Moodle Socialwall Course Format Official Release and Download

Moodle Socialwall Course Format Official Release and Download

by Chris Kenniburg -
Number of replies: 84
Picture of Particularly helpful Moodlers Picture of Plugin developers

The initial release of the Moodle Socialwall (eCommunity) course format is ready for the general public.  

Please go here and fill out the form to get a download:  http://www.remc13.org/moodle-ecommunity/

Thank you to the REMC organization of Michigan for funding the development and Synergy Learning for doing an outstanding job actually developing the project with us.  

Requirements:

  • Moodle 2.7+
  • This is the initial release. This is not the final release!!!
    We are working on the install process as well as last minute changes and will be releasing a final product later this year.
  • This course format is best used on a new course.  Existing courses will create problems when switching course formats.
  • To install you must have access to the Moodle server

Installation:

  • The Moodle Socialwall consists of: Alert Box, Course Format, a Filter, and a local URL filter for backup.  
  • Complete the form linked to above and download the zip.
  • Unzip files to your local machine and upload them to the corresponding directories in the root of your Moodle Server.  
    (We are working on a better install process.)
  • Go to the Administration page to complete the installation.


Moodle Socialwall Course Format


Average of ratings: Useful (1)
In reply to Chris Kenniburg

Re: Moodle Socialwall Course Format Official Release

by Chris Kenniburg -
Picture of Particularly helpful Moodlers Picture of Plugin developers

The formatting and style of the socialwall as seen in the video is custom to the Evolve-D theme that can be found here:

https://moodle.org/plugins/view.php?plugin=theme_evolved

Although the Moodle SocialWall should work with any theme it was designed to be used with the default "More" theme of Moodle.  Any troubleshooting of theme issues will be left to the users of such theme and best left to those who know the specifics of each theme.


Average of ratings: Useful (1)
In reply to Chris Kenniburg

Re: Moodle Socialwall Course Format Official Release

by Christopher Fulton -
Looking forward to seeing a more familiar format on Moodle courses, and a 'like' button.

Chris

'Like'

In reply to Christopher Fulton

Re: Moodle Socialwall Course Format Official Release

by Chris Kenniburg -
Picture of Particularly helpful Moodlers Picture of Plugin developers
This will definitely do that for you. 

The socialwall format is now available to download.  It is a beta release.  

Just fill out the form.   Even if you are not from Michigan.  We needed that form to collect some initial data to report out for funding purposes.

In reply to Chris Kenniburg

Re: Moodle Socialwall Course Format Official Release

by Emma Richardson -
Picture of Documentation writers Picture of Particularly helpful Moodlers Picture of Plugin developers

So I see that you have several different plugins in here - I am presuming that we need to either install directly on the server or zip each package separately to upload through web interface?

Also, you have a required field on the form that does not apply to anyone outside of Michigin.  I just selected the first option (RECM1 or something like that) - an "other" option might make your data collection more accurate!


In reply to Emma Richardson

Re: Moodle Socialwall Course Format Official Release

by Chris Kenniburg -
Picture of Particularly helpful Moodlers Picture of Plugin developers

Emma,

Yes.  You have to upload the 4 folders directly to the server.  Then go to the Moodle admin page and finish the install.  


As for the form any REMC is fine.  The person who created the form is on vacation so I cannot change it right now.  We originally only wanted to release it to schools here in Michigan initially but we decided to just open it up to anyone.  

In reply to Chris Kenniburg

Re: Moodle Socialwall Course Format Official Release

by RK B -

I was able to download all the 4 plugins and make it work right away

questions

Can someone like a comment also or only the parent document ?

Can we have the option of putting an attachment or link like a video link in comment too ?

Can we have the editing toolbar in comments too ?

one issue i faced is when i pasted a link to a you tube video. it remained a link and not an embedded video.

same way when i attached a image it became a link to the image rather than a embedded image. what setting am I missing ?


In reply to Chris Kenniburg

Re: Moodle Socialwall Course Format Official Release

by Natalie Denmeade -

Hello, this new format looks great! Well yours does - mine doesn't ...  I am using Moodle 2.7.2 and the Evolve theme with your custom css added. I put all four plugins in to the correct folders in my Moodle install. I made a new course which by default was Social Wall format. Added an alert block ... but  I only see what is in my attached Print Screen.



Attachment Capture1.JPG
In reply to Natalie Denmeade

Re: Moodle Socialwall Course Format Official Release

by Hartmut Scherer -

Hi Natalie,

Did you select in the dropdown menu of Post status 'make alert'? (see screen shot below)

alert













With kind regards,

Hartmut

In reply to Hartmut Scherer

Re: Moodle Socialwall Course Format Official Release

by Natalie Denmeade -

Thanks for your reply, I don't have the section to post anything or the two drop down boxes you show. I can arrange for a log in to my test site if you prefer to message me.

In reply to Natalie Denmeade

Re: Moodle Socialwall Course Format Official Release

by Hartmut Scherer -

Hi Natalie,

I am not a developer and also not familiar with the Evolve theme. So I would not be able to detect why the Alert block is not showing the alerts. 

All I can suggest at the moment is to test the course format in another theme or, if possible, in a clean installation of your Moodle version without anything else installed. Do you get any error messages when you turn debug on? Beside this it may be better to give the login details to Chris Kenniburg.

With kind regards,

Hartmut

In reply to Natalie Denmeade

Re: Moodle Socialwall Course Format Official Release

by Chris Kenniburg -
Picture of Particularly helpful Moodlers Picture of Plugin developers

At first glance this looks like the plugins were not completely installed.  You do not have the post interface for the course format.  All your items you added are in the topic 0 area.  

After you uploaded all the folders and files, did you visit your site Admin area > Notifications and install the plugins?  There are database tables that need to be created by the plugin.  You must be logged in as site admin to do this.

If these were indeed installed correctly, then might I suggest downloading the socialwall course format again from https://moodle.org/plugins/view/format_socialwall and installing it again.  

