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
Tracker	CONTRIB-2059

Introduction

The Dialogue module allows students or teachers to start two-way conversation 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.

Design goals

1. Retain existing functionality.
2. Enhance usage scenarios, flexibility and control.
3. Enhance user interface.

Glossary

Term	Definition
Dialogue	An instance of an dialogue activity module.
Conversation	An instance of communication between to two users within a dialogue. Follow vertical linear pattern.
Reply	A message posted in reply to conversational text.

User interface mock-ups

Dialogue listing

Dialogue view

Dialogue new

Recipient picker

Basic features Use a standard drop down for single recipient selection.

Multiple user selection

Use standard multiple user selection interface as found in enrol users, groups e.t.c

Advanced features Ajax recipient picker, must be able to handle both single and multiple recipient selection.

Implementation plan

Multiple dialogue open

If user has capability mod/dialogue:openmultiple with permission set to allow, they can select multiple users to open a conversation with that will contain the same subject, body, attachment(s).

Auto open multiple

If a user has the capability mod/dialogue:autoopenmultiple with permission set to allow, they can open a automated dialogue that will contain the same subject, body, attachment(s) with:

• "All Participants" -> All course members

Any newly enrolled users will receive dialogue. If in group mode

• "A Group" -> All members in that group.
• "Multiple Groups" -> e.g Group A, Group C will open with any member of a selected group.

Any new group member will receive dialogue.

Note: New capability mod/dialogue:receive will also determine what roles (student, teacher e.t.c) a user can open a dialogue with.

This information will be stored to a new table mdl_dialogue_automated this will allow user to delete dialogue at anytime if they want to stop opening dialogues with newly enrolled users or group members. Depending of time, could also add a date range option to control opening.

Group support

Visible groups mode

User can open a dialogue with any person in any visible group.

Separate groups mode

User can open a dialogue with any person in a group they are a member of unless has capability moodle/site:accessallgroups with permission allow.

Note: New capability mod/dialogue:receive will also determine what roles (student, teacher e.t.c) a user can open a dialogue with.

File attachments

File API

Use filemanager element in the formslib to get one or more file from user for each post, file(s) stored permanently for future viewing.

Notifications

Messaging API

Setup messageprovider for routing notifications.

Dialogue module instance options

Follow options can be configured when creating a new dialogue module instance or updating/editing a dialogue module instance.

• Enable notifications

Allow notifications, passed on to Messaging API.

• Include post content in notification

If enabled will include post content and link to specific dialogue conversation else will new post type message and link to specific dialogue conversation.

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)

Can use for showing automated multiple open dialogue???

Logging

Dialogue events that will be logged.

• open
• view
• reply
• edit
• close
• delete

Database structures

sample

dialogue

Field	Type	Default	Description	Notes
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
notifications	int (2)	1	allow post notifications, will use MessagingAPI
notificationcontent	int (2)	0	include post content in notification

dialogue_conversations

Field	Type	Default	Description	Notes
id	int (10)		auto-numbered
course	int (10)	0	the course id this dialogue
dialogueid	int (10)	0	the dialogue instance id
subject	varchar (255)		brief summary of message
ownerid	int (10)	0	user id of person who started conversation
recipientid	int (10)	0	user id of person who is to receive conversation
text	text (medium)		message text
format	int (3)	0	the format type of message
attachment	int (2)	0	if post contains attachment(s)
lastreply	int (2)	0	reply id of last post in the conversation
sent	int (2)	0	flag to indicate if message has been sent to recipient
closed	int (2)	0	flag to indicate if conversation has been closed
deleted	int (2)	0	flag to indicate conversation as deleted	??? Unsure
timemodified	int (10)	0	the timestamp when the module was modified

dialogue_replies

Field	Type	Default	Description	Notes
id	int (10)		auto-numbered
conversationid	int (10)	0	the conversation id that reply relates to.
parentid	int (10)	0	the previous reply if exists, else if 0 directly follows conversation	??? unsure
ownerid	int (10)	0	user id of person who posted reply
text	text (medium)		message text
format	int (3)	0	the format type of message
attachment	int (2)	0	if post contains attachment(s)
sent	int (2)	0	flag to indicate if message has been sent to recipient
timemodified	int (10)	0	the timestamp when the module was modified

dialogue_read

Field	Type	Default	Description	Notes
id	int (10)		auto-numbered
userid	int (10)	0	user if of person who viewed conversation or reply
dialogueid	int (10)	0	the dialogue id that the conversation relates to.
conversationid	int (10)	0	the conversation id that reply relates to
replyid	int (10)	0	the reply id, can be 0 if user has just viewed start of conversation
firstread	int (10)	0	datetime first read
lastread	int (10)	0	datetime last read

dialogue_automated

Field	Type	Default	Description	Notes
id	int (10)		auto-numbered
course	int (10)	0	the course id this dialogue
dialogueid	int (10)	0	the dialogue instance id
subject	varchar (255)		brief summary of message
ownerid	int (10)	0	user id of person who started conversation
recipients	text (small)	0	indicators for "All participants" or selected groups	serialised array or object
text	text (medium)		message text
format	int (3)	0	the format type of message
timestart	int (10)	0	the datetime start range, users enrolled after will receive	??? may be later implemented
timeend	int (10)	0	the datetime end range, users enrolled before will receive	??? may be later implemented
timemodified	int (10)	0	the timestamp when the module was modified

Capabilities and Permissions

Capability	Description	Role permissions(defaults)	Notes
mod/dialogue:open	Open a dialogue with single recipient	teacher
mod/dialogue:receive	Can receive a dialogue	student	Can be used to control what roles are displayed in the recipient picker
mod/dialogue:reply	Can reply to a dialogue	teacher, student
mod/dialogue:closeown	Can close a dialogue if have ownership	teacher, student
mod/dialogue:deleteown	Can delete a dialogue if have ownership	teacher, student
mod/dialogue:deleteownreply	Can delete own reply	teacher, student	Add ability to delete last reply in dialogue thread. Maybe/Maybe not?
mod/dialogue:openmultiple	Can start a dialogue with multiple recipients	teacher	For sending the same dialogue to multiple recipients. Used for targeting particular group(s) of users or whole class.
mod/dialogue:autoopenmultiple	Can start a automated dialogue with course participants or group members which includes future members.	teacher
mod/dialogue:viewany	view any conversation, reply	administrator
mod/dialogue:replyany	can reply in any conversation to any reply	administrator
mod/dialogue:closeany	can close any conversation	administrator
mod/dialogue:deleteany	can delete any conversation	administrator

Upgrade Process

Will need to map existing table structure to new table structure once finalised.

Translations

Current 1.9x translations

• en English
• de Deutsch German
• es Español Spanish
• it Italiano Italian