Hi,
I'm a newbie in moodle development, and I'd like to get some tips/links/descriptions in order to dive in as fast and easy as possible.
I'm familiar with modular systems (mostly Drupal), and I'd like to know more about the architecture of the moodle system.
For example - I would like to understand how (and if) plug-ins are related between one and the other. can I develop a module that changes the behavior of other modules (known as hooks in Drupal) ?
My current need is to develop a module that integrates the Kaltura services and API into moodle, in which the Kaltura capabilities will be reflected all around the system (starting in user profiles, forums, lessons, resources etc.)
For this I thought to start with adding a widget to the HTML editor, but still didn't find a way/tutorial/example that will somehow guide me through.
Links to modules/plugins that provides some of my needs (like system-wide affect) would be most helpful.
As far as I could see, a filter cannot implement it's own UI, and works only "behind the scenes" to replace/extend the HTML output.
Any help would be much appreciated.
Gonen
Hello Gonen,
If you are familiar with Drupal and you know about php, the first thing I would do is to set up a development site so that I could play with the code and get familiar with the different directories and folders.
I don't know if you have used Wampserver for drupal, but I would use that plaftorm to set up a LAMP environment that allows me to run Moodle in Windows. Otherwise, if you download Moodle 1.9 for windows, you can launch it directly with XAMPP.
Once you have your site, I would start reading the documentation for administrator and developers.
Upgrades in Moodle are-in my opinion-easier than in Drupal.Cron configuration is also a bit different.
Moodle includes most of the pluggins in the standard distribution and you can find more in the Pluggins Database.
Not all the widgets work with the html editor of Moodle -based on MytinyMCE-, so I would become confident with Moodle before starting something new.
Hope that this information is useful.
Regards
If you are familiar with Drupal and you know about php, the first thing I would do is to set up a development site so that I could play with the code and get familiar with the different directories and folders.
I don't know if you have used Wampserver for drupal, but I would use that plaftorm to set up a LAMP environment that allows me to run Moodle in Windows. Otherwise, if you download Moodle 1.9 for windows, you can launch it directly with XAMPP.
Once you have your site, I would start reading the documentation for administrator and developers.
Upgrades in Moodle are-in my opinion-easier than in Drupal.Cron configuration is also a bit different.
Moodle includes most of the pluggins in the standard distribution and you can find more in the Pluggins Database.
Not all the widgets work with the html editor of Moodle -based on MytinyMCE-, so I would become confident with Moodle before starting something new.
Hope that this information is useful.
Regards
Hi Aaricia (or Mari Cruz 
)
you can say I'm "familiar" with drupal and PHP...
I've already set up an environment (xampp although I'd rather use a real LAMP if it wasn't the company's computer...) and started playing with moodle as an administrator.
The company
I work for is Kaltura, and for the past month (or so) I developed the Kaltura module for drupal (I guess you understand now why I wrote "familiar" in quotes).
We now need to develop a moodle extension for a client, and needless to say that based on this extension a similar one (maybe more generic) will be contributed back to the moodle community (as we are an Open Source company).
I already saw the video module requirement and I think the kaltura platform answers some of the requirements in this project.
After the "quick introduction", I'll rephrase my questions/requests...
The Kaltura integration required is a wide one, meaning that kaltura rich content could be added in all places in moodle (forum posts, lessons, assignments, resources, user profiles and more...).
Therefor, I'd think that the best way to integrate kaltura is adding a button to the TinyMCE editor, so that no matter where you're at, you'll be able to add media there.
With that said, I couldn't find in the documentation/web how can I enhance the editor and add my own buttons to it.
I think I need to develop a mod so each media item could also be viewed as a standalone content (so I can create galleries etc.) but the media is not a standalone activity.
As i said in the previous post, links to specific modules/plugins that affect the whole system might be very useful since I'll be able to learn how they behave and how they affect the whole moodle.
hope that now things are more clear (as to who I am, what my intentions are and what kind of help I need).
BTW -
just to help understand what I'm thinking of, if I needed this behavior in Drupal,
I'd implement a function called mymodule_form_alter(), which is being called everytime a form is being built and is about to be displayed, and in that function I would just add my controlls to the form.
The formslib in moodle reminds me the formAPI in drupal, but I didnt see where I can interfere with other module's forms.
thanks again for any help
)you can say I'm "familiar" with drupal and PHP...
I've already set up an environment (xampp although I'd rather use a real LAMP if it wasn't the company's computer...) and started playing with moodle as an administrator.
The company
I work for is Kaltura, and for the past month (or so) I developed the Kaltura module for drupal (I guess you understand now why I wrote "familiar" in quotes).
We now need to develop a moodle extension for a client, and needless to say that based on this extension a similar one (maybe more generic) will be contributed back to the moodle community (as we are an Open Source company).
I already saw the video module requirement and I think the kaltura platform answers some of the requirements in this project.
After the "quick introduction", I'll rephrase my questions/requests...
The Kaltura integration required is a wide one, meaning that kaltura rich content could be added in all places in moodle (forum posts, lessons, assignments, resources, user profiles and more...).
Therefor, I'd think that the best way to integrate kaltura is adding a button to the TinyMCE editor, so that no matter where you're at, you'll be able to add media there.
With that said, I couldn't find in the documentation/web how can I enhance the editor and add my own buttons to it.
I think I need to develop a mod so each media item could also be viewed as a standalone content (so I can create galleries etc.) but the media is not a standalone activity.
