Moodle

Overview

Moodle is a free and open-source online learning management system.

Integration Use Cases

1. As a teacher on Moodle, I want to send profile, enrollment, and grade updates to CommCare so I can continue supporting students offline.
2. As a teacher on Moodle, I want to automatically send student engagement data to CommCare so I can integrate SMS notifications to increase student participation.
3. As a student on Moodle, I want to access my course data and grades even when not connected to the internet.

Learn More

Helpful links...

1. Moodle Docs – https://docs.moodle.org/310/en/Main_page
2. Moodle API Docs - https://moodle.org/plugins/webservice_restful

Integration Options

Data integration via the Moodle web API: https://moodle.org/plugins/webservice_restful

Data forwarding using a Webhook: https://moodle.org/plugins/local_webhooks

More on the Moodle API

Sample HTTP requests

Authentication:
GET mymoodlesite.com/login/token.php?service=moodle_mobile_app &username=USERNAME&password=PASSWORD

Retrieve course information for all courses:
GET /cv_dgdp/webservice/rest/server.php?wstoken=TOKEN&wsfunction= core_course_get_courses&moodlewsrestformat=json HTTP/1.1

Retrieve enrolled users in a specific course:
GET /cv_dgdp/webservice/rest/server.php?wstoken=TOKEN&wsfunction= core_enrol_get_enrolled_users&courseid=225&moodlewsrestformat=json HTTP/1.1

Retrieve all final grades for one student:
GET /cv_dgdp/webservice/rest/server.php?wstoken=TOKEN&wsfunction= gradereport_user_get_grade_items&userid=46580&courseid=225&moodlewsrestformat=json HTTP/1.1

Integration tips

1. The endpoint get_enrolled_users does not return all user profile details. We have had to access core_user_get_users_by_field and filter by one specific user to retrieve profile information such as phone number and address.
2. Googling the endpoint you're using goes a long way!

Connect with OpenFn

The language-http can be used to make HTTP requests to the Moodle API.

Implementation Examples

Moodle -> CommCare Integration:

In a project implementation for creating an education app (based on CommCare), we extract data from a Moodle learning management system daily, and then upload Moodle student user data as case records in Commcare.

Example User Story: As a coach using CommCare, when a student's profile and grades are updated in Moodle, I would like to automatically see that data reflected in my mobile app so that I can follow-up with the relevant support to ensure they perform well.

Example job to get enrolled users via the Moodle API endpoint (aka web service function): core_enrol_get_enrolled_users

fn(state => {
  const { loginUrl, username, password, host } = state.configuration;
  return get(
    `${loginUrl}&username=${username}&password=${password}`,
    {},
    state => {
      const { token } = state.data;
      const courseIds = [224, 225];
      const enrolledUsers = [];
      return each(
        courseIds,
        fn(state => {
          let courseid = state.data;
          return get(
            `${host}`,
            {
              query: {
                wstoken: token,
                wsfunction: 'core_enrol_get_enrolled_users',
                courseid,
                moodlewsrestformat: 'json',
              },
              headers: { 'content-type': 'application/json' },
            },
            state => {
              console.log(
                `Getting users enrolled in the course with ${courseid}...`
              );
              enrolledUsers.push(state.data);
              return { ...state, enrolledUsers };
            }
          )(state);
        })
      )(state);
    }
  )(state);
});