From the looks of things it was not installed fully.

In reply to Chris Kenniburg

Re: Moodle Socialwall Course Format Official Release

by Andreas Panagiotopoulos -
Hello and thank you for this great course format.


I am using moodle 2.8.5, I have checked email on messages page under Socialwall format but no email is sent, neither having chosen 'Per digest' mode nor 'Each post' mode.

I have examined mail log but there is no entry at all.

Is there any problem with this?

Regards,

Andreas

In reply to Andreas Panagiotopoulos

Re: Moodle Socialwall Course Format Official Release

by Chris Kenniburg -
Picture of Particularly helpful Moodlers Picture of Plugin developers

When creating the new Moodle Course with Socialwall you need to turn on Email in the Course Settings to YES.  Then there is also a setting in the Socialwall Post area just above the timeline.  Two spots. 

This was designed for Moodle 2.7 and it seems to work just fine for 2.8 but I will need to further test this.

The other thing to keep in mind is I believe it will send out emails based on Cron and just like forum posts.  So there may be a delay depending on how your cron is setup.  

In reply to Chris Kenniburg

Re: Moodle Socialwall Course Format Official Release

by Andreas Panagiotopoulos -

Thank you Chris!

I haven't noticed that there is relative course setting for notifications. That was the problem, it was set to 'No'.

Thanks once more!

Andreas

In reply to Chris Kenniburg

Re: Moodle Socialwall Course Format Official Release

by Jaap Marsman -

Dear Chris,

First of all, many thanks for making this amazing course format available to the community. It looks great in our Moodle environment!

Unfortunately I am having a similar issue with the email digest not working. I've checked the course settings, and made sure that Enable notifications is set to Yes. Then on the course page I've also chosen Edit notification settings and set the Notification Type to Per digest. I've also changed it to Each post, just to see if it makes a difference. Unfortunately it does not.

We are running Moodle 2.8.7 and all other email digest options (forums, etc) are performed as normally and work really well.

Any help would be most welcome, thanks again for this amazing course format!

In reply to Jaap Marsman

Re: Moodle Socialwall Course Format Official Release

by Jaap Marsman -

I've been able to solve this problem, but am still unsure what changed. It could've been a general clean up & cache emptying. I've got two questions about the social forum:

  • Is it possible to change the time the digest is sent out? (Right now the daily digest of my Moodle is sent at 17:00 whilst the Socialwall digest is sent at 0:30).
  • Is it possible to forcibly subscribe all students to the digest? (Right now a lot of people are missing out on good stuff, because they don't know what's happening on the social wall.)

Again, many thanks for this amazing course format, it's making our Moodle look very cool!

In reply to Chris Kenniburg

Re: Moodle Socialwall Course Format Official Release and Download

by Chris Kenniburg -
Picture of Particularly helpful Moodlers Picture of Plugin developers

The Socialwall plugins have been submitted to the Moodle.org plugin directory.  Waiting approval.  

Look for the plugin set soon.  We are using the attached icon as the logo for this new plugin.


Attachment socialwall_icon.png
In reply to Chris Kenniburg

Re: Moodle Socialwall Course Format Official Release and Download

by t k -

Would be nice to have the "Post Status or Note" area collapsed at first because it takes a lot of space at the top of the course. I tried something like this in the first section summary:

<script language="JavaScript" type="text/javascript">
if (document.getElementById) {
document.writeln('<style>#section-2 {display:none}</style>') }

function openClose(theID) {
if (document.getElementById(theID).style.display == "block") {
document.getElementById(theID).style.display = "none";
}
else {
document.getElementById(theID).style.display = "block";
}
}
</script>
<button class="btn btn-primary" type="button" id="openpoststatus" onclick="openClose('section-2')">
  Post Status or Note
</button>
In reply to t k

Re: Moodle Socialwall Course Format Official Release and Download

by Chris Kenniburg -
Picture of Particularly helpful Moodlers Picture of Plugin developers

This looks like a nice improvement.  I will keep this in mind for phase two of this development.  

In my testing it appears that whenever the page is refreshed it forgets whether it was open or closed and defaults to closed.  We'd need to work out the details so that it would stay in the designated state of open or closed.


Average of ratings: Useful (1)
In reply to Chris Kenniburg

Re: Moodle Socialwall Course Format Official Release and Download

by Derek Chirnside -

  • Can this be installed without server access? It says "Upload them" - can you do this via zip files as usual?
  • Any feedback from real users?
  • Is there a demo site anywhere with this going?

-Derek

In reply to Derek Chirnside

Re: Moodle Socialwall Course Format Official Release and Download

by Chris Kenniburg -
Picture of Particularly helpful Moodlers Picture of Plugin developers

Derek,

We are waiting approval on Moodle.org for listing the Socialwall plugin.  Once this happens you will be able to download and install directly from Moodle.  

The Socialwall Package will be listed here: https://moodle.org/plugins/browse.php?list=set&id=74

I would hold off until it is listed on Moodle.org.  There were some code improvements done.  

In reply to Chris Kenniburg

Re: Moodle Socialwall Course Format Official Release and Download

by Derek Chirnside -

Great.

Long term, is there a plan to support this into 2.9?

-Derek

In reply to Derek Chirnside

Re: Moodle Socialwall Course Format Official Release and Download

by Séverin Terrier -
Picture of Documentation writers Picture of Particularly helpful Moodlers Picture of Testers Picture of Translators

Not so long : Moodle 2.9 should be out in less than 2 months wink

And i'm also interested to know, for useful plugins, if they will be maintened for newer Moodle versions.

Séverin

In reply to Séverin Terrier

Re: Moodle Socialwall Course Format Official Release and Download

by Chris Kenniburg -
Picture of Particularly helpful Moodlers Picture of Plugin developers

We do intend to keep this updated moving forward.  We also hope that if others download and use it that they contact us if they make any improvements so that we might include those improvements.

