I've implemented and contributed an extension that features collaborative note taking in Moodle.
It allows for taking notes related to any page of a course and collaboratively discussing and reviewing the notes in a separate activity.
The package is called "studynotes" and bases on Mediabird technology (project website http://www.mediabird.net).
You can download it from the moodle site.
We're already using the extension at some universities in Hamburg, Germany.
So let's discuss whether this is a useful extension and in which scenarios it might be used.
Introducing collaborative note taking based on Mediabird technology
by Fabian Gebert -
Number of replies: 56
In reply to Fabian Gebert
Re: Introducing collaborative note taking based on Mediabird technology
by Hilary Lai -
Installed on 1.9.4 but got the following error when click on the icon to create note:
Warning: Call-time pass-by-reference has been deprecated; If you would like to pass it by reference, modify the declaration of str_replace(). If you would like to enable call-time pass-by-reference, you can set allow_call_time_pass_reference to true in your INI file in /home/.sapphire/agentyikes/school.paranormalcop.net/mod/studynotes/view.php on line 389
Please help!
Warning: Call-time pass-by-reference has been deprecated; If you would like to pass it by reference, modify the declaration of str_replace(). If you would like to enable call-time pass-by-reference, you can set allow_call_time_pass_reference to true in your INI file in /home/.sapphire/agentyikes/school.paranormalcop.net/mod/studynotes/view.php on line 389
Please help!
In reply to Hilary Lai
Re: Introducing collaborative note taking based on Mediabird technology
by Fabian Gebert -
Thanks for trying to set up the activity, I hope we'll be able to solve the problem.
Mediabird is AJAX-driven. It loads the data it needs after it has been displayed.
Would you mind checking if the activity itself works or if it shown the same errors?
In case it does:
* Are you using PHP 5.2 or higher?
* Which database are you using?
Knowing the answers to these questions will make it a lot easier for me to help you setting it up.
Mediabird is AJAX-driven. It loads the data it needs after it has been displayed.
Would you mind checking if the activity itself works or if it shown the same errors?
In case it does:
* Are you using PHP 5.2 or higher?
* Which database are you using?
Knowing the answers to these questions will make it a lot easier for me to help you setting it up.
In reply to Fabian Gebert
Re: Introducing collaborative note taking based on Mediabird technology
by Hilary Lai -
In reply to Hilary Lai
Re: Introducing collaborative note taking based on Mediabird technology
by Fabian Gebert -
I think I've found the error.
If you could change line 389 of view.php
from
$footer = str_replace("</body>", $script."\n</body>", $footer, & $count);
to
$footer = str_replace("</body>", $script."\n</body>", $footer, $count);
Will be included into the next upstream version.
Thanks for your feedback
Fabian
If you could change line 389 of view.php
from
$footer = str_replace("</body>", $script."\n</body>", $footer, & $count);
to
$footer = str_replace("</body>", $script."\n</body>", $footer, $count);
Will be included into the next upstream version.
Thanks for your feedback
Fabian
In reply to Fabian Gebert
Re: Introducing collaborative note taking based on Mediabird technology
by Hilary Lai -
It works beautifully.
Thanks a lot!
Thanks a lot!
In reply to Hilary Lai
Re: Introducing collaborative note taking based on Mediabird technology
by alan murtagh -
This is really great. Just wondering if there was a "save" on the front page - i know there's one 2 clicks in
Best
Alan
Best
Alan
In reply to alan murtagh
Re: Introducing collaborative note taking based on Mediabird technology
by Fabian Gebert -
I don't quite get your question. The extension has auto-save enabled and you shouldn't need a save button, is that what you're asking?
Best
Fabian
Best
Fabian
In reply to Fabian Gebert
Re: Introducing collaborative note taking based on Mediabird technology
by Hilary Lai -
Hi
I have asciimath, geogebra and freemind in my moodle installation. I find that for text and graphics page, the module works very good. With asciimath, geogebra and freemind, it does not come out. I wonder if it is the javascript problem as the other three are also javascript based.
I have asciimath, geogebra and freemind in my moodle installation. I find that for text and graphics page, the module works very good. With asciimath, geogebra and freemind, it does not come out. I wonder if it is the javascript problem as the other three are also javascript based.
In reply to Hilary Lai
Re: Introducing collaborative note taking based on Mediabird technology
by Fabian Gebert -
Hi,
due to security, all the content of the note sheets is filtered and for instance, java applets get removed. This makes sure that the content is usable on all platforms and browsers. This is particularly important if you share notes with other users.
With the current version, you can set up the equation editor. It is even possible to drag and drop equations created with moodle.
As a general remark: Despite the fact users might not be able to drag and drop certain content onto the note sheet, they will always be able to link with the resource showing the content and describe the important thoughts with a few words.
If you have any further suggestions or remarks, let me know
Fabian
due to security, all the content of the note sheets is filtered and for instance, java applets get removed. This makes sure that the content is usable on all platforms and browsers. This is particularly important if you share notes with other users.
With the current version, you can set up the equation editor. It is even possible to drag and drop equations created with moodle.
As a general remark: Despite the fact users might not be able to drag and drop certain content onto the note sheet, they will always be able to link with the resource showing the content and describe the important thoughts with a few words.
If you have any further suggestions or remarks, let me know
Fabian
In reply to Fabian Gebert
Re: Introducing collaborative note taking based on Mediabird technology
by Fabian Gebert -
Just to let you know: We've released a massively improved and debugged version. Just get it from the repository.
In addition to that, we've updated the documentation and introduced a few YouTube screencasts on our homepage.
In addition to that, we've updated the documentation and introduced a few YouTube screencasts on our homepage.
In reply to Fabian Gebert
Re: Introducing collaborative note taking based on Mediabird technology
by Hilary Lai -
is upgrade procedure the same as installation procedure?
In reply to Hilary Lai
Re: Introducing collaborative note taking based on Mediabird technology
by Fabian Gebert -
yes it is. just tell the computer to replace the existing files when asked.
In reply to Fabian Gebert
Re: Introducing collaborative note taking based on Mediabird technology
by Jesús Martín -
Thanks for your work.
I have updated the module, but the following notice is on the screen:
Notice: Trying to get property of non-object in /var/www/moodle/mod/studynotes/ext/overlay_snippet.php on line 14
Notice: Undefined variable: cm in /var/www/moodle/mod/studynotes/ext/overlay_snippet.php on line 14
Thanks again.
