Really Cool-Adding to the People Block

Really Cool-Adding to the People Block

by Nicole Snyder -
Number of replies: 11
I am not sure if anyone else has found this yet but I was browsing the internet the other day and I found a really neet utility for 1.5 that adds a public journal -w- comments as well as a portfolio tool to the lonely people block. Here is a screenshot of it on my page:

People Block

Here is the portfolio tool:

My Portfolio Screenshot
Here is the Journal Tool:

Journal Entry Screenshot

Here is the Participant Journal Tool:

Participant Journal Screenshot

I think that this is really cool and I didn't find it mentioned anywhere else on the moodle website. It is a blogging feature that allows comments and viewing of others entries, as well as a nice little portfolio tool. I am going to edit some files so that the html editor is enabled on the new journal entry page, but for now you can find the code here:

http://revitalise.ncsa.uiuc.edu/resources/moodleinabox/modules.html

What does everyone else have to say about this feature? I hope this helpssmile

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In reply to Nicole Snyder

Re: Really Cool-Adding to the People Block

by Paul Nijbakker -
Hi Nicole,

We tried out this block and it works seamlessly. The journal feature looks a lot like the improvements we had in mind for the journal module, just too bad there is no grading feature on it. We also tweaked the code a little bit so that the block follows our colour themes. We might want to install this in our production version, but we first want to compare it with the blogging feature in Moodle 1.6.

The portfolio part is easy to use and works fine, we are waiting to compare it with the File Manager block from Humboldt State to see which functionality suits our needs best (and which one will work best in Moodle 1.6?)

Rgrds,
Paul.


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In reply to Paul Nijbakker

Re: Really Cool-Adding to the People Block

by Paul Nijbakker -
Hi all,

The participants block in Moodle 1.6 is slightly different (a link to new functionality has been added) so it is not directly compatible with the  NCSA block, but it was relatively simple to merge the two, or so I was told.

Moodle 1.6 is still under development so other alterations may occur.

Rgrds,
Paul.
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In reply to Paul Nijbakker

Re: Really Cool-Adding to the People Block

by Nicole Snyder -

Hello Everyone,

It is good to know that people found this out to be a useful toolsmile I have also tweaked it to better suit my website, including allowing it to be a public blog where all members can add comments and view others blogs.

Thanks,

Nicole

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In reply to Nicole Snyder

Re: Really Cool-Adding to the People Block

by Chris West -
Been trying this tis morning and it's just what I need. I also had to tweak the code to alter the colours (lime green table background, anyone?!).

I'll try it out with my students next week.
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In reply to Nicole Snyder

Re: Really Cool-Adding to the People Block

by Simon Bryan -
I suppose you noticed there are no actual screenshots in your post?

Installed the block and it looks good, a couple of Gotchas though:

1. Had to manually create the moodledata/Objects and moodledata/moddata directories, were they supposed to exist already?

2. If you don't prefix your database tables with mdl_ then you need to rename the tables after creating them or modify the SQL that creates them. Never saw the sense in adding mdl_ to the front of every table name, after all they are in the Moodle database!

Cheers
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In reply to Simon Bryan

Re: Really Cool-Adding to the People Block

by koen roggemans -
Picture of Core developers Picture of Documentation writers Picture of Moodle HQ Picture of Particularly helpful Moodlers Picture of Plugin developers Picture of Translators
moddata is used for eg uploaded files from forums. Normally it is a subdirectory from a course, but there are apparently exceptions.
Objects is not a standard folder (objects module may be??)

The mdl_ extention was made originally for people on small hosting. Sometimes you only get the right to run one database. It is possible to install several different webapplications in one database,  on the condition that all table names are different. And that's when he prefix becomes handy
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In reply to koen roggemans

Re: Really Cool-Adding to the People Block

by Simon Bryan -
OK, that makes sense. The moddata and Object folder had to be created to be able to go to the Journl I think it was.
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In reply to Simon Bryan

Re: Really Cool-Adding to the People Block

by Chardelle Busch -
Picture of Core developers
I think this "blog" code is a good start at a better journal. I have customized it and changed it to myjournal to distinguish it from the old journal and the new blog --which is a much better blogging tool--in 1.6. When 1.6 comes out I'm planning on looking into making the journal a tool that is accessible from the MyMoodle page. I'll let you know when I do.  I haven't implemented the my portfolio but I think it looked like just a "my files" type of tool--there is a better portfolio mod under development also.
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In reply to Chardelle Busch

Re: Really Cool-Adding to the People Block

by Chris West -
"there is a better portfolio mod under development also."

Can you say where?
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In reply to Chris West

Re: Really Cool-Adding to the People Block

by Paul Nijbakker -
Hi Chris,

I think Chardelle is referring to this thread.
This portfolio is still under development; at least we could not get it to work on our 1.6 test server.

Rgrds,
Paul.
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In reply to Nicole Snyder

Re: Really Cool-Adding to the People Block

by Will Taylor -
Nicole,
Thanks for posting this to the forums - have just added it to one of my sites, it's a most excellent addition.  Installed & works fine on a 1.5.3 installation.
- will
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