Dialogue 2.0 specification

This page tracks and summarises the progress of rewrite of the Dialogue module for Moodle 2.0. Moodle 2.0

Dialogue 2.0 specification
Status	Draft

Introduction

The Dialogue module allows students or teachers to start two-way dialogues with another person. They are course activities that can be useful when the teacher wants a place to give private feedback to a student on their online activity. For example, if a student is participating in a language forum and made a grammatical error that the teacher wants to point out without embarrassing the student, a dialogue is the perfect place. A dialogue activity would also be an excellent way for counsellors within an institution to interact with students - all activities are logged and email is available but not necessarily required.

Usage scenarios

• Teacher sends same course welcome message to all students in “Course A” including future students. Not other roles. Multiple messages.
• Teacher sends same group welcome message to all members of “Group A” including future members. All roles in “Group A”. Multiple messages.
• Teacher sends same message to some students. Multiple messages.
• A Teacher can send “Message” to a student. Student can view but not respond. Single user message.
• A Student can send “Message” to a Teacher. But not to other students. Single user message.
• Teacher A leaves, Teacher B needs to close a Dialogue that posts to all Students.
• A specific Student (eg Class Rep with specified role) can send a “Message” to all students. Ongoing conversation allowed.
• A Student can send a “Message” to a specific students (eg Class Rep with specified role). Ongoing conversation allowed.
• All Teachers can view and participate in any existing conversation in a shared teaching situation.

Implementation plan

Database structures

dialogue

Field	Type	Default	Description
id	int (10)		auto-numbered
course	int (10)	0	the course id this dialogue
intro	text (medium)		the description/assignment of the workshop
introformat	int (3)	0	the format of the intro field
timemodified	int (10)	0	the timestamp when the module was modified
edittime	int (10)	0
maxattachments	int (3)	1	number of attachments
maxbytes	int (10)	100000	maximum size of the one attached file

Capabilities and Permissions

Capability	Description	Role permissions	Notes
mod/dialogue:open	TO-DO	TO-DO
mod/dialogue:receive	TO-DO	TO-DO
mod/dialogue:reply	TO-DO	TO-DO
mod/dialogue:deleteown	TO-DO	TO-DO
mod/dialogue:openmultiple	TO-DO	TO-DO	can open same(template) dialogue with multiple recipients
mod/dialogue:viewany	TO-DO	TO-DO
mod/dialogue:replyany	TO-DO	TO-DO
mod/dialogue:closeany	TO-DO	TO-DO
mod/dialogue:deleteany	TO-DO	TO-DO

Messaging API

Setup messageprovider for routing posts.

Event API

user_enrolled()

Can be used for any automated opening of dialogues for new course participants when all participants were selected in a multi-open dialogue.

groups_member_added()

Can be used for any automated opening of dialogues for new group members when group(s) were elected in a multi-open dialogue.

user_unenrolled()

Cleanup function, delete any dialogues that user is a recipient.

Navigation functions

dialogue_extend_navigation($navref, $course, $module, $cm)

Can use for dialogue unread count, filters(All, Unread, Read e.t.c) providing direct linking.

dialogue_extend_settings_navigation(settings_navigation $settingsnav, navigation_node $dialoguenode)

???