think this is just better.)
# Is the collapsible editor a good idea?
## If so, to we apply it everywhere in Moodle?
## If so, how to we decide which editors to apply it to? By initial size? By requiring the form creator to add a class="..." attribute to the form elements to modify?
# Is pre-filling the combined feedback fields a good idea?

Question editing form improvements

2013-01-21T10:57:29Z

Colchambers: /* Expandable Sections */

{{Infobox Project
|name = Question editing form improvements
|state = Prototype implemented, feedback wanted
|tracker = TBA, but code at https://github.com/timhunt/moodle/tree/qforms
|discussion = [http://moodle.org/mod/forum/discuss.php?d=175290 Quiz forum thread]
|assignee = Colin Chambers
}}
{{Moodle 2.3}}

This page describes proposed improvements that have been done by Colin Chambers, with some input from Phil Butcher and Tim Hunt at the OU, so that is who is meant by 'we' below. Note also that the screen-grabs are a mixture of the OU theme and the Moodle standard theme.

==Introduction==

Many question type editing forms are long and unwieldy. The usability really needs to be improved, and so we have been experimenting with several ideas:

# Making all sections of the forms collapsible.
# Re-grouping the elements on the forms into sections, so the collapsible sections are more useful.
# Grouping some fields onto the same line to save space. For example, putting answer, grade and tolerance on the same line for numerical questions.
# Hiding the editing tools for 'small' html editors by default. For example for multiple choice choices. This saves a huge amount of space.
# Pre-filling the 'Overall feedback' form fields with some standard text.

Overall, we think we have made big improvements to the usability of these forms, but before such major changes could be made in Moodle, we need to know what everyone else thinks.

If you have any more ideas for making things even better, please let us know.

==Expandable Sections MDL-30637==

This is the ability for the user to collapse and expand form sections.

We developed a solution (outlined below). So did LUNS [http://moodle.org/mod/forum/discuss.php?d=191549 LUNS implementation of the same thing] (MDL-30637). Great minds think alike!

The functionality is almost identical. Their work is nearing integration and thus replaces our work.

We're leaving the description of our work below for reference and in case the LUNS work isn't integrated.

To the left of each section title a + or - icon controls the visibility of that particular section. The icon used indicates what will happen when it is clicked. - indicates the section will collapse. + indicates it will expand.

Fig 1. All sections collapsed

[[File:Toggles-collapsed.jpg]]

With all sections collapsed it's possible to see on one page all sections in the form and gauge its complexity.

Fig 2. Sections expanded

[[File:Toggles-expanded.jpg]]

You can expand only the sections you want to see. The answers section often takes up one or two screens. So it's collapsed here.

===The subtleties about collapsing forms===

We could collapse all sections when the form loads but this wouldn't be very helpful. So we've added some additional logic to set the form up for easy editing straight away.

====Required sections should be expanded by default====

Collapsing a section can hide required form fields. So required sections are marked with *

Fig 3. Required section collapsed

[[File:Required-collapsed.jpg]]

This section contains a required field so a * appears after its title.

Fig 4. Required section expanded

[[File:Required-expanded.jpg]]

Expanding the section reveals the required field.

====Whether a section is expanded remembered as a user preference====

the collapsed or expanded state of each section is remembered for example if the answers section was collapsed last time you used a question editing form it will be collapsed for the next question editing form. The type of question doesn't matter.

====Sections that contain a validation error expanded by default====

Remembering section visibility can cause issues. Particularly if sections with required fields or errors are collapsed. You may not realise why you're having problems submitting a form.

To prevent this problem all sections with validation errors are expanded by default. They will also be expanded if they contain empty required fields or fields with errors.

====Always expanded sections====

Regardless of previous user preference the 'General' section (more generally the first section of the form) is always expanded initially.

====Always collapsed sections====

If no user preference is recorded the 'Combined feedback' section will load collapsed.

As you can see, to makes things "just work the way you would naturally expect", a lot of details have to be considered. We are still not sure we have got it quite right. There may be more tinkering to do.

==Make the form sections more logical==

Once you have collapsible sections of the form, it becomes really important that the sections of the form that you expand or collapse are logical units.

In the past, for example, we had a separate section for each choice in multiple choice questions, or each unit in a numerical question. These sections are too small, so we merged them.

