There are two ways you can set up CourseSales.com to interact with Moodle, by far the easiest is using the CourseSales.com Moodle Plugins, these give you control over the creation of courses, duplication of data etc. However you may wish to use Moodle export maps.

1. CourseSales.com Moodle plugins CourseSales.com offer three Moodle plugins: Authentication (uses the username/password in CourseSales.com), Enrolment (receives registrations from CourseSales.com) and Local (where most settings are as well as managing completion).

• Authentication: So a student logs in to Moodle using the username/password details determined at registration, maintained at CourseSales.com,

• Enrolment: grants a student access to the courses the student is registered for, and

• Local: among other things ensures that upon completion of a course activity by a student, a CourseSales.com process step is triggered, sending emails with PDFs, eg a certificate.

  Credentials (username and password) are maintained via the CourseSales.com student portal by the student, or the administration portal by the course administrator. Course dates can be synchronized from CourseSales.com to Moodle.

1. Moodle Export Maps For unidirectional communication from CourseSales.com to Moodle, student accounts can be automatically created in Moodle, enabling students to be issued credentials via process steps, all Moodle user details are then maintained in Moodle.

CourseSales.com Moodle plugins

CourseSales.com can synchronize users, course dates and enrollments controlled from within CourseