Moodle in English: Using "native" hotpots in a Book: absolute links problem

Using "native" hotpots in a Book: absolute links problem

by Glenys Hanson - Friday, May 18, 2012, 3:49 AM

Hi everybody,

As some of you already know, I have some "courses" which are not intended for students but to showcase some Hot Potatoes exercises for teachers. One of them is English Grammar Exercises.

My problem has been to present them in a way that is both user-friendly for visitors (teachers who want to poke about and look without completing exercises) and also avoids the "scroll of death". Though I've been using QuizPort successfully to present my "real" courses to "real" students for a long time, I've found that it doesn't work very well with "showcases". In QuizPort, if visitors don't log in, they can't see the exercises unless they know to click on "Preview". Not intuitive at all. For the moment, most of the exercises in English Grammar Exercises are presented through the Hot Potatoes Module, even though it results in a very long web page, because the exercises are easy for visitors to see.

So now I've started to present the exercises as "native" Hot Potatoes (simple html pages) through the Book module. This avoids the scroll of death by neatly grouping exercises on a given topic and means I can also add "Introduction" pages and Flash video tutorials. But.... it also entails the use of absolute links. The simple html pages are just that: once in them you lose the Moodle page. Stan, in answering another person, provided me with the tip to always provide a back button so people can find their way back to Moodle. However, as I have several sets of linked exercises, I've felt it necessary to provide a "Menu" link back to Moodle in each separate exercise. I don't know how to do it except as an absolute link. I've also felt it useful to provide a link to a Flash video tutorial. Also an absolute link. (Not having verbose instructions in every exercise, really makes them look so much clearer and neater.)

Sorry for the lengthy lead-up to my question: Is there any way I can avoid absolute links? I'm not planning on moving the course to another platform, but if I did all the absolute links would be broken... and I have hundreds of exercises.

Or is there another, completely different, way of achieving my objective?

Here's an example of one of my Books: Number tables exercises.

Cheers,

Glenys

Re: Using "native" hotpots in a Book: absolute links problem

by Gordon Bateson - Friday, May 18, 2012, 7:04 AM

Hi Glenys,

did you try a backup and restore already? The reason I ask is that I thought that the modules were supposed to take care of converting absolute links using the "encode/decode_content_links" functions in backuplib.php and restorelib.php. Certainly that should take care of the links from the book module to the Hot Potatoes files in the course files folder.

Perhaps you are asking specifically about the links from the "index" buttons in the Hot Potatoes files back to the book module? The ones that look like this ...

http://myserver.com/mod/book/edit.php?cmid=3127&id=162

I think that the content of course files is passed through the Moodle filters before being sent to the browser, so maybe you could use the "Activity Names Auto-linking" filter?

Gordon

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Re: Using "native" hotpots in a Book: absolute links problem

by Itamar Tzadok - Friday, May 18, 2012, 8:19 AM

If Moodle 2 there are several alternatives. Is it 2?

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Re: Using "native" hotpots in a Book: absolute links problem

by Stan Bogdanov - Friday, May 18, 2012, 4:50 PM

Hi Glenys,

Have you seen these two course formats (set on a per course basis; Moodle 1.9 through to 2.2) especially developed to solve the 'Scroll of death' issue:

Collapsed Topics: http://moodle.org/plugins/view.php?plugin=format_topcoll

and Collapsed Weeks: http://moodle.org/plugins/view.php?plugin=format_weekcoll

Then you'll keep the HotPots and Quizports, you won't need to use the Book module and the sections (topics or weeks) will be toggle-able (expand/collapse) on a per section basis.

Cheers

Stan

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Re: Using "native" hotpots in a Book: absolute links problem

by Glenys Hanson - Saturday, May 19, 2012, 12:41 AM

Hi,

Thanks for all these helpful suggestions. I'll experiment locally and see what happens. I did do a local backup (1.9) and the links were broken: not to the Hot Pot files but:

the "Menu" one which goes to the specific chapter of the Book where that particular set of exercises is listed.
and the "Help" link, which is in fact a picture and goes to the first chapter of the Book where there's a video tutorial.

I also reinstalled the course on the online platform. That broke the links too.