Here is the new grouping on part of the numerical question type form:

[[File:choices_regrouped.png]]

And here is how the form used to look: (note that there was only space to show two choices in this screen-grab!)

[[File:choices_original.png]]

Obviously, the specific changes depend on each question type, but we followed a general principle. For a typical question type we now have the following sections on the form:

* General - question text, general feedback, and any other settings like 'Shuffle answers'
* Answers / Choices / ... - all together in one section, for those question types that have such things.
* Combined feedback - that is, the 'Feedback for any correct response' etc. - for those question types that have this section.
* Settings for multiple tries - this now contains the penalty and all the hints.
* Tags - as currently, the last section on the form.

==Group some fields on the same line==

This change is also visible in the previous section. The Answer, Grade and Accepted error are all on the same line. In fact the forms used to be like this way back in the days of Moodle <=1.7 and the fields got spread out in Moodle 1.8. The old arrangement seems like a better use of space, and Colin has finally tamed formslib to make that possible.

==Hide editing tools from some html fields==

For 'small' HTML editor, the HTML editor starts with the editing toolbar hidden:

[[File:editorscollapsed.png]]

You can click to reveal it if necessary:

[[File:editorsexpanded.png]]

At the moment this is implemented by having a 'whitelist' of form elements on the question editing forms to apply this to. The question is, should we do this automatically throughout Moodle. For example, we could apply this to any HTML editor that was smaller than X px high? Or we could require a 'collapsible' property to be set in the form definition.

==Pre-fill the combined feedback fields==

We would like to pre-fill the combined feedback fields as shown in this screen-grab.

[[File:combinedfeedback.png]]

This is a change that clearly makes sense for the OU, but may not be a good idea for anyone else. Note that these strings would be language strings, and so could be customised using Site administration ► Language ► Language customization.

==Questions==

This is a summary of the questions posed above:

# Do we want to make all sections of all forms collapsible in Moodle 2.3? If so, which bits of logic do we want?
## Auto-expand all sections with required fields?
## ... or just those where the required field is currently empty?
## Auto-expand any section containing a validation error? (We think this is obviously 'yes'.)
## Always start with the first section of the form expanded?
## Are there other sections of forms which should always start expanded? If so, how do we mark them?
## Do we need the bit about user-preferences to remember which sections you had expanded last time?
# Any objection to re-grouping the fields into sections? (We think the new grouping is just better.)
# Any objection to grouping some fields on the same line? (Again, we think this is just better.)
# Is the collapsible editor a good idea?
## If so, to we apply it everywhere in Moodle?
## If so, how to we decide which editors to apply it to? By initial size? By requiring the form creator to add a class="..." attribute to the form elements to modify?
# Is pre-filling the combined feedback fields a good idea?

Question editing form improvements

2011-12-02T15:49:54Z

Colchambers:

==Introduction==
Many question type editing forms are long and unwieldy. The biggest improvements we made were
#Expandable Sections
#Group similar fields.
#Expandable html editors

Combined with smaller tweaks the forms are now much easier to understand and use.

==Expandable Sections==
This is the ability for the user to collapse and expand form sections.

===Summary===
Each form is broken down into logical sections including:
#General
#Answers
#Units
#Multiple tries

To simplify the form it helps to think of breaking it down into sections and focusing on one section at a time. This is what expandable sections allow. Each section of the form can now be collapsed or expanded exactly the same way this happens to blocks.

To the left of each section title a + or - icon controls the visibility of that particular section. The icon used indicates what will happen when it is clicked. - indicates the section will collapse. + indicates it will expand.

Fig 1. All sections collapsed
[[File:Toggles-collapsed.jpg]]
With all sections collapsed it's possible to see on one page all sections in the form and gauge its complexity.

Fig 2. Sections expanded
[[File:Toggles-expanded.jpg]]
You can expand only the sections you want to see. The answers section often takes up one or two screens. So it's collapsed here.

===Required Sections===
Collapsing a section can hide required form fields. So required sections are marked with *

Fig 3. Required section collapsed
[[File:Required-collapsed.jpg]]
This section contains a required field so a * appears after its title.

Fig 4. Required section expanded
[[File:Required-expanded.jpg]]
Expanding the section reveals the required field.

