Moodle in English: Teemu - What is the status of your Form Module?

Teemu - What is the status of your Form Module?

by Jens Gammelgaard - Saturday, 8 January 2005, 8:21 PM

Hello Teemu!

Happy New Year!

I've just visited your testsite. Can you tell us the status of your Form Module for generating forms.

Will it be possible to download it, and if so - when?

I really think we are many who are exited about your creation!

BR
Jens Gammelgaard
Moodle Proffesional

Average of ratings: -

Re: Teemu - What is the status of your Form Module?

by Teemu Sumi - Monday, 10 January 2005, 2:09 PM

I belive that it takes about one week to make tests and bug fixes. After that I can share the code. Latest version can be seen at:

http://moodle.opitaan.fi

Course: Testing Moodle/Donald Duck's course

teacher: donald
password: dd

student: mickey
password: mm

Average of ratings: -

Re: Teemu - What is the status of your Form Module?

by W Page - Monday, 10 January 2005, 11:15 PM

Hi Teemu!

I only signed in as teacher. Did not check out the student view.

It is much smoother and reflects how much hard work you have put into it.

I would only say two things.

The grey alternate background is a bit too dark and makes reading the black text a bit difficult. Could there be an option to choose the color of the alternate background? If not suggest lightening up the grey background a little bit. [See attached image.]
When using the "radio" buttons, the text after the 1st button does not align properly with the first one. [See attached image.]

Really neat mod Teemu.

WP1

Average of ratings: -

Re: Teemu - What is the status of your Form Module?

by Teemu Sumi - Monday, 10 January 2005, 11:54 PM

You wrote to multi field like this:

Linux | Windows | Beos

It should be like this:

Linux|Windows|Beos

Both colors of the zebrastripe are adjusted in moodle/theme/nameoftheme/config.php.

Teemu

Average of ratings: -

Re: Teemu - What is the status of your Form Module?

by W Page - Tuesday, 11 January 2005, 12:40 AM

Hi Teemu!

Thanks for such a quick "get back". Would it be possible to create a GUI for the ZebraStripe colors.

I ask this because the gray part of this theme looks "OK" on the rest of the site but for some reason it makes it difficult to read the text in the form generator.

Sometimes an admin/Teacher may need to tweak the zebrastripe color without affecting the rest of the site theme.

WP1

Average of ratings: -

Re: Teemu - What is the status of your Form Module?

by Andrea Bicciolo - Tuesday, 11 January 2005, 12:01 AM

Hi Teemu, just tested the Form module, the work is getting done I see. Great Job!

BTW, I get a Javascript error (i'm using IE6) when I enter form/details.php as teacher: "Row:852, Char:1, HTMLArea is not defined"

Average of ratings: -

Re: Teemu - What is the status of your Form Module?

by Teemu Sumi - Tuesday, 11 January 2005, 12:25 AM

Thanks!

I haven't seen that error. I made some changes. Please try again.

Teemu

Average of ratings: -

Re: Teemu - What is the status of your Form Module?

by Andrea Bicciolo - Tuesday, 11 January 2005, 12:59 AM

Tested again, Now is ok also in IE6.

Another question: if I try to update the form (Test Bix Form) only the "Anonymous" type option appear. I'm wrong in some setting?

Average of ratings: -

Re: Teemu - What is the status of your Form Module?

by Teemu Sumi - Tuesday, 11 January 2005, 2:48 AM

You have selected the form to be anonymous. If someone has answered the form, it's not fair that you can see the names of the users who have answered. That's why you can't change the type. I will make help files soon.

Average of ratings: -

Re: Teemu - What is the status of your Form Module?

by Andrea Bicciolo - Tuesday, 11 January 2005, 5:45 PM

Teemu, yes I agree with you. That's right. I would like to assist you with with the help file: if you have already written something I can start from there, otherwise I'll make some guess. It is ok for you?

Average of ratings: -

Re: Teemu - What is the status of your Form Module?

by Teemu Sumi - Tuesday, 11 January 2005, 6:38 PM

I haven't started it yet. Shall I send you the module?

Teemu

Average of ratings: -

Re: Teemu - What is the status of your Form Module?

by Andrea Bicciolo - Tuesday, 11 January 2005, 7:16 PM

Yes, of course! Thanks.

Average of ratings: -

Re: Teemu - What is the status of your Form Module?

by Andrea Bicciolo - Wednesday, 12 January 2005, 1:10 AM

Teemu, what is your testing environment? Currently I have a staging Head 1.4.3+ and CVS 1.5 unstable developkment. I would install the module to test and writing help in CVS 1.5. it is Ok?

