I would like to see a series of useful reports for admins and instructors. There are a variety of requests that have been made in the forums, so it would be wonderful to have a set of one click reports to provide all kinds of data in csv format.
atw
Feature for creating custom reports (was Wanted: New feature ideas for GSOC projects)
by A. T. Wyatt -
Number of replies: 27
+1
Good idea!
Good idea!
How about the ability to create custom reports, import and export them? With the SQL mapped so you could just drag and drop elements, like you would with a report model using something like Microsoft Report Builder.
Thanks,
Matt
Thanks,
Matt
Saying 'a variety of requests that have been made in the forums' is not very helpful. What, specifically, would you like. And if they are good ideas, whey are they not in the tracker, with lots of votes for them?
I wasn't sure that details were warranted at this point in the conversation, but there are quite a few good reports already in the modules and plugins database if you filter by admin reports (and you created quite a few of them!)
For example, we would very much love to have a report that captured the course shortname, longname, instructor(s), and the course ID number.
Or to be able to export a list for each course similar to the listing you get when you restore a course--number of resources (by type), activities, quizzes, assignments, etc. If I could get that across my whole server, I could do some interesting longitudinal analysis of the type of content and activities we were delivering through electronic means.
I would like to be able to export the site level course overview reports, and get the data for more than 4 weeks at a time. Or to get information for more than one course at a time in the statistics reports. We can export the logs of different kinds, but I don't think you can export other types of site admin reports.
I would also like to be able to aggregate performance data on outcomes across multiple courses. This would really help with a variety of assessment tasks.
I am sure we can all come up with other examples when the time comes! But I really like Matt's idea about having an interface where you could create your own report. That would be the very best idea, because everyone will have different needs at different times.
atw
For example, we would very much love to have a report that captured the course shortname, longname, instructor(s), and the course ID number.
Or to be able to export a list for each course similar to the listing you get when you restore a course--number of resources (by type), activities, quizzes, assignments, etc. If I could get that across my whole server, I could do some interesting longitudinal analysis of the type of content and activities we were delivering through electronic means.
I would like to be able to export the site level course overview reports, and get the data for more than 4 weeks at a time. Or to get information for more than one course at a time in the statistics reports. We can export the logs of different kinds, but I don't think you can export other types of site admin reports.
I would also like to be able to aggregate performance data on outcomes across multiple courses. This would really help with a variety of assessment tasks.
I am sure we can all come up with other examples when the time comes! But I really like Matt's idea about having an interface where you could create your own report. That would be the very best idea, because everyone will have different needs at different times.
atw
Perhaps it would best to think about this in terms of a generic report generator ... I think there's some open source ones around and one could be customised for Moodle, or a Moodle plugin would communicate directly to an external one.
Of course finding the best one to start with would be part of the project
Some examples of report generators :
Of course finding the best one to start with would be part of the project
Some examples of report generators :
- http://www.hkvstore.com/phpreportmaker/
- http://phpreports.sourceforge.net/
- http://jasperforge.org/plugins/project/project_home.php?group_id=102
atw, thanks for your idea of having an interface for creating custom reports. It would be great if you could create an issue for it in the tracker, then everyone can vote for it to be implemented.
Done, Helen! http://tracker.moodle.org/browse/MDL-18323
@MD--Thanks for these links. I really did not know much about these tools, so now I will go check them out!
atw
@MD--Thanks for these links. I really did not know much about these tools, so now I will go check them out!
atw
Voted and commented.
Another consideration would be scheduling - I've built a report and it's available, how about a way to say "Send me the previous month's worth of data on the first of every month"?
Thanks,
Matt
Another consideration would be scheduling - I've built a report and it's available, how about a way to say "Send me the previous month's worth of data on the first of every month"?
Thanks,
Matt
Voted!!
Thanks everyone, 'Custom report generator' is now included in the Projects for new developers list.
Possible Integration with existing report generation framework like phpreport or jasper.
Among all different Flavors , Jasper is very rich and flexible for generation and exporting reports in different formats. of course open source.
Adding to it, Jasper has very good rendering engine so One can have all weird nice looking graphs,histograms and charts
Do we need to reinvent d wheel ?
or just integrate moodle with jasper ... ?
It would be worth doing cos much of hardwork already done i.e Thnx to developers of PHP-Java Bridge.
So all boils down to give a flexible and extensible Interface so that users can exploit power of both.
Comments Insanely invited
Among all different Flavors , Jasper is very rich and flexible for generation and exporting reports in different formats. of course open source.
Adding to it, Jasper has very good rendering engine so One can have all weird nice looking graphs,histograms and charts
Do we need to reinvent d wheel ?
or just integrate moodle with jasper ... ?It would be worth doing cos much of hardwork already done i.e Thnx to developers of PHP-Java Bridge.
So all boils down to give a flexible and extensible Interface so that users can exploit power of both.
Comments Insanely invited
I'm a student interested in helping with this project idea for the Google Summer of Code. Is help still needed or are people going to be using the service of the Moodle partner as described in a comment below?
Thanks
Thanks
Hi Jose,
AFAIK - the custom reporting provided by the Moodle partner Remote Learner is part of a commercial package they offer. There is still a lot of interest in an open-source custom reporting tool for Moodle. Don't forget, you can submit more than one gsoc Application if there are other projects that interest you!
AFAIK - the custom reporting provided by the Moodle partner Remote Learner is part of a commercial package they offer. There is still a lot of interest in an open-source custom reporting tool for Moodle. Don't forget, you can submit more than one gsoc Application if there are other projects that interest you!
I plan on applying for more than one project. Thanks for the information Dan.
Personal Details
- Name :- Nikhil Mishra
- Email :-
- mishranikhil@yahoo.com,
- nikhil.mishra@kuliza.com,
- mishra007in@gmail.com,
- nikhilmishra@moodle.org
- Other contact methods
- Yahoo IM with id:mishranikhil@yahoo.com
- Jabber:-nikhilmishra@jabber.org (* new)
- CellPhone: +91-9632830680
Flow of document:-
- Motivation
- Research which is my background study
- Report Genration (
- What it is, and its parts
- Moodle support for reports
- Gradebook for graded items
- Admin Reports and Scorm Reports
- Limitation of existing support( need for Custom Interface)
- Solution
- Existing Tools
- PHP Based
- Easy Integration But less flexible and less exported formats and graphs supported
- Java Based
- Need Of Integration but very rich in content and support for all formats.
- Ways Of Integration.
- Need Of Integration but very rich in content and support for all formats.
- PHP Based
- Existing Tools
- Report Genration (
- Deliverables
Motivation :
I take this opportunity to introduce myself as Nikhil currently enrolled in Final Semester of MS IT @ DAIICT.
Memories of My first submission 4 years ago on moodle are still crystal clear. Ever since I was very much excited about this elearning mammoth. I started my humble journey as Teaching Assistant by creating quizzes,forums ,wikis and podcasts and soon became a poular face for moodle related queries in campus.
Fortunately, a recent happening wherein my professor wanted to track trends of student progress in form of rich reports had left me brainstorming over custom report generation interface.Being on final semester with no course to study this semster and 6 month period free, I decide to take this issue. Luckily after some moodling and googling I found that I was not alone :- my post on Feb,20 on forum proved fruitful.The same day our post idea became issue on moodle tracker (Thanks to A.T. Wyatt ) . I have enclosed Links of forum and Tracker your kind perusal.
Encl:
1: http://moodle.org/mod/forum/discuss.php?d=116895
2: http://tracker.moodle.org/browse/MDL-18323
Research and BackGround Study :-
Solution
Well one might think to start with writing your self code base including whole reporting engine including layers discussed above.
The complexity will increase when we try to include most of report needs. ? The other concerns to a developer are number of export formats our solution is going to support
Adding to it, it would be more of reinventing wheel because many open source developers have developed cutting edge business intelligence and reporting tools
So we need to think in directions of integration of existing powerful tools
Existing Tools:-
Following are Existing Popular Open Source Reporting Tools:-
1) Jasper
2) BIRT
3) Pentaho :- unfortunately a Commercial open source so cost of ownership is a point to ponder.
4) PHP Reports
We can divide above options into Jasper and BIRT in group of JAVA based Reproting tools and PHPReports as in other group of PHP based tool.