J. Martin
In reply to Jesús Martín
Re: Introducing collaborative note taking based on Mediabird technology
by Fabian Gebert -
Thanks for letting me know.
Just remove that line 14,
echo $cm->id;
I've committed the change to CVS, should be online tomorrow.
Enjoy the extension
Fabian
Just remove that line 14,
echo $cm->id;
I've committed the change to CVS, should be online tomorrow.
Enjoy the extension
Fabian
In reply to Fabian Gebert
Re: Introducing collaborative note taking based on Mediabird technology
by Jesús Martín -
Thanks.
Another notice:
Notice: Undefined variable: meta in /var/www/moodle/mod/studynotes/view.php on line 301
J. Martin
Another notice:
Notice: Undefined variable: meta in /var/www/moodle/mod/studynotes/view.php on line 301
J. Martin
In reply to Jesús Martín
Re: Introducing collaborative note taking based on Mediabird technology
by Fabian Gebert -
Thanks, you're right again, for some funny reason my error log doesn't include notices any longer.
Just change the line from
$html .= '<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/xhtml; charset=UTF-8"/>'."\n".$meta;
to
$html .= '<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/xhtml; charset=UTF-8"/>'."\n";
Committed that one as well.
Fabian
Just change the line from
$html .= '<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/xhtml; charset=UTF-8"/>'."\n".$meta;
to
$html .= '<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/xhtml; charset=UTF-8"/>'."\n";
Committed that one as well.
Fabian
In reply to Fabian Gebert
Re: Introducing collaborative note taking based on Mediabird technology
by Ms. Letha Sanders -
Hi there,
I think this module will be a great help.
I've uploaded studynotes and added the suggested code to the header.html file for Cornflower theme.
The studynotes link works fine when I click on the link directly. But when I click on any resource, quiz or forum in the classroom, there isn't an icon in the upper right corner as shown on the video from Youtube or from the documentation link pages.
Did I forget something? I'm using version 1.9.2.
Thanks.
In reply to Ms. Letha Sanders
Re: Introducing collaborative note taking based on Mediabird technology
by Fabian Gebert -
Hello,
thanks for installing Mediabird.
I've just installed and checked everything with version 1.9.2 and the note icon works perfectly fine.
I think if you make the following sure, it should work:
I hope that helps. If not: Let me know and I'll try to help.
Regards
Fabian
thanks for installing Mediabird.
I've just installed and checked everything with version 1.9.2 and the note icon works perfectly fine.
I think if you make the following sure, it should work:
- Are you using the latest version? (Just download it again)
- If you add Mediabird to a course, the link will only appear on pages of that course. If you want it on pages of all courses, add Mediabird to the site rather than to single courses.
- Does the note icon appear if you select the standardmediabird theme that we provide with the download package? (Just switch to that theme to double check it)
I hope that helps. If not: Let me know and I'll try to help.
Regards
Fabian
In reply to Fabian Gebert
Re: Introducing collaborative note taking based on Mediabird technology
by Ms. Letha Sanders -
Hi Fabian,
Thanks for your suggestions. I did the following:
- I opened a course and changed the course theme to standardmediabird.
- From the Topics block (Topic 0), I created a studynotes link by selecting it from the activity pull-down menu and configuring it. This made it also show up on the course Activity side-panel box.
- I then opened a forum, a quiz and a journal activity but there was no icon for me to click on.
I really don't like the standard-looking themes and would like the note-taking activity to work in all courses on my site...but using the Cornflower theme. All courses use it.
I've attached a screenshot of how it appears; too far pushed to the right of the screen and I don't understand css well enough to fix it.
After sending this post, I'm going to try adding the activity to the front page of my Moodle site. Maybe it'll work then.
Thanks so much for your help. Ms. Letha
In reply to Ms. Letha Sanders
Re: Introducing collaborative note taking based on Mediabird technology
by Fabian Gebert -
Hi Letha,
you don't have to use the standardmediabird theme. That was just to check if something else is broken. Follow this guide to make any theme you like feature the note icon: http://www.mediabird.net/en/about/setup_moodle_plugin#Using_a_custom_theme
Now just to make sure: Could you check that you've got the latest version installed? Just download and unpack it again (that does not break anything).
With the latest version, you can turn off the quick start help on the right of the notepad. However, this will only partially resolve the window size issue since Mediabird is optimized for a 1024*768 resolution (your screen shot indicates a lower resolution, are you using a small monitor?). And some dialogs require more space. We will work on this issue in the future.
To come back to the icon issue: If you've made sure that you've got the latest version installed, the only thing I can help you with would be to give you some debug instructions. If you feel save with using a simple text editor that's not going to be a problem at all. Just let me know if it works after the update
Best
Fabian
you don't have to use the standardmediabird theme. That was just to check if something else is broken. Follow this guide to make any theme you like feature the note icon: http://www.mediabird.net/en/about/setup_moodle_plugin#Using_a_custom_theme
Now just to make sure: Could you check that you've got the latest version installed? Just download and unpack it again (that does not break anything).
With the latest version, you can turn off the quick start help on the right of the notepad. However, this will only partially resolve the window size issue since Mediabird is optimized for a 1024*768 resolution (your screen shot indicates a lower resolution, are you using a small monitor?). And some dialogs require more space. We will work on this issue in the future.
To come back to the icon issue: If you've made sure that you've got the latest version installed, the only thing I can help you with would be to give you some debug instructions. If you feel save with using a simple text editor that's not going to be a problem at all. Just let me know if it works after the update
Best
Fabian
In reply to Fabian Gebert
Re: Introducing collaborative note taking based on Mediabird technology
by Ms. Letha Sanders -
Fabian,
I am so afraid to download the latest version because I have at least 30+ modules, blocks and activities.
Please correct me if I'm wrong, but if I upload the latest Moodle version, won't this remove all of my contributed modules, blocks and filters? That'd be pretty horrifying to me to lose so many.
I think I have a 15" monitor (at least that's what my ruler helped me to measure). The screenshot I sent you was cropped so that I only showed the right portion of the screen. I was afraid the .jpg file would be too big.
While I'm waiting for your response, I'll go ahead and download a zip file for the newest version 1.9.5 I guess. Don't think it'd be to smart to download the weekly build.
Please advise. thanks.
