Moodle

ability to export forum content at the end of the term

Details

  • Type: New Feature New Feature
  • Status: Open Open
  • Priority: Minor Minor
  • Resolution: Unresolved
  • Affects Version/s: 1.8, 1.9.2
  • Fix Version/s: None
  • Component/s: Forum
  • Labels:
    None
  • Environment:
    any
  • Database:
    Any
  • Affected Branches:
    MOODLE_18_STABLE, MOODLE_19_STABLE

Description

My faculty would really like the ability to export the content from each forum as a record of the "conversation" from each term. That way, we could keep it as an archive or as a record of the activity in the class.

Issue Links

This issue has a non-specific relationship to:
MDL-19254 export forum discussion Minor Closed

Activity

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Mark Halvorson added a comment -

Both our faculty and our students would love to have the ability to export the content of a forum in a single document format (i.e. rft, html). We are in the process of migrating to Moodle and this is a feature that we had in our previous LMS (it will be missed).

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Mark Halvorson added a comment - Both our faculty and our students would love to have the ability to export the content of a forum in a single document format (i.e. rft, html). We are in the process of migrating to Moodle and this is a feature that we had in our previous LMS (it will be missed).
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Ann Adamcik added a comment -

We're currently testing a 1.9.x patch that will allow users to export or print an entire forum.

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Ann Adamcik added a comment - We're currently testing a 1.9.x patch that will allow users to export or print an entire forum.
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Ann Adamcik added a comment -

Here's a 1.9.x patch that allows users to export or print an entire forum.

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Ann Adamcik added a comment - Here's a 1.9.x patch that allows users to export or print an entire forum.
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Joseph Rézeau added a comment -

Hi Ann, could you please provide some documentation on how to use forumexport?
I have installed it on my moodle 1.9 install, applied the patch to the various files, but how does one call it?
If I type moodle/mod/forum/export/export.php I get error message: A required parameter (f) was missing
Please help!
Joseph

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Joseph Rézeau added a comment - Hi Ann, could you please provide some documentation on how to use forumexport? I have installed it on my moodle 1.9 install, applied the patch to the various files, but how does one call it? If I type moodle/mod/forum/export/export.php I get error message: A required parameter (f) was missing Please help! Joseph
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Joseph Rézeau added a comment -

Hm, actually I thought I had patched mod/forum/lib and mod/forum/view but I can't, your patch file produces rejects...

Can you please provide a new patch file which works with current moodle 1.9.4 forum files? thanks
Joseph

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Joseph Rézeau added a comment - Hm, actually I thought I had patched mod/forum/lib and mod/forum/view but I can't, your patch file produces rejects... Can you please provide a new patch file which works with current moodle 1.9.4 forum files? thanks Joseph
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Joseph Rézeau added a comment -

OK, I finally managed to patch my current 1.9.4 forum files, by hand.
It is quite easy to export the contents of one forum in a variety of formats.
(but download label and printlabel do not work)

I regret that in the output it's not possible to display the messages in nested form. Messages are only displayed in the "flat, with oldest first" format. Options should be provided OR the forumexport lib should detect the user's current setting for forum reading and use that current setting in its export display.

This forumexport utility may be useful for exporting ONE forum, but it cannot export multiple forums as can Dean Stringer's utility http://moodle.org/mod/forum/discuss.php?d=99400#p439599

Joseph

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Joseph Rézeau added a comment - OK, I finally managed to patch my current 1.9.4 forum files, by hand. It is quite easy to export the contents of one forum in a variety of formats. (but download label and printlabel do not work) I regret that in the output it's not possible to display the messages in nested form. Messages are only displayed in the "flat, with oldest first" format. Options should be provided OR the forumexport lib should detect the user's current setting for forum reading and use that current setting in its export display. This forumexport utility may be useful for exporting ONE forum, but it cannot export multiple forums as can Dean Stringer's utility http://moodle.org/mod/forum/discuss.php?d=99400#p439599 Joseph
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Elena Ivanova added a comment -

This is one of the most common features that faculty request here, so it would be nice to put it into the core.

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Elena Ivanova added a comment - This is one of the most common features that faculty request here, so it would be nice to put it into the core.
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Paulo Matos added a comment - - edited

This link might be relevant, and points to discussion as well.

