Moodle Workplace App Configuration

This feature is part of Moodle Workplace™, which is available through Moodle Certified Partners and Service Providers only.

This page is intended for Administrators

Note: It is highly recommended that you enable HTTPS with a valid certificate. The Workplace app will always try to use a secured connection first.

Enabling the app

Before any users can use your Moodle Workplace instance, the following steps are required to be carried out:

1. Enable web services for mobile devices
   Go to Site administration > Advanced features and ensure that the Enable web services for mobile devices option is ticked.
2. It is highly recommended to enable mobile notifications
   Navigate to Site administration > Messaging > Notification settings and enable the Mobile notification plugin.
   To configure mobile notifications, navigate to Site administration > Messaging > Mobile. Unless you run your own AirNotifier server, do not change any of the settings. The default values connect to the public Moodle messaging server. All you need to do is to select the Request an access key link at the bottom. This requires your site to be registered with moodle.org (via Site administration > Registration).
3. Configure mobile authentication
   Go to the Mobile authentication section for different configuration options. If you are on a paid plam, you can configure additional authentiation features in the Premium authentication section.

Configuring the app

Note: Some features are not available on the Free Moodle App plan. These Premium features are documented in a dedicated section on this page.

The following configuration sections are available to configure the Moodle Workplace App:

Mobile appearance

App banners let your users know that a dedicated mobile app is available when accessing the site using a mobile browser. If you use the standard Moodle Workplace app, leave the remaining values at their default. If you are using a branded mobile app, you need to provide the unique identifiers for the iOS and Android app, respectively, and also specify an App download page.

The tenant-specific configuration for each banner setting is covered in the app's multi-tenancy section.

Mobile authentication

Moodle Workplace supports three different mobile login types (Site administration > Mobile app > Mobile authentication > Type of Login):

• Via the app (default): Default authentication mechanism that applies to all manual account.
• Via a browser window (for SSO plugins): If your site uses an SSO authentication method, such as MS-AD, LDAP, or OAuth 2, this mechanism opens a separate browser window where the login credentials have to be provided.
• Via an embedded browser (for SSO plugins): Same as Via a browser window (for SSO plugins) but provides a better user experience. Note: Authentication plugins that require JavaScript popups or make use of Google OAuth will not work in an embedded browser.

The URL scheme specifies which app can be used to access your Moodle Workplace site:

• mmworkplace (default): Only allow the official Moodle Workplace app
• Other URL scheme: When a custom branded app has been developed and you only want users to connect to your site via that custom app, enter its URL scheme
• Leave empty: Use any app (only recommended to allow access via a custom branded app and the standard Workplace app)

If the Force log out setting is enabled, the app option 'Change site' is replaced by 'Log out'. This results in the user being completely logged out. They must then re-enter their password the next time they wish to access the site. This setting is useful when mobile are shared among users.

For security reasons, Enforce auto logout for your users lets you choose from the following options to control when a user close the app, which includes running the app in the background:

• Never: User will remain logged in and do not have re-enter their credentials.
• Immediately after users leave or close the app: As soon as the app is closed (or run in the background), the user is logged out.
• Custom time after users leave or close the app: You can specify a time period after which the user will be logged out.

The Minimum app version required option can usually be left empty and should only be set if you want or need to force users to update to an up-to-date version of the Moodle Workplace app.

The Minimum time between auto-login requests setting determines how frequently users have to authenticate from the mobile app. If app users are frequently asked to enter their credentials when viewing content embedded from the site, then set a lower value.

Mobile features

Mobile features can be accessed at Site administration > Mobile app > Mobile features. Users have to sync the app to apply any configured changes (Menu > App settings > Synchronisation).

• An App policy URL can be specified; if set, this page will be listed on the app's about page; if left empty, the main site policy will be used instead.
• File type exclusion list: Select all file types which are not for use on a mobile device. Such files will be listed in the course, then if a user attempts to open them, a warning will be displayed advising that the file type is not intended for use on a mobile device. The user can then cancel or ignore the warning and open the file anyway.
• The Allowlisted JavaScript domains setting lets you specify from which domains external JavaScript files are allowed to be loaded by the Moodle Workplace app when detected in user-generated HTML content.

Premium features

Premium features are only available on the Premium plan or on Branded Moodle Apps (see https://apps.moodle.com/local/apps/ for details).

To check which plan you are on, go to Site administration > General > Mobile app > Moodle app subscription. You will see details about your current subscription and the features that are available.

To change your plan, select the Manage button, which will direct you to the Moodle App portal.

To access the Premium features, navigate to Site administration > General > Mobile app > Premium features.

Authentication

In addition to the authentication features described in the Mobile authentication section above, the following QR code features are available:

QR code access is an alternative way to access the site by scanning a matrix barcode. This mode has the following three options:

• Access via QR code disabled: No authentication via QR code possible.
• QR code with site URL (free): Users will have to enter their credentials.
• QR code with automatic login (Premium feature only)
  • QR authentication key duration: Specify the length of time for which a QR code for automatic login is valid.
  • QR authentication same IP check: If enabled (default), users must use the same network for both generating and scanning a QR code for login. Only disable, if users report issues with the QR login.

Branding

This section lets you modify the app's look and feel.

The app makes use of a remote theme where the styles are specified in Moodle Workplace itself and loaded dynamically to each mobile device. A single CSS file has to be provided, which overrides the styles from the default theme; that is, your new CSS file should have only the styles you wish to modify. Once the CSS file is completed, load it to a location where it can be accessed from your Moodle Workplace server. This can either be a public URL or locally in your Workplace instance, ideally in your custom theme ($CFG->wwwroot/theme/workplace).

Note, to apply the new styles, you need to clear the cache and restart the app.

Cutomisation

The following additional mobile settings are available on the Premium plan:

• Disabled features: This lets you remove features from the app's main menu.
• Custom menu items: This lets you add additional items to the app's main menu. The format is item text|link|opening method|[language code].
  • The text element is the menu item shown in the app
  • link is the URL of the menu item
  • Options for the opening method can be app (for linking to an activity supported by the app), inappbrowser (for opening a link in a browser without leaving the app), browser (for opening the link in the device default browser outside the app), and embedded (for displaying the link in an iframe in a new page in the app)
  • The optional language code lets you add new menu items in multiple languages. When items are missing a translation for a given language, they will use other languages as fallback unless _only is appended to the language code.
• Custom user menu items: Same as above, but it will add additional items into the user account menu.
• Custom language strings: Words and phrases displayed in the app can be customised. The format it string identifier|custom string|language code. For more details, check out the Custom language strings section in the Moodle App Guide.