In reply to Fabian Gebert
Re: Introducing collaborative note taking based on Mediabird technology
by Ms. Letha Sanders -
Hi,
When I downloaded the newest version link above, I thought you were talking about upgrading my 1.9.2 moodle...but, it was just a zip file for studynotes.
I'm pretty sure the studynotes download I had previously, but a studynotes_package file. Nonetheless, I'll do as you say now.
I'll give you an update after reuploading. Thanks.
In reply to Fabian Gebert
Re: Introducing collaborative note taking based on Mediabird technology
by Ms. Letha Sanders -
Okay, I downloaded the newest version studynotes_package zip to my computer and unzipped it. I then moved it to my moodle root folder and uploaded to the server using Dreamweaver.
I realize that the readme.txt file said to upload the zip file to the server and then unzip, but I don't know how to do this yet.
Will give results. Thanks.
In reply to Ms. Letha Sanders
Re: Introducing collaborative note taking based on Mediabird technology
by Ms. Letha Sanders -
Hi Fabian,
Yippie! Yes, it seems to work better now. And there's an icon in every activity of a course. I've opened the notes window and experimented with all the other icons.
I decided to add the studynotes activity to the front page so that every course opened would automatically get the icon and studynotes use.
I became a little confused by the icons on the bottom of the notepads. When I click on the studynotes link from the front page Moodle site, there are 2 icons at the lower right: 1) Connect with your fellow students and share your work 2) Search your note sheets and import articles.
When I click on the studynotes icon from inside a course and get the floating notepad, there is only 1 icon at the lower right and it says, View note sheet with all advanced features. If I click this, I get an expanded screen that goes off the page again. Once I expand the screen, there's no way to get back to a smaller screen.
I think it's important that all students have the option of collaborating with other students in the class and sharing their notes. However, it appears that the icon from inside the courses don't allow students to collaborate or search their notes sheets or import articles.
It's only the front page studynotes link that allows these options (that are needed in the course instead). This of course, is the ugly screen that doesn't center on the page.
I'm wondering if the way I uploaded the first studynotes_package has something to do with this. When I uploaded the first package, instead of leaving the entire folder in the moodle root directory, I separated the two files (mod and theme) to their respective folders within Moodle directory. When I uploaded the 2nd (newest version) package, I left all files intact and just uploaded the one folder to the server.
Should I go back and remove the studynotes folder and other files from the "mod" and "theme" folders inside Moodle? Would this make a difference?
I like the fact that when you click on the icon from inside a course, the notes screen is moveable and if I move it close to the left-side of the screen, I can resize or extend the window and then see ALL of the help section that I couldn't see before (by using the front page link).
It does concern me about the way the studynotes notepad page looks from the Moodle, front page link. I'd like it to look nice.
Can you help again? Thanks. I'm enjoying this little extra feature. Ms. Letha
In reply to Ms. Letha Sanders
Re: Introducing collaborative note taking based on Mediabird technology
by Fabian Gebert -
Hi Letha,
that sounds like good news, the module is working. Sorry about the confusion regarding Moodle upgrade and Mediabird Study Notes upgrade. I was talking about the latter that you've correctly updated.
The in-place note taking overlay (the one that appears when clicking the note icon) does intentionally not feature all functionality since it is just to take notes while studying a resource or forum page. The icon in the bottom right corner opens the review mode which is just the full notepad view. This design is based on the feedback of teachers and students.
There is one option that might be helpful for you (go to the admin area, select Modules -> Activities -> Mediabird Study Notes): Show quick help next to notepad.
You can disable that to have more space in the full feature mode.
But: I cannot recommend you to disable this since your students might want the additional explanation. I'm afraid the main cause of the issue is just your small screen. I've attached two screenshots with the standard resolution of both a 15 and 17 inch monitor just to give you an impression of what it should look like. I hope there's no other issue that makes it look different, but if it looks the same as on the 15 inch screenshot, I'm afraid I can't improve it.
If you've got further questions, let me know.
Fabian
that sounds like good news, the module is working. Sorry about the confusion regarding Moodle upgrade and Mediabird Study Notes upgrade. I was talking about the latter that you've correctly updated.
The in-place note taking overlay (the one that appears when clicking the note icon) does intentionally not feature all functionality since it is just to take notes while studying a resource or forum page. The icon in the bottom right corner opens the review mode which is just the full notepad view. This design is based on the feedback of teachers and students.
There is one option that might be helpful for you (go to the admin area, select Modules -> Activities -> Mediabird Study Notes): Show quick help next to notepad.
You can disable that to have more space in the full feature mode.
But: I cannot recommend you to disable this since your students might want the additional explanation. I'm afraid the main cause of the issue is just your small screen. I've attached two screenshots with the standard resolution of both a 15 and 17 inch monitor just to give you an impression of what it should look like. I hope there's no other issue that makes it look different, but if it looks the same as on the 15 inch screenshot, I'm afraid I can't improve it.
If you've got further questions, let me know.
Fabian
In reply to Ms. Letha Sanders
Re: Introducing collaborative note taking based on Mediabird technology
by James Jenkins -
I wanted to give a big THANK YOU to Fabian for his much needed help over the past few days.
I am happy to announce I am running Mediabird Study Notes site-wide with all issues somewhat resolved. Here's what happened and how it got fixed.
I started out having the same issue as Ms. Letha, and still do a bit, but now all the text in the side menu is fully displayed.
I did a little poking around and discovered it was that mediabird's object was wider than what would fit into other themes that used a .css file to control width for the 1024px wide monitor users. I passed this info onto to Fabian at mediabird, as I was in over my head on how to fix it and I was a bit impatient, cuz I really like their notes tool. Anyway, I appreciated the quick response from mediabird and have their notes system up and running. The fix was the latest release from mediabird a couple of days back.
Oh, and it is running SITE WIDE. I did this accidently following mediabird instructions for use with custom themes. Under moodle support, they say; 'If you are using your own theme, all you need to add is the following line in the file header.html..after this line of code...'.
Funny thing, the landmark line given was in my theme css file twice. I discovered this while trying to troubleshoot another problem, which I will address later on in this post. So, just to see what would happen, I put it in both places in my minorly customized 'Computer-World' theme 'header.html' file. The result was that it now appears on my front page and virtually every page, except https pages. I like it! Guests get redirected to the login page. Plus it fixed the issue I was having with the mediabird button trying to load on my secured user profile pages.