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Paulo Matos added a comment - - edited This link might be relevant, and points to discussion as well.
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Paulo Matos added a comment -

Since this things tend to disappear over time, attached XSLT solution (referred above) and (still) available at
http://online.waikato.ac.nz/wcel/development/forum-archive/forum-archive.zip

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Paulo Matos added a comment - Since this things tend to disappear over time, attached XSLT solution (referred above) and (still) available at http://online.waikato.ac.nz/wcel/development/forum-archive/forum-archive.zip
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Paulo Matos added a comment - - edited

In the screenshot you can see an example of output done by XSLT (forum-archive).

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Paulo Matos added a comment - - edited In the screenshot you can see an example of output done by XSLT (forum-archive).
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Dean Stringer added a comment -

Hey folks. I'm the author of the XSLT solution Joseph and Paulo mention above. If you are interested in pursuing this approach keep in contact with me, I would be happy to help extend or alter our XSLT to suit what you plan to do. I realise much of this change will really be UI changes in Moodle to allow a teacher to do the export without having to resort to command-line magik, but there are some things I would change in the actual XSLT to make the render a little more flexible.

There is also a need for an XSLT processor. PHP4 no longer ships with an XSLT engine built-in, but PHP5 is usually configured with libxslt support so it should be possible to do the transform as a PHP request within Moodle. The breadth of support for this would need to be checked tho. Another thing to note is the script would need to trigger a course backup or know when backups are complete for the course, it would also read access to the folder the moodle backups are written to (as that is what it processes to generate the forum output).

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Dean Stringer added a comment - Hey folks. I'm the author of the XSLT solution Joseph and Paulo mention above. If you are interested in pursuing this approach keep in contact with me, I would be happy to help extend or alter our XSLT to suit what you plan to do. I realise much of this change will really be UI changes in Moodle to allow a teacher to do the export without having to resort to command-line magik, but there are some things I would change in the actual XSLT to make the render a little more flexible. There is also a need for an XSLT processor. PHP4 no longer ships with an XSLT engine built-in, but PHP5 is usually configured with libxslt support so it should be possible to do the transform as a PHP request within Moodle. The breadth of support for this would need to be checked tho. Another thing to note is the script would need to trigger a course backup or know when backups are complete for the course, it would also read access to the folder the moodle backups are written to (as that is what it processes to generate the forum output).
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Joseph Rézeau added a comment -

Hi Dean and Paulo,
I'm away from home at the moment, but am still interested in pursuing this forum export thread. Will look at it a little later in the month and report my findings here.
Joseph

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Joseph Rézeau added a comment - Hi Dean and Paulo, I'm away from home at the moment, but am still interested in pursuing this forum export thread. Will look at it a little later in the month and report my findings here. Joseph
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Debra Burdick added a comment -

This is TOTALLY AWESOME thanks so much for your contributions. We are using the "heck" outta this. Great way to archive valuable forums and share with other classes. You guys ROCK!

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Debra Burdick added a comment - This is TOTALLY AWESOME thanks so much for your contributions. We are using the "heck" outta this. Great way to archive valuable forums and share with other classes. You guys ROCK!
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Caroline Moore added a comment -

Moodle 2 has added the ability to export individual discussions from within forums. While the ability to export individual forum discussions is a great improvement, the ability to export an entire forum's discussions all at once would be much, much better. For instance, my faculty often require each student to post to the forum. They may also post replies to each other, but the number of discussions is equal to the number of students in the class. In a large class, exporting these discussions (many of which are only one post) individually would take an enormous amount of time.

Please, please add the ability to export an entire forum, and/or to view all discussion threads on one page for easy printing.

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Caroline Moore added a comment - Moodle 2 has added the ability to export individual discussions from within forums. While the ability to export individual forum discussions is a great improvement, the ability to export an entire forum's discussions all at once would be much, much better. For instance, my faculty often require each student to post to the forum. They may also post replies to each other, but the number of discussions is equal to the number of students in the class. In a large class, exporting these discussions (many of which are only one post) individually would take an enormous amount of time. Please, please add the ability to export an entire forum, and/or to view all discussion threads on one page for easy printing.
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Joseph Rézeau added a comment -

@Caroline, I do not see how you can "export individual forum discusions" in Moodle 2.
Please provide more info.
Joseph

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Joseph Rézeau added a comment - @Caroline, I do not see how you can "export individual forum discusions" in Moodle 2. Please provide more info. Joseph

Dates

  • Created:
    Updated:
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