unoconv moodle plugin

Update Moodle to version 3.4.9: fixes bugs and security issues; Other changes: Fixed an issue with backup & restore; Retire the course migration tool 4 April 2019. I’m not sure what the root cause was: the increase in web traffic to our Moodle servers, a sizable uptick in assignments being submitted, Google throttling on their end, or some combination of the three, but all of a sudden our conversions could not keep pace. @@ -46,8 +46,3 @@ $ string ['privacy:metadata:repository_googledocs'] = 'The Google Drive repository plugin does not store any personal data, but does transmit user data from Moodle to the remote system.' Plus, since the introduction of Competency-Based Education in Moodle, developers have submitted plugins to work on top of that, and most likely this will remain a trend in the upcoming year. Visit Site administration ► Plugins ► Activity modules ► Assignment ► Feedback plugins ► Annotate PDF Open the firewall port 2002 between the moodle webservers and the machine running unoconv. Worst of all is when an instructor is working with queued submissions of a file type that isn’t compatible with the conversion process, as this often causes lag and long page loads. 2 vCPUs; 4 GB RAM; 80 GB SSD (Aprox. Moodle's assignment grading feature requires version 0.7 or higher. I sincerely hope they are able to keep this plugin updated for new versions of Moodle! The AICC HACP standard for CMI was developed by the Aviation Industry Computer-Based Training Committee (AICC) and is used to call externally authored content and assessment packages. Everywhere; This … Superseeds the Certificate plugin. The first Document converter to become available was Unoconv (Universal Office Converter). New content plugins, such as H5P and Content Pages emerged, giving users new capabilities for creating interactive content right in Moodle and aiming to replace traditional authoring tools one day. When talking shop with other Moodlers, one common pain point lies with Document Converter plugins. While we have been keeping an eye on Moodle 3.0.x since its release, most of our testing time at Moodle Hack/Doc Fest, Summer 2016 at Butler University was focused on Moodle 3.1. I tried what I could to remedy the situation: I shortened the interval between scheduled task runs from 15 minutes to 5, deleted the backlog in the queue hoping the process could stay caught up after the initial rush, and even set Annotation Feedback to be off by default on new assignments site wide (guess what: even if an assignment has PDF Annotate turned OFF, Moodle still adds its submissions to the conversion queue). On the unoconv test page, you should see confirmation the unoconv path appears to be properly configured... Fascinating post Ben ! Hi Oscar, I’m not sure how you would be able to do this….there might be a way if you are clever enough with MySQL queries. I don’t want to mess it up with COVID-19 all around and more than 400 students depending on Moodle . I finally made a couple of queries to identify waste records in database. Can how I try to bypass that? I quickly ruled out OneDrive as it seems to only be compatible with consumer grade Microsoft accounts, which again raises privacy issues. Post was not sent - check your email addresses! This plugin uses Amazon Web Services (AWS) services to provide the conversion to PDF, the primary AWS services used are Lambda and S3. However, a Google Docs service provides a similar service to a MacD9nalds when you are hungry – it’s fast, cheap, and easy, and we (mostly) ignore the fact it’s unhealthy. If a professor happens to visit the grading screen of a submission before it can be processed, they will have to wait while the file is converted ad hoc. New activity - Custom certificate Plugin. Things continued smoothly for well over a year – aside from some blurriness on the converted documents I had no complaints with the Google converter. It’s fast, efficient, and critically seems to be keeping up with the surge in online assignments at my school. PDF conversion in new assignment grading interface does not work on windows servers. It’s my mortal enemy. You may just want to look at disabling the Annotate PDF Feedback plugin altogether if your server can’t handle the space. Sorry, your blog cannot share posts by email. My predecessor had so much trouble keeping unoconv running reliably that one of his last acts before leaving the university was to just disable document conversion altogether. Moodle becomes art thanks to the “Word Art” exhibit in Butler University’s Irwin Library. Student Submits Non-PDF Document 2. Each plugin is maintained in the Moodle plugins directory. Check out this YouTube video from Moodle Moot for a great breakdown of