This left me with just one more potentially show stopping problem...well it was a lot of little things either not working or working strangely along with an illogical error saying my 'note was too big..', when it didn't have anything in it. The bullets and enumeration functions refused to work. And a bunch of....just weird behavior.
My partner said she was having the same problem 100% of the time, while I could remember it working for me more than once. The answer was one of those DUH moments for me. The culprit in all of this strangeness was none other than.....(drum roll please),
the NEW & Improved? Internet Explorer 8. I use both IE and Firefox in testing my site and should of figured this one out much sooner.
ATTENTION Internet Explorer 8 Users: If you are using the NEW Internet Explorer 8, please go to 'tools' in IE8 and ensure 'Compatibility View' is checked (turned on). The Study Notes system does not yet function correctly with IE8, UNLESS 'Compatibility View' is enabled. Thank you!
If anyone wants to check out the Study Notes tool in use, you are welcome to visit my site at http://www.QIMTonline.com (Don't be afraid of the '.com', unless you are part of a small field of science called 'Metrology'...no not meteorology. If you are not involved in metrology, I don't anything you would want.
But, I am always willing to help others over the bumps that slapped the grin off my face, although ....I should state again. I am not a real web programmer.
I write VBA for Excel for laboratory mathematics of various types. Although, I have enjoyed wandering through the code of moodle. Just like in Mexico, I can figure enough of the language out to get a drink and find a restroom.
But I am learning.
And it is much easier than writing code for my Commodore 64 back in 1982.
I hope what little info I provided will be of some help to someone, and if not, at least I didn't waste any paper with this dribble. Have a nice day!
I am happy to announce I am running Mediabird Study Notes site-wide with all issues somewhat resolved. Here's what happened and how it got fixed.
I started out having the same issue as Ms. Letha, and still do a bit, but now all the text in the side menu is fully displayed.
I did a little poking around and discovered it was that mediabird's object was wider than what would fit into other themes that used a .css file to control width for the 1024px wide monitor users. I passed this info onto to Fabian at mediabird, as I was in over my head on how to fix it and I was a bit impatient, cuz I really like their notes tool. Anyway, I appreciated the quick response from mediabird and have their notes system up and running. The fix was the latest release from mediabird a couple of days back.
Oh, and it is running SITE WIDE. I did this accidently following mediabird instructions for use with custom themes. Under moodle support, they say; 'If you are using your own theme, all you need to add is the following line in the file header.html..after this line of code...'.
Funny thing, the landmark line given was in my theme css file twice. I discovered this while trying to troubleshoot another problem, which I will address later on in this post. So, just to see what would happen, I put it in both places in my minorly customized 'Computer-World' theme 'header.html' file. The result was that it now appears on my front page and virtually every page, except https pages. I like it! Guests get redirected to the login page. Plus it fixed the issue I was having with the mediabird button trying to load on my secured user profile pages.
This left me with just one more potentially show stopping problem...well it was a lot of little things either not working or working strangely along with an illogical error saying my 'note was too big..', when it didn't have anything in it. The bullets and enumeration functions refused to work. And a bunch of....just weird behavior.
My partner said she was having the same problem 100% of the time, while I could remember it working for me more than once. The answer was one of those DUH moments for me. The culprit in all of this strangeness was none other than.....(drum roll please),
the NEW & Improved? Internet Explorer 8. I use both IE and Firefox in testing my site and should of figured this one out much sooner.MY SOLUTION: Wish the guys at mediabird some luck figuring out what microsoft did to make their code go clunk AND I posted the following notice on the front page of my site, because this is NOT a show stopper. Good ole microsoft and their somewhat compatible 'compatibility modes'. The good news is that I have mediabird Study Notes up and running great thus far even for those using IE8. The trick is to get the users to be aware of this and use 'Compatibility View'. It works, although not as good as Firefox, but then again, it never did. For example, with firefox the user just needs to be on a line to set it to a bulleted line, but with IE the user has to select all the text on the line first. Bottom-line, it works as good as one can expect with any version of IE.
Here is what I POSTED on my Front Page:
Here is what I POSTED on my Front Page:
ATTENTION Internet Explorer 8 Users: If you are using the NEW Internet Explorer 8, please go to 'tools' in IE8 and ensure 'Compatibility View' is checked (turned on). The Study Notes system does not yet function correctly with IE8, UNLESS 'Compatibility View' is enabled. Thank you!
NOTE: Our site is tested and optimized for use with the Mozilla Firefox, Microsoft Internet Explorer and Google Chrome browsers. This site is best viewed with Mozilla Firefox.
If anyone wants to check out the Study Notes tool in use, you are welcome to visit my site at http://www.QIMTonline.com (Don't be afraid of the '.com', unless you are part of a small field of science called 'Metrology'...no not meteorology. If you are not involved in metrology, I don't anything you would want.
But, I am always willing to help others over the bumps that slapped the grin off my face, although ....I should state again. I am not a real web programmer.
I write VBA for Excel for laboratory mathematics of various types. Although, I have enjoyed wandering through the code of moodle. Just like in Mexico, I can figure enough of the language out to get a drink and find a restroom.
But I am learning. And it is much easier than writing code for my Commodore 64 back in 1982.
I hope what little info I provided will be of some help to someone, and if not, at least I didn't waste any paper with this dribble. Have a nice day!
In reply to James Jenkins
Re: Introducing collaborative note taking based on Mediabird technology
by Fabian Gebert -
Thanks a lot for your feedback. It was very helpful hint that it does work with compat mode but not with the standard mode (I wonder why it worked with all standard support of other browsers thogh). And in fact, all I needed to change was one line of code (that took me 2 hours to realise).
From tomorrow on, the IE8 fixes should be available from the moodle download page.
From tomorrow on, the IE8 fixes should be available from the moodle download page.
