A topics based format that uses a grid of user selectable images to pop up a light box of the section.
This version works with Moodle 3.5 version 2018051700.00 (Build: 20180517) and above within the 3.5 branch until the next release.
Please ensure that your hardware and software complies with 'Requirements' in 'Installing Moodle' on 'docs.moodle.org/35/en/Installing_Moodle'.
The Grid format is 'free' software under the terms of the GNU GPLv3 License, please see 'COPYING.txt'.
The primary source for downloading this branch of the format is https://moodle.org/plugins/view.php?plugin=format_grid with 'Select Moodle version:' set at 'Moodle 3.5'.
The secondary source is a tagged version with the v3.5 prefix on https://github.com/gjb2048/moodle-courseformat_grid/tags
If you download from the development area - https://github.com/gjb2048/moodle-courseformat_grid/ - consider that the code is unstable and not for use in production environments. This is because I develop the next version in stages and use GitHub as a means of backup. Therefore the code is not finished, subject to alteration and requires testing.
You have all the rights granted to you by the GPLv3 license. If you are unsure about anything, then the FAQ - http://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl-faq.html - is a good place to look.
If you reuse any of the code then I kindly ask that you make reference to the format.
If you make improvements or bug fixes then I would appreciate if you would send them back to me by forking from https://github.com/gjb2048/moodle-courseformat_grid and doing a 'Pull Request' so that the rest of the Moodle community benefits.
The Grid format comes with NO support. If you would like support from me (Gareth) then I'm happy to provide it for a fee (please see my contact details below). Otherwise, the 'Courses and course formats' forum: moodle.org/mod/forum/view.php?id=47 is an excellent place to ask questions.
If you find Grid useful and beneficial, please consider sponsoring by:
PayPal - Please contact me via my 'Moodle profile' (above) for details as I am an individual and therefore am unable to have 'buy me now' buttons under their terms.
I develop and maintain for free and any sponsorships to assist me in this endeavour are appreciated.
- Ensure you have the version of Moodle as stated above in 'Required version of Moodle'. This is essential as the format relies on underlying core code that is out of my control.
- Put Moodle in 'Maintenance Mode' (docs.moodle.org/en/admin/setting/maintenancemode) so that there are no users using it bar you as the administrator - if you have not already done so.
- Copy 'grid' to '/course/format/' if you have not already done so.
- Go back in as an administrator and follow standard the 'plugin' update notification. If needed, go to 'Site administration' -> 'Notifications' if this does not happen.
- Put Moodle out of Maintenance Mode.
- You may need to check that the permissions within the 'grid' folder are 755 for folders and 644 for files.
- Put Moodle in 'Maintenance Mode' so that there are no users using it bar you as the administrator.
- It is recommended but not essential to change all of the courses that use the format to another. If this is not done Moodle will pick the last format in your list of formats to use but display in 'Edit settings' of the course the first format in the list. You can then set the desired format.
- In '/course/format/' remove the folder 'grid'.
- In the database, remove the row with the 'plugin' of 'format_grid' and 'name' of 'version' in the 'config_plugins' table and drop the 'format_grid_icon' and 'format_grid_summary' tables.
- Put Moodle out of Maintenance Mode.
- Ensure you have the version of Moodle as stated above in 'Required version of Moodle'. This is essential as the format relies on underlying core code that is out of my control.
- Put Moodle in 'Maintenance Mode' so that there are no users using it bar you as the administrator.
- In '/course/format/' move old 'grid' directory to a backup folder outside of Moodle.
- Copy new 'grid' to '/course/format/'.
- Go back in as an administrator and follow standard the 'plugin' update notification. If needed, go to 'Site administration' -> 'Notifications' if this does not happen.
- If you have upgraded from Moodle 1.9 and were using the Grid format there, please follow 'Upgrading from M1.9' below and then return back here.
- If automatic 'Purge all caches' appears not to work by lack of display etc. then perform a manual 'Purge all caches' under 'Home -> Site administration -> Development -> Purge all caches'.
