How to ensure that externally developed projects become part of the main stream

How to ensure that externally developed projects become part of the main stream

by Timothy Takemoto -
Number of replies: 6
Dear Martin, Henrik, esteemed developers

There is a possibillity at last of some money coming from my university to pay for some development.
But

1)  They are inclined to pay a Japanese software developer.
2) My boss is saying that a national university cannot pay for open source. I am not sure why.
 
However, there is perhaps a chance that I would be release it by saying that the programmer retains the copyright. And then the programmer could agree, informally to release it.
 
I have a question....

If we were able to pay a programmer to make certain functions, and these were released, would these become part of Moodle or would they fall by the wayside?
 
The functionality I am thinking of is
 
1) Improvements to the quiz functionality - Some method of adding sounds to answers as well as questions, one question at a time quizzes, quiz opening in a new window.
2) Enhanced Japanese language compatibility - making sure that the subject line of mail does not garble in any mode (html or text), and that downloaded excel files are non-garbled too. Also perhaps that the given name and surname are asked in the Japanese order (with the family name at the top).
3) Ability to move large numbers of activities at once or enter a blank week in a course to enable me to manage a large number of courses.
Perhaps a slight problem with the sort of functionality I might be able to pay to be added are that they are rather non-socially constructive, because I like to do that myself, and leave brutalisation to computers, as explained.
 
So, my general question is, how does one attempt to have funded software development become part of Moodle and not become a dead branch?

There is still a chance perhaps that the funding might be able to go outside of Japan but it does not seem all that good.
There is probably just as big a chance that it won't come at all. Blood out of a stone and all. I am applying for 30,000 but I recon at most I will get 50 to 30 percent of that.

Tim
takemoto
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In reply to Timothy Takemoto

Re: How to ensure that externally developed projects become part of the main stream

by Martin Dougiamas -
Picture of Core developers Picture of Documentation writers Picture of Moodle HQ Picture of Particularly helpful Moodlers Picture of Plugin developers Picture of Testers
Well, it depends on how much it is needed and how well it is written.

> 1) Improvements to the quiz functionality - Some method of adding sounds to answers as well as questions, one question at a time quizzes, quiz opening in a new window.

You can add MP3 sounds to answers already simply by linking to them since the mediaplugin filter will create Flash buttons, but I guess you're looking for a menu there. That's not a problem. One question at a time would be good to see. Quiz in new window is trivial, no problem.

> 2) Enhanced Japanese language compatibility - making sure that the subject line of mail does not garble in any mode (html or text), and that downloaded excel files are non-garbled too. Also perhaps that the given name and surname are asked in the Japanese order (with the family name at the top).

Can't see any problems there.

> 3) Ability to move large numbers of activities at once or enter a blank week in a course to enable me to manage a large number of courses.

This would have to be done in an elegant way and would require some discussion about the interface. But see what Penny has already been working on and also this interface.

To get changes into Moodle it helps to make them easy for me to integrate. I like to see each feature packaged independently, presented in 'contextual diff' format against the current development CVS. It also helps to have a live demo somewhere that I can try out before looking at the code.  Lastly, changes should not confuse existing users or break any current functionality.
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In reply to Martin Dougiamas

Re: How to ensure that externally developed projects become part of the main stream

by Timothy Takemoto -
Thanks a lot Martin,

My national university wants proposals signed and sealed in blood, with precise definitions of what will be achieved and what will not. The excellent php programmer that we have here in Japan (the one that made the lecture feedback module for Don) is not in a position to make the sort of contractual obligations that are required.

Tim
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In reply to Martin Dougiamas

Japanese text garbled in Excel file downloads (suggested fix)

by Paul Shew -
Martin,

The bug that Tim mentioned in his second point about the text in Excel files being garbled is a serious problem. It effectively renders that feature useless in the Japanese version of Moodle. I'm preparing to upgrade my server to the latest version and so I'm thinking about Moodle again (after an exhausting semester that recently finished). I had gotten used to just using the text file download and then converting the text encoding after downloading it, but I thought there's got to be a way to make the Excel file download funtion work too.

The problem is that Japanese Excel uses SJIS encoding, but the Japaense version of Moodle uses EUC-JP. The encoding has to be changed for the Japanese to be readable, and there's no way to do that in Excel.

I think that this may be an easy fix for the problem. Insert the following code into function write_string() at bottom of lib/excel/Worksheet.php

 

//fix japanese encoding (Excel garbles EUC-JP) 

    $encoding =  mb_detect_encoding($str, "ASCII,JIS,UTF-8,EUC-JP,SJIS");

    if (encoding = "EUC-JP") {

        $str = mb_convert_encoding($str, "SJIS","EUC-JP");

}


Ryoichi Nakayama's suggestions on the Japanese forum helped me figure this out. I haven't tested it yet myself. I've still got 250 exams left to grade before I can get serious about my Moodle installation. I'm just on a coffee break now... wink

Paul.
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In reply to Paul Shew

Re: Japanese text garbled in Excel file downloads (suggested fix)

by Martin Dougiamas -
Picture of Core developers Picture of Documentation writers Picture of Moodle HQ Picture of Particularly helpful Moodlers Picture of Plugin developers Picture of Testers
Unfortunately I don't have any way to test that ... if someone can verify this I'll put it in.

Also, note that the mb_ functions are not default in PHP, they need to be specified at compile time, so this code would break most installations ... you'll need to use function_exists() to check it first. Something like:

//Fix Microsoft Excel (give it the encoding it expects)
if (function_exists('mb_detect_encoding')) {
    $encoding =  mb_detect_encoding($str, 'ASCII,JIS,UTF-8,EUC-JP,SJIS');

    if ($encoding == "EUC-JP") {
        $str = mb_convert_encoding($str, 'SJIS','EUC-JP');
    }
}
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In reply to Martin Dougiamas

Re: Japanese text garbled in Excel file downloads (suggested fix)

by Paul Shew -
I'll test it when I get back in the office, and let you know how it works.
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In reply to Paul Shew

Re: Japanese text garbled in Excel file downloads (suggested fix)

by Timothy Takemoto -

Dear Paul and  Martin,

I tried the code the Martin suggested on my university (production) server
but I guess that they do not have the necessary php modules installed since
it made no difference whatsoever (it did not crash).

I might be able to persuade my university to installed the mb_ modules.

Narumi Sekiya suggested that
http://www.spencernetwork.org/jcode/
which are php routines for converting code, would work.

Tim

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