[Server-devel] EduBlog Revised Project Plan

[Martin Langhoff]

On Mon, Jun 9, 2008 at 12:13 AM, Tarun Pondicherry
<tarunpondicherry at gmail.com> wrote:
> Aside from authentication, I think I can get a basic usable version working
> on Greg's schedule.  Do you foresee some problems that I haven't thought of?

No problems. Sounds reasonable.

>> A non-XS-based installation probably means usernames/passwords will be
>> required - we can only do magic authentication tricks with the local
>> XS.
>>
>
> For the alpha, perhaps we can authenticate by name only w/o a password?

Trivial to write an auth module that does just that. If Greg agrees
that it's viable...

...

> I'll have to look at this more, but, I believe its possible for me to do
> deal with most of the Moodle editing and let other LAMP developers make
> their classes/functions independent.  I've hacked at Moodle before so I feel
> comfortable dealing with it.  I can then just connect to those other files
> from within Moodle.  As far as the editor, if we have to support IE and FF,
> developers will have to hack on an existing editor, so no change in this
> regard.  Is that a mutually acceptable solution?

Yep.

>>  - if using oublog, the "sitecourse" which is the frontpage, has an...
>
> Why does Moodle have two blog modules anyway?

Community development. MartinD developed the "core" blog that is
always sitewide. Some people want to run course-centered blogs that
may aggregate at the site-level, but are managed at the course - so
they contracted me to write just that.

In any case, there are GSoC projects about making the core blog
better, so that's moving forward (after a bit of neglect) so it's a
good idea to work on that one (and not on oublog), specially if you
can coordinate things with the GSoC project. IF the code is too crummy
there oublog is a good fallback.

[ from another email now ... ]

On Mon, Jun 9, 2008 at 12:43 AM, Tarun Pondicherry
<tarunpondicherry at gmail.com> wrote:
>> Well, you can't tell what options to remove until you get real users
>> using it, and you spot which options they don't use ;-)
>
> Thats true, but I'm also concerned we might scare them away!

Your call there - but you might want savvy users for the early pilots,
so you get good quality bug reports, and intelligent feedback...

>> I wasn't intending to put all of in on your shoulders...
> Phew!

:-)

> Our project will still only focus on three pages (student, teacher and
> admin).  The teacher page (and functionality) don't exist in either blog or
> ou blog, though there is an SoC project that may put some of those features
> into the blog module
> (http://docs.moodle.org/en/Student_projects/Blog_improvements).  So we will
> have to add that in, perhaps we can use some of the code from that project.
>  I've also read your comments about avoiding admin pages, but there some
> options like where to post that have to be set on the user side.  How can we
> implement this without an admin page?

I have some ideas here - have the config UI elements, but we may
pre-configure it later.

There is one thing in this space that is _really_ tricky

 - We want a solid base to base our work on and aim for a solid
release. That means basing your work on the MOODLE_19_STABLE branch

 - We want to get the code merged upstream for v2.0 (next major
release) - that means basing work on HEAD - but that release is far,
far away.

 - We want to take advantage of the GSoC efforts - but they are
targeting 2.0 :-(

We probably need to review the blog code, see the GSoC guy (gal?)'s
plan and see how it all fits. With a bit of analysis we'll find the
best path forward.

> Can I assume that all the pages will have knowledge of the course and
> student name, etc. once that is done?  I can hard code some things for the
> alpha version to get around this.

Yes - in moodle once the user is logged in, you have that data.

>>> All html editors have complex UIs. And writing an html editor *is*
>>> incredibly complex.
>
> Agreed, since we must support IE, FF and Browse.  Moodle gives the option of
> using either HtmlArea or tinyMCE.  I think one will likely be removed for
> the XS install (don't see the point in sugarizing both) right?  Which one
> should we modify?

I'm with MartinD right now, and TinyMCE is going to be the official
one in 2.0. This is - of course - tied to the notes above on versions.

>> The blog can be a sitewide blog - either using teh vanilla moodle
>> blog,
>
> Sorry, for my noobness, what is a "vanilla" version?

"core" blogs vs oublog.

>>  or a oublog in the "sitecourse" (aka the front page). IF they
>> mainly want to use the blog, it will be right there, no need to fiddle
>> w courses...
>
> We need to associate the blog with the course anyway, but automatically.
>  So, they shouldn't have to fiddle with courses, it just needs to be
> automatically set based on the teacher somehow.

If your requirements are for course-based blogs, then oublog is the way.

>> (Of course, they'll want to know more about moodle anyway ;-) )
>
> That's a bit optimistic, but we can hope =).

Definitely ;-) -- though some of the XS administration will be done
using Moodle's UIs... (user and content administration, rather than
technical administration)

>> So far the Moodle on XS team looks like:
>>
>>  - Julian Ridden - has offered to build a theme for us
>>  - Gary Anderson has also offered help re theming
>> http://moodle.org/mod/forum/discuss.php?d=73022
>>  - me!
>
> Cool, theming for browse would be a major issue.  I'm glad there is some
> help on this!

Just been talking with Gary (CCd) here - and he says that they have an
initial theme that addresses screen size issues. He says that it's on
the theme forum in moodle.org... let me see.. ah, here
http://moodle.org/mod/forum/discuss.php?d=98291

(Gary - can't find Phillip Colburn's email addr - if you could CC him
into this thread...)

long email - sorry



m
-- 
 martin.langhoff at gmail.com
 martin at laptop.org -- School Server Architect
 - ask interesting questions
 - don't get distracted with shiny stuff - working code first
 - http://wiki.laptop.org/go/User:Martinlanghoff