===Logic===
We could collapse all sections when the form loads but this wouldn't be very helpful. So we've added some additional logic to set the form up for easy editing straight away.

====Remembers section visibility====
the collapsed or expanded state of each section is remembered for example if the answers section was collapsed last time you used a question editing form it will be collapsed for the next question editing form. The type of question doesn't matter.

====Default to expanded====
Remembering section visibility can cause issues. Particularly if sections with required fields or error are collapsed. You may not realise why you're having problems submitting a form.

To prevent this problem all sections are expanded by default. They will also be expanded if they contain empty required fields or fields with errors.

====always expanded sections====
Regardless of previous user preference the 'General' section it will always load expanded

====always collapsed sections====
If no user preference is recorded the 'Combined feedback' section will load collapsed.

==Group similar fields==
==Expandable html editors==
Ability to collapse and expand the editor of html text entry fields.

Question editing form improvements

2011-12-02T15:48:21Z

Colchambers:

==Introduction==
Many question type editing forms are long and unwieldy. The biggest improvements we made were
#Expandable Sections
#Group similar fields.
#Expandable html editors

Combined with smaller tweaks the forms are now much easier to understand and use.

==Expandable Sections==
This is the ability for the user to collapse and expand form sections.

===Summary===
Each form is broken down into logical sections including:
#General
#Answers
#Units
#Multiple tries

To simplify the form it helps to think of breaking it down into sections and focusing on one section at a time. This is what expandable sections allow. Each section of the form can now be collapsed or expanded exactly the same way this happens to blocks.

To the left of each section title a + or - icon controls the visibility of that particular section. The icon used indicates what will happen when it is clicked. - indicates the section will collapse. + indicates it will expand.

Fig 1. All sections collapsed
[[File:Toggles-collapsed.jpg]]
With all sections collapsed it's possible to see on one page all sections in the form and gauge its complexity.

Fig 2. Sections expanded
[[File:Toggles-expanded.jpg]]
You can expand only the sections you want to see. The answers section often takes up one or two screens. So it's collapsed here.

===Required Sections===
Collapsing a section can hide required form fields. So required sections are marked with *

Fig 3. Required section collapsed
[[File:Required-collapsed.jpg]]
This section contains a required field so a * appears after its title.

Fig 4. Required section expanded
[[File:Required-expanded.jpg]]
Expanding the section reveals the required field.

===Logic===
We could collapse all sections when the form loads but this wouldn't be very helpful. So we've added some additional logic to set the form up for easy editing straight away.

====Remembers section visibility====
the collapsed or expanded state of each section is remembered for example if the answers section was collapsed last time you used a question editing form it will be collapsed for the next question editing form. The type of question doesn't matter.

====Default to expanded====
Remembering section visibility can cause issues. Particularly if sections with required fields or error are collapsed. You may not realise why you're having problems submitting a form.

To prevent this problem all sections are expanded by default. They will also be expanded if they contain empty required fields or fields with errors.

====always expanded====
#General section . Regardless of previous user choice it will always load expanded
#Combined feedback section default to collapsed. If no user preference is recorded will load collapsed.

==Group similar fields==
==Expandable html editors==
Ability to collapse and expand the editor of html text entry fields.

Question editing form improvements

2011-12-02T15:46:08Z

Colchambers:

==Introduction==
Many question type editing forms are long and unwieldy. The biggest improvements we made were
#Expandable Sections
#Group similar fields.
#Expandable html editors

Combined with smaller tweaks the forms are now much easier to understand and use.

==Expandable Sections==
This is the ability for the user to collapse and expand form sections.

===Summary===
Each form is broken down into logical sections including:
#General
#Answers
#Units
#Multiple tries

To simplify the form it helps to think of breaking it down into sections and focusing on one section at a time. This is what expandable sections allow. Each section of the form can now be collapsed or expanded exactly the same way this happens to blocks.

To the left of each section title a + or - icon controls the visibility of that particular section. The icon used indicates what will happen when it is clicked. - indicates the section will collapse. + indicates it will expand.

Fig 1. All sections collapsed
[[File:Toggles-collapsed.jpg]]
With all sections collapsed it's possible to see on one page all sections in the form and gauge its complexity.