In reply to Fabian Gebert
Re: Introducing collaborative note taking based on Mediabird technology
Hi there, the standard install didnt work for me. I was getting a bunch of db errors, so I changed two tables, in upgrade.php from type char to type "text" with length "medium"
I also had to remove an index on links,
Then the installer worked smoothly,
Here are the changes I made:
<TABLE NAME="studynotes_rel_questions" COMMENT="required by Mediabird Study Notes" PREVIOUS="studynotes_relation_links" NEXT="studynotes_rights">
<FIELDS>
<FIELD NAME="id" TYPE="int" LENGTH="11" NOTNULL="true" UNSIGNED="true" SEQUENCE="true" ENUM="false" NEXT="question"/>
<FIELD NAME="question" TYPE="text" LENGTH="medium" NOTNULL="true" SEQUENCE="false" ENUM="false" PREVIOUS="id" NEXT="user_id"/>
<FIELD NAME="user_id" TYPE="int" LENGTH="11" NOTNULL="true" UNSIGNED="true" SEQUENCE="false" ENUM="false" PREVIOUS="question" NEXT="created"/>
<FIELD NAME="created" TYPE="int" LENGTH="10" DEFAULT="0" NOTNULL="true" SEQUENCE="false" ENUM="false" PREVIOUS="user_id" NEXT="modified"/>
<FIELD NAME="modified" TYPE="int" LENGTH="10" DEFAULT="0" NOTNULL="true" SEQUENCE="false" ENUM="false" PREVIOUS="created"/>
</FIELDS>
<KEYS>
<KEY NAME="primary" TYPE="primary" FIELDS="id"/>
</KEYS>
</table>
<TABLE NAME="studynotes_account_links" COMMENT="required by Mediabird Study Notes" PREVIOUS="studynotes" NEXT="studynotes_cards">
<FIELDS>
<FIELD NAME="id" TYPE="int" LENGTH="11" NOTNULL="true" UNSIGNED="true" SEQUENCE="true" ENUM="false" NEXT="system"/>
<FIELD NAME="system" TYPE="char" LENGTH="20" NOTNULL="false" SEQUENCE="false" ENUM="false" PREVIOUS="id" NEXT="internal_id"/>
<FIELD NAME="internal_id" TYPE="int" LENGTH="11" NOTNULL="false" UNSIGNED="true" SEQUENCE="false" ENUM="false" PREVIOUS="system" NEXT="external_id"/>
<FIELD NAME="external_id" TYPE="int" LENGTH="11" NOTNULL="false" UNSIGNED="true" SEQUENCE="false" ENUM="false" PREVIOUS="internal_id"/>
</FIELDS>
<KEYS>
<KEY NAME="primary" TYPE="primary" FIELDS="id"/>
</KEYS>
</TABLE>
I also had to remove an index on links,
Then the installer worked smoothly,
Here are the changes I made:
<TABLE NAME="studynotes_rel_questions" COMMENT="required by Mediabird Study Notes" PREVIOUS="studynotes_relation_links" NEXT="studynotes_rights">
<FIELDS>
<FIELD NAME="id" TYPE="int" LENGTH="11" NOTNULL="true" UNSIGNED="true" SEQUENCE="true" ENUM="false" NEXT="question"/>
<FIELD NAME="question" TYPE="text" LENGTH="medium" NOTNULL="true" SEQUENCE="false" ENUM="false" PREVIOUS="id" NEXT="user_id"/>
<FIELD NAME="user_id" TYPE="int" LENGTH="11" NOTNULL="true" UNSIGNED="true" SEQUENCE="false" ENUM="false" PREVIOUS="question" NEXT="created"/>
<FIELD NAME="created" TYPE="int" LENGTH="10" DEFAULT="0" NOTNULL="true" SEQUENCE="false" ENUM="false" PREVIOUS="user_id" NEXT="modified"/>
<FIELD NAME="modified" TYPE="int" LENGTH="10" DEFAULT="0" NOTNULL="true" SEQUENCE="false" ENUM="false" PREVIOUS="created"/>
</FIELDS>
<KEYS>
<KEY NAME="primary" TYPE="primary" FIELDS="id"/>
</KEYS>
</table>
<TABLE NAME="studynotes_account_links" COMMENT="required by Mediabird Study Notes" PREVIOUS="studynotes" NEXT="studynotes_cards">
<FIELDS>
<FIELD NAME="id" TYPE="int" LENGTH="11" NOTNULL="true" UNSIGNED="true" SEQUENCE="true" ENUM="false" NEXT="system"/>
<FIELD NAME="system" TYPE="char" LENGTH="20" NOTNULL="false" SEQUENCE="false" ENUM="false" PREVIOUS="id" NEXT="internal_id"/>
<FIELD NAME="internal_id" TYPE="int" LENGTH="11" NOTNULL="false" UNSIGNED="true" SEQUENCE="false" ENUM="false" PREVIOUS="system" NEXT="external_id"/>
<FIELD NAME="external_id" TYPE="int" LENGTH="11" NOTNULL="false" UNSIGNED="true" SEQUENCE="false" ENUM="false" PREVIOUS="internal_id"/>
</FIELDS>
<KEYS>
<KEY NAME="primary" TYPE="primary" FIELDS="id"/>
</KEYS>
</TABLE>
In reply to Paul 'Fire' Preibisch
Re: Introducing collaborative note taking based on Mediabird technology
by Fabian Gebert -
Your database probably doesn't support char columns with more than 255 chars. MySQL prior to version 5 does not support this for instance. Thanks for letting us know.
In reply to Fabian Gebert
Re: Introducing collaborative note taking based on Mediabird technology
by Fabian Gebert -
Hello everyone,
just to let you know: There've been few improvements and bug fixes again. Updating recommended.
It is now possible to enter a question in a repetition mark. This allows for memorizing selections providing a question related to it.
Looking forward to further feedback and suggestions
Fabian
just to let you know: There've been few improvements and bug fixes again. Updating recommended.
It is now possible to enter a question in a repetition mark. This allows for memorizing selections providing a question related to it.
Looking forward to further feedback and suggestions
Fabian
In reply to Fabian Gebert
Re: Introducing collaborative note taking based on Mediabird technology
by Ahmid shetta -
Hello Fabian,
Thank You for that activity, really it is very wonderful addition to the moodle
please, i have one question
i am using moodle 1.3 and i installed Mediabird Notes activity, everything is ok except i can not find the icon of in-place note taking
when i open any page to read i cant find the icon that displays the Mediabird notepad and allows for taking notes in-place.
and please, if i want it appear for all courses, is that necessary to but it on the Frontpage?
Hope to receive your reply soon
Thank You
Thank You for that activity, really it is very wonderful addition to the moodle
please, i have one question
i am using moodle 1.3 and i installed Mediabird Notes activity, everything is ok except i can not find the icon of in-place note taking
when i open any page to read i cant find the icon that displays the Mediabird notepad and allows for taking notes in-place.
and please, if i want it appear for all courses, is that necessary to but it on the Frontpage?