Average of ratings: -

Re: Teemu - What is the status of your Form Module?

by Teemu Sumi - Wednesday, 12 January 2005, 2:18 AM

I have tested it with 1.5 dev. It should work. GD 2 is recommended. GD 1.8 works but thumbnails don't look very good. 1.5 CVS? I thought that 1.5 beta is coming soon.

Teemu

Average of ratings: -

Re: Teemu - What is the status of your Form Module?

by Andrea Bicciolo - Friday, 14 January 2005, 7:45 PM

Teemu, I've sent you a very first version of teh help files. I'll need some hints about my guesses. Only the lang folder files has been sent. I'll hop tio finalize them as soon as I've a feedback from you.

Average of ratings: -

Re: Teemu - What is the status of your Form Module?

by Teemu Sumi - Saturday, 15 January 2005, 4:40 AM

See your email!

I made some corrections to the helpfiles and to the code.

Teemu

Average of ratings: -

Re: Teemu - What is the status of your Form Module?

by Martin Dougiamas - Tuesday, 11 January 2005, 11:16 AM

Excellent, Teemu, thanks!

I'd love to get this into the main CVS tree as soon as you feel it's usable so we can all help work on it there.

The part I really want to see is a browsing interface so that the teacher can allow students to browse through all the records using paging. The format should be determined by a template the teacher creates.

Average of ratings: -

Re: Teemu - What is the status of your Form Module?

by Teemu Sumi - Tuesday, 11 January 2005, 4:18 PM

One record could be more than one page. I'm not sure yet how it should be done but I will make some tests. It's very useful feature when you have selected the form to be public. Student's can only read the form filled by teachers if you select so. Now I understand why it's called data module. Now feedback uses html editor.

Teemu

Average of ratings: -

Re: Teemu - What is the status of your Form Module?

by Martin Dougiamas - Tuesday, 11 January 2005, 7:26 PM

There could be a teacher option to select how many per page, or perhaps a menu on the browsing interface to allow the user to choose on the fly.

For example, imagine if the form fields were one image and one text field, then you could create photo gallery from user contributions with a template like:

<center>
[FIELD1]
 
[FIELD2]
</center>

Average of ratings: -

Re: Teemu - What is the status of your Form Module?

by Jan Dierckx - Tuesday, 11 January 2005, 7:58 PM

Could we use smarty as a templating engine for this? I know that you are planning on using templates in the whole of Moodle and Smarty is already included in Moodle distributions. The data module really seems like a good start for it.

I have some code here which passes texts out of the database to the Smarty engine and displays it. It's of no use because I do not yet have code which passes variables to the Smarty template (and a template without fields to fill in is er... mixed useless) but it enables me to use some of the functions that are included in Smarty (like the zebra stripes someone was asking for... popups made with overlib , etc...)

Forgive me if this doesn't make sense, I just started discovering what this Smarty is all about. Another advantage to me seems that caching is already built in and easily configurable.

Average of ratings: -

Re: Teemu - What is the status of your Form Module?

by Martin Dougiamas - Tuesday, 11 January 2005, 8:51 PM

It's a good thought ... it might be overkill to actually use Smarty right now but we could still use the basic syntax already and integrate Smarty more easily later if needed.

Just a search and replace would do. For example, the example above in Smarty format would be:

<center>
{$field1}
 
{$field2}
</center>

Where {$field1} gets replaced with all the other information to identify the image and display it properly:

<img src="http://moodle.org/mod/data/image.php?id=332&name=4321.jpg" height="560" width="600" />

And {$field2} gets replaced with:

My cool picture which I took myself (from a web site I found in Google).

Average of ratings: -

Re: Teemu - What is the status of your Form Module?

by Martin Vögeli - Tuesday, 11 January 2005, 10:28 PM

I wouldn't use <center> anymore because it is deprecated in HTML 4.01 and "The center element is not supported in XHTML 1.0 Strict DTD." One can use the style text-align: center instead:

http://www.w3schools.com/tags/tag_center.asp

http://www.w3schools.com/css/pr_text_text-align.asp

Average of ratings: -

Re: Teemu - What is the status of your Form Module?

by Andrea Bicciolo - Tuesday, 11 January 2005, 11:10 PM

It is also a good idea to avoid <center> from a layout point of view, unless there is very good reasons why centering something is needed!