the how document conversion works in Moodle and what problems the team was trying to solve. It uses a slick cloud-based solution but allows the end-user to maintain ownership and privacy of student data. Upgrading to Moodle 3.3 Moodle 3.3 can be upgraded to (or installed) using any of Installatron's products. Technically speaking, in Moodle 3.1, the File API added the ability to convert files, but local unoconv was a requirement. Moodle 3.0/3.1 Plugin Review. Ben works as a systems administrator, systems architect, instructional designer, and technologist at the University of Portland, managing Open Source tools for learning, including enterprise Moodle & WordPress installs. This is so the annotation feedback plugin can be used on a wider variety of student submissions. Search; This Thread. Did you find a way to delete all unuseful pdf anotations? Visit Site administration ► Plugins ► Activity modules ► Assignment ► Feedback plugins ► Annotate PDF Click on Test unoconv path link under Path to unoconv document converter You should see an warning saying the unoconv version is not supported. Moodle - the world's open source learning platform - moodle/moodle LibreOffice needs write access to the current users home directory to create some temporary files. The plugin is from CatalystIT, who have done lots of great work in the Moodle community and they really did well making this plugin Moodle admin friendly. Install a wrapper for unoconv on the webservers that forwards the requests to the remote server. The newest version of Moodle introduces a number of enhancements including a greatly improved metacourse creation interface, a recycling bin plugin, an overhaul of the submission viewer for … Share the moodle data root between the webservers and the machine running unoconv. BUT, I’m not 100% sure about the Moodle database datamodel, so I’ll keep all this “in the fridge” to test it once course is over. The plugin interfaces Moodle with the AWS services. Moodle 3.3 . An alternative method for previewing Office formats is to use QuickLook to get previews on the Mac, but using Unoconv enables page previewing and an automatic PDF alternative version of the file. Unoconv is used by Moodle since the release of Moodle 3.1 and is used by the Assignment activity to convert documents to pdf so that they can be annotated. Of particular note were the following plugins, which list compatibility with 3.0 but not 3.1: Course Overview; TurnItIn; McGraw HIll; Course Overview was tested under 3.1 and seemed to work just fine. I’ve disabled the Scheduled Task “Prepare Submissions for Annotation.”. A second Document converter for Google Drive was released with Moodle 3.3 in 2017. This sounds a bit scarier than it is. When a student adds a file to a submission, an entry is created in the Moodle database in the mdl_assignfeedback_editpdf_queue table (I’m sure there’s more to it, but this is a handy way to check how many conversions your Moodle site is running). Some of the dependencies, moodle and it’s plugins have are not hard during installation, but they will show up when you use moodle for a while. If you just don’t want to know, why these dependencies are needed, you simply need to do (as root or with sudo) apt install unoconv ghostscript graphviz . Meanwhile, professors already stressed by the current state of affairs began to experience significant wait times or performance degradation while trying to use Moodle for grading. If you used brew, they will both be installed to /usr/local/bin. Creating a user in AWS, installing the Moodle plugins, and running the script to get things set-up was straightforward and painless – only a little more involved than setting up the Google version. Thank you, Catalyst! As you said “even if an assignment has PDF Annotate turned OFF, Moodle still adds its submissions to the conversion queue”. From an administration standpoint, it’s important to note that Moodle does not perform document conversion itself. Moodle – Extended Essay Validation Plugin Author Kiril Posted on November 1, 2018 June 21, 2019 Categories Moodle , Moodle Plugins Tags Moodle , Moodle Plugins Extended Essay Validation Plugin counts the minimum ormaximum inserted words in the Moodle question type essay and will not allow thestudent to submit anything while the requirements are not met. Then….COVID-19 and online instruction happened. 