Fig 2. Sections expanded
[[File:Toggles-expanded.jpg]]
You can expand only the sections you want to see. The answers section often takes up one or two screens. So it's collapsed here.

===Required Sections===
Collapsing a section can hide required form fields. So required sections are marked with *

Fig 3. Required section collapsed
[[File:Required-collapsed.jpg]]
This section contains a required field so a * appears after its title.

Fig 4. Required section expanded
[[File:Required-expanded.jpg]]
Expanding the section reveals the required field.

===Logic===
We could collapse all sections when the form loads but this wouldn't be very helpful. So we've added some additional logic to set the form up for easy editing straight away.

====Remembers section visibility===
the collapsed or expanded state of each section is remembered for example if the answers section was collapsed last time you used a question editing form it will be collapsed for the next question editing form. The type of question doesn't matter.

====Default to expanded====
Remembering section visibility can cause issues. Particularly if sections with required fields or error are collapsed. You may not realise why you're having problems submitting a form.

To prevent this problem all sections are expanded by default. They will also be expanded if they contain empty required fields or fields with errors.

====always expanded
#General section . Regardless of previous user choice it will always load expanded
#Combined feedback section default to collapsed. If no user preference is recorded will load collapsed.

==Group similar fields==
==Expandable html editors==
Ability to collapse and expand the editor of html text entry fields.

Question editing form improvements

2011-12-02T15:32:28Z

Colchambers: Added logic

==Introduction==
Many question type editing forms are long and unwieldy. The biggest improvements we made were
#Expandable Sections
#Group similar fields.
#Expandable html editors

Combined with smaller tweaks the forms are now much easier to understand and use.

==Expandable Sections==
This is the ability for the user to collapse and expand form sections.

===Summary===
Each form is broken down into logical sections including:
#General
#Answers
#Units
#Multiple tries

To simplify the form it helps to think of breaking it down into sections and focusing on one section at a time. This is what expandable sections allow. Each section of the form can now be collapsed or expanded exactly the same way this happens to blocks.

To the left of each section title a + or - icon controls the visibility of that particular section. The icon used indicates what will happen when it is clicked. - indicates the section will collapse. + indicates it will expand.

Fig 1. All sections collapsed
[[File:Toggles-collapsed.jpg]]
With all sections collapsed it's possible to see on one page all sections in the form and gauge its complexity.

Fig 2. Sections expanded
[[File:Toggles-expanded.jpg]]
You can expand only the sections you want to see. The answers section often takes up one or two screens. So it's collapsed here.

===Required Sections===
Collapsing a section can hide required form fields. So required sections are marked with *

Fig 3. Required section collapsed
[[File:Required-collapsed.jpg]]
This section contains a required field so a * appears after its title.

Fig 4. Required section expanded
[[File:Required-expanded.jpg]]
Expanding the section reveals the required field.

===Logic===
We could collapse all sections when the form loads but this wouldn't be very helpful. So we've added some additional logic to set the form up for easy editing straight away.

#Default to expanded: By default each section is expanded
#Remembers visibility preference: The last visibility setting of each section is remembered from one form to the next. So if answers section was collapsed last time you used a question editing form it will be collapsed for the next question editing form.
#General section always expanded. Regardless of previous user choice it will always load expanded
#Combined feedback section default to collapsed. If no user preference is recorded will load collapsed.

==Group similar fields==
==Expandable html editors==
Ability to collapse and expand the editor of html text entry fields.

Question editing form improvements

2011-12-02T15:20:02Z

Colchambers:

Many question type editing forms are long and unwieldy. The biggest improvements we made were
#Expandable Sections
#Group similar fields.
#Expandable html editors

Combined with smaller tweaks the forms are now much easier to understand and use.

==Expandable Sections==
This is the ability for the user to collapse and expand form sections.

===Summary===
Each form is broken down into logical sections including:
#General
#Answers
#Units
#Multiple tries

To simplify the form it helps to think of breaking it down into sections and focusing on one section at a time. This is what expandable sections allow. Each section of the form can now be collapsed or expanded exactly the same way this happens to blocks.

To the left of each section title a + or - icon controls the visibility of that particular section. The icon used indicates what will happen when it is clicked. - indicates the section will collapse. + indicates it will expand.

