Moodle forums: http://moodle.org/login/index.php
New Flash module thread:
http://moodle.org/mod/forum/view.php?f=603
Copy of post:
For any new-comers, here's a summary of what I'm proposing so far:
Already agreed upon by contributors:
* Create a new Flash module that integrates SWFs into Moodle, similar to the old Flash Activity Module.
* The new module must be Flash version independent - that is, you can use any version of Flash from MX 2004 (version 6) to Flash CS3 (version 9), and be upwardly compatible with any future versions of Flash. i.e. a PHP wrapper.
* Create a library of video tutorials and top-notch documentation with example source code to give the maximum possible help to anyone proposing to use this system. Making it accessible will be vital to its success.
Further proposals:
* The database and PHP code should be geared toward a dynamic media handling system using XML so a working module installation would have something like:
* Folders containing media GIFs, JPEGs, PNGs, FLVs, MP3s, SWFs (media only) and TXT.
* A folder containing XML files.
* A folder containing SWF presentations.
Any SWF presentation can, therefore, use any of the resources in the folders, negating the need to make a large number of duplicates as in the SCORM model, and making a very efficient, dynamic organisation of resources that is easy to maintain and edit. e.g. If you want to change a graphic or you find a typo, you don't have to open up every single zipped SCORM package that contains it to edit it. This is pretty much the same way that website media is handled anyway.
A developer will be able to create a presentation SWF, for example a quiz, that contains no media. The SWF loads an XML file that contains the questions and answers and references any necessary media such as video, MP3 files and images which make up a particular quiz. In this way, only a small number of SWFs are necessary to create a great number of quizzes.
I believe that, with this model, a new Flash activity module will be extremely powerful and versatile. Developers and resource designers will be free to explore the possibilities and come up with creative new ways to convey information and teach skills.
* There are currently 2 Javascript files that make it quick and easy to embed Flash: swfobject.js and AC_RunActiveContent.js. Although swfobject is by far the best option to date, some Flash users may want to use the standard AC_RunActiveContent.js that Flash CS3 publishes automatically just for convenience. A third, non-javascript version, would also be desirable.
Have I missed anything?
Comments, criticisms, ideas and support are all welcome. I'm a Flash developer, AS 2.0 and AS 3.0 including OOP, and just getting started in PHP and SQL. There are a number of areas that I'll need a lot of help with, so don't be shy, come and give me a hand!
Something else has occurred to me about this proposed framework/system - it would be very easy for developers to create 3rd party lessons (SWF presentations) that would be simple and easy to distribute and deploy. So if your Actionscript skills aren't advanced or you don't have the precious time to create your desired presentations, you could just get some that are ready-made 'off-the-shelf'. You'd get a SWF, a corresponding XML file (as a template/example) and some sample media (images, audio, video,etc.) just to see how it works, then the course designer just has to substitute the XML data and media. How easy would that be, especially with good docs and tutorials?!!
Being a newbie to PHP and SQL, I've been taking baby steps. Here's what I've been up to (comments and advice are most welcome):
<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd">
<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">
<?php
// Database access info
include("db.php");
// Connect to database
mysql_connect($host,$user,$pass);
mysql_select_db($database);
// Retrieve entire table (it's very small at the moment)
$result = mysql_query("SELECT * FROM `aa_mdl_newflash`");
// Get the table row number from the URL query string - e.g. ?rowno=3
// This will ultimately be retrieved from another MySQL table (courses + lessons)
// We also need to retrieve the lesson's corresponding XML file
$row = $_GET['rowno'];
// Make sure the 'rowno' query string variable isn't greater
// than the number of rows in the database table
// (This needs to be more dynamic i.e. get the length of the SQL table)
if ($row > 8) {
$row = 1;
}
// Assign the data to variables
$url = mysql_result($result,$row,"filename");
$swf = mysql_result($result,$row,"name");
$width = mysql_result($result,$row,"width");
$height = mysql_result($result,$row,"height");
$version = mysql_result($result,$row,"version");
$bgcolor = mysql_result($result,$row,"bgcolor");
// Always close the database connection when
// you've finished with it!
mysql_close();
// Define HTML page <head> parameters including CSS
$css = "<head>
<meta http-equiv=\"Content-Type\" content=\"text/html; charset=utf-8\" />
<title>Embed using PHP and SWFObject experiment</title><style type=\"text/css\">
<!--
.style1 {
font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;
font-weight: bold;
color: #666666;
}
-->
</style>
</head>";
// SWFObject embed code uses variables retrieved from MySQL database
// and a separate swfobject.js script that needs to be included
/*
SWFObject can also pass extra variables into the Flash SWF
It would be nice to be able to get the lesson's corresponding XML file
and pass it in here.
Does anyone know if you can pass an XML object in this way?
*/
$embed_swf = "<body><script type='text/javascript' src='swfobject.js'></script>
<div id='content'>To view the Flash content, please enable JavaScript in your browser.</div>
<script type='text/javascript'>
var so = new SWFObject('$url', '$swf', '$width', '$height', '$version', '$bgcolor');
so.addParam('wmode', 'transparent');
so.write('content');
</script>";
// Print out the database SWF embed data to the screeen
$embed_info = "<br />
<p class=\"style1\">This is an experiment using PHP code to output Javascript code to embed a SWF. If this works, you should see a Flash movie clip on the screen above. The specific variables to embed the SWF were retrieved from a MySQL database. Here they are:</p>
<p class=\"style1\">SQL rowno: '$row'</p>
<p class=\"style1\">SWF url: '$url'</p>
<p class=\"style1\">SWF name: '$swf'</p>
<p class=\"style1\">SWF width: '$width'</p>
<p class=\"style1\">SWF height: '$height'</p>
<p class=\"style1\">SWF version: '$version'</p>
<p class=\"style1\">SWF bgcolor: '$bgcolor'</p></body>";
// Display the page
echo $css.$embed_swf.$embed_info;
?>
</html>