Moodle flavours

Moodle flavours
Project state	Planning
Tracker issue	http://tracker.moodle.org/browse/CONTRIB-2948
Discussion	http://moodle.org/mod/forum/discuss.php?d=174755
Assignee	David Monllaó (project blog - login into moodle.org required to view the content)

Project specification coming soon...

Introduction

A flavour is a packaged set of Moodle site settings, plugins and language packs. Moodle Administrators will be able to create a flavour from their installation, selecting which settings, plugins and language packs will be packaged into a compressed file. They can then, share the package with the Moodle community, store it as a backup or use it to replicate the flavour to other installations they manages. It could also be useful for administrators with little Moodle experienced, allowing them to explore the Moodle settings and setup recommended by others.

Examples

• Flavours for universities with common language packs, videoconferencing plugins and the secure quiz settings
• Flavours for schools with plugins more oriented towards children
• Sets of audio plugins for music teaching
• Local language customisations for Italian (for example) and Romanic language packs, for languages teaching
• Packs of admin monitoring / reporting plugins
• Flavours for specific industry sectors (e.g. Retail, Automotive, Health, Defence - each have common needs)
• Flavours for Distance Learning organisations
• Flavour for Apprenticeships

GSOC Original Proposal

Short description

This project will bring flavours to Moodle, allowing Administrators to choose and load a flavour from a public repository. Flavours can contain administration settings, Moodle plugins, sub-plugins, language packs and local language strings. The repository management could be done with a database module instance on moodle.org or through the Modules and Plugins databse, although, this project will focus on the development of the flavour packaging and deployment system.

Long description

There are a lot of Moodle settings, plugins and integrations with other applications. It's fun to explore Moodle options, but not everyone has time to achieve this.

Based on Appfuse nomenclature, a flavour will be a Moodle package of administration settings, installed plugins, languages and the local customisations. Flavours will be distributed using a database (like the M&P or themes dbs) on moodle.org where flavour contributors can share, describe, comment or rate the submitted flavours.

Flavours will be distributed as compressed files, with a .xml file to structure the flavour contents. The packaging system should respect the moodle and moodledata directory structure.

To deploy a flavour, the user interface will be similar to the courses backup and restore interface, which should be familiar to Administrators. During deployment, administrators will be able to selectively nominate the flavour contents that will be used.

Another consideration will be versioning; there will need to be control over configuration, plugin and language pack versions to avoid incompatibilities between releases.