Hi,<br> I'm currently working with OLE Nepal to find the best solution for synchronising online and offline course material via Moodle. There are currently 2 projects that do exactly this via different mechanisms, though currently they use what some might consider to be a heavy memory and cpu footprint by using the same mechanisms of a regular online moodle (namely a webserver, server side scripting and database (mysql or sqlite) )<br>
<br>I'll talk about the 2 options in detail below and what their status is in terms of finished development work.<br><br>1. Open University Moodfle on a stick<br><br>This, till now seems to be the more worked on version, with support from both Open University and Intel. Martin Langhoff has also been involved in some of the coding for this, with the intention of using it for the XS and XOs... At present, the system is highly windows centric with a Linux version planned. That said, we are really only talking about an installer, as the environment is easy enough to build and is done like so:<br>
<br>- Install the xampp package (<a href="http://apachefriends.org/en/xampp-linux.html">apachefriends.org/en/xampp-linux.html</a>)<br>- Install Moodle and sqlite patches. (Currently sqlite support is a Google summer of code project which should be fully functional by August, making it a viable option for the XOs)<br>
- Secure Moodle and enter test data<br>- Install 3rd party Moodle plugins of interest (to date the DOOR plugin for adding a course resource repository seems very promissing)<br><br>Installing xampp with mysql is also possible, in the interim, while the sqlite port of moodle is being completed, but looking at the memory and CPU footprint on an Asus eeepc and an XO shows that it is preferable to have sqlite for the final product (I will post exact data in reference to this soon.) Incremental backups is the current focus of the OU moodfle project and when that is done, I believe it will be the best option for installation on the XOs<br>
<br>2. Jolongo (meaning backpack in slang Latin American Spanish)<br><br>This project seems very promising, and having spoken to the developers, they are both honoured and motivated to be working on something that might be used by OLPC. Right now, the majority of their work is in Spanish (which is not a problem for me as Spanish is a native language for me), but the interface might need some translating... Their system has been packaged with adobe AIR, making it totally cross platform and a one click package to install and run. Adobe AIR, however, is currently in alpha stage for linux, and from what I've gathered so far, will not install on an Asus eeepc. I've still to try and see if it will install on the XO. On another laptop, I've managed to get it running along with Jolongo, which after installing gives you a visual representation of a minimal moodle which synchs with an online moodle using a username and password, along with the mother moodle url. But this is currently quite iffy... as in it sometimes works, sometimes doesn't, and at the moment only the course material is downloaded (no events, no task manager, etc.) I am in contact with the developers who were keen on me beta testing it, and they are doing what they can to make it more stable.. I will post progress as it happens.<br>
<br>Conclusion<br><br>For now, it seems like both projects are still ironing out the finer details, with the OU version seeming to be the more complete project. However, the Jolongo project, with its reliance on Adobe AIR might be both lighter and more portable, as well as easier to install. That said, the OU version will be using sqlite, so that could even things out. Giving it a couple of months will allow us to see which one of these projects is the best adapted to usage by OLE and olpc.<br>