Average of ratings: -

Re: Teemu - What is the status of your Form Module?

by Martin Dougiamas - Thursday, 13 January 2005, 11:37 PM

Well, you won't have to. This is the beauty of making your own templates.

Average of ratings: -

Re: Teemu - What is the status of your Form Module?

by John Papaioannou - Thursday, 13 January 2005, 11:24 PM

Speaking of Smarty, I 've got my two eurocents to throw into this discussion:

Since some typical compliant (X)HTML is 99% lowercase, I 've found it useful to use capitalized names for Smarty variables which are coming in from PHP in the templates. Makes the templates easier to edit.

Cheers!

Average of ratings: -

Re: Teemu - What is the status of your Form Module?

by Teemu Sumi - Sunday, 16 January 2005, 9:41 PM

I made the browsing tool. It's got previous/next links and dropdown menu. I added one feature. Now you can decide wheter one field could have one or multiple files. Now it's called data module. There are still some problems but I can put it to CVS after one week.

Teemu

Average of ratings: -

Re: Teemu - What is the status of your Form Module?

by W Page - Wednesday, 12 January 2005, 1:10 AM

Hi All!

I just wanted to support Jan's thoughts on the template engine. Since [I think] Martin has decided to use Smarty for Moodle.

Martin! is Moodle going into full swing XML after v1.5Final is out?

WP1

Average of ratings: -

Re: Teemu - What is the status of your Form Module?

by Martin Dougiamas - Thursday, 13 January 2005, 11:35 PM

Moodle 1.5 will be XHTML Transitional 1.0 compliant, yes.

Average of ratings: -

Re: Teemu - What is the status of your Form Module?

by W Page - Wednesday, 12 January 2005, 1:20 AM

Hi Teemu!

It is my understanding that the Form mod will eventually be incorporated into the user profile. This would allow admins and instructors to configure it for the information they specifically want or need.

This is just a thought. Would it be possible to have a field for names that could accommodate the different way names are displayed by different cultures and in different countries. This would allow the different parts of a name to be displayed in any sequence like,

Last Name - First Name - Middle Name

to be displayed on one line instead of on top of each other.

Just makes it a bit easier to read.

WP1

Average of ratings: -

Re: Teemu - What is the status of your Form Module?

by Art Lader - Saturday, 15 January 2005, 5:39 AM

This is fantastic. Really great. Thank you so much for developing this, Teemu.

-- Art

Average of ratings: -

Re: Teemu - What is the status of your Form Module?

by Teemu Sumi - Monday, 17 January 2005, 5:31 AM

One bug fix. Students could not see records from other people when the type "Public, students can write" was chosen. One feature is needed: Drop questions from presentation page.

Teemu

Average of ratings: -

Re: Teemu - What is the status of your Form Module?

by Teemu Sumi - Wednesday, 19 January 2005, 5:55 AM

I added one layout option. You can hide the questions on the presentation page. I also made the answers of the textfields and textareas to be shown as formatted text. The actual textareas and textfields are shown only on the edit page where a student fills the form.

Now the file which generates the form is so complicated that I guess that no layout option can be added.

I'll add helpfiles next (en,fi,it).

My original form module had backup feature but that doesn't work with data module of course. I will fix that soon.

Data module could be in CVS on Saturday.

Teemu

Average of ratings: -

Re: Teemu - What is the status of your Form Module?

by Andrea Bicciolo - Wednesday, 19 January 2005, 5:15 PM

Hi Teemu, did you got my yesterday emails containing translations and code fixes? Did you had problem integrating them?

Average of ratings: -

Re: Teemu - What is the status of your Form Module?

by Teemu Sumi - Wednesday, 19 January 2005, 11:11 PM

Your emails arrived today. Mail server was overloaded. I updated the module.

Teemu

Average of ratings: -

Re: Teemu - What is the status of your Form Module?

by Teemu Sumi - Friday, 21 January 2005, 5:43 AM

Now it's ready for the CVS. I will do some tests. You can download it on SATURDAY. It took four months. Please test it on

http://moodle.opitaan.fi

Course: Testing Moodle/Donald Duck's course

teacher: donald
password: dd

student: mickey
password: mm

You can change Donald's email if you want to test email functions.

Teemu

Average of ratings: -

Re: Teemu - What is the status of your Form Module?

by Chardelle Busch - Friday, 21 January 2005, 6:42 AM

Wooo Hooo Teemu!

Now I know what I will be doing Saturday. I can't wait to really test it out.