Hope to receive your reply soon
Thank You
In reply to Ahmid shetta
Re: Introducing collaborative note taking based on Mediabird technology
by James Jenkins -
I have mediabird up and running correctly. Maybe I can help.
I did have the icon sort of working on the front page, but running it from there caused trouble in connecting to the notes and groups data. It would connect but it would give an error. After some more investigation, I found it really isn't designed to run from the front page, only accessible from course areas.
Based on Mediabirds info, it appears that it was designed to be present in all pages throughout a course, which is what is doing for me, without any issues.
So at this point, you have it working somewhere, but are not getting the icon, I think I can help you:
- Go to any course and add the mediabird activity somewhere in the course, if you haven't already.
- Test it, if it works and you do NOT have the cool icon in your course header, you will need to edit your selected theme 'header.html' file as follows:
- FTP to your site and find 'themes' folder
- Open folder and find your selected theme folder and open it
- Find 'header.html' file in theme root dir
- Open file with a php editor
- Find '<div class="navbar clearfix">', if more than one, use the last one found.
- Add the following line below the line found in step 5.
- ADD: <?php include_once($CFG->dirroot.'/mod/studynotes/ext/overlay_snippet.php'); ?>
- Mine had 2 of the lines referenced in step 5, placing the additional line in both places also put the icon on my main page (after I put the activity in the Main Menu). But I had the errors I mentioned above so I removed that line.
- I left the activity on the front page so users can access their notes without going into a course. Plus, I am using a course area for a 'Student Lounge' where the notes are also made available to users.
- To point out the 'not so obvious'; the notes system uses one set of notes for each user. No matter where you are on the moodle site, if the activity is there, you can access ALL your notes.
- For the record I am running:
- Moodle 1.9.2+
- PHP 5.2.2
- MySQL 4.1.22
- Windows 2000 server
Adding the line in step 7, results in placement of the cool yellow notes icon on the right side of the header bar in the course pages.
I had a few bumps in setting it up, but with the latest version installed and used as designed, it is working very well for us so far.
For the record; this is a great moodle module, even if only used for personal notes! With the additional research data collection tools and group sharing, I can think of a lot of uses for this tool. 
I hope this is helpful.
In reply to James Jenkins
Re: Introducing collaborative note taking based on Mediabird technology
by Ahmid shetta -
Thank You, it works very well
In reply to James Jenkins
Re: Introducing collaborative note taking based on Mediabird technology
by Fabian Gebert -
Thanks for your help, James.
I've just got one thing left to mention: You can also add the activity to the site rather than to all the courses if you want to make it available in all courses. To do so:
Best
Fabian
I've just got one thing left to mention: You can also add the activity to the site rather than to all the courses if you want to make it available in all courses. To do so:
- log in with your admin account
- do not open a course but the admin page
- turn editing on
- add Mediabird using the "Main menu" blocks (in case you can't find it, add it using the "Blocks" block)
Best
Fabian
In reply to Fabian Gebert
Re: Introducing collaborative note taking based on Mediabird technology
Hi Fabian, after installing Mediabird, when I click on the notes button, I just get a blank note, with no way to enter text. To get this to install properly, I had to change two tables the _links and _questions because the installer didnt like type char to be more than 255, so I changed them to type text... would this make a difference?
In reply to Paul 'Fire' Preibisch
Re: Introducing collaborative note taking based on Mediabird technology
by Fabian Gebert -
Hi Paul,
thanks for letting me know about the database trouble. Changing it to text should be fine. What type of DB are you using and which version?
I will include your fix in the next release.
Thanks a lot
Fabian
thanks for letting me know about the database trouble. Changing it to text should be fine. What type of DB are you using and which version?
I will include your fix in the next release.
Thanks a lot
Fabian
In reply to Fabian Gebert
Re: Introducing collaborative note taking based on Mediabird technology
by Lance Hinds -
Can this application possibly work on Moodle 1.8+ and if not what level of effort would it take to make it work?
In reply to Lance Hinds
Re: Introducing collaborative note taking based on Mediabird technology
by Fabian Gebert -
Hi, it will work from the next CVS update on. Just download it tomorrow and it should work. If it does not, wait for another day. I've made it compatible with 1.8.9 but it should work with any of 1.8+
Thanks for your feedback
Fabian
Thanks for your feedback
Fabian
Hello everyone,
during the last weeks, co-founder Frank and I developed new ideas on how to make Mediabird easier to use and more valuable for students.
In order to make it easier for students to prepare their exams on the base of handouts provided by the teacher, we have developed a concept of how to directly import PDF files into Mediabird sheets. They are to be used in a similar way as personal notes.
Due to the additional effort, we consider developing these features as a commercial extension to the existing Moodle activity.
I'd appreciate if you could have a look at the PDF file and give us your opinion about the concept.
There are two main reasons why we have developed the concept:
Firstly, this concept is to reduce typing effort since students can simply import PDF files and draw tags on them. Secondly, we want to make it easier to relate tags such as questions, annotations and discussions to their source, most probably a handout from the teacher provided in PDF.
Thanks a lot in advance
Fabian
during the last weeks, co-founder Frank and I developed new ideas on how to make Mediabird easier to use and more valuable for students.
In order to make it easier for students to prepare their exams on the base of handouts provided by the teacher, we have developed a concept of how to directly import PDF files into Mediabird sheets. They are to be used in a similar way as personal notes.
Due to the additional effort, we consider developing these features as a commercial extension to the existing Moodle activity.
I'd appreciate if you could have a look at the PDF file and give us your opinion about the concept.
There are two main reasons why we have developed the concept:
Firstly, this concept is to reduce typing effort since students can simply import PDF files and draw tags on them. Secondly, we want to make it easier to relate tags such as questions, annotations and discussions to their source, most probably a handout from the teacher provided in PDF.
Thanks a lot in advance
Fabian
Hi,
i tried your nice note taking activity but i found out it didn't work for me.
All my moodle pages are being delivered through https/ssl. The activity itself works but the small icon on the right side isn't shown. Can you fix this? Falls die Fehlerbeschreibung etwas unklar ist, kann ich sie auch noch mal in deutsch geben.
By the way, why is PHP 5.2 needed for this to work? ISn't there no possibility to get it working with PHP 5.1? The problem is CentOS doesn't ship with 5.2, only with 5.1 and I can't change the OS on my production server.