This was not developed by us.  We paid to have Synergy Learning develop this. They are a Moodle partner and we knew early on that this was such a complex build that we needed to bring in some experts.

The whole plugin set was developed because in Michigan there is a large enough group who think, moving forward, Moodle is the best choice for blended learning.  

We setup a Michigan K-12 Moodle Hub for sharing courses and content in phase one.  This was the easiest project and allows all our Moodle using teachers to share courses, tests, projects, etc.  We are not yet fully utilizing this to the best capacity but I think in the next 2-3 years it will be great once enough teachers start publishing to the Hub instead of just taking from it.

Next up we developed Socialwall because we know not every K-12 teacher needs a full blown powerhouse LMS like Moodle.  We needed something simple and easy to use so that we can have all teachers in the same platform, talking about the same tool, and building the same skillsets.  It also makes it nice for students so they have one place to go for classroom materials.  Currently though, each teacher could choose to use weebly, edmodo, etc etc..  What a nightmare for students and parents trying to keep track of homework.  Socialwall is meant to get the teacher who might only scratch the surface of what a LMS offers and just needs a daily communication tool.  

The final step will be unifying the Moodle gradebook with the student information systems used across the state. 

I think with A) Sharing of content  B) Low skill/time barrier for entry and C) tied to student gradebook we will have a winning combination for teachers and students using Moodle.  

This plan has be floating around in my head for the last 5 years.  It started with our hub and moved to the socialwall and now there is a another group doing work to get the gradebooks talking.  

In reply to Chris Kenniburg

Re: Moodle Socialwall Course Format Official Release and Download

by Séverin Terrier -
Picture of Documentation writers Picture of Particularly helpful Moodlers Picture of Testers Picture of Translators

Thanks Chris for all these explanations.

Keep up the good work!

Séverin

In reply to Derek Chirnside

Re: Moodle Socialwall Course Format Official Release and Download

by Chris Kenniburg -
Picture of Particularly helpful Moodlers Picture of Plugin developers

Yes.  We plan to support it into the foreseeable future.  

In reply to Derek Chirnside

Re: Moodle Socialwall Course Format Official Release and Download

by Chris Kenniburg -
Picture of Particularly helpful Moodlers Picture of Plugin developers

Derek, 

On a properly configured server, someone with Moodle Site Admin rights can install this directly from the Moodle plugins directory.  I say "properly" configured because folder permissions are important and might be locked by your server admin.  That just means the folders are not writable by apache or the web user on server and should be adjusted so you can install into the folders.

Good idea to have an open demo server.  We will look into this.

In reply to Chris Kenniburg

Re: Moodle Socialwall Course Format Official Release and Download

by Chris Kenniburg -
Picture of Particularly helpful Moodlers Picture of Plugin developers

I wish I could edit the original post because that was written before we had the plugin published in the Moodle directory.  

Please Download the Plugin from Moodle.org!!!!
https://moodle.org/plugins/browse.php?list=set&id=74

In reply to Chris Kenniburg

Re: Moodle Socialwall Course Format Official Release and Download

by Sean Hughes -

Hi Chris, 

I am currently using your social-wall format on my site and i love it, 

only thing is i am a beginner at CSS and would not know how to edit to make it look as good as you do! 

could i please have the CSS custom you added to make this stand out more?

Sean

In reply to Sean Hughes

Re: Moodle Socialwall Course Format Official Release and Download

by Chris Kenniburg -
Picture of Particularly helpful Moodlers Picture of Plugin developers

You can use a tool to identify the css and style to your liking. I used Chrome and just styled the css selectors and included them in the CSS style sheet for my theme - Evolve-D (located in the Plugins directory). Feel free to use it or create your own css styling to include in your theme. This plugin was designed to work with Clean and More which are the defaults. We cannot possibly create styles for every theme or know how to include the styling in every theme as you might not have a custom css area. Not all themes are the same.

You can try this as this is what I have included in evolve-D


/*Social Wall*/


.format-socialwall .course-content ul.topics li.section {

border-bottom: 0px solid #ccc;

margin-top: 0;

}


/*.mform {

background-color: #f2f2f2;

padding: 10px;

border-radius: 10px;

}*/

.format-socialwall #section-2 .content {

background-color: #f7f7f7;

padding: 10px;

margin: 0px;

border: 3px solid #d4d4d4;

border-radius: 4px;

margin-top:15px;

margin-bottom: 15px;

-moz-box-shadow: 0px 0px 25px #ccc;

-webkit-box-shadow: 0 0 25px #ccc;

box-shadow: 0px 0px 25px #ccc;

}

.tl-post {

margin: 30px 0px 50px 0px;

padding:15px;

}

.tl-posttext {

background-color: #fff;

padding: 10px 10px 20px 10px;

border-radius: 10px 10px 0px 0px;

//border: 1px solid #ccc;

margin-top: 10px;

}


ul.section.tl-postattachment {

background-color: #fff;

padding: 5px 5px 5px 50px;

//border-left: 1px solid #ccc;

//border-right: 1px solid #ccc;

margin:0px;

}

.tl-text {

margin-left: 40px;

padding: 0 5px;

border: 2px solid #efefef;

padding: 10px;

-moz-box-shadow: 0px 0px 25px #e7e7e7;

-webkit-box-shadow: 0 0 25px #e7e7e7;

box-shadow: 0px 0px 25px #e7e7e7;

border-radius: 4px 4px 4px 4px;

}

/*.tl-text {

margin-left: 40px;

//border: none;

border: 1px solid #efefef;

background-color: #f7f7f7;

padding:7px;

border-radius: 10px 10px 10px 10px;

}*/


.tl-comments {

background-color: #f7f7f7;

padding:15px;

margin:0px;

}


.tl-comment {

padding-left:25px;

padding-top: 0px;

padding-bottom: 0px;

