Moodle

I think this approach to the breadcrumb would be really helpful. The approach of website>course>resources > resource appeals to some users, but many are confused by it. In a topic-based course, most users I've observed want to see the activities associated with the topic they are working on, not the other activities of the same type distributed across all topics. Ideally, admins would be given an opportunity to configure what elements appear in the breadcrumb.

Absolutely!

The present breadcrumb setup appears focussed on the course designer rather than the learner who typically wants to go back from using a resource to the related activities for that content and neither needs nor wants a list of all the resources for all parts of the course as the first link back from a resource serving a particular part. (In fact I just came on this because I was searching for 'breadcrumbs' so I could find out if I was missing a setting to get the more logical setup)

I'd like to see something done about this one too, it would seem to be a logical option to have, just like the ability to switch off the 'activity/resource type' breadcrumb link in the theme settings.

Just for curiosity:

1) Should we support all these:
a) course -> activity type -> activity (current one)
b) course -> section -> activity (proposed one)
c) course -> section -> activity type -> activity

2) The current "hideactivitytypenavlink" setting in admin->themes would continue being applied to a) and c), correct? Do we need a parallel "hideasectionnavlink" setting to be applied to b) and c) ?

3) The "section" part of the breadcrumb... should be a simple text or... one link to... where?

Ciao

Hi Eloy!

I'd say definitely to (b), and for completeness and consistency (c) would be nice. Same goes for (2) - should have another flag to support this being switched on and off.

Finally re (3) - I'd say that it should be a link, and the link should have the same effect as displaying just the one topic and hiding all other topics.

My two cents only

Mark.

And of course we have to add the ability to name sections ... unless it's enough just have topic 1, topic 2 etc ...

That's a great idea Martin
I'd really like to see the ability to name topics/sections but for this purpose it would have to be a very short name, so maybe users wouldn't be happy with that either. I have found at the uni where I work that teachers like to name things but most will quickly revert to week1, week2 etc. so that seems quite adequate.

The title of the first activity/resource, as it appears now, seems a good default name (without repeating it in the bread crumbs)

My view of a (bread)crumb trail is the path you have been on, not an indication of the current location in the structure (which is a useful thing), though this would be a challange to program given the flexible navigation available.

To my fairly new look at Moodle there seems to be a few areas, eg. Reports/Logs, where the navigation is mixed with the crumb trail concept - so viewing a log from another course puts a 'crumb' for that course in the trail, although being able to navigate directly to the new course is a great feature it's not what I expected, I'd like to get back to where I was without reversing my browser (far too many sites where the back btn is essential) or viewing another log from the course I was working on.

Mal.

The idea behind course -> activity type -> activity (current one) is still a nice idea: if you are in a forum it makes sense to say to the student: hello, there are more forums for you.

In most of the other cases ( resources) it fails: it is to global, even in a course.

Is it not possible for a teacher - as a choice - to "overrule" this automatism and replace it with a "topic-related" cue:

course->topic-related->topic-activity-or-resource:

On the setting page of a resource or an activity it is possible to fill/chosse a topic-tag-field.
Can we use the tagging mechanism for this?

(extra: and the user can choose/add a topic-specific-icon for that topic.)

When you switch the "show-topic-related" option on you will see:

1. the topic-related icon in the page-view of a course instead of - or in front of - the activity/resource-type
icon

2. in the navigation bar I open a resource and get:

course->topic-related->topic-activity-or-resource:

if I click on topic-related, I get a list of all the resources and activities with the same tag..?

The 2.0 navigation now contains sections, and sections can be named if desired.

Unfortunately we lost the activity index pages in this change, since its difficult to make them work in the navigation. On the other hand, there is still the Activities block fulfilling this function.

I feel like having a little cry when a bug this old gets resolved - its like saying goodbye to an old friend sniff

Nice work to all

There there, Mark. (hug) You can always stay on 1.9.

Well, this is exactly what I was looking for.
I presume if there is code for 2.0 for option b mentioned above:
b) course -> section -> activity (proposed one),
then something must be doable to 1.9.
Code and instructions here http://docs.moodle.org/en/Administrator_documentation would be very much appreciated.

Thanks for EVERYTHING,

James

PS is there a sytem for notification of replies to this?

Hi James,

If you add yourself as a watcher to the issue you will receive emails with the comments and changes that occur on an issue.
You can add yourself as a watcher by logging in and then clicking `Watch` which is at the top right of the issue under the `People` heading.

Regarding your question about adding breadcrumbs in 1.9, there are significant changes in 2.0 so it's not easily backported to 1.9. However I am pretty sure you could do it by making small changes to the build_navigation function within lib/weblib.php. I think if you search the forums you should be able to find some examples of how to do this.

Cheers
Sam