Glossary of common terms

The Concurrent Versioning System (CVS) is a method of storing files on a server that helps coordinate many people working on those files. Moodle's code repository was managed using CVS from the beginning of the project up until 2010 before switching to Git.

An electronic collection of information, stored in tables of data. For example, Moodle contains a table of all users in a site. There are many brands of database software, but most people use MySQL.

The place where Moodle can save uploaded files. This directory should be readable and writeable by the web server user but it should not be accessible directly via the web.

The dirroot is the name for the directory in which you have installed Moodle. It's a setting in config.php that must be entered correctly.

A name given to a computer or a group of computers. eg moodle.org. You can buy new domain names from a domain name registrar, of which there are many.

To move your files from a server "down" to your personal computer. Also see FTP and upload.

You can download Moodle via the Moodle download page.

File Transfer Protocol - a method of copying files from one computer to another. For example, you might FTP your Moodle files from your home computer to your web server.

A business that will host your web site for a monthly fee. You provide a domain name that you own, and after they've set it up for you, you can copy your files to their server and set up your site.

HyperText Markup Language - a language used to create web pages.

In general an interface is the boundary across which two systems communicate. There are many software interfaces within Moodle, for example, such as the interface a module uses to communicate with the core product, or the interface used to send mail.

Usually, though, this term refers to the interface between software and human beings: the user interface. In Moodle, for example, this is what we see and click on in the web browser and in our mail programs, and it provides ways for us to access, understand and change the database at the heart of any Moodle site.

The design of such an interface requires collaboration between software developers and users to make it "user-friendly" (and maximise overall usability).

A very important requirement for interfaces is standardisation, which reduces the amount of learning that users need to do to explore the features in the software. Moodle has had informal standards in the past, but we are currently writing a more formal specification to help Moodle's many developers produce a more consistent interface, and remove some of the irregular, inefficient or hard-to-learn interfaces that have crept into various corners of Moodle.

With Moodle, interface issues should be discussed in the forums most appropriate to them - if you wish to raise discussion about an interface in the Chat module, use the Chat forum. If you have a specific bug or request to report, please use the bug tracker.