PHP Based
- PHPReports can be easily integrated with moodle but is not as rich and flexible as other alternatives
JAVA Based
- Support for all file formats export and Import
- All types of Charts Posssible
- Flexible for Custom Reports
- But Moodle is PHP and Tools are JAVA ?
So we need to have think integrating Jasper and BIRT :-
Integration Of Java-Base Reporting Tools :-
In brief following are 4 ways of possible integration :-
· SOAP over HTTP via XML-RPC
· Quercus via Resin Application server
· PHP/JAVA bridge based on Java Script Reference (JSR 223)
· Simple redirection to Reporting tool and getting results i.e user directly interacts with our reporting tool. Thus 2 independent server would be running as One transparent server to user.
I have also a good background study for each of these tools which I will post in forum.
I have vison of Reporting Interface which provides Drag and Drop Facility in addition to standard SQL support.
Schedule Of Deliverables
Till April 20
Installing Moodle :- Status Completed
Learning SVN and Build system:- Completed
Setting Up SVN/CVS with moodle :- Status Completed
Setting Up Build : - Status Completed
Building A basic Block and Module:-Completed
Refining Of Problem Statement And User Requirements-Status Ongoing
Freeze on First Version Of Reporting Requirements after Feedback:- Status Ongoing
April 20- May23
Delivarable: Project Estimation Sheet with effort and hours.
Requirement Specifications,SDS,ER Diagram.Activity Diagrams
Strecth Goals : A Hello World Report.
Prepare An PERT sheet for tasks :- 3 Days
Outline Tasks for Month:-
Get Acquainted with norms of community.
Gap Analysis Of Open Source Tools For the Features.
Decide frequency Of Planned Meetings With Mentor
Freeze on Reporting TOOL.
Biweekly possibly Friday as per Mentors convenience : Re factoring Of Schedule to accomplish chages and uncertainites
Informally,I will Start Coding.
Till June 20
Delivarable:-First Live Version Of Reporting tool Open.
Tasks:-
Begin Massive coding on class diagrams as output of previous activity
Commit very 4th day to your branch and take feedbacks.
Strecth Goals for June 20 :-Create atleast 1 Theme for the same.
Create a Youtube Video for Promotion.
June 20 - To July 20:-
Deliverable :-Version two with GUI i.e including Drag and Drop for reports to be live.
Tasks:-
Send Code For MidTerm Evalutions.
Get Feedbacks and Improve Upon same
Wirte Outline Test Cases.
REST:-
Delivrable:Lots Of videos , documentation and our custom reporting interface
Tasks:-
FEEDBACK from community.
Create Context sensitive Help :- host it on moodle.org
Create You tube Video as Manual fro your s/w.
Write Blog about your experience during GSOC.
Preparing For Moodle Lounge
My Details :-
http://placement.daiict.ac.in:8084/placement/daiict/resumes/200712014.pdf
Au revoir
MElange Betrayed me dint allow to edit my app......... ?
Is this done or intended for Moodle still?
Not quite the same, but I made this report plugin: http://moodle.org/mod/data/view.php?d=13&rid=2884&filter=1
In reply to A. T. Wyatt
Re: Feature for creating custom reports (was Wanted: New feature ideas for GSOC projects)
by Bryan Williams -
As a service from a Moodle partner company this has already been done (page 2 of PDF) and will be made available on March 23, 2009. And yes, this is GPL.
In reply to Bryan Williams
Re: Feature for creating custom reports (was Wanted: New feature ideas for GSOC projects)
by Scott Karren -
Bryan
When you say that it will be available on March 23rd. Does that mean available through the Moodle Partner or available to the community as a whole? I for one would be very interested in installing and configuring this on my Moodle instance.
Scott Karren
In reply to Scott Karren
Re: Feature for creating custom reports (was Wanted: New feature ideas for GSOC projects)
by Nikhil Mishra -
Count me too ........
In reply to Bryan Williams
Re: Feature for creating custom reports (was Wanted: New feature ideas for GSOC projects)
by Scott Karren -
Bump.
Brian is this feature going to be made available to the Moodle community or is it only available through hosting with the Moodle partner?