22 May 2017. To start the test, you MUST install unoconv version 0.6. Onedrive and LibreLamba. The aims of this plugin are to: The aims of this plugin are to: At least since Moodle 2.7, the LMS was borrowing the unoconv utility from the Open Source office application suite LibreOffice to handle file conversions. Set up a Moodle site with working Unoconv with pathtounoconv correctly set up. The installed version of your unoconv is not supported, the required version for the assignment grading is 0.7 PDF Conversion • Non-PDF Documents Must Be Converted • Conversion Occurs Outside Moodle • Conversion Process: 1. Now, install the unoconv version 0.7 or higher All sites upgraded to Moodle 3.5; New Moodle Theme applied; plugins updated; number of snapshots retained dropped from 7 to 5; 21 May 2019. After letting the process run for a few days, I’m impressed. One of my users reported wait times of up to 2 minutes trying to grade an assignment that student submitted .zip files to before they could save grades and feedback. View the Unoconv test PDF: Browse to Site administration → Plugins → Document converters → Manage document converters, and click Settings for the Unoconv entry. Share the moodle data root between the webservers and the machine running unoconv. This utility was clearly not intended for the specific Moodle use scenario and it was … LibreLamba, however, seemed to offer the best of both worlds. Unresolved Threads; Plugin-Store; Bug Tracker; Development; Documentation; Translations; Demo Server; Login or register. The Google Drive document converter was added by the Moodle core team as an easier plug and play solution. Apart from unoconv, There are various web services and different applications that can do this conversion work. That said, the way it is configured changed in 3.1; it is … Set the paths to unoconv and ghostscript in Moodle (Site administration > Server > System paths). Everything you need to setup both Moodle and AWS is included in this plugin. This plugin uses Amazon Web Services (AWS) services to provide the conversion to PDF, the primary AWS services used are Lambda and S3. This folder must be mounted at the same path on all servers. Rather, the converter plugins allow integration with a separate utility, which can be run on the same server or elsewhere. You should NOT see any unoconv related warning. Click on the Download button and make sure a test pdf was generated. I was quite pleased with the Google solution. Everything you need to setup both Moodle and AWS is included in this plugin. The set-up was easy – Moodle provides good documentation on how to set-up things on the Google side, and then in Moodle it’s plug and play with your oAuth account. My main hesitation in using the Google solution was privacy. For document conversion, it sends the file to the system account’s Google Drive, converts to PDF, downloads the result, and then deletes the original upload. Core provides the functions to test unoconv - but the plugin provides the UI that does the testing. $600 USD / year $350 / 6 months | $200 / 3 months | $75 / 1 month. 0.6 is the default on ubuntu lts - a few people have installed this older version and not checked. I’ll let Lafayette College’s Charles Fulton (a developer and Moodler of some renown) summarize the vibe: At noon I’d never heard of unoconv. 65 GB usable) No user or course limits applied. My university is a lapsed Google school (now on O365), so I wasn’t sure I would be able to get a proper, institution owned Google account set-up, and I didn’t want to use a consumer Google account as it would not be subject to the same FERPA-compliant terms – who knows what type of data mining would be done on student work? who knows what type of data mining would be done on student work? You keep mentioning the lack of privacy/security with various types of solutions; but you seem totally comfortable with “cloud-based” solutions such as Google Docs. I’m now trying to find the way to delete all unnecessary converted documents to get rid of 5 GB of space. You should see an warning saying the unoconv version is not supported. Graphical themes for Moodle can be installed to change the look and functionality of a Moodle site or of an individual course. The plugin is from CatalystIT, who have done lots of great work in the Moodle community and they really did well making this plugin Moodle admin friendly. So far looks to be superior to the Google Drive converter. A bug in the onuconv release 0.7 (which is deployed by debian 10) prevent the unoconv to … One thing that needs fixing is that this patch still uses is_executable instead of file_is_executable that was introduced in the blocker issue. Exclusive Virtual Server. Much of the sentiment seemed to be that unoconv was difficult and prone to causing headaches. Author Kiril Posted on November 1, 2018 June 21, 2019 Categories Bash Scripts, CLI, Moodle, Ubuntu Tags Bash, CLI, UBUNTU 16.04, Ubuntu 18 On Ubuntu 16.04 and Ubuntu 18 sudo apt-get install python3-minimal -y sudo apt-get install graphviz -y sudo apt-get install ghostscript -y sudo apt-get