}


.tl-post-actionarea {

//border: 1px solid #ccc;

padding: 4px 4px 10px 4px;

//background: #F0F3F7;

//border-radius: 0px 0px 5px 5px;

}

.tl-timeago, .tl-counts {

font-size: 12px;

color: #666;

line-height: 15px;

padding-bottom: 5px;

}

.like {

   border-top: 1px solid #96d1f8;

   background: #65a9d7;

   background: -webkit-gradient(linear, left top, left bottom, from(#3e779d), to(#65a9d7));

   background: -webkit-linear-gradient(top, #3e779d, #65a9d7);

   background: -moz-linear-gradient(top, #3e779d, #65a9d7);

   background: -ms-linear-gradient(top, #3e779d, #65a9d7);

   background: -o-linear-gradient(top, #3e779d, #65a9d7);

   padding: 5px 5px;

   -webkit-border-radius: 8px;

   -moz-border-radius: 8px;

   border-radius: 8px;

   -webkit-box-shadow: rgba(0,0,0,1) 0 1px 0;

   -moz-box-shadow: rgba(0,0,0,1) 0 1px 0;

   box-shadow: rgba(0,0,0,1) 0 1px 0;

   text-shadow: rgba(0,0,0,.4) 0 1px 0;

   color: white;

   font-size: 14px;

   font-family: Georgia, serif;

   text-decoration: none;

   vertical-align: middle;

   }


.like:hover {

   border-top-color: #28597a;

   background: #28597a;

   color: #ccc;

   }


.like:active {

   border-top-color: #1b435e;

   background: #1b435e;

   }


.likenomore {

   border-top: 1px solid #96d1f8;

   background: #65a9d7;

   background: -webkit-gradient(linear, left top, left bottom, from(#3e779d), to(#65a9d7));

   background: -webkit-linear-gradient(top, #3e779d, #65a9d7);

   background: -moz-linear-gradient(top, #3e779d, #65a9d7);

   background: -ms-linear-gradient(top, #3e779d, #65a9d7);

   background: -o-linear-gradient(top, #3e779d, #65a9d7);

   padding: 5px 5px;

   -webkit-border-radius: 8px;

   -moz-border-radius: 8px;

   border-radius: 8px;

   -webkit-box-shadow: rgba(0,0,0,1) 0 1px 0;

   -moz-box-shadow: rgba(0,0,0,1) 0 1px 0;

   box-shadow: rgba(0,0,0,1) 0 1px 0;

   text-shadow: rgba(0,0,0,.4) 0 1px 0;

   color: white;

   font-size: 14px;

   font-family: Georgia, serif;

   text-decoration: none;

   vertical-align: middle;

   }

.likenomore:hover {

   border-top-color: #28597a;

   background: #28597a;

   color: #ccc;

   }

.likenomore:active {

   border-top-color: #1b435e;

   background: #1b435e;

   }


form.tl-commentform {

padding-top: 10px;

}


#postform .fitem .felement #id_submitbutton {

margin:0px;

}

Average of ratings: Useful (3)
In reply to Chris Kenniburg

Re: Moodle Socialwall Course Format Official Release and Download

by Sean Hughes -

Hi, Thanks for the quick reply!!

You mentioned you can use a tool to develop the CSS ? 

how would i go about doing this? 

 I have chrome live CSS editor?


In reply to Sean Hughes

Re: Moodle Socialwall Course Format Official Release and Download

by Chris Kenniburg -
Picture of Particularly helpful Moodlers Picture of Plugin developers

Yes.  The built in chrome tool.  Right Click and "Inspect Element" will bring up a panel to change the css live.  Then you need to copy and paste it into a notepad and include it in the Custom CSS area of your theme if it provides that.

In reply to Chris Kenniburg

Re: Moodle Socialwall Course Format Official Release and Download

by Jason Lane -
Hi Chris, loving your socialwall plugin! Can you please explain what you mean here? The only problem I'm having with the socialwall course format is that I cannot edit any posts and this is a bit of a hassle for our teachers. How do I set things up so we can edit our posts?


Many thanks,

Jason (using Moodle 2.8 with Essential theme).

In reply to Jason Lane

Re: Moodle Socialwall Course Format Official Release and Download

by Chris Kenniburg -
Picture of Particularly helpful Moodlers Picture of Plugin developers

Hello Jason,

We can add this in as a feature request but you are indeed correct.  There is no way to edit a post.  You must delete and re-type the whole thing.  Which shouldn't be a problem if you are just quickly making a classroom announcement.  

We are currently waiting to hear back from the programmers on a second round of improvements we submitted.

These include the following:

  • Threaded comments to posts
  • Ability to set filtering for comments based on time (ascending and descending)
  • Re-use activities in posts - Currently if you create an assignment and publish it to the timeline and then delete the post there is no way to re-add that assignment to a new post.  The assignment still exists but because you deleted the post the students would need to access it from the Activities Block (Highly recommended to use this).  When writing a new post we want the ability to bring up a listing of all previously available activities to the course so you can re-publish them for students.
In reply to Chris Kenniburg

Re: Moodle Socialwall Course Format Official Release and Download

by Jason Lane -

Thanks Chris, post editing would be a great feature addition. It's a great plugin and my teachers are very excited to use such a conversational format for their courses. My college has been using Moodle since 2.3 and things are finally getting exciting and gaining momentum with course formats like yours. Socialwall is so much better than the standard course layouts such as topic/weekly formats.

Is there a way to put a block of text (e.g. course introduction and a few course outline files) at the top of a socialwall course page - without making it a sticky post?

In reply to Jason Lane

Re: Moodle Socialwall Course Format Official Release and Download

by Chris Kenniburg -
Picture of Particularly helpful Moodlers Picture of Plugin developers

You could use an HTML Block on the side for standard course material.  I also think you can edit the default 0 topic and put in text by turning edition on and clicking the edit button.