Fig 1. All sections collapsed
[[File:Toggles-collapsed.jpg]]
With all sections collapsed it's possible to see on one page all sections in the form and gauge its complexity.

Fig 2. Sections expanded
[[File:Toggles-expanded.jpg]]
You can expand only the sections you want to see. The answers section often takes up one or two screens. So it's collapsed here.

===Required Sections===
Collapsing a section can hide required form fields. So required sections are marked with *

Fig 3. Required section collapsed
[[File:Required-collapsed.jpg]]
This section contains a required field so a * appear after its title.

Fig 4. Required section expanded
[[File:Required-expanded.jpg]]
Expanding the section reveals the required field.

==Group similar fields==
==Expandable html editors==
Ability to collapse and expand the editor of html text entry fields.

File:Required-collapsed.jpg

2011-12-02T15:14:53Z

Colchambers: Question editing. Required section collapsed

Question editing. Required section collapsed

File:Required-expanded.jpg

2011-12-02T15:14:12Z

Colchambers: Question editing required section expanded

Question editing required section expanded

Question editing form improvements

2011-12-02T15:06:17Z

Colchambers:

Many question type editing forms are long and unwieldy. The biggest improvements we made were
#Expandable Sections
#Group similar fields.
#Expandable html editors

Combined with smaller tweaks the forms are now much easier to understand and use.

==Expandable Sections==
This is the ability for the user to collapse and expand form sections.

Each form is broken down into logical sections including:
#General
#Answers
#Units
#Multiple tries

To simplify the form it helps to think of breaking it down into sections and focusing on one section at a time. This is what expandable sections allow. Each section of the form can now be collapsed or expanded exactly the same way this happens to blocks.

To the left of each section title a + or - icon controls the visibility of that particular section. The icon used indicates what will happen when it is clicked. - indicates the section will collapse. + indicates it will expand.

Fig 1. All sections collapsed
[[File:Toggles-collapsed.jpg]]
With all sections collapsed it's possible to see on one page all sections in the form and gauge its complexity.

Fig 2. Sections expanded
[[File:Toggles-expanded.jpg]]
You can expand only the sections you want to see. The answers section often takes up one or two screens. So it's collapsed here.

==Group similar fields==
==Expandable html editors==
Ability to collapse and expand the editor of html text entry fields.

File:Toggles-expanded.jpg

2011-12-02T15:04:29Z

Colchambers: Question editing form sections expanded

Question editing form sections expanded

Question editing form improvements

2011-12-02T15:00:19Z

Colchambers: Added collapsed image

Many question type editing forms are long and unwieldy. The biggest improvements we made were
#Expandable Sections
#Group similar fields.
#Expandable html editors

Combined with smaller tweaks the forms are now much easier to understand and use.

==Expandable Sections==
This is the ability for the user to collapse and expand form sections.

Each form is broken down into logical sections including:
#General
#Answers
#Units
#Multiple tries

To simplify the form it helps to think of breaking it down into sections and focusing on one section at a time. This is what expandable sections allow. Each section of the form can now be collapsed or expanded exactly the same way this happens to blocks.

To the left of each section title a + or - icon controls the visibility of that particular section. The icon used indicates what will happen when it is clicked. - indicates the section will collapse. + indicates it will expand.

Fig 1. Form with all sections collapsed
[[File:Toggles-collapsed.jpg]]
With all sections collapsed it's possible to see on one page all sections in the form and gauge its complexity. Then expand each section as you work through it.

==Group similar fields==
==Expandable html editors==
Ability to collapse and expand the editor of html text entry fields.

File:Toggles-collapsed.jpg

2011-12-02T14:57:33Z

Colchambers: Screenshot of section visibility toggling on question editing forms

Screenshot of section visibility toggling on question editing forms

Question editing form improvements

2011-12-02T14:55:16Z

Colchambers: text for expandable sections

2008-04-23T09:48:02Z

Colchambers:

=Creating an Offline Moodle Environment=
To ensure a standard approach to developing offline moodle environments it is important to record and maintain details

==Source files==
The environment comprises the following libraries
Xampp: xampplite-win32-1.6.6.exe obtained from [[http://www.apachefriends.org/en/xampp-windows.html#646|http://www.apachefriends.org/en/xampp-windows.html#646]]
Moodle: moodle-1.9.zip latest version obtained from [http://download.moodle.org/windows/]
Portable Menu: PStartSetup211.exe obtained from [http://www.pegtop.de/start/]

==Create the Environment==
===Install The Architecture===
I could say install xampp because that's what we'll be doing but it's important to remember that xampp is simply a web server, database server and php distribution, among other things, that is freely available and works on different operating systems. There are other solutions you could use and we've worked to ensure you could Switch it to these instead of xampp if you so desired.

