OSP: a Moodle Repository Plugin for Open Source Physics

Open Source Physics offers the biggest catalog of free Easy Java/Javascript Simulations. The OSP Moodle Repository Plugin lets you download those simulations directly from your Moodle site.

1. Basic Search

The OSP plugin looks in the descriptions of the simulations stored in Open Source Physics for the conjunction of the terms introduced in the query field.

1.1. Example

For instance, if your query is heat, then the plugin will show all the simulations whose descriptions include the word heat. If the query is expanded to heat fluid, then the search will be contrainted to those simulations whose descriptions include both words heat and fluid.

1.2. Remark

Note that the ordering of the words in a query does not care. So, both queries fluid heat and heat fluid will produce exactly the same outcomes.

2. Filtering the search to just include Java or JavaScript simulations

To limit the outcomes of a search to simulations implemented in Java or JavaScript, include the words java or js in the query, respectively.

2.1. Example

For example, the query moon phases js lists all the JavaScript simulations whose descriptions include moon and phases.

2.2. Syntactic Sugar

To make queries easier to read or to express, our plugin supports the following syntactic sugar:

Java simulations can be filtered using any of the following words: java, jar, or ejs
JavaScript simulations can be filtered using: javascript, js, zip, or ejss

2.3. Remark

As the Open Source Physics just contains Java and JavaScript simulations, the default behavior of a query that does not include java nor js is equivalent to including both words. For instance, moon phases and moon phases js java will produce exactly the same results.