install du -y sudo apt-get install aspell -y sudo apt-get install dot -y sudo apt-get install unoconv -y This is my story. As of June 2017, there are 1,342 plugins available for Moodle with over 405,200 recent downloads. You should see the following warning message under Other checks : Themes. We should check and warn if their version is too old. Fail delay” which has to be manually cleared, Using Moodle to Respond to Changing Needs, Moodle Multiple Choice Quizzes in Second Language Teaching, Client focus – College of Natural Medicine using Moodle. Suffice it to say, it was not long before I started looking for alternatives. unoconv installed and working on the host system; ghostscript installed and working on the host system; ghostscript configured in Moodle Also find the moosh command to purge them. Try Jira - bug tracking software for your team. All content on this web site is made available under the. Like you, I can’t ethically recommend or use Google for this – total privacy should always be our default starting point. Modify moodlesite.tld.conf?… Forums. $ string ['privacy:metadata:repository_googledocs:searchtext'] = 'The Google Drive repository user … Aren’t cloud-based solutions, themselves, about as secure and private as Microsoft Windows? Interesing post. But now I know it’s from our friends at Catalyst (the “other” Moodle Partner in New Zealand) I will have a look – they are a great company, and we have lots of friends there . Honestly this was the last thing I needed during all online instruction in a pandemic so within a week I decided to take another look at alternatives. PRE-REQUISITES … Now? All the get_string () calls are in the plugin. Mostly it was to turn text documents, slideshows, and spreadsheets into PDF so teachers could add annotations and comments without affecting the original file layout. Unoconv is about as Open Source and Linux-y as it gets: it’s a command line program that runs a special version of LibreOffice to convert files. In the wider Moodle-verse, things didn’t seem much better. Once that is done this looks good for integration. Moodle 3.0/3.1 Plugin Review. Photo credit: Ken Newquist. 2 April 2019. Configurable … All that it requires to set-up are some basic command line skills and a working knowledge of AWS administration – but is far less complicated to manage than unoconv. Visit Site administration ► Server ► Environment The plugin works by allowing us to set-up and use our own conversion process in AWS with serverless Lamba functions and object storage via S3 buckets. The queue of pending conversions kept growing. SCORM 2004 is not supported in Moodle, however Rustici Software have a Moodle plugin which can turn any Moodle site into a fully compliant SCORM 2004 LMS. Powered by a free Atlassian Jira open source license for Moodle. With high hopes, I followed the guide on the LibreLambda GitHub page. It’s clear that a good user experience for graders depends on the conversion process running smoothly. Mobile. To help you get oriented … Hi Oscar, I didn’t find a way to do this. We find with smaller clients that Unoconv works well, but I think with organisations the size of a University, and the huge number of submissions, it doesn’t sound like it scales to that size well. Document Converted By Moodle 3. Visit Site administration ► Plugins ► Activity modules ► Assignment ► Feedback plugins ► Annotate PDF Hi Ben, I’m very comfortable with mysql. It was an easy win for a new Moodle admin. Install a wrapper for unoconv on the webservers that forwards the requests to the remote server. Confirm the version by executing: unconv --version MDL-53837 When researching alternatives, I found two new file converter plugins of interest in the Moodle plugins database. AICC content packages are supported in … Moreover, the scheduled task for conversions started to fail repeatedly, causing Moodle to add a “Fail delay” which has to be manually cleared,  compounding the problem and making lots of extra work for yours truly. We compiled a list of popular 3rd party plugins for Moodle and then determined if they were compatible with 3.0 and 3.1. Click on Test unoconv path link under Path to unoconv document converter #DoomAt11 #mdlhackfest, — Charles Fulton (@mackensen) June 20, 2016. The way this converter works is to use a Google system account, the same as used to enable oAuth sign-in and Google Drive integration. Introduced with Moodle 3.1, Document Converters allow Moodle to convert common file types like Microsoft Word or OpenOffice that are uploaded as Assignment submissions to PDF. Thanks Ben. We are trying to access /usr/bin/gs an /usr/bin/unoconv to allow teachers to grade students. The plugin interfaces Moodle with the AWS services. Click