Best regards
Sven
i tried your nice note taking activity but i found out it didn't work for me.
All my moodle pages are being delivered through https/ssl. The activity itself works but the small icon on the right side isn't shown. Can you fix this? Falls die Fehlerbeschreibung etwas unklar ist, kann ich sie auch noch mal in deutsch geben.
By the way, why is PHP 5.2 needed for this to work? ISn't there no possibility to get it working with PHP 5.1? The problem is CentOS doesn't ship with 5.2, only with 5.1 and I can't change the OS on my production server.
Best regards
Sven
Hi,
I have StudyNotes running on Moodle 1.9.4 using an Oracle db. We're using it for course review notes prior to publishing.
All works fine - after dealing with the table name length issue.
One thing that is blocking us is creating Groups. If I create an entry BEFORE I am part of a Group, this entry always stays private, even if I become part of the Group later. It can not be seen by the Group.
So when I try to invite a registered Moodle course reviewer via the "Invite Friend" feature, it complains that this person is "not registered with mediabird". This reviewer has to click on the StudyNotes pad first to get registered. Problem is, we can't control when they decide to review a course and take notes. So the catch-22 is that their notes can't be shared unless they're in the Group, and I can't add them manually to the Group until they enter StudyNotes to add entries.
Is there a PHP function (better yet a sample HTML wrapper) that I could call 'register' folks in the mediabird tables? Looks like the studynotes_account_links and studynotes_users tables are the right ones to touch, but would prefer to go through the API.
Thanks!
Fred Lunau
I have StudyNotes running on Moodle 1.9.4 using an Oracle db. We're using it for course review notes prior to publishing.
All works fine - after dealing with the table name length issue.
One thing that is blocking us is creating Groups. If I create an entry BEFORE I am part of a Group, this entry always stays private, even if I become part of the Group later. It can not be seen by the Group.
So when I try to invite a registered Moodle course reviewer via the "Invite Friend" feature, it complains that this person is "not registered with mediabird". This reviewer has to click on the StudyNotes pad first to get registered. Problem is, we can't control when they decide to review a course and take notes. So the catch-22 is that their notes can't be shared unless they're in the Group, and I can't add them manually to the Group until they enter StudyNotes to add entries.
Is there a PHP function (better yet a sample HTML wrapper) that I could call 'register' folks in the mediabird tables? Looks like the studynotes_account_links and studynotes_users tables are the right ones to touch, but would prefer to go through the API.
Thanks!
Fred Lunau
Hi Fred,
the easiest option will possibly be if we simply adjust Mediabird to make it suitable for that situation.
What I have just committed is the ability to invite a user to Mediabird from the invite friends panel without requiring the user to already use Mediabird. The user will be invited.
Just update studynotes in about 6 hours or later to get the changes...
I hope that solves the issue?
Regards
Fabian
the easiest option will possibly be if we simply adjust Mediabird to make it suitable for that situation.
What I have just committed is the ability to invite a user to Mediabird from the invite friends panel without requiring the user to already use Mediabird. The user will be invited.
Just update studynotes in about 6 hours or later to get the changes...
I hope that solves the issue?
Regards
Fabian
Hello again,
does everything work as expected now?
Regards
Fabian
does everything work as expected now?
Regards
Fabian
Hi Fabian,
I just tested this in 1.9.7+. It is very nice, great work. A couple of comments:
The navigation was throwing an error, and missing the update button in view.php I changed line 126 to:
if (!$cm = get_coursemodule_from_id('studynotes', $id)) {
error("Course Module ID was incorrect");
}
and changed line 282 to:
$navigation = build_navigation('', $cm);
print_header_simple(format_string($studynotes->name), '', $navigation, '', '', true,
update_module_button($cm->id, $course->id, $strstudynotes), navmenu($course, $cm));
I added the code to my theme header file, and if a student does not already have any notes, it throws up some errors (below), you might want to look into this and code it for that, e.g. if (a student has notes....), else (do nothing).
Notice: Undefined offset: 1 in C:\moodle1.95\www\moodle\mod\studynotes\ext\overlay_snippet.php on line 66
Notice: Undefined offset: 0 in C:\moodle1.95\www\moodle\mod\studynotes\ext\overlay_snippet.php on line 66
Notice: Undefined variable: myCards in C:\moodle1.95\www\moodle\mod\studynotes\ext\overlay_snippet.php on line 69
Notice: Undefined variable: theirCards in C:\moodle1.95\jwww\moodle\mod\studynotes\ext\overlay_snippet.php on line 74
I think the add a reference feature might be confusing, I did not know what to put in the location text field, so when I entered some text, then clicked on the link, it of course took me to an error page. Unless I am missing something here, I would just delete the section to add a reference, and just keep the To current page link.
I would love to see an insert date function, or have notes dated somehow.
I found it difficult to locate all of my notes, I found them by clicking on the view current note folder icon, then on edit, then on the All note folders link. It would be nice to have the All note folders link easier to find.
I just tested this in 1.9.7+. It is very nice, great work. A couple of comments:
The navigation was throwing an error, and missing the update button in view.php I changed line 126 to:
if (!$cm = get_coursemodule_from_id('studynotes', $id)) {
error("Course Module ID was incorrect");
}
and changed line 282 to:
$navigation = build_navigation('', $cm);
print_header_simple(format_string($studynotes->name), '', $navigation, '', '', true,
update_module_button($cm->id, $course->id, $strstudynotes), navmenu($course, $cm));
I added the code to my theme header file, and if a student does not already have any notes, it throws up some errors (below), you might want to look into this and code it for that, e.g. if (a student has notes....), else (do nothing).
Notice: Undefined offset: 1 in C:\moodle1.95\www\moodle\mod\studynotes\ext\overlay_snippet.php on line 66
Notice: Undefined offset: 0 in C:\moodle1.95\www\moodle\mod\studynotes\ext\overlay_snippet.php on line 66
Notice: Undefined variable: myCards in C:\moodle1.95\www\moodle\mod\studynotes\ext\overlay_snippet.php on line 69
Notice: Undefined variable: theirCards in C:\moodle1.95\jwww\moodle\mod\studynotes\ext\overlay_snippet.php on line 74
I think the add a reference feature might be confusing, I did not know what to put in the location text field, so when I entered some text, then clicked on the link, it of course took me to an error page. Unless I am missing something here, I would just delete the section to add a reference, and just keep the To current page link.
