Navigation buttons

Blocks ::: block_navbuttons

Maintained by

Davo Smith

Add customisable navigation buttons (next/prev/etc.) to the bottom of each activity page (Moodle 1.9/2.0+)

Latest release: 5 weeks

729 sites

255 downloads

44 fans

Current versions available: 4

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Navigation buttons (for Moodle 1.9 / 2.0+)
This block adds customisable navigation buttons (first/previous/next/etc.) to the bottom of each activity/resource page in a course.

It is based on an idea from Penny Mondani: http://pennymondani.com
Thanks also to the US company that sponsored the development, who wish to remain anonymous.

Installation:

Download the file and unzip it somewhere convenient.
On your server, in the 'blocks' folder, create a subfolder called 'navbuttons'
Upload all the files inside the 'davosmith-moodle-navbuttons-???????' folder to this new 'navbuttons' folder on your server.
Log in to your Moodle site as an administrator and click on the 'Notifications' option in the Admin settings block.
If you are running a version of Moodle earlier than 3.10, you need to make a small change to one Moodle core file to make this work (the change is different between Moodle 1.9 & Moodle 2.0 - see the included README.txt for details).
Add the block to a course (turn editing on, select 'Navigation Buttons' from the 'Blocks - Add' menu)
Customise the button appearance by clicking on 'Edit the Navigation Button settings' in the newly created block.
Check the message at the bottom of the screen (under the 'Save changes' button) - it should read "Navbuttons self-test: required core modifications have been completed successfully". If not, then go back to step 5 above and check carefully.

Note: The block is only visible to users who are able to edit courses modules. Deleting the block will remove the navigation buttons (they can also be disabled through the settings).

For a quick demo, there is a screencast available here:

Useful links

Source control URL

Bug tracker

Screenshots

Contributors

Davo Smith (Lead maintainer)

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Comments

Dimo Dimov
Sat, 28 Sept 2013, 6:39 PM
Well the problem comes from the theme. We use Essential theme and Navigation buttnos doesn't work, when switch to standart theme the message is: Navbuttons self-test: required core modifications have been completed successfully.
Any idea what do I have to change to make this wonderful plugin work with essential theme?
Thanks.
Davo Smith
Mon, 30 Sept 2013, 3:58 AM
Dimo - almost certainly by making the same change to the footer() function in theme/essential/renderers/core_renderer.php, but I've not tried it, so you'll just have to see what happens (please post here if it works or not, but I can't really provide much more support than that).
Dimo Dimov
Mon, 30 Sept 2013, 6:16 AM
That's it, now it works! Davo, thank you very much for your support and for the useful moodle plugin.
Jake Anon
Wed, 2 Oct 2013, 8:56 AM
Great plugin! Thanks for the work. The one change I would like to see is making it so that if the course that would normally be linked to by the "Next" button isn't available because of completion requirements, then the button should be greyed out and disabled rather than going to some other activity later down the line that is available. Thanks again!
Davo Smith
Wed, 2 Oct 2013, 2:25 PM
Jake - I think it would be very difficult to guess whether the teacher wanted that or wanted to skip activities that weren't available (for example, I assume that 'hidden' activities should still be skipped over and the next activity selected, the same for 'groups only' activities). I think it would also be confusing to users working through the course if they were stopped half-way through the course by a single activity that isn't currently available.
Hugo Callens
Sun, 6 Oct 2013, 1:37 AM
Thank you for this great plugin!
I have one question though: where can I style the navbuttons? All CSS seems to be inline.
Davo Smith
Sun, 6 Oct 2013, 1:43 AM
Hugo - you can change the icons or the colours via the settings page for the plugin.
julie mcloughlin
Wed, 9 Oct 2013, 2:09 PM
hi Davo - love the plug in, but I agree with Jake. the way it is, people miss parts of the course with out even knowing it. Maybe this could be an option for those like Jake and I who prefer them not to be able to continue on until conditions are met??
iinf que
Sat, 19 Oct 2013, 5:42 AM
Davo, thank you so much for this nice module. I am able to implement it. Please also add essential and other themes specific troubleshooting in README file. I shall be grateful to you.
Matt Lanning
Fri, 22 Nov 2013, 2:31 AM
Thanks for developing such a great plugin. We are planning to upgrade to Moodle 2.6 soon and were wondering if a new version of navbuttons will be released or if this version will work as is. Thanks.
Davo Smith
Fri, 22 Nov 2013, 6:22 PM
Matt - the version on github is working with Moodle 2.6 - I'll be doing a big update of all my plugins on Moodle.org in the next few days.
David Moreno
Thu, 10 Apr 2014, 3:26 AM
Hi! Thanks for such a great plugin! The pulgin it's working for any activity I create, but for resources (web content), it doesn't work. Do you know why is this happening ?
Davo Smith
Thu, 10 Apr 2014, 6:46 PM
David - please read through the instructions in the 'any problems' section of the README.txt file included in the plugin: https://github.com/davosmith/moodle-navbuttons/blob/master/README.txt#l52
Tom Crick
Wed, 21 May 2014, 7:07 PM
Hi Davo,
I'm running Moodle 2.6+ (Build: 20131129)

When I try and install this through the ADMIN > Plugins it fails validation and I get the following error message:

Error Invalid add-on name: davosmith-moodle-navbuttons-b8f320e

The help message says:

"The name of the root directory in the ZIP package violates formal syntax requirements. Some ZIP packages, such as those generated by Github, may contain an incorrect root directory name. You need to fix the name of the root directory to match the add-on name."
Davo Smith
Wed, 21 May 2014, 7:18 PM
Sorry - that is because Moodle.org won't let me upload it as a 'block' plugin (due to the required core modification).
You must download the plugin manually, rename it to 'navbuttons', install it into the 'blocks/' directory on the server and make the required core code modification.

There is no way to enable automatic installation of this plugin.