My moodle

My moodle

by Peter Eliyahu Kornfeld -
Number of replies: 2
Picture of Core developers Picture of Plugin developers

Hi,

I am working for a company, that develops an application package to education institutes (high-schools, colleges, universities). The package contains a win-based application for secretaries and a web-based applicaton for other stuff-members and students.

We already have solutions for forums and also a platform to exchange data between students and teachers (based on the courses).

We want to expand the functionality to enable teachers to build full interactive courses (and maybe moore).

After look around we decided to check moodle.

And I have some questions to ask:

1. How much moodle is modular. Means: Did I have to include modules except core to work with?

2. It is possible to compile moodle php code with php .net compiler, then extend moodle with c# code?

3. How much moodle is skinnable?

4. It is possible to use some exisitng external database as a back-sorage for moodle?

5. The site is full of information. Where a developer (possibly with need of deep information) should begin?

Thanks in advance,

Peter

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In reply to Peter Eliyahu Kornfeld

Re: My moodle

by Julian Ridden -
Just a short list of questions. Ill answer what I can and I am sure others will jump in:

1. Moodle's modular architecture allows for easy addition of additional functionality outside of the standard download that does not interfere with the upgrade process by changing core files. The core provides more than enough to get you started, but the additional modules add functions such as but not limited to:
2. Moodle does not need to be compiled. It is designed to be a web based application deployed on a web server. As long as the student/teacher has a web browser then they are ready to go.This is also much easier as it takes away the OS boundaries that plague desktop apps. (i.e. works just as well on Linux, Mac, XP or even Vista!).

3. How skinnable? Pretty much let your imagination go to work. Moodle is designed with the ideal of being 100% CSS driven. Now it is not there yet, but I would say conservatively that +80% of moodle is now pure CSS. For examples on skinning see some of these sites I have built:
Be sure to also check out the Themes Database for examples you can download and use yourself

4. Moodle relies on a database to store it's information. Most users choose mySQL for it's simplicity, but it also works well with Postgres. Moodle is ADODB compliant which has seen some users use databases like MySQL, Oracle, Microsoft SQL Server and ODBC, but this is certainly a difficult path to take.

5. For more in depth developer information be sure to check out the very detailed MoodleDocs wiki. Specific developer documentation is available here: http://docs.moodle.org/en/Developer_documentation

To finish up, I am not sure if Moodle would fit in with what you were describing, but maybe once you explore the featureset you may choose to adjust your plans to use Moodle's abilities. Remember that Moodle is deployed as Open Source using the GNU General Public License. Make sure you know what you can and cant do when integrating it in with your own work.
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