One thought, I know Martin wants to call it the Data Module (and we've discussed this before), but, when you are in your course, and you click on the drop down box to Add an activity... What will you be adding? A Data? It doesn't make sense from the front end and it isn't consistent with the other module names. Although the module is for collecting data, the actual tool to do it is a Form isn't it?

Chardelle

Average of ratings: -

Re: Teemu - What is the status of your Form Module?

by Martin Dougiamas - Friday, 21 January 2005, 10:53 AM

The interface would say you are adding a database.

All the modules use forms in some way so that doesn't really work.

Average of ratings: -

Re: Teemu - What is the status of your Form Module?

by Teemu Sumi - Friday, 21 January 2005, 3:44 PM

Mee not speekingg englisch veri wel

Average of ratings: -

Re: Teemu - What is the status of your Form Module?

by Andrea Bicciolo - Friday, 21 January 2005, 5:13 PM

Teemu, I think we should rethink the naming conventions. Althought I'm not English speaking, also to me the term "Data" sounded a bit strange, nor it works well for Italian, where I translated "Modulo dati" (Data form) which is not a good idea since it overlaps with the term "Modulo" (Module) that has all another meaning in Moodle.

Martin suggest "Database" which is fine, but would it be better using something that help people to understand the use such as "Data collecting" or "Data submission"?

Average of ratings: -

Re: Teemu - What is the status of your Form Module?

by Teemu Sumi - Saturday, 22 January 2005, 7:20 PM

Now it's called database. It doesn't take much time to change the name and and error messages. Maybe we can ask people to give their suggestions and later we can vote which one is the best.

Average of ratings: -

Re: Teemu - What is the status of your Form Module?

by Andrea Bicciolo - Saturday, 22 January 2005, 8:03 PM

Gasp!

. Lang packs and string needs another major review? Tell me that it is not needed please......please.... wink

Average of ratings: -

Re: Teemu - What is the status of your Form Module?

by Teemu Sumi - Saturday, 22 January 2005, 11:06 PM

It's not needed because I have used the word "data" in the code. That word is OK in the code and in the file path (or in the address). That word doesn't sound good when you are using the module. I replaced the word "data" with the word "database" and sometimes with the word "record" in the english translation. If you are happy with the italian translation, you don't have to do anything.

Now I need some rights to CVS. Maybe some some instructions how to put it and where to put it.

Teemu

Average of ratings: -

Re: Teemu - What is the status of your Form Module?

by Martin Dougiamas - Saturday, 22 January 2005, 11:43 PM

Send it to me, Teemu, please, along with your CVS username on sourceforge.net ... I'll put it somewhere and set you up with access.

Average of ratings: -

Re: Teemu - What is the status of your Form Module?

by Teemu Sumi - Sunday, 23 January 2005, 12:37 AM

See your email

Average of ratings: -

Re: Teemu - What is the status of your Form Module?

by Andrea Bicciolo - Sunday, 23 January 2005, 12:41 AM

Martin and Teemu, I'm translating the strings and help files it into Italian and Andreas Leiser is helping also with german trans. Also, I'm trying to add some features to the module code, would it be possible to have access for me in the CVS for this module?

Average of ratings: -

Re: Teemu - What is the status of your Form Module?

by Teemu Sumi - Sunday, 23 January 2005, 12:58 AM

Well... When you have finished some new feature, you can send it to me. I would like to test your new features anyway, so you don't need the write access. Your suggestions about the features which should be added sounded good and I can put them to CVS also.

Teemu

Average of ratings: -

Re: Teemu - What is the status of your Form Module?

by José Pastor Beltrán - Friday, 25 February 2005, 8:50 PM

Hello Teemu:

I am interesting in the Form Module. Where i can download this module? or isn´t ready yet.

Thank you very much. Jose.

Average of ratings: -

Re: Teemu - What is the status of your Form Module?

by Teemu Sumi - Friday, 25 February 2005, 11:16 PM

It's called database module now. 1.4 version is in CVS contrib. This version can NOT be upgraded to 1.5 so it's not very useful. Next version will have better coding and some new features. Next version is for 1.5 only but it can be upgraded to 1.6 of course. Martin has planned this module for long time and it can be in standard 1.6 Moodle.

Teemu

Average of ratings: -

Re: Teemu - What is the status of your Form Module?

by José Pastor Beltrán - Monday, 28 February 2005, 12:34 AM

Hello Teemu:

Thank you very much. Jose

Average of ratings: -