To make this course format more useful we are in talks with Synergy Learning to add in a few features such as a "show entire discussion view" where you can view a post, it's comments, and all replies to comments in a new single page.  This will allow you to focus in on a conversation and not clutter up the timeline.  There will also be the ability to filter ascending and descending comments.  

We think the ability to re-use activities and resources will be very useful.  The concept is that your activities and resources would be accessed in similar fashion to a repository based on type.  Then you would be able to click checkboxes next to the  and the activities could be displayed as attachments in a post.  

In reply to Chris Kenniburg

Re: Moodle Socialwall Course Format Official Release and Download

by Jason Lane -

Thanks Chris, that works great. I turned editing on and added activities/etc to the top block as you mentioned.

For your developers here is another idea: could restrictions/completion tracking be used to allow/disallow access to commenting/posting?

It would be good if students had to complete an activity (which must be marked completed via restrictions/completion tracking) which then allowed them to post/like/comment. This is helpful as we could make our students read and sign a digital citizenship policy before they are allowed to post, etc.

Thanks for your ongoing work,

Jason

In reply to Chris Kenniburg

Re: Moodle Socialwall Course Format Official Release and Download

by Naaman Fallouh -

Hi,
I'm trying the plugin (3.0) on Moodle 3.3.2+ (Build: 20171103), but when creating new course and choosing it from the list a white page with the following error appears:


QuickForm Error: element already exists Element 'numsections' already exists in HTML_QuickForm::addElement() Backtrace :

Array
(
[0] => Array
(
[file] => /var/www/moodlesocial/lib/pear/HTML/QuickForm.php
[line] => 2001
[function] => __construct
[class] => PEAR_Error
[type] => -> [args] => Array
(
[0] => element already exists
[1] => -6
[2] => 16
[3] => pear_handle_error
[4] => Element 'numsections' already exists in HTML_QuickForm::addElement()
)

)
[1] => Array
(
[file] => /var/www/moodlesocial/lib/pear/PEAR.php
[line] => 543
[function] => __construct
[class] => HTML_QuickForm_Error
[object] => HTML_QuickForm_Error Object
(
.
.
.
.
// the page is too long to display but it ends with the following:

Fatal error: Call to undefined method HTML_QuickForm_Error::getName() in /var/www/moodlesocial/course/edit_form.php on line 373

 

Is it a compatibility issue? it's working on Moodle 3.2.4+ !!!

best regards,

In reply to Chris Kenniburg

Re: Moodle Socialwall Course Format Official Release and Download

by Elena Sajno -

Hi!

I love this idea and i tried to add it to a new moodle site.

I have installed all the https://moodle.org/plugins/browse.php?list=set&id=74 files, then I have created a course with the "socialwall format".

Now, when I try to post my first note I get a "ERROR 500 - INTERNAL SERVER ERROR".

Do you have any idea for this, please?

Thanks so much,

Elena

In reply to Chris Kenniburg

Re: Moodle Socialwall Course Format Official Release and Download

by alain c -

Hi

i try to use this format

it create  an introuduction page and 10 sections.

i found how to put information inside the introudction and on the first section, but can 't find how to activate second section.

thanks

alain

In reply to alain c

Re: Moodle Socialwall Course Format Official Release and Download

by Chris Kenniburg -
Picture of Particularly helpful Moodlers Picture of Plugin developers

Does your screen look like the socialwall screenshots posted?  It should have a posting section to add posts.  You should not see topics.

In reply to Chris Kenniburg

Re: Moodle Socialwall Course Format Official Release and Download

by sonia sonia -

Hi!, I'm testing this course format and congratulations for it, it's a good point to use like a blog!!! only one problem I cann't see th "upload" option when I click into "image" in HTML editor...only I have the Image url option...It's true that I have the drag&drog option but not always it's the way for my teachers..


thanks in advance!

I've moodle 2.8.1 version


Attachment socialwall.jpg
In reply to sonia sonia

Re: Moodle Socialwall Course Format Official Release and Download

by Chris Kenniburg -
Picture of Particularly helpful Moodlers Picture of Plugin developers
I forgot why but the image upload might be a technical reason as to why you cannot upload an image in the text editor.  Originally the specs only called for text input and did not include the editor to keep things simple.  Teachers wanted to see the editor so it was added back in.  


A new version should be out very soon.  We are waiting to hear from the developers to test out the new features being added to Socialwall. 

In reply to Chris Kenniburg

Re: Moodle Socialwall Course Format Official Release and Download

by Jason Lane -

Hello, not sure why but we have lost the 'post' box after upgrading our site theme to the latest Essentials theme. We have forced the theme to Evolve-D and the post box is still not appearing. (See screenshot.) Can anyone please help?

Thanks in advance,

Jason

Attachment Screen Shot 2015-08-07 at 8.50.35 am.png
In reply to Jason Lane

Re: Moodle Socialwall Course Format Official Release and Download

by Chris Kenniburg -
Picture of Particularly helpful Moodlers Picture of Plugin developers

I've helped people with this in the past and it has always been another plugin that is running.  It causes a javascript issue. What else do you have running on your site?

In reply to Jason Lane

Re: Moodle Socialwall Course Format Official Release and Download

by Gareth J Barnard -
Picture of Core developers Picture of Particularly helpful Moodlers Picture of Plugin developers

Actually... What version of Moodle / Essential please?

In reply to Gareth J Barnard

Re: Moodle Socialwall Course Format Official Release and Download

by Jason Lane -

We are a school site running Moodle 2.9.1 (Build: 20150706) with Essentials 2.8.1.4 (Build: 2015040900)

Socialwall format is version 1.0 (2015030200)

We have lots of plugins such as Turnitin, etc but I can provide a full list if required.

