LTI ContentItem Enhancements: Difference between revisions
No edit summary |
No edit summary |
||
| Line 25: | Line 25: | ||
This is the most significant change being proposed: a new flow is added to skip the External Tool page when launching directly from the Activity Chooser (i.e. not using the External Tool option). The goal is to make the external tool feel more integrated and behave more like an Activity Module by diving directly into the tool's User Interface and not showing any Moodle configuration page. It also allows for the creation of '''multiple''' items in a single interaction. | This is the most significant change being proposed: a new flow is added to skip the External Tool page when launching directly from the Activity Chooser (i.e. not using the External Tool option). The goal is to make the external tool feel more integrated and behave more like an Activity Module by diving directly into the tool's User Interface and not showing any Moodle configuration page. It also allows for the creation of '''multiple''' items in a single interaction. | ||
The new flow is summarized is in this short screen cast: https://youtu.be/TvqKuJlGATw | |||
=== Changes to the Tool Configuration === | === Changes to the Tool Configuration === | ||
Revision as of 13:33, 1 August 2017
| LTI Content-Item Enhancements | |
|---|---|
| Project state | Planning |
| Tracker issue | MDL-59402 |
| Discussion | Enhancing support for IMS Content-Item message |
| Assignee | Stephen Vickers |
Project goal
The goal of this project is to enhance the existing IMS Content-Item Message implementation in Moodle. IMS Content-Item Message is an extension of the IMS Learning Tool Interoperability (LTI) specification that allows for sharing of content, typically LTI links, between two systems. The enhancements developed as part of this project will provide a more streamlined link creation process and an improved user experience.
Specifically, these enhancements will:
- Allow instructors and course designers to add multiple LTI links at once; eliminating the need to access a content selector each time a link is to be added
- Support a more streamlined workflow where content items can optionally be added automatically without any manual intervention
- Enhance the user experience of using a content selector within Moodle by increasing the size of the lightbox where the content selector is rendered
The work is not intended for now to support other content item type (like static content) although it could be extended in the future to allow for it.
This work is being undertaken with the support of Cengage.
Direct Content Item flow from Activity Chooser
This is the most significant change being proposed: a new flow is added to skip the External Tool page when launching directly from the Activity Chooser (i.e. not using the External Tool option). The goal is to make the external tool feel more integrated and behave more like an Activity Module by diving directly into the tool's User Interface and not showing any Moodle configuration page. It also allows for the creation of multiple items in a single interaction.
The new flow is summarized is in this short screen cast: https://youtu.be/TvqKuJlGATw
Changes to the Tool Configuration
The new behavior will be an opt-in flow, thus not impacting current deployments. The new option in the tool settings is to skip the External Tool page when adding an activity from the activity chooser. This option is only available if the tool supports the Content Item flow; it also requires the tool to be listed in the activity chooser. This setting does not change the flow when the link is added using the External Tool option.
Here is an early mockup of how this option could be proposed:
The need to actually add an opt-in option is truly necessary is an open question. It might be simpler to just the default behavior (see discussion in forum).
Streamlined add flow
Once the tool is configured to skip the External Tool page, when a user selects the tool directly in the activity chooser, the user is sent directly to the Tool Provider using the ContentItemSelectionRequest launch. The parameters in the launch now include:
- auto_create: true indicating the links will be created directly on return - accept_multiple: true indicating it is ok to return more than one Content Item
The actual Tool UI will be in an IFrame, and the return URL would handle the Items, add them directly to the course and create the grade item if the content item defines a line item. Then it would redirect the user to the course page with those links added in (similar to a regular Activity Module flow). An empty content item return would act as a Cancel, no item would be added and the user would be returned to the course page.
Other improvements
Support for thumbnail and icon
Content items returned to Moodle in a Content-Item Message response optionally contain an Icon and Thumbnail (i.e., images to be displayed along with link text) data. Currently Moodle does not support display of icons/thumbnails received as part of a content item. This project would add support for both the icon and thumbnail.
Support for a larger lightbox for display of a content selector in External Tool
The current lightbox displayed by Moodle on a Content-Item Message request when initiated from the External Tool Page is rather small and often results in the need for the user to scroll vertically and horizontally. This project would update the lightbox to be larger based on screen dimensions. Outside of the wider modal, there will be no other changes in current flow of the External Tool page.