Scott Karren
In reply to A. T. Wyatt
Re: Feature for creating custom reports (was Wanted: New feature ideas for GSOC projects)
by kumudu harshani -
Hi.....
I was searching for project related to php and I just found this, then. I'm also interested in reporting.
I have done a project using grails and it also had a part for reporting, there I used the Jasper plugin, there it works absolutely fine. Hence, i could gain a more knowledge regarding reporting.
I have heard that 'Pentaho' is a rich tool do reporting and don't you think that 'pentaho ' would help to create this custom reports.
regards
kumudu
I was searching for project related to php and I just found this, then. I'm also interested in reporting.
I have done a project using grails and it also had a part for reporting, there I used the Jasper plugin, there it works absolutely fine. Hence, i could gain a more knowledge regarding reporting.
I have heard that 'Pentaho' is a rich tool do reporting and don't you think that 'pentaho ' would help to create this custom reports.
regards
kumudu
In reply to A. T. Wyatt
Re: Feature for creating custom reports (was Wanted: New feature ideas for GSOC projects)
by Sehrish Abdul Malik -
Hi,
I am looking to work with Custom report generator, i have been using moodle in my university too. Can you plese guide me how i can get to know more about the specifications.
I am looking to work with Custom report generator, i have been using moodle in my university too. Can you plese guide me how i can get to know more about the specifications.
In reply to A. T. Wyatt
Re: Feature for creating custom reports (was Wanted: New feature ideas for GSOC projects)
by Su Yuen Chin -
Hey guys! I came across this project while browsing around the GSoC project listings. This looks like a fun project I can contribute to as it is very similar to some reporting tools I built during my internship last summer.
I'm new to Moodle and have not seen what data would be frequently requested yet (will check it out soon!) but from the forum posts, if my understanding is right, there should be a web interface where users can filter and customize the data they want, and then have it exported as a CSV file? (along with ability to run cron jobs to generate reports on a regular basis).
Will it be useful if some of these data have visualization functionalities as well to ease the process of determining certain data sets to be exported?
E.g: User generates a chart based on some filters, tracks the trend / identify hot zones (maybe red in colour), clicks on a hot zone and retrieves data related to it, and have the data exported.
I thought it'd be quite fun if the user would be able to analyze data visually and retrieve the detailed data they need from trends / zones they observe in charts and visuals.
I'm new to Moodle and have not seen what data would be frequently requested yet (will check it out soon!) but from the forum posts, if my understanding is right, there should be a web interface where users can filter and customize the data they want, and then have it exported as a CSV file? (along with ability to run cron jobs to generate reports on a regular basis).
Will it be useful if some of these data have visualization functionalities as well to ease the process of determining certain data sets to be exported?
E.g: User generates a chart based on some filters, tracks the trend / identify hot zones (maybe red in colour), clicks on a hot zone and retrieves data related to it, and have the data exported.
I thought it'd be quite fun if the user would be able to analyze data visually and retrieve the detailed data they need from trends / zones they observe in charts and visuals.
In reply to A. T. Wyatt
Re: Feature for creating custom reports (was Wanted: New feature ideas for GSOC projects)
by Vikram Vincent -
Hi!
I was going through the related mails and issue tracker http://tracker.moodle.org/browse/MDL-18323 but could not find if the project is still open or completed. If it is still open or partially completed I would like to work on it as my University requires this plugin. Pointers would be appreciated. Thanks.
Vincent
I was going through the related mails and issue tracker http://tracker.moodle.org/browse/MDL-18323 but could not find if the project is still open or completed. If it is still open or partially completed I would like to work on it as my University requires this plugin. Pointers would be appreciated. Thanks.
Vincent
In reply to Vikram Vincent
Re: Feature for creating custom reports (was Wanted: New feature ideas for GSOC projects)
by Tim Hunt -
This project never happened.
However, I made Custom SQL queries report, which is a good way to make simple reports if you know HTML.
However, I made Custom SQL queries report, which is a good way to make simple reports if you know HTML.
In reply to Vikram Vincent
Re: Feature for creating custom reports (was Wanted: New feature ideas for GSOC projects)
by Juan Leyva -
I have developed a custom reports block as a "spare time" project.