As i said in the previous post, links to specific modules/plugins that affect the whole system might be very useful since I'll be able to learn how they behave and how they affect the whole moodle.
hope that now things are more clear (as to who I am, what my intentions are and what kind of help I need).
BTW -
just to help understand what I'm thinking of, if I needed this behavior in Drupal,
I'd implement a function called mymodule_form_alter(), which is being called everytime a form is being built and is about to be displayed, and in that function I would just add my controlls to the form.
The formslib in moodle reminds me the formAPI in drupal, but I didnt see where I can interfere with other module's forms.
thanks again for any help
Hello Gonen,
Besides the Moodle Developer Documentation you might have a look at the Moodle Developer Courses: http://dev.moodle.org
There's a new "Introduction to Moodle Programming" course which might give you some hints about the inner workings of Moodle.
I am also a newbie regarding Moodle and more familiar with Drupal and very interested in similarities and differences.
Kind regards,
Frank
PS:
Instead of TinyMCE you might try FCKeditor (http://www.fckeditor.net) which I find more easily to customize in general.
Besides the Moodle Developer Documentation you might have a look at the Moodle Developer Courses: http://dev.moodle.org
There's a new "Introduction to Moodle Programming" course which might give you some hints about the inner workings of Moodle.
I am also a newbie regarding Moodle and more familiar with Drupal and very interested in similarities and differences.
Kind regards,
Frank
PS:
Instead of TinyMCE you might try FCKeditor (http://www.fckeditor.net) which I find more easily to customize in general.
Thanks Frank,
Regarding tinyMCE vs. FCK - I'm aiming at developing a module which well be a generic as possible (no matter what you have on you moodle installation).
I've already made a simple extension to the default editor, what seems odd to me is that even adding a simple button requires changes in the moodle core.
I would implement my solution outside the editor itself, if I only knew how to create a module that knows to add it's own fields to each and every form on moodle (exactly hook_form_alter() ability)
I'll go over those courses and try to get some more information.
Gonen
Regarding tinyMCE vs. FCK - I'm aiming at developing a module which well be a generic as possible (no matter what you have on you moodle installation).
I've already made a simple extension to the default editor, what seems odd to me is that even adding a simple button requires changes in the moodle core.
I would implement my solution outside the editor itself, if I only knew how to create a module that knows to add it's own fields to each and every form on moodle (exactly hook_form_alter() ability)
I'll go over those courses and try to get some more information.
Gonen
BTW - how do I login there ? cant find the
"Moodle Developer Courses link in the network servers block on the http://moodle.org homepage."
"Moodle Developer Courses link in the network servers block on the http://moodle.org homepage."
You find the link now under http://moodle.org/network/ (Community > Connected Sites).
The course is not open to guest access so you will have to ask one of its facilitators to enrol you. Unit 7 - Part B is about forms.
The course is not open to guest access so you will have to ask one of its facilitators to enrol you. Unit 7 - Part B is about forms.
Before considering using Kaltura you should probably read the following article:
Kaltura All in One Video module link spam warning
http://blog.davereid.net/content/kaltura-all-one-video-module-link-spam-warning
Hi Frank,
As an employee at Kaltura (and as the developer who worked on the Drupal module), I'm well aware of this.
If you see Lisa's comment, and follow to the issue tracker in drupal.org http://drupal.org/node/350942 you'll see we took that issue by heart and decided to change our approach regarding the SEO links so the user is aware of them in the module's settings and can choose to disable them if he wants.
Gonen
As an employee at Kaltura (and as the developer who worked on the Drupal module), I'm well aware of this.
If you see Lisa's comment, and follow to the issue tracker in drupal.org http://drupal.org/node/350942 you'll see we took that issue by heart and decided to change our approach regarding the SEO links so the user is aware of them in the module's settings and can choose to disable them if he wants.
Gonen
Hi everybody, I'm trying to install Kaltura plugin to my moodle site, but unsuccessfully....
I downloaded the plugin alpha_0.95, then unzipped it and installed :
-assignment files to the moodle/mod/assignment directory;
-resource files to the moodle/mod/resource directory;
and kaltura files to the moodle/mod directory.
It appears this message:
Parse error: syntax error, unexpected T_CONST, expecting T_OLD_FUNCTION or T_FUNCTION or T_VAR or '}' in /home/elerng/public_html/mod/kaltura/lib.php on line 14
Can anybody tell me what's the problem?
I'm using Moodle 1.9.9.
Thanks
Mia
did you find an answer to this ?
i am trying to install the same version of kaltura
but the docs are just not there!
although it is a very old post i think i can give you an example of howto add a new button
to htmlarea editor (which is used in moodle 1.9.x) in this MDL :
http://tracker.moodle.org/browse/MDL-20363
which might help since it is within a similar scope/issue solution
plus, i am looking fw to see your new "kaltura module for moodle" pack when it is ready
and all the business details are finalized. ( i got the pdf and it looks very very exciting )
to htmlarea editor (which is used in moodle 1.9.x) in this MDL :
http://tracker.moodle.org/browse/MDL-20363
which might help since it is within a similar scope/issue solution
plus, i am looking fw to see your new "kaltura module for moodle" pack when it is ready
and all the business details are finalized. ( i got the pdf and it looks very very exciting )
A Moodle integration has been made available from Kaultura directly. Its still very beta and there is a problem connecting to KalturaCE servers.
Try the forum: http://www.kaltura.org/forums/applications-and-cms-extensions/moodle-kaltura-plugin for more info.