I recently Installed Moodle 1.9 for the first time for a client of mine. I am a web designer and programmer. The client has had past experience using and updating blogs such as wordpress. No real coding experience.
Firstly, we decided to use Dreamhost for our hosting needs.
Dreamhost is a great host to install moodle if you only plan on having a few active classes. They could handle about 500 students, depending on the intensity of the forums. Plus Unlimited Bandwidth and Unlimited Server Space and a free domain name.
Their server was configured nearly perfectly for moodle's needs from the get go.
All the server settings were "pass" on the install settings check.
We linked to the database with no problem, dreamhost's control panel made it a snap to create the mySQL db and even choose the address for the db server.
After installation, I noticed in the "notifications" section that we were getting the following error:
"Enabling the PHP setting display_errors is not recommended on production sites because some error messages may reveal sensitive information about your server."
Well that was troublesome for my client, so we had to customize our php installation
since you cannot control "display_errors" from the .htaccess file.
Turns out Dreamhost allows you to run your own version of php via a php.ini file, but it takes a tiny bit of work to create the sandbox for it:
Instructions on how to install your own version can be found here and they should be work for other hosts too:
http://wiki.dreamhost.com/Custom_PHP.ini
I followed the instructions in the wiki and it went smoothly.
I set the display_errors setting to Off and no more notification
Next, since Dreamhost will automatically sign you up and configure for gmail and google apps we needed to be able to configure gmail to connect to gmail. The version of phpMailer moodle uses does not support SSL connections or port 465, so a hack is needed. Luckily the moodle community rocks and there is a tutorial on this:
http://docs.moodle.org/en/Email_setup_gmail
It Worked!
We then set the template to Chameleon (amazing css editor!!!) and did a browser compatibility check: IE6, IE7, FF2, FF3, Safari 3, Opera 9, and Chrome.
All exactly the same except IE7. For some reason we were being waved a yellow flag warning about a security issue. I searched the moodle forum and found a thread that solved it. It was late and I forgot to document the forum item that fixed it, but I thank the amazing person who figured this out. what follows is the patch to make it go away:
**********************************************************************
* PATCH 01 IMPORTANCE: CRITICAL TO PROPER FUNCTIONING *
**********************************************************************
*****FIX HTML ERROR CAUSING IE7 TO SHOW MSXML 5.0 POPUP *******
summary:
Internet Explorer 7 was showing user a warning flag, saying
their own xml parsing software MSXML 5.0 was unsafe to use.
No other browser showed this flag, since no other browser
uses Micro$oft's junk anywayz. This warning was being caused
by some HTML tags in the index being improperly ordered.
Found fix in the moodle fourm.
description:
Following the instructions in the forum, I reordered the
improperly ordered tags, this may get fixed in future builds.
Total Files Changed: 01
----
| 01 | MOODLE INSTALL ROOT/theme/index.php
----
CODE SNIP (LINES 100 - 109):
BEFORE PATCH
>>In the two echo lines the tag "data" is declared before "type"
>>Microsoft IE7 throws a waring to user that says "danger"
**************************************************************
// no point showing this if user is using screen reader
if (!$USER->screenreader) {
echo "\t\t<td align=\"center\">\n";
if ($screenshotpath) {
$screenshot = "\t\t\t\t<li><a href=\"$theme/screenshot.jpg\">$strscreenshot</a></li>\n";
echo "\t\t\t<object data=\"$screenshotpath\" type=\"text/html\" height=\"200\" width=\"400\">$theme</object>\n\t\t</td>\n";
} else {
echo "\t\t\t<object data=\"preview.php?preview=$theme\" type=\"text/html\" height=\"200\" width=\"400\">$theme</object>\n\t\t</td>\n";
}
}
*************************************************************
>> We simply move "type" before "data" and the error vanishes
AFTER
*************************************************************
COPY BETWEEN THE `%@%COPY%@%` BUT NOT THE `%@%COPY%@%` *
*************************************************************
`%@%COPY%@%`
/*
PATCH 01 == See the README_BEFORE_UPGRADE.txt file
*/
// no point showing this if user is using screen reader
if (!$USER->screenreader) {
echo "\t\t<td align=\"center\">\n";
if ($screenshotpath) {
$screenshot = "\t\t\t\t<li><a href=\"$theme/screenshot.jpg\">$strscreenshot</a></li>\n";
echo "\t\t\t<object type=\"text/html\" data=\"$screenshotpath\" height=\"200\" width=\"400\">$theme</object>\n\t\t</td>\n";
} else {
echo "\t\t\t<object type=\"text/html\" data=\"preview.php?preview=$theme\" height=\"200\" width=\"400\">$theme</object>\n\t\t</td>\n";
}
}
/*
END PATCH 01 == See the README_BEFORE_UPGRADE.txt file
*/
`%@%COPY%@%`
**************************************************************
END PATCH 01*
**************
We are totally golden and everything else is purring now.
Two tiny hacks (gmail and IE7 warning) and moodle is production ready.
From the dreamhost panel we set the moodle cron to run and the log reported "all systems go".
My client then installed a few classes and had a few "wishes" for moodle.
Wish 1: I want to hide all classes that a student is not enrolled in.
Moodle Forum says: Easy as pie!