In reply to Jason Lane

Re: Moodle Socialwall Course Format Official Release and Download

by Gareth J Barnard -
Picture of Core developers Picture of Particularly helpful Moodlers Picture of Plugin developers

Ok, Essential 2.8.1.4 is not designed to operate on Moodle 2.9: https://github.com/gjb2048/moodle-theme_essential/blob/MOODLE_28/README.txt#L92-L93.  There are changes in M2.9 that cause breakages.  The M2.9 version of Essential is not production ready: https://moodle.org/mod/forum/discuss.php?d=317004 and lots of other similar posts on the same forum.  I hope to have a stable Essential for M2.9 by the end of September 2015.

You also state that you've upgraded to the latest Essential theme, which you state as 2.8.1.4, but that version is three behind the current 2.8.1.7 and three months behind them.

In the past, Turnitin has been known to cause issues because it loads jQuery directly rather than via the way that core Moodle API recommends.  Essential uses this mechanism.  Thus a conflict can happen causing JavaScript to fall over.  This might be the case with Evolve-D too if it uses jQuery.

In reply to Chris Kenniburg

Re: Moodle Socialwall Course Format Official Release and Download

by Ammar Elhassan ElMerhbi -
Great Course format and much needed. I have one issue however. Is it possible to post to more than one group or at least grouping. As I can see it, I can only post either to all participants or to one group. 
In reply to Ammar Elhassan ElMerhbi

Re: Moodle Socialwall Course Format Official Release and Download

by Chris Kenniburg -
Picture of Particularly helpful Moodlers Picture of Plugin developers
I don't believe it is possible to do groups and groupings.  It is designed for a pretty basic setup.  Quick and easy to communicate with students.
In reply to Chris Kenniburg

Re: Moodle Socialwall Course Format Official Release and Download

by Juan Antonio Jung -

Dear Chris, thanks for the awesome work on the social wall course format.

I'm having an issue whereby I am unable to attach an activity/document to a post/status update/alert etc. From the plugin description it would seem this is supported. Whenever I try to use the bottom link (see screenshot) the file still appears in the main topic area for the course, rather than attached to a post.

Any idea why this is happening?

Attachment SWFT attach error.PNG
In reply to Juan Antonio Jung

Re: Moodle Socialwall Course Format Official Release and Download

by Chris Kenniburg -
Picture of Particularly helpful Moodlers Picture of Plugin developers

If you use the +Add Activity which is located in the dotted lines it will be associated with the post and not the course topic 0 header.  

You can also just drag and drop files into the dotted lines and it will attach the files to the post.  

In reply to Chris Kenniburg

Re: Moodle Socialwall Course Format Official Release and Download

by Emma Richardson -
Picture of Documentation writers Picture of Particularly helpful Moodlers Picture of Plugin developers

I have found a very strange bug with this format.  When I have it installed on my site, and try to run ldap sync on a course that has students that need to be unenrolled, social wall format is causing it to error out (discovered from errors in cli with debugging on).  I uninstalled social wall and the errors ceased.

In reply to Emma Richardson

Re: Moodle Socialwall Course Format Official Release and Download

by Gareth J Barnard -
Picture of Core developers Picture of Particularly helpful Moodlers Picture of Plugin developers

What are the errors Emma?

In reply to Gareth J Barnard

Re: Moodle Socialwall Course Format Official Release and Download

by Emma Richardson -
Picture of Documentation writers Picture of Particularly helpful Moodlers Picture of Plugin developers

Dang it - knew you were going to ask that - lol!  Silly me for thinking that you would just know! Ok, reinstalled, turned debugging back on, took a student out and get the following error:

PHP Fatal error: Call to undefined function format_socialwall\local\course_get_format() in /var/www/moodle/course/format/socialwall/classes/local/posts.php on line 99

Same error shows twice.

It then causes in LDAP the following:

Potential coding error - active database transaction detected during request shutdown:

References line 529 in enrol/ldap/lib.php (starts delegated transaction) and line 61 in enrol/ldap/cli/sync.php (call the sync enrollments)


In reply to Emma Richardson

Re: Moodle Socialwall Course Format Official Release and Download

by Gareth J Barnard -
Picture of Core developers Picture of Particularly helpful Moodlers Picture of Plugin developers

Hi Emma,

I might be at one with the 'farce' but even I need a stack trace smile - ok, need to look at the code, but I suspect its a namespace issue requiring a back slash at the start of the method call declaration.

Cheers,

Gareth

In reply to Gareth J Barnard

Re: Moodle Socialwall Course Format Official Release and Download

by Gareth J Barnard -
Picture of Core developers Picture of Particularly helpful Moodlers Picture of Plugin developers
Yup! Looking at the code, change line 99 in posts.php from:
$course = course_get_format($course)->get_course();

to:

$course = \course_get_format($course)->get_course();

because it's a class file in the classes folder, you will need to perform a 'Purge all caches' so that class autoloading reloads.

Lines 146, 167, 184, 190, 196, 239, 251, 404, 412, 432.... and possibly more need the same treatment.

Average of ratings: Useful (1)
In reply to Gareth J Barnard

Re: Moodle Socialwall Course Format Official Release and Download

by Emma Richardson -
Picture of Documentation writers Picture of Particularly helpful Moodlers Picture of Plugin developers

Thanks Gareth.  This is your format right?  Will you put it in the next release too?


In reply to Emma Richardson

Re: Moodle Socialwall Course Format Official Release and Download

by Gareth J Barnard -
Picture of Core developers Picture of Particularly helpful Moodlers Picture of Plugin developers

Hi Emma, sorry, not my format, its Chris's.

In reply to Gareth J Barnard

Re: Moodle Socialwall Course Format Official Release and Download

by Klaus Kuusela -

I think cron run is still saying that "Call to undefined function course_get_format()"

... and should that $course value be integer like $course->id

(same way it's in classses/local/notification.php)

In reply to Gareth J Barnard

Re: Moodle Socialwall Course Format Official Release and Download

by Chris Kenniburg -
Picture of Particularly helpful Moodlers Picture of Plugin developers

Thanks for identifying this.  I am passing it on to our developers.  

