Fordson, Moodle 3.9 and the new Activity Chooser

Fordson, Moodle 3.9 and the new Activity Chooser

by Acqua Alta -
Number of replies: 4

Hi,

We use the Fordson theme and love it very much.

According to the "Roadmap" document on Moodle docs, this is one of the improvements that are expected to be present in Moodle 3.9:

"Activity chooser improvements - Adding search, starring of activities and better organisation of the activities and resources".

There is more info in the following page:

https://docs.moodle.org/dev/Activity_chooser


Moodle 3.9 is expected to be released on May 11th, 2020. Since today the Fordson theme has a custom activity chooser menu, I wonder if and when would the theme  be updated to reflect that upcoming change in the activity chooser menu.

In case it would take a considerable time, is it possible that the before the release of Moodle 3.9 the theme would be updated so it  would include a switch that would enables users of the theme to use the core activity chooser instead of the Fordson activity chooser? 
That way maybe users could still use the Fordson theme right after Moodle 3.9 release, and still enjoy the new activity chooser.

I really hope that Chris would read this post smile

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In reply to Acqua Alta

Re: Fordson, Moodle 3.9 and the new Activity Chooser

by Richard Oelmann -
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I'm sure Chris will read the post - he is very active on the forum and pro-active in the maintenance and development of Fordson.

Until that development moves significantly beyond the visual mockup stage, it will be difficult to tell whether the changes can be made with some kind of switch between a plugin activity chooser development, or whether those changes may even break existing activity chooser customisations entirely.

Also worth remembering that while external developers, like Chris, will be able to follow the master DEV branch, until code freeze, just prior to the release of 3.9, 3rd party developments are difficult as the new functionality can change (or still be added) until the last minute.

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In reply to Acqua Alta

Re: Fordson, Moodle 3.9 and the new Activity Chooser

by Chris Kenniburg -
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We plan to fully support the new activity chooser and look forward to it's release. Off the top of my head, I am leaning towards just removing our customization and let Boost/Moodle handle things so that Fordson inherits the new features instead of override them. We are really excited for this new feature as well.
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In reply to Chris Kenniburg

Re: Fordson, Moodle 3.9 and the new Activity Chooser

by Acqua Alta -
Hi Chris,
Thanks to you and Richard for the answers.
What are the chances that Fordson for Moodle 3.9 will be released before the official release of Moodle 3.9 itself, or very soon after?
I'm sorry for the nudging question - I'm just trying to understand if a something is feasible for me.

Thanks
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In reply to Acqua Alta

Re: Fordson, Moodle 3.9 and the new Activity Chooser

by Chris Kenniburg -
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Probably within a couple days of release. Not quite sure. Sometimes new releases break a bunch of things and it takes longer to get it all sorted out. If you setup a development site and test the nightly builds you can report back any bugs you find. I'm not sure how much time I will have to devote to it until there is a code freeze and a release. Lot's of things can go wrong that you might think is related to Fordson but it is more likely the stuff the Moodle devs are tinkering with.

Moodle 3.9 is on our radar as the next upgrade for us.  Our summer update will be on this release.  So it will definitely happen.  
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