I would love to see an insert date function, or have notes dated somehow.
I found it difficult to locate all of my notes, I found them by clicking on the view current note folder icon, then on edit, then on the All note folders link. It would be nice to have the All note folders link easier to find.
Thanks to the translation effort of Jesús Martin, Mediabird Study Notes is now fully available in Spanish! Thanks for that!
In reply to Fabian Gebert
Re: Spanish translation of Mediabird Study Notes available
by Thomas Hodgers -
What is the name of the Spanish version and where can I download it from?
In reply to Fabian Gebert
Re: Introducing collaborative note taking based on Mediabird technology
by Dave Dannenberg -
I would like to try this module, but can't seem to get any of the download links to work. Where can I download it?
In reply to Dave Dannenberg
Re: Introducing collaborative note taking based on Mediabird technology
by John Andrewartha -
The link worked for me OK.
Installed clean works great. Now I have to get staff and students into it.
A totally brilliant way to share development notes.
John
Installed clean works great. Now I have to get staff and students into it.
A totally brilliant way to share development notes.
John
In reply to Dave Dannenberg
Re: Introducing collaborative note taking based on Mediabird technology
by Dave Dannenberg -
Must of been a momentary glitch on my PC. I got it downloaded late yesterday and installed. Seems to be working fine.
Dave
In reply to Fabian Gebert
Re: Introducing collaborative note taking based on Mediabird technology
by Reb Brewer -
Would someone please help me figure this out? I installed Mediabird studynotes on Moodle 1.9.7x but it doesn't seem to work at all. When I add the activity to a course I receive the following error:
When I fix it, I get the next error which I haven't been able to fix or figure out at all because I'm not that great at coding language. I know just enough to be dangerous when editing the files. Here is the 2nd error message:
I'm not quite sure if I caused it by my solution to fixing the first error on line 49 or if this is just the next error message of several yet to come.
Line 55 of view.php looks like this:
Can anyone tell me what I need to add or adjust on this line to get past this error message?
Just an FYI in case it's all related, the Theme StandardMediaBird isn't work either for me either. When I select it, all I can see is the header on the website page and the rest of the website is completely blank. When I edit my header.html file for a custom template I can the same error.
I would really love to be able to use this module on my website. If anyone has the time, knowledge and patience to assist me it would be deeply appreciated.
I am running:
Parse error: syntax error, unexpected '.', expecting '(' in /....../mod/studynotes/view.php on line 49
When I fix it, I get the next error which I haven't been able to fix or figure out at all because I'm not that great at coding language. I know just enough to be dangerous when editing the files. Here is the 2nd error message:
Parse error: syntax error, unexpected T_CONSTANT_ENCAPSED_STRING, expecting '(' in /......../mod/studynotes/view.php on line 55
I'm not quite sure if I caused it by my solution to fixing the first error on line 49 or if this is just the next error message of several yet to come.
Line 55 of view.php looks like this:
$name = $_FILES[$key]['name'];
Can anyone tell me what I need to add or adjust on this line to get past this error message?
Just an FYI in case it's all related, the Theme StandardMediaBird isn't work either for me either. When I select it, all I can see is the header on the website page and the rest of the website is completely blank. When I edit my header.html file for a custom template I can the same error.
I would really love to be able to use this module on my website. If anyone has the time, knowledge and patience to assist me it would be deeply appreciated.
I am running:
In reply to Fabian Gebert
Re: Introducing collaborative note taking based on Mediabird technology
Hi,
I am using Moodle 2.0. So, I was wondering if you have developed an update for the 2.0 !!! I haven't tried note takng plugin yet but it looks really promising.
In reply to Fabian Gebert
Re: Introducing collaborative note taking based on Mediabird technology
by Fabian Gebert -
Hello everyone,
first of all: thanks for your feedback on Mediabird Study Notes. Throughout the last two years of no updates to the Plugin, I received tons of emails asking me about the future of Mediabird. And I used to reply that we don't know yet.
Having finished my studies (thanks to Moodle), I can no longer maintain this project for free, but at the same time, I understand most of you (or their institutions) don't have the money to pay the license fees I have to take in order to maintain such as project. But wouldn't it be great to crowd-fund it then?
This is my new approach now. I've spoken with a lot of users during the last months and they told me what they mostly need is the ability to take notes from within any Moodle page and discuss and share these notes with their study mates.
Inspired by the success of recent crowd-funding campaigns, I have set up http://akanoo.org and the corresponding Akanoo support page on Indiegogo.
Now, what is Akanoo?
Imagine you could manage your study notes just as you can put, arrange and group sticky notes on a white board. This is what Akanoo does. It is a visually appealing, easy-to-use note taking app. It can be used collaboratively and it will be open source.
If you want to support me in making this project happen, I'd be glad to receive your donation through Indiegogo. I am already looking forward to being able to point at Akanoo the time I am getting an email on what happened to the Study Notes plugin
Best,
Fabian
PS: You can find the Akanoo page on Indiegogo. Feel free to give me feedback
In reply to Fabian Gebert
Re: Introducing collaborative note taking based on Mediabird technology
by Frankie Kam -
Hi Fabian
JUst to let you know, that MediaBird Study Notes is one of the highlights of my Moodle production site. I love using it. Never mind that it is a couple of years old, the interface is beautifully done and it looks and feels FRESH everytime.
Frankie Kam
In reply to Frankie Kam
Re: Introducing collaborative note taking based on Mediabird technology
by Fabian Gebert -
Hello again,
I put a preview video online:
What do you think? Would this be useful for learning scenarios? How would you like to have this implemented in your Moodle environment?
Best,
Fabian
@Frankie: thanks for your Feedback.
In reply to Fabian Gebert
Re: Introducing collaborative note taking based on Mediabird technology
by Nathan Nguyen -
Hi Fabian,
I find that Media Bird is really useful, this plugin is so great. Hoever, our school is using Moodle 2.1, so we cannot install this software. Just wonder if there will be Media Bird version for Moodle 2.1
Thanks.
In reply to Fabian Gebert
Re: Introducing collaborative note taking based on Mediabird technology
by Nick Terry -
Hi Fabian,
I'm having trouble with studynotes: https://moodle.org/mod/forum/discuss.php?d=219946.
Any chance you could give me some troubleshooting advice?
Thanks.