In reply to Emma Richardson

Re: Moodle Socialwall Course Format Official Release and Download

by Chris Kenniburg -
Picture of Particularly helpful Moodlers Picture of Plugin developers

Emma,

I sent the solution from Gareth and a link to this discussion to our developers.  They are hoping to have a new release ready in October-ish time.  I am asking that they include this fix pointed out by Gareth.  

Average of ratings: Useful (2)
In reply to Chris Kenniburg

Re: Moodle Socialwall Course Format Official Release and Download

by Emma Richardson -
Picture of Documentation writers Picture of Particularly helpful Moodlers Picture of Plugin developers

Awesome - thanks Chris.  I haven't actually had time to implement Gareth's fix and just have it uninstalled currently but really want to add it back in for my teachers.

In reply to Emma Richardson

Re: Moodle Socialwall Course Format Official Release and Download

by Andreas Wagner -

Thanks for reporting this. Unfortunately i have no ldap environment to test this, but normally php tries a fallback to a global function when the function exists not in namespace. So i guess there is a require_once missing.

Are you able to try to replace the cleanup_userunenrolled function with following code and post the result? This would help a lot!



 public static function cleanup_userunrenolled($userid, $courseid) {
        global $DB, $CFG;
        
        require_once($CFG->dirroot.'/course/format/lib.php');

        // ...check coursesettings.
        if (!$course = $DB->get_record('course', array('id' => $courseid))) {
            return false;
        }

        $course = course_get_format($course)->get_course();

        if (empty($course->deleteafterunenrol)) {
            return false;
        }

        // ... delete posts of the user.
        self::delete_users_posts($userid);

        // ... delete comments of user.
        $DB->delete_records_select('format_socialwall_comments', 'fromuserid = ? AND courseid = ?', array($userid, $courseid));

        return true;
    }
Kind regards Andi
In reply to Chris Kenniburg

Re: Moodle Socialwall Course Format Official Release and Download

by Frankie Kam -
Picture of Plugin developers

Hi Chris

I was wondering if there is a way to allow students to make comments on the Wall but NOT to make posts?

The reason I am asking is that I have a course where the Teacher would like to control what goes on the Wall. In other words only the Teacher can post activities on the wall. But of course he would like his students to be able to post comments below each of his activities as usual. 

I tried Site Administation --> Users --> Permissions --> Define Roles --> Edit Student Role --> Filter by word "Social"

but I couldn't find any capability like "Write post" which I could prevent.

Regards
Frankie Kam 

In reply to Frankie Kam

Re: Moodle Socialwall Course Format Official Release and Download

by Chris Kenniburg -
Picture of Particularly helpful Moodlers Picture of Plugin developers

That would be a good suggestion for a future upgrade.  I don't believe you can turn it off.  

In reply to Chris Kenniburg

Re: Moodle Socialwall Course Format Official Release and Download

by Frankie Kam -
Picture of Plugin developers

Hi Chris

I turned it off for students based on the Eugene Matusov's  capability-check code. Here's what I did which is a site-wide hack. Just right for what I want to achieve, but too restricting for others because hides the SocialWall's textarea input box from the student, effectively preventing the student from making any SocialWall posts! Actually it checks the capability of a user role, and if that user cannot view hidden sections in a course, then the textarea input box is simply not displayed.

Here's the code and the screenshots.

Around line 673 of renderer.php, comment the code: $this->print_first_section($course, $sectioninfo);

Around line 677 add these two lines of code:

$coursecontext = get_context_instance(CONTEXT_COURSE, $course->id);
if (has_capability('moodle/course:viewhiddensections', $coursecontext))



The effect of this sub-hack: 

Next, around line 616 of renderer.php, add these 3 lines of code:

$coursecontext = get_context_instance(CONTEXT_COURSE, $course->id);
if (has_capability('moodle/course:viewhiddensections', $coursecontext))
{



Finally, just after the line of code: echo html_writer::tag('div', $countstr, array('id' => 'counttotalpost'));

add the closing curly bracket 
}
That would be around line 625. The effect of this second sub-hack code is:



The OVERALL effect will be this:


The student will still be able to see all posts on the SocialWall, and will be able to contribute comments to each post. It's just that he or she won't be able to add any new posts to the SocialWall. Of course of the intention is for the student to make posts on the SocialWall, then this hack will defeat that purpose. But for me right now, this is ideal and fit-for-purpose for a production site that only will exist for a short period of time. I would nice if in future the SocialWall could have a feature that would turn off the student's capability of making post.

Hope this helps someone out there.

Live long and prospect Moodle nuggets everyday!
Cheers, Frankie Kam
From the be-au-ti-ful land of Malaysia

In reply to Frankie Kam

Re: Moodle Socialwall Course Format Official Release and Download

by Nick Varney -
Can't wait to install this format but will need to wait for any conflicts with LDAP to be ironed out first as its our main enrolment method. Chris, is the October date for a fix still looking OK?
In reply to Nick Varney

Re: Moodle Socialwall Course Format Official Release and Download

by Chris Kenniburg -
Picture of Particularly helpful Moodlers Picture of Plugin developers

Nick,  We use LDAP too for authentication but I think the issue with LDAP was only if it controlled enrollment in a course.  

I spoke with Synergy Learning yesterday about the latest release and they said it shouldn't be too long now.  I asked about this issue and he said it was fixed.  

In reply to Chris Kenniburg

Re: Moodle Socialwall Course Format Official Release and Download

by Nick Varney -

Thanks for that update on LDAP Chris, that means I should be OK.

In reply to Nick Varney

Re: Moodle Socialwall Course Format Official Release and Download

by Andrew Lian -

Just following up on an earlier post above. I too get an error 500 Internal Server Error when I try to post something or change notifications. I am using a new install of Moodle 3.0.1 and installed Socialwall this morning.

