Question Engine 2:Implementation plan

This page explains summarises the steps I need to do to make the changes.

Previous section: question engine.

Time scales

The Open University has asked me to work on this now.

Since this involves API changes it would be really nice to do it in Moodle 2.0. However, that may be unrealistic. When I expect this to be finished and when the Moodle 2.0 stable branch is created are currently both around the end of 2009, and it is impossible to say which will come first.

I will be implementing this as a branch in git, so the decision of which Moodle version to put it into can be made later.

Relationship with OU Moodle

One of the drivers for doing this is to reduce the differences between the OU's version of the quiz, and the standard version. This has gradually grown to the point where it can be considered a fork.

The quiz navigation improvements that are already in Moodle 2.0 were the first half of the un-forking.

The second change that needs to be merged into Moodle core is our replacement of the old Adaptive mode with the new Interactive mode. We originally did that while trying to make minimal changes to the quiz code, and the pain Mahmoud experienced while doing that was one of the things that got me thinking about this new design.

However, because of that history, I first need to implement the new code in the OU's version of Moodle. Then I need to incorporate it into Moodle 2.0. I am proposing to do that by first back-porting all the other Moodle 2.0 quiz changes to the 1.9 branch (but don't panic, they will not be committed to the stable branch in CVS!). Then building a new version of OU Moodle quiz on top of that base, then putting the new code into Moodle 2.0. That will not be fun, but it is the way it has to be.

Task breakdown

Very rough list copied from a spreadsheet I have. This may not be comprehensible to anyone else.

1. Finish this specification and estimates
2. Set up dev environment
3. Back-port quiz bits from 50da63e to 1.9 branch
4. Make the desired changes to the quiz.
4.1 Automated integration tests
4.2 New interaction model class and deferred, interactive and manual implementations
4.3 Update/split question type base class and truefalse
4.4 Database upgrade code
4.5 Split quiz_attempt class into question bit and quiz bit
4.6 New process responses code
4.7 New renderer classes
4.8 Each attempt builts on last, legacy adaptive and opaque models
4.9 New commenting code
4.10 Update quiz navigation code
4.11 New regrade code
4.12 Update quiz reports
4.13 New database table and editing form fields for hints
4.14 Update all other core question types
4.15 New backup code
4.16 Restore old backups code
5. Add back all the other ou-specific quiz changes
6. Merge the new code to Moodle 2.0 dev
6.1 New docs for question type authors
6.2 New docs for module authors
7. Test and bug fix in OU Moodle
7.1 Load testing framework
8. Test and bug-fix in Moodle 2.0 beta

See also

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