General developer forum

I would like to encourage you to go ahead and integrate the whiteboard with Moodle (probably as an activity module).

I don't think a Java whiteboard and chat server will ever be part of central Moodle. One one of the strengths of Moodle is its easy installation which would be lost. However another strength of Moodle is its extendability via modules and I am sure your whiteboard module would be welcome by many.

Please keep us informed about your experiences. When you get it to work, perhaps you could even allow us to log onto your Moodle so that we could try your whiteboard and chat there.

The whiteboard I was intending to one day integrate into the current chat module was Drawboard ... this integration has already been done in ARSC (the chat program I started with to make the Moodle chat module). It's similar to Babylon, and also in Java.

As Gustav said, an alternate module would be great if someone wants to give it a go - options are always good!

Personally I don't like Java - it's huge, slow, fussy and I get some kind of headache every time I try to use it seriously in web pages. The first chat module I ever wrote for Moodle (a long time ago now) was in Java and looked like this. To me, things that need nice GUI interfaces are better done in Flash. I don't know if anyone's attempted an open source whiteboard in Flash yet but with the new Communications Server it's certainly possible (click Draw).  I can't see any technical reason why Flash couldn't talk to PHP instead of a Java or FlashComm server.

This is just a bit of thinking out loud -- and nothing that I think will work right out of the box...maybe it'll just jog someone's mind into thinking about the right thing to do for a whiteboard in chat.  Now it's outside of my capabilities and time to create, but I think we might be alright with PHP, JavaScript, and the GD graphics library; I was thinking this because I'm sensing a resistance to java.  And for now, I'm just talking about scribbling, although it could be appended to handle text, circles, lines, polygons etc... as there are many functions in the gd library.

We use a file to create a blank png or jpg image using the php and the gd library.  We call the picture in a file that auto-refreshes every 5 seconds or so.

When a user wants to add something, they click a button that gives control over the image to them (kind of a lock file).  (We don't really need this I suppose, but I think it'd be good)

Use that annoying javascript follow-my-cursor crap to lay down a temporary mousetrail over the users picture -- they won't be editing the picture at the time, it'll just look like they are -- so they can see what they've drawn -- when the mouse button is released, send the array of cursor positions to the file on the server. PHP opens the old picture, adds the new information over it, saves it, and then when the next refresh comes through on the first script -- it shows the new picture with the appended information. 

Maybe even lock that particular user out for a couple of seconds to give someone else a chance to get in. 

So in short, we'd be using php to open an old picture, draw a bunch of lines over it, and saving it.  We'd be using javascript to pretend to draw, and to send the array of cursor positions (which might not be as big as I think) to a php file.  Viewing the image would be a constantly refreshing iframe or something of that nature.

For your consideration.
Mark

Hello All!

I hope that as time goes by, (especially when v2.0 arrives) that several chat options are made available with Moodle. Baseline - all must be Moodlelized and able to provide chat transcripts. These choices would determine what configurations are needed to run them along with the number of proposed users. Some may be able to be run on the same server as Moodle, some may need dedicated servers. Who knows what new technology or coding may be avaiable a month two months, or three months from now etcetera?

This would allow for chat customization and should be determinined from the admin config panel. Also, some admins may want their sub-admins, instructors and even students to determine the type of chat they want from a list of choices - Regular, Voice, Video, DrawBoard. Adminis could also choose JAVA, Flash or PHP chat solutions depending on their situation and needs. Admins and possibly instructors choose who would have access to what type of chat based on the configuration of their Moodle.

Different situations call for different chat needs. If different types of chat can be "moded" and installed with databases specific to them (no overlap), it would allow Admins/Instructors to have more flexibility in what they want in chat at different times. As I noted above this could also be extended to students, if desired, all the time or for certain types of educational work or projects.

If all these different chats would take Moodle a bit heavy to install then they could be added after the initial Moodle installation and selected from a "Chat" repository.

Just some thoughts.

WP1