I found a forum Item that explained the whole process of "showing classes in hidden categories". But there was still the problem of the search classes form and the "view all classes" button. I could not find a fix in the forum so I wrote one:
**************************************************************
* PATCH 02 IMPORTANCE: CRITICAL TO PROPER FUNCTIONING FOR CLIENT *
**************************************************************
*****Hide Search for a Course Box (Student View)**************
summary:
In order to keep students from seeing classes they
were not enrolled in, we had to hide a table containing
a search input and a "view all courses" button.
description:
I have added an "id" tag (course_search_table) to the
library file that generates this particular table.
I then styled the "id" in the CSS.
Total Files Changed: 02
----
| 01 | MOODLE INSTALL ROOT/course/lib.php
----
CODE SNIP (LINES 2135 - 2151):
BEFORE
**************************************************************
if (count_records("course") > (count($courses) + 1) ) { // Some courses not being displayed
echo "<table width=\"100%\"><tr><td align=\"center\">";
print_course_search("", false, "short");
echo "</td><td align=\"center\">";
print_single_button("$CFG->wwwroot/course/index.php", NULL, get_string("fulllistofcourses"), "get");
echo "</td></tr></table>\n";
}
*************************************************************
AFTER (IF YOU ARE RE_PATCHING REPLACE ABOVE CODE WITH THIS)
*************************************************************
COPY BETWEEN THE `%@%COPY%@%` BUT NOT THE `%@%COPY%@%` *
*************************************************************
`%@%COPY%@%`
/*
PATCH 02 == See the README_BEFORE_UPGRADE.txt file
*/
if (count_records("course") > (count($courses) + 1) ) { // Some courses not being displayed
echo "<table id=\"course_search_table\" width=\"100%\"><tr><td align=\"center\">";
print_course_search("", false, "short");
echo "</td><td align=\"center\">";
print_single_button("$CFG->wwwroot/course/index.php", NULL, get_string("fulllistofcourses"), "get");
echo "</td></tr></table>\n";
}
/*
END PATCH 02 == See the README_BEFORE_UPGRADE.txt file
*/
`%@%COPY%@%`
**************************************************************
----
| 02 | MOODLE INSTALL ROOT/theme/chameleon/user_styles.css
----
CODE SNIP (LINES 601-603):
>This was written via the Chameleon template SHIFT+CLICK feature
>If you change themes -- this would need to be added to it's CSS
>file user_styles.css
**************************************************************
#course_search_table {
display: none;
}
**************************************************************
END PATCH 01 *
**************
Now were talking! Moodle rocks!
The last thing that ended up being a small annoyance was not being able to give a specific title to the Heading of the "Topic Outline" view.
It would only say "Topic Outline" and we wanted it to be dynamic for each class.
My patch is below, but it could be added to, by making a place to input a title, but this works too:
***************************************************************
* PATCH 03 IMPORTANCE: NICE TO HAVE *
***************************************************************
*****CHANGED TOPIC OUTLINE HEADING TO DYNAMICALLY *************
***** CHANGE TO "Welcome to the [Class Name Here]" *************
summary:
The heading of the main content in a course topic outline view
(our default course view) was always "Topic Outline" on all pages.
There is no way to set this to something else that is dynamic,
or make it disappear, so we changed the source to be dynamic.
description:
Replaced "Topic Outline" with "Welcome to the [Class Name Here]"
Total Files Changed: 02
----
| 01 | MOODLE INSTALL ROOT/course/format/topics/format.php
----
CODE SNIP (LINES 94):
BEFORE
This says "print me a heading that says the definition of
'topicoutline'"
**************************************************************
print_heading_block(get_string('topicoutline'), 'outline');
*************************************************************
>> We want to have a variable that has a modular piece of text
at the beginning, defined in the language file, and then the
course name. "['topichead'][Class Name Here]"
AFTER
*************************************************************
COPY BETWEEN THE `%@%COPY%@%` BUT NOT THE `%@%COPY%@%` *
*************************************************************
`%@%COPY%@%`
/*
PATCH 03 == See the README_BEFORE_UPGRADE.txt file
*/
print_heading_block(get_string('topichead').$COURSE->fullname, 'outline');
/*
END PATCH 03 == See the README_BEFORE_UPGRADE.txt file
*/
`%@%COPY%@%`
*************************************************************
>> Now we have to define ['topichead'] in our language file
----
| 02 | MOODLE INSTALL ROOT/lang/en_utf8/moodle.php
----
>> We have added this at line 1513 to remain alphabetical
>> Ths defines ['topichead'] as "Welcome to the "
>> Note that we have our end quote after a space because we have
dynamically set it to put the class name next
CODE SNIP (IF YOU ARE RE_PATCHING ADD CODE BELOW AT 1513)
*************************************************************
COPY BETWEEN THE `%@%COPY%@%` BUT NOT THE `%@%COPY%@%` *
*************************************************************
`%@%COPY%@%`
/*
PATCH 03 == See the README_BEFORE_UPGRADE.txt file
*/
$string['topichead'] = 'Welcome to the ';
/*
END PATCH 03 == See the README_BEFORE_UPGRADE.txt file
*/
`%@%COPY%@%`
**************************************************************
END PATCH 03 *
*****************
A little more styling with the chameleon magical SHIFT + CLICK
CSS Editor and we have a beautifully custom moodle install.
Thanks Moodle for the rocking school and forums, and thanks Dreamhost for having the most awesome shared server hosting plans and tech support/community that matches the forums found here at moodle.
Open Source Forever!
You are welcome to contact me if my patches spring a leak!
They worked for me but I can't guarantee anyone elses setup!