Cheers,

Glenys

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Re: Using "native" hotpots in a Book: absolute links problem

by Glenys Hanson - Sunday, May 20, 2012, 8:43 PM

Hi again,

Well, thanks to Gordon's tips I realize that links made from within the Hot Pot itself would't be broken when moved is moved to another server. After a lot of experimentation, I've managed, more or less, to solve the problem:

I removed the link to a menu and set the link in Book to the first in a set of Hot Pot exercises to open in a new window. I know this in not usually current practice, but it means that when they've finished the set, users can just close the window.
I created a html page containing my video tutorial and put it in the same folder as the other Hot Pot files.
Using code kindly given by Martin Holmes in 2006 I managed to create a pop up box when the help icon is clicked, see Number tables exercises. That is, it's just fine in the Book, native Hot Pot version, but not in the Hot Pot Module version nor the QuizPort version. This doesn't really bother me, because I'm pretty happy with the Book version... until users give me negative feedback.

Here's how I created a popup box of just the right size for a YouTube tutorial

1) Add to jcloze6.js_

function MM_openBrWindow(theURL,winName,features) { //v2.0
window.open(theURL,winName,features);
}

2) Create a html file with the iframe to the YouTube tutorial in it and put it in the same folder as the Hot Pot files.
Here: number_table_tutorial.htm

3) Around the linked item (text or image) here <img src="help.jpg" alt="help.jpg" title="Help!!!" width="50" height="49" style="float: left;"></img> put the code:

The dimensions are the size of the YouTube player.

There's maybe another way of doing it that would work in the Hot Pot Module and QuizPort too.

This is all on 1.9

Stan, I haven't forgotten your suggestion about using Collapsed Topics, but I think I'd still need Book because there are hundreds of Hot Pots in this course.

Cheers,

Glenys

PS. Don't rush to answer, Gordon, take your time to enjoy your birthday cake with your family.

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Re: Using "native" hotpots in a Book: absolute links problem

by Gordon Bateson - Monday, May 21, 2012, 7:24 AM

HI Glenys,

if you replace "MM_openBrWindow" with the standard "window.open" in the <a> tag, then HotPot/QuizPort can find the relative URL, "number_table_tutorial.htm", and convert it to an absolute URL, like "http://myserver.com/file.php/99/myfolder/number_table_tutorial.htm".

regards
Gordon

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Re: Using "native" hotpots in a Book: absolute links problem

by Glenys Hanson - Monday, May 21, 2012, 4:27 PM

Hi Gordon,

I followed your advice and it works on the online server in QuizPort example: Number table (1a) but not in QuizPort on my local server . It doesn't work in the Hot Pot Module on either server, example Number table (1a)

Here's my modified code:

The online site is 1.9.17+ (Build: 20120412) QuizPot 2008040131, and the local site 1.9.18+ (Build: 20120519) QuizPort 2008040131

Cheers,

Glenys

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Re: Using "native" hotpots in a Book: absolute links problem

by Glenys Hanson - Monday, May 21, 2012, 5:00 PM

Hi again,

I didn't change this in the source file:

function MM_openBrWindow(theURL,winName,features) { //v2.0

window.open(theURL,winName,features);

}

Should I have done?

Cheers,

Glenys

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Re: Using "native" hotpots in a Book: absolute links problem

by Gordon Bateson - Monday, May 21, 2012, 7:30 PM

Hi Glenys,
thanks for confirming that the "window.open" code works on QuizPort. If you update your local version of QuizPort it will work on your local server too.

Moodle plugins repository: QuizPort for Moodle 1.x

I'm afraid I am no longer in direct control of the HotPot module for Moodle 1.9, so it is not simple to get that change incorporated into the standard HotPot for Moodle 1.9. However, I could add it for you on your server if you wish.

Once you have made the change to your quizzes (to use plain "window.open" instead of "MM_openBrWindow"), then you no longer need the "MM_openBrWindow" function. It won't do any harm to leave it, but if you want to be tidy, I suggest you delete it.

best regards
Gordon

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Re: Using "native" hotpots in a Book: absolute links problem

by Glenys Hanson - Tuesday, May 22, 2012, 5:43 PM

Hi Gordon,

Now the popup help window is working beautifully in QuizPort on my local server too.

Thanks a lot.

Cheers,

Glenys

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Hotpot (plugin)

Using "native" hotpots in a Book: absolute links problem