Since we're using xampp the install is very simple. Just run the exe and chose where to unzip the files. No registry settings should be changed and no other operating system changes will be made. This is important to the overall concept of Offline Moodle in that it can be run from the folder it is unzipped to. All that you need to do is reconfigure xampp to recognise it's new location, thankfully a handle utility setup_xampp.bat does this for you so you just need to click it. Then start xampp with xampp_start.exe and xampp should start. If you're using windows xp you may notice firewall warnings. This is what firewalls do, basically xampp starting means a database and web server start. Each on needs to access the network and provide data over the network. That's why your firewall asks if this is ok with you. So just choose unblock when prompted.

When prompted chose where to unzip the xampp files to. We'll choose c:\offline for this tutorial but I normally nest it much further where I'm used to keeping project files.

===Start the Architecture===
This should be as easy as explained above reconfigure xampp to recognise its new location using setup_xampp.bat and then start it using xampp_start.exe. When you want to stop it just use the corresponding xampp_stop.exe file.

You'll get a black command prompt window pop up telling you xampp and it's services starting. Now open a web browser on your machine and type http://localhost into the address bar and press enter. You should be taken to the xampp home page. If you're not then wait a short while and try again in case xampp was still starting. If xampp won't start then check the xampp site for advice on how to fix the error. My main problem was forget to reconfigure it when I move the xampp folder or install it.

So there you go. There is another way to get xampp running using the xampp-control.exe but I'll levave you to play around with that. At this point we're not planning to promote use of this in our Offline Moodle installs simply because it presents the webserver and database as separate applications. Which while correct we don't want users to have to worry about this complexity. We just want them to start and stop Offline Moodle as they would any application.

===Secure XAMPP===
We have taken some small steps to secure the database and web server directories using standard approaches. Xampp makes this simple by providing a form to enter the required details. to reach this form choose security from the left hand menu then half way down the page should be a link http://localhost/security/xamppsecurity.php. Follow the link and enter the necessary values.

we have left the default values in place and added passwords to the root accounts both for the database and web server directories. This won't affect access to the htdocs folder itself where Moodle runs from. It simply protects the xampp configuration that's accessible through a browser with the password you've set. This protects your xampp installation from malicious users.

==Install Moodle==
Now that we have a web server and database architecture working we need to install Moodle to get a VLE up and running.

===Create the Database and Assign a User===
First we have to create a database within the database server for Moodle to reside in and then create a user with access to this database.

I'll assume you know how to run sql commands against the database to follow the next points.

Run the following sql on the database
Creates the moodle database
create database `moodle` character set utf8;

Creates the User and assigns permission to the database
grant all on `moodle`.* to 'moodle'@'localhost' IDENTIFIED BY 'm00dl3';

=== Unzip Moodle===
Unzip the Moodle installation to the folder c:\offline\htdocs\moodle
create the folder c:\offline\moodledata so Moodle knows where to store its data

===Create the config file===
The first part of installing Moodle creates the configuration file which tells Moodle where it is on your device and what it can do.

There are two ways to do this. We recommend the first step as it creates a file that references files relative to your moodle installation. The wizard unfortunately uses paths that are absolute. They point exactly to the location Moodle is installed. This means that if you copy the xampp folder to another machine you will have to change these paths in the config.

if you do use the wizard then simply replace part of the file path for $CFG->dirroot and $CFG->dataroot with dirname(__FILE__) to let php determine where Moodle is installed and make it easy to move Offline Moodle around.

the two processes are described here.