Thanks

Andrew

In reply to Chris Kenniburg

Re: Moodle Socialwall Course Format Official Release and Download

by Dan Jeffries -

Hi Chris

Sorry - me again! Have a few more queries, so thought I would ask in here.

1. Embedding files - it is possible to add an iframe to a post? I want to show a Panopto video but it just shows a large blank space and the code is removed from the HTML. I have turned on Object/Embed code feature. My concern is that by just having it as a resource, it could be missed.

1a. I tried this too with Vimeo embed code, and the same happened. To combat this, I thought I would turn the Vimeo Filter on and then add a link through the Media button in the Atto editor. However, it's not there! Only the Image button is there. Is that intentional? 

1a. UPDATE! I Resolved by pasting Vimeo link in. However, the video isn't responsive, which it would be if embedded.

2. Because of the error with embedding the video, I've had to change the original post. It would appear that everyone has received a notification each time an edit has been made, and I fear it's going to start annoying people! Should it send a notification every time?

3. It would be great to Drag and Drop activities to change their order.

4. HTML Editor - is there any way to force this on? When editing a post, it shows the text box as HTML (this is without the editor being on). Should someone miss it, it completely reformats the text and loses the formatting, meaning that it has to be edited again. 

5. Would it be possible to 'preview' a post before committing it, to ensure there are no issues such as the ones above?

Thanks in advance!

Dan


Attachment Screen Shot 2016-02-18 at 12.20.57.png
In reply to Dan Jeffries

Re: Moodle Socialwall Course Format Official Release and Download

by Dan Jeffries -

Hi Chris

Just wondering if you had any further info about embedding videos? Tried again but no joy.

The problem then is that - when I update the post to put a direct link in - people are notified of that too. 

Thanks in advance smile

Dan

In reply to Chris Kenniburg

Re: Moodle Socialwall Course Format Official Release and Download

by Nick Gault -

First of all, thank you for contributing this course format.

There appears to be some sort of conflict with the Atto editor and the Adaptable theme when using this format -  the browse repositories button does not appear when adding an image. 








I'm hoping some custom CSS will sort this out but am not sure where to start. Any suggestions?

In reply to Nick Gault

Re: Moodle Socialwall Course Format Official Release and Download

by Chris Kenniburg -
Picture of Particularly helpful Moodlers Picture of Plugin developers
That is how it functions.  If you want to add an image just turn editing on and drag and drop it as an attachment.
In reply to Chris Kenniburg

Re: Moodle Socialwall Course Format Official Release and Download

by Gareth J Barnard -
Picture of Core developers Picture of Particularly helpful Moodlers Picture of Plugin developers

In fact, this is how it functions in this area for all course formats.

In reply to Chris Kenniburg

Re: Moodle Socialwall Course Format Official Release and Download

by Nick Varney -

Hi Chris,

Have you experienced the loss of the posting area before? It has happened in 2 course instances (I'm using Moodle 2.9 latest).  It may have resulted from me making an edit to the Topics format first (reducing topics from 10 to 1) and then switching the format to Socialwall? All I can see at the top of the course page is the filter drop-down menus. 

Any ideas on what to try in order to retrieve the posting area?



In reply to Nick Varney

Re: Moodle Socialwall Course Format Official Release and Download

by Nick Varney -

OK, after some playing around I can get the posting box to re-appear if I have more than 2 sections saved in Topics Format before reverting back to SocialWall. Why is that I wonder?

This means that I will need to show 2 'topics in the navigation block which isn't ideal as these don't lead users anywhere. (I think this has been mentioned in the plugin's directory comments).


In reply to Nick Varney

Re: Moodle Socialwall Course Format Official Release and Download

by Chris Kenniburg -
Picture of Particularly helpful Moodlers Picture of Plugin developers

While you can switch an existing course back and forth between the various course formats it is HIGHLY suggested that you DO NOT.  

The course format is not designed to be organized like topic or weekly formats.  This is a conversation, a timeline, a social stream of learning. 

If using this do not use an existing course and switch to Socialwall.  It is not designed for that.  

The idea is that if a teacher starts with socialwall they may build blended learning skills and migrate or progress to a more traditional course format/structure.  In which case, the socialwall course format can be switched to topic format and then organized without the teacher loosing all their work from socialwall.  

In reply to Chris Kenniburg

Re: Moodle Socialwall Course Format Official Release and Download

by Domnick Andrew -

Hi,

I've installed and got this plugin working but I have a few questions about it's functionality.

  1. When creating a course which uses socialwall after the first post it automatically creates 10 topics why is that ? And can that be turned off?
  2. As an administrator and Teacher I was unable to see the upload files or add link button but as a student it was visible, is that how it suppose to operate by default?
  3. How do posts get archived? Since this is part of a learning environment I'm assuming persons may want to backtrack to posts made on the timeline.
In reply to Chris Kenniburg

Re: Moodle Socialwall Course Format Official Release and Download

by Steven Parker -

Hi Chris

I would like to install the suite of four Socialwall plugins on Moodle 3.1.

https://moodle.org/plugins/browse.php?list=set&id=74​ states the SocialWall 'course format' supports Moodle 3.0 and the remaining three  plugins support 2.9.

Can you please advise on when these Socialwall plugins will support Moodle 3.1?

Thanks

Steven

Average of ratings: Useful (1)
In reply to Steven Parker

Re: Moodle Socialwall Course Format Official Release and Download

by Just H -

I don't use them so can't say if they'd work or not but if it was me I'd just try them on a test install.

The jump from 2.9 - 3.1 hasn't been "that" dramatic as far as I'm aware so chances are they do (if so, let the developers know so they can update the plugin page - if not, again let the developers know as it could speed up the update process).

Average of ratings: Useful (1)
In reply to Steven Parker

Re: Moodle Socialwall Course Format Official Release and Download

by Gain Oloya -

Hi Steven,

I too would like to try this on Moodle 3.1.2. Did you get to try this on your install? How did it go? 

Thank you.

Gain