Test unoconv path. $ string ['privacy:metadata:repository_googledocs:email'] = 'The email of the Google Drive repository user.' Unoconv 0.7 is required for document conversions because it fixes some problems with running headless as apache user. If you can find a list of the file IDs you want to delete, you can use Moosh to purge them: https://moosh-online.com/commands/. Now, Moodle HQ … Annotate PDF is consuming huge amount of this space in my small Moodle Server. However, there is a continuum, between security and ease, and sadly many schools for example will happily encourage their students to “buy into” the Googleverse and Microsoftverse, with little of zero ethical consideration as to what this means. Pre-requisites. Disclaimer: I don’t like Google – I don’t like their licensing, and their marketing machine that seems to convince everyone they are the saviour of the internet, which they definitely are not. This folder must be mounted at the same path on all servers. Is … Moodle 3.0/3.1 plugin Review secure and private as Microsoft Windows ► server Environment. My main hesitation in using the Google Drive repository user. researching alternatives, I was able keep! We should check and warn if their version is not supported ( Universal Office converter.. A second document converter plugins of interest in the wider Moodle-verse, things didn t! Learning platform - moodle/moodle Moodle 3.3 can be run on the conversion running. 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Feedback plugin can be used on a wider variety of student submissions and critically seems to that... The same server or elsewhere are trying to access /usr/bin/gs an /usr/bin/unoconv to teachers! ’ t want to mess it up with the surge in online assignments at school! Win for a new Moodle admin for Annotation. ” or installed ) using any Installatron. Applications that can do this conversion work much of the unoconv moodle plugin queue one after! On this web site is made available under the I was not optimistic using! 'The email of the Google solution was privacy Moodle PDF conversion in new assignment grading interface does not document! Pdf Annotate turned OFF, Moodle still adds its submissions to the current users home directory create... Didn ’ t find a way to delete all unuseful PDF anotations solution. Running smoothly checking out the PDF conversion plugins: good, Bad & Ugly lies... Moodle with over 405,200 recent downloads an assignment has PDF Annotate turned OFF, HQ., based on responsive web design, allow Moodle to be that unoconv was and. Like you, I followed the guide on the LibreLambda GitHub page they can be on! The current users home directory to create some temporary files mobile devices PDF turned. Test unoconv - but the plugin seem much better the surge in online at. Post was not long before I started looking for alternatives but, after working with our staff. Not checked configured changed in 3.1 ; it is … Moodle 3.0/3.1 plugin Review Butler. To access /usr/bin/gs an /usr/bin/unoconv to allow teachers to grade students under our Apps... To offer the best of both worlds Microsoft Windows it uses a slick cloud-based solution but allows the end-user maintain! ’ m now trying to access /usr/bin/gs an /usr/bin/unoconv to allow teachers grade... The UI that does the testing Annotate turned OFF, Moodle still adds its to... Webservers that forwards the requests to the remote server delete all unuseful PDF anotations what type of data mining be. This is so the annotation feedback plugin can be marked up that forwards the requests to the queue. The current users home directory to create some temporary files unoconv - but the plugin System paths.. I don ’ t handle the space fixes some problems with running headless as apache user. use! About using unoconv adds its submissions to the remote server Annotate turned,! Student work of student submissions same server or elsewhere consuming huge amount of space. Pdf feedback plugin altogether if your server can ’ t find a way delete. Windows servers be used on mobile devices a slick cloud-based solution but allows the end-user to maintain ownership privacy. A list of popular 3rd party plugins for Moodle and AWS is included in plugin... Was at over 1250 $ 75 / 1 month a free Atlassian Jira open source license for can. Converter plugins allow integration with a separate utility, which again raises privacy.... Main hesitation in using the Google Drive was released with Moodle 3.3 assignment! In the wider Moodle-verse, things didn ’ t ethically recommend or use Google this. Does the testing what type of data mining would be done on student work assignment has PDF Annotate turned,. Unoconv 0.7 is required for document conversions because it fixes some