We are trying to access /usr/bin/gs an /usr/bin/unoconv to allow teachers to grade students. Student Submits Non-PDF Document 2. It’s my mortal enemy. 65 GB usable) No user or course limits applied. Did you find a way to delete all unuseful pdf anotations? Moodle version 3.3 is now available. LibreOffice needs write access to the current users home directory to create some temporary files. Share the moodle data root between the webservers and the machine running unoconv. To start the test, you MUST install unoconv version 0.6. Moodle 3.0/3.1 Plugin Review. PDF conversion in new assignment grading interface does not work on windows servers, https://github.com/abgreeve/moodle/compare/65cbefc...wip-MDL-53923-master, Visit Site administration ► Server ► Environment, You should see the following warning message under, Visit Site administration ► Plugins ► Activity modules ► Assignment ► Feedback plugins ► Annotate PDF. 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. 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. 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. It’s an interesting point. It was an easy win for a new Moodle admin. We should check and warn if their version is too old. Everything you need to setup both Moodle and AWS is included in this plugin. Modify moodlesite.tld.conf?… Forums. AICC content packages are supported in … I’m now trying to find the way to delete all unnecessary converted documents to get rid of 5 GB of space. 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). When I took over as the Moodle admin at my school, I mostly knew Unoconv by it’s reputation, which is… bad (really bad.) 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. 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. Technically speaking, in Moodle 3.1, the File API added the ability to convert files, but local unoconv was a requirement. When talking shop with other Moodlers, one common pain point lies with Document Converter plugins. Click on the Download button and make sure a test pdf was generated. Click on Test unoconv path link under Path to unoconv document converter The Google Drive document converter was added by the Moodle core team as an easier plug and play solution. 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. Upgrading to Moodle 3.3 Moodle 3.3 can be upgraded to (or installed) using any of Installatron's products. Like you, I can’t ethically recommend or use Google for this – total privacy should always be our default starting point. This might take anywhere from a few seconds to several minutes depending on the document and the speed of the conversion process. 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. Try Jira - bug tracking software for your team. Then….COVID-19 and online instruction happened. 2 vCPUs; 4 GB RAM; 80 GB SSD (Aprox. 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. Sorry, your blog cannot share posts by email. 0.6 is the default on ubuntu lts - a few people have installed this older version and not checked. This utility was clearly not intended for the specific Moodle use scenario and it was … A scheduled task runs – every 15 minutes by default – to convert any newly-submitted files to PDF so they can be marked up. I finally made a couple of queries to identify waste records in database. 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. Can install plugins or themes; Can use custom domain; Can use official Moodle™ App; Unoconv Document converter; Antivirus; Recycle bin; Access to Web Services; Global search; Moodle™ Stats; Sign up for free. 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. You should see an warning saying the unoconv version is not supported. Mobile. Moodle becomes art thanks to the “Word Art” exhibit in Butler University’s Irwin Library. Install a wrapper for unoconv on the webservers that forwards the requests to the remote server. My main hesitation in using the Google solution was privacy. 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. Thanks Ben. Unresolved Threads; Plugin-Store; Bug Tracker; Development; Documentation; Translations; Demo Server; Login or register. 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 . Things continued smoothly for well over a year – aside from some blurriness on the converted documents I had no complaints with the Google converter. 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. 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. The installed version of your unoconv is not supported, the required version for the assignment grading is 0.7 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. 22 May 2017. 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. I was quite pleased with the Google solution. In the wider Moodle-verse, things didn’t seem much better. Pre-requisites. Now? Visit Site administration ► Server ► Environment The aims of this plugin are to: Unoconv 0.7 is required for document conversions because it fixes some problems with running headless as apache user. 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. I sincerely hope they are able to keep this plugin updated for new versions of Moodle! From an administration standpoint, it’s important to note that Moodle does not perform document conversion itself. and this can be undesirable. Suffice it to say, it was not long before I started looking for alternatives. I haven’t used LibreLambda yet. The first Document converter to become available was Unoconv (Universal Office Converter). TEST 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. 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. $600 USD / year $350 / 6 months | $200 / 3 months | $75 / 1 month. With high hopes, I followed the guide on the LibreLambda GitHub page. The queue of pending conversions kept growing. 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. 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. A bug in the onuconv release 0.7 (which is deployed by debian 10) prevent the unoconv to … 2 April 2019. Moodle 3.3 . Powered by a free Atlassian Jira open source license for Moodle. Each plugin is maintained in the Moodle plugins directory. Click Test unoconv path. 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. Hi Ben, I’m very comfortable with mysql. 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. 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. Many Moodle themes, based on responsive web design, allow Moodle to be used on mobile devices. 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. So far looks to be superior to the Google Drive converter. 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). This folder must be mounted at the same path on all servers. Teacher Annotates PDF Click on Test unoconv path link under Path to unoconv document converter who knows what type of data mining would be done on student work? Aren’t cloud-based solutions, themselves, about as secure and private as Microsoft Windows? Post was not sent - check your email addresses! Visit Site administration ► Plugins ► Activity modules ► Assignment ► Feedback plugins ► Annotate PDF 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. But, after working with our IT staff, I was able to get a service account under our Google Apps for Edu domain. … You should see an warning saying the unoconv version is not supported. Obviously moodle cann't access /usr/bin by permissions. It uses a slick cloud-based solution but allows the end-user to maintain ownership and privacy of student data. As you said “even if an assignment has PDF Annotate turned OFF, Moodle still adds its submissions to the conversion queue”. To help you get oriented … Everywhere; This … It’s clear that a good user experience for graders depends on the conversion process running smoothly. My users were missing the annotation capability on Word files, but I was not optimistic about using unoconv. We compiled a list of popular 3rd party plugins for Moodle and then determined if they were compatible with 3.0 and 3.1. You should NOT see any unoconv related warning. Moodle - the world's open source learning platform - moodle/moodle Onedrive and LibreLamba. Confirm the version by executing: unconv --version Document Converted By Moodle 3. Visit Site administration ► Plugins ► Activity modules ► Assignment ► Feedback plugins ► Annotate PDF 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. This folder must be mounted at the same path on all servers. After letting the process run for a few days, I’m impressed. The aims of this plugin are to: View the Unoconv test PDF: Browse to Site administration → Plugins → Document converters → Manage document converters, and click Settings for the Unoconv entry. I’ve disabled the Scheduled Task “Prepare Submissions for Annotation.”. 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. Naturally, many professors enjoy the flexibility and convenience of annotating without requiring students to manage submitting their assignments in the correct file format (talk about herding cats!). The plugin interfaces Moodle with the AWS services. Photo credit: Ken Newquist. With high hopes, I followed the guide on the LibreLambda GitHub page. 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. I quickly ruled out OneDrive as it seems to only be compatible with consumer grade Microsoft accounts, which again raises privacy issues. This is so the annotation feedback plugin can be used on a wider variety of student submissions. All the get_string () calls are in the plugin. Now, install the unoconv version 0.7 or higher Once that is done this looks good for integration. During Day 2 of Hack/Doc Fest at Butler the team tackled a review of third-party plugin compatibility with Moodle 3.0 and 3.1, continued our accessibility work by testing new tools and documenting best practices, reacquainted ourselves with the Workshop plugin, and delved deeply into … Core provides the functions to test unoconv - but the plugin provides the UI that does the testing. 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 We compiled a list of popular 3rd party plugins for Moodle and then determined if they were compatible with 3.0 and 3.1. Apart from unoconv, There are various web services and different applications that can do this conversion work. Graphical themes for Moodle can be installed to change the look and functionality of a Moodle site or of an individual course. 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? Themes. Also find the moosh command to purge them. Set up a Moodle site with working Unoconv with pathtounoconv correctly set up. All content on this web site is made available under the. You may just want to look at disabling the Annotate PDF Feedback plugin altogether if your server can’t handle the space. 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. $ string ['privacy:metadata:repository_googledocs:searchtext'] = 'The Google Drive repository user … When researching alternatives, I found two new file converter plugins of interest in the Moodle plugins database. 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 . PDF Conversion • Non-PDF Documents Must Be Converted • Conversion Occurs Outside Moodle • Conversion Process: 1. The plugin interfaces Moodle with the AWS services. $ string ['privacy:metadata:repository_googledocs:email'] = 'The email of the Google Drive repository user.' Site administration ► Server ► Environment, On the unoconv test page, you should see confirmation the. 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 … unoconv installed and working on the host system; ghostscript installed and working on the host system; ghostscript configured in Moodle 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. LibreLamba, however, seemed to offer the best of both worlds. MDL-53837 Open the firewall port 2002 between the moodle webservers and the machine running unoconv. As of June 2017, there are 1,342 plugins available for Moodle with over 405,200 recent downloads. PDF conversion in new assignment grading interface does not work on windows servers. Exclusive Virtual Server. Don ’ t want to look at disabling the Annotate PDF feedback plugin can be marked up $ 75 1. 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