1) Create the file directly
create a file using the following values in the root of the moodle directory called config.php

<?php /// Moodle Configuration File

unset($CFG);

$CFG->dbtype = 'mysql';
$CFG->dbhost = 'localhost';
$CFG->dbname = 'moodle';
$CFG->dbuser = 'moodle';
$CFG->dbpass = 'm00dl3';
$CFG->dbpersist = false;
$CFG->prefix = 'mdl_';

$CFG->wwwroot = 'http://localhost/moodle';
$CFG->dirroot = dirname(__FILE__);
$CFG->dataroot = dirname(__FILE__).'\\..\\..\\moodledata';
$CFG->admin = 'admin';

$CFG->directorypermissions = 00777; // try 02777 on a server in Safe Mode

require_once("$CFG->dirroot/lib/setup.php");
// MAKE SURE WHEN YOU EDIT THIS FILE THAT THERE ARE NO SPACES, BLANK LINES,
// RETURNS, OR ANYTHING ELSE AFTER THE TWO CHARACTERS ON THE NEXT LINE.
?>

2) Use the install wizard
Got to http://localhost.moodle
Enter the values from above as they are requested. Once the config file is created change the values for $CFG->dirroot and CFG->dataroot as shown above to ensure they are dynamic paths that will work as the code is moved around.

===Generate the Database tables and load data===
Now you're past the point of editing files. Everything from this point should be done through a web browser since php is now running, you have a database setup and Moodle knows where it is and which account to use.
In a web browser go to http://localhost/moodle and follow the install process

Here are the initial values we chose if you just want to copy and paste.

====Setup up initial data====
We've left out some of the compulsory value since you'll want to enter your own
Username: Admin
Password: m00dl3

====Front Page settings====
Full site name: Offline Moodle
Short name for site: OfflineMoodle
Front Page Description: Welcome to Offline Moodle

====Setup session handling====
So that we don’t conflict with other moodles change the session to be unique.
Go to Server> Session Handling. In the Cookie prefix box enter ‘offlinemoodle’ and save changes. You will now have to log back in.

====Add a student account====
We've left out some of the compulsory value since you'll want to enter your own
Username: student
Password: testing

Create root support files
Pre configured help files
Readme.htm
system-requirements.htm
Help folder and contents

==Improve Usability==
Now we should have a fully installed and working Moodle environment that can work from any folder you move it to. What we need to do now is make it a little easier for the average user to use. We're technical guys that know how to configure these things but many students and lecturers won't have our technical skills so we want to remove any barriers there are to them just starting there machine, clicking start Offline Moodle and clicking a shortcut that opens Offline Moodle in a browser for them. Basically what are the fewest number of steps that we can achieve this in?

We looked at ways to package up Offline Moodle into one file, create batch files that automate all the processes necessary to configure and start xampp each time and many other options but each, while possible, would require more time, effort and expertise than we currently have to devote. they would also add complexity to the approach we are taking. At this point we just decided to go for the simplest solutions of creating shortcuts and readme files and adding a portable menu since these are very simple to create and degrade gracefully across environments thus ensuring we cater for the lowest common denominator.

===Internet Shortcuts===
Let's create a couple of shortcuts to save the user the trouble of typing urls. Once made the user just has to click these shortcuts to load a brwoser and see the site. That's two or three steps eliminated.

There are many ways to create shortcuts and feel free to choose your own. I thought I show you how to create a shortcut directly since that's what you'll end up with and you'll have more control this way.

Create a text file with the appropriate name and .url extension and open it in a text editor. Notepad, vim, eclipse, whatever.
add the following lines

[InternetShortcut]
URL=http://localhost/moodle

Save the file and double click it in the file system. You browser should open and go to the url. It's that simple. Or it is in windows XP. If it's different for other versions of windows then please let me know.

We created the following files
Offline Moodle.url, URL=http://localhost/moodle
Offline Moodle at the Open University.url, URL=http://www.open.ac.uk/offlinemoodle

The last link we created to give the user context of what Offline Moodle is. You'll probably want to create your own to guide your own users appropriately.
Location

===Readme Files===
Following the practise of many application manufacturers we created an html readme file. this way it's more presentable than a plain text file and matches the web based approach of Moodle.

We added the files
readme.htm
system-requirements.htm

The full contents of these files are too large to add here and are changing as the project develops. The main contents of readme.htm cover basic points such as
* Quick Start
* Run On Another Machine
* Troubleshooting
* Improvements
* Known Issues