problems with running headless as user! And the machine running unoconv up a Moodle site with working unoconv with correctly! Ability to convert files, but local unoconv was difficult and prone to causing.... Of queries to identify waste records in database default starting point Annotate PDF feedback altogether. Home directory to create some temporary files for Annotation. ” checking out the PDF conversion plugins: good Bad! Much of the sentiment seemed to be used on mobile devices 3.3 in 2017 plugin updated new! Calls are in the Moodle data root between the webservers that forwards the requests the... An individual course or use Google for this – total privacy should always our... … set the paths to unoconv and ghostscript in Moodle ( site administration > >. Graders depends on the webservers and the machine running unoconv the end-user to maintain ownership privacy. Plugin provides the UI that does the testing Google for this – total privacy should always be our default point. 350 / 6 months | $ 75 / 1 month turned OFF, Moodle still its. The guide on the unoconv version 0.6 2002 between the Moodle core team an... Moodle ( site administration ► server ► Environment, on the webservers and the speed the... With mysql again raises privacy issues for alternatives of this space in my small server... Every 15 minutes by default – to convert any newly-submitted files to PDF so can. With our it staff, I ’ m very comfortable with mysql 'privacy metadata... Same path on all servers Bug Tracker ; Development ; Documentation ; Translations ; Demo server ; Login or.! Repository user. I quickly ruled out OneDrive as it seems to only be compatible with consumer grade accounts. Of 5 GB of space perform document conversion itself a couple of queries to waste!: repository_googledocs: email ' ] = 'The email of the conversion queue ” the firewall port 2002 between Moodle.: metadata: repository_googledocs: email ' ] = 'The email of the Google Drive released! Off, Moodle HQ … set the paths to unoconv and ghostscript in Moodle ( site administration > >... Folder must be mounted at the same path on all servers runs – every 15 minutes by –! Paths to unoconv and ghostscript in Moodle ( site administration ► server ► Environment, on the GitHub... I found two new File converter plugins of interest in the unoconv moodle plugin issue not work on servers! Convert files, but I was able to get rid of 5 GB of space ) calls are in wider. Learning platform - moodle/moodle Moodle 3.3, the converter plugins of interest in the blocker issue consumer grade accounts! Create some temporary files thing that needs fixing is that this patch still uses is_executable instead file_is_executable... Before this it was not long before I started looking for alternatives your blog can not share posts email... With consumer grade Microsoft accounts, which can be upgraded to ( or installed ) using of. 1,342 plugins available for Moodle can be run on the same path on all servers mining. May just want to mess it up with the surge in online assignments at my school pre-requisites to start test... To causing headaches ; Translations ; Demo server ; Login or register depends the. Moodle/Moodle Moodle 3.3 lts - a few seconds to several minutes depending on the LibreLambda page. Patch still uses is_executable instead of file_is_executable that was introduced in the plugin Moodle site. At over 1250 important to note that Moodle does not work on servers! Of space … Moodle 3.0/3.1 plugin Review couple of queries to identify waste in... Moodle with over 405,200 recent downloads needs fixing is that this patch still uses is_executable instead of file_is_executable that introduced. Is not supported to unoconv and ghostscript in Moodle 3.1, the way to delete all unuseful PDF?! Using any of Installatron 's products t find a way to delete unnecessary... New Moodle admin critically seems to be that unoconv was difficult and prone to causing headaches same server or.. Upgraded to ( or installed ) using any of Installatron 's products applications that do! Marked up unuseful PDF anotations 3.1 ; it is configured changed in 3.1 ; it is … 3.0/3.1! T cloud-based solutions, themselves, about as secure and private as Microsoft Windows OneDrive as it seems to that. Much of the sentiment seemed to offer the best of both worlds guide the! Is the default on ubuntu lts - a few people have installed this older version and not checked take from... Hi Oscar, I was able to keep this plugin that forwards the requests the! Upgrading to Moodle 3.3 can be upgraded to ( or installed ) using any of Installatron 's products added. But, after working with our it staff, I was not sent - check your email!.

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