- Put Moodle out of Maintenance Mode.
When upgrading from Moodle 1.9 the grid icon images are moved to a 'legacy' files area. So they will not show up when you view the course as the format can no longer find them. Therefore AFTER upgrading to Moodle 2.2+ please run the script 'convert_legacy_image.php' as follows:
- Ensure you have updated fully to Moodle 2.2+.
- Ensure you have updated properly to the Moodle 2.2+ version of the Grid format by clicking on 'Notifications' if you had not replaced the folder before performing the Moodle 2.2+ upgrade.
- Change the URL to have from the root of your Moodle installation: /course/format/grid/upgrade/convert_legacy_image.php - i.e: http://www.mysite.com/moodle/course/format/grid/upgrade/convert_legacy_image.php If you wish to crop instead of scaling the images then append '?crop=1' to the end of the URL like so: http://www.mysite.com/moodle/course/format/grid/upgrade/convert_legacy_image.php?crop=1 If you wish to get the full log output then append '?logverbose=1' to the end of the URL like so: http://www.mysite.com/moodle/course/format/grid/upgrade/convert_legacy_image.php?logverbose=1 or with crop: http://www.mysite.com/moodle/course/format/grid/upgrade/convert_legacy_image.php?logverbose=1&crop=1 But keep in mind that with lots of records in the 'files' table this can cause the script to fail.
- Observe the output of the script which is also replicated in the PHP log file.
- Go back to the grid format course and confirm that the images are there. It is possible that some old legacy files remain from old images that were replaced. At the present moment in time I have no way of detecting them (to be certain that they are from the Grid format) in code.
- I'm not sure of the security vulnerabilities of the script on the server so after you have used it and are confident of the results then move it from the '/course/format/grid/upgrade/' folder to a safe non-served folder.
If for any reason you need to downgrade to a previous version of the format then the procedure will inform you how to do so:
- Put Moodle in 'Maintenance Mode' so that there are no users using it bar you as the administrator.
- In '/course/format/' remove the folder 'grid' i.e. ALL it's contents - this is VITAL.
- Put in the replacement 'grid' folder into '/course/format/'.
- This step depends on if you are downgrading to a version prior to 15th July 2012, this should therefore only be for Moodle 2.3.x and below versions. If you are, perform step 4.1 otherwise, perform step 4.2. 4.1 In the database, remove the row with the 'plugin' of 'format_grid' and 'name' of 'version' in the 'config_plugins' table and drop the 'format_grid_icon' and 'format_grid_summary' tables. If automatic 'Purge all caches' appears not to work by lack of display etc. then perform a manual 'Purge all caches' under 'Home -> Site administration -> Development -> Purge all caches'. 4.2 In the database, change the row with the 'plugin' of 'format_grid' and 'name' of 'version' in the 'config_plugins' table to have the same 'value' as '$plugin->version' in the 'grid/version.php' file i.e. like '2013083000'. Then perform a manual 'Purge all caches' under 'Home -> Site administration -> Development -> Purge all caches'.
- Go back in as an administrator and follow standard the 'plugin' update notification. If needed, go to 'Site administration' -> 'Notifications' if this does not happen.
- Put Moodle out of Maintenance Mode.
Before reporting an issue, please ensure that you are running the latest version for your release of Moodle. Major version numbers are always the same, so for Moodle 2.5.x there will be a Grid format 2.5.x. The primary release area is located on https://moodle.org/plugins/view.php?plugin=format_grid. It is also essential that you are operating the required version of Moodle as stated at the top - this is because the format relies on core functionality that is out of its control.
All 'Grid format' does is integrate with the course page and control it's layout, therefore what may appear to be an issue with the format is in fact to do with a theme or core component. Please be confident that it is an issue with 'Grid format' but if in doubt, ask.
I operate a policy that I will fix all genuine issues for free (this only applies to the code as supplied from the sources listed in 'Free Software' above. Any changes / improvements you make are not covered and invalidate this policy for all of the code). Improvements are at our discretion. I am happy to make bespoke customisations / improvements for a negotiated fee. I will endeavour to respond to all requests for support as quickly as possible, if you require a faster service then offering payment for the service will expedite the response.
