NOTE: Because it is a pain to update files in the Moodle plugin database, the version available here may not be updated as frequently as the actual repository on GitHub, i.e. it may be missing some bugfixes. Please click the link to 'VCS repository URL' below if you want to get to the latest version.

OU blog
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Copyright 2011 The Open University


This is an alternative blog that you can install into standard Moodle.

It does not replace the standard blog, and operates alongside it. There
are two modes of use:

1) As a course activity. In this case you can use it the same way as any
other module. You can have course-wide blogs (everyone in the course posts
to the same blog), group blogs, or individual blogs; the latter are
useful for assessed activities (where the student is supposed to keep
a journal which only they and their tutor can read).

2) As a replacement for standard Moodle personal blogs. In this case it would
be a good idea to turn off the standard Moodle blog system, or it'll be
very confusing. You then need to MANUALLY provide students with a link
to mod/oublog/view.php which will automatically take them to their
personal blog.

When using for personal blogs, one feature of interest may be moderated public
comments; when you allow comments from people who are not logged in, all such
comments are moderated.


Support:

We cannot offer direct support. Please do not contact me directly. If you
need assistance, try the blog forum on moodle.org. (Remember to make clear
that you are using OU blog and not the standard blog.)

Bug reports:

Please report bugs to the Moodle Tracker using the 'contributed code' project
and 'Module: OU blog' component. Under Version, please select your Moodle
version e.g. 2.1, 2.2.

Status:

Beta quality code. We intend to switch this project to include live quality
code at some point after our mid-October update.

Please note that this code is tested on OU systems but we rely on the
community for testing on other systems.

Requires:

Moodle 2.1+
Postgres / MySQL

Install:

Place the contents of this source tree into your Moodle installation so that
within your Moodle root, this file is mod/oublog/README. Then visit the
Moodle notifications page to install.

If you want the blogs to be searchable, you also need to install the
local_ousearch plugin. (It is best to do this before using OU blog much,
otherwise it takes ages to install as it builds indexes for everything.)
When you install the ousearch plugin, a search box will automatically appear.

Documentation:

None. Please feel free to contribute documentation in the relevant area of
the MoodleDocs wiki.