It takes time and effort to maintain the format, therefore sponsorships are appreciated.
When reporting an issue you can post in the course format's forum on Moodle.org (currently 'moodle.org/mod/forum/view.php?id=47'), on Moodle tracker 'tracker.moodle.org' ensuring that you chose the 'Non-core contributed modules' and 'Course Format: Grid' for the component or contact us direct (details at the bottom).
It is essential that you provide as much information as possible, the critical information being the contents of the format's version.php file. Other version information such as specific Moodle version, theme name and version also helps. A screen shot can be really useful in visualising the issue along with any files you consider to be relevant.
Click on a grid icon or use 'esc' to open the current selected icon which will then display the shade box containing the section content. Click on the 'X' or use 'esc' to close.
Use the 'left' / 'right' cursor keys to select the previous / next section when the shade box is and is not displayed.
Use the 'left' / 'right' arrows that appear when hovering over the middle of the border when the shade box is shown to navigate to the previous / next section.
When the 'Course layout' course setting are set to 'Show all sections on one page' the shade box will operate. When set to 'Show one section per page' the shade box will not show but instead the icons will act like links as they do with the 'Topics' format and take you to a single section page.
Use the 'Change image' link underneath each icon to change the icon's image.
Edit the sections underneath the icons in the normal way. Note: Some things like current section colour will not update until page refresh.
The shade box is not shown in this mode.
If you wish for a user not to see the grid and shadebox and have the course presented like the Topics format, then add a custom user checkbox field with a shortname of 'accessible' and on the user profile tick it, please see:
https://docs.moodle.org/en/User_profile_fields
and:
To change the 'gridkeys.js' code then you'll firstly need to read: http://docs.moodle.org/dev/YUI/Shifter it is used to build the source in '/yui/src/gridkeys/js/gridkeys.js' and bring in the 'gallery-event-nav-keys' to build the YUI module into 'yui/build/moodle-format_grid-gridkeys' and place a back port minified version in '/yui/gridkeys' for use in Moodle 2.3 and 2.4 versions - so even if you have those versions you will need this Moodle 2.5 version to make changes. The compiled YUI module is then loaded in all versions (2.3, 2.4 and 2.5) in 'renderer.php' by the line: $PAGE->requires->yui_module('moodle-format_grid-gridkeys', 'M.format_grid.gridkeys.init', null, null, true); So even though the location is different for M2.3 / M2.4 than M2.5 it's the same - that's a M2.5+ thing. There is no rocket science to using / learning Shifter, I did so late on a Saturday night whilst half asleep - admittedly with Andrew's on-line assistance.
Edit 'styles.css', change the value in the '.course-content ul.gridicons li.currentselected' selector and perform a 'Purge all caches' or override in your theme.
Edit 'styles.css', change the value in the '.course-content ul.gridicons li.current' selector and perform a 'Purge all caches' or override in your theme.
The grid/lang folder contains the language files for the format.
Note that existing formats store their language strings in the main moodle.php, which you can also do, but this separate file is recommended for contributed formats.
Of course you can have other folders as well as English etc. if you want to provide multiple languages.
The file grid/styles.css contains the CSS styles for the format which can be overridden by the theme.
The files:
grid/backup/moodle2/backup_format_grid_plugin.class.php grid/backup/moodle2/restore_format_grid_plugin.class.php
are responsible for backup and restore.
Backup and restore run automatically when backing up the course. You can't back up the course format data independently.
- Improved instructions including Moodle docs.
- User definable grid row icon numbers - https://moodle.org/mod/forum/discuss.php?d=196716
- Continued maintenance of issues.
- Ongoing structured walk through and refactoring.
- All listed on https://tracker.moodle.org/browse/CONTRIB/component/11231.
See Changes.md
G J Barnard - Moodle profile: moodle.org/user/profile.php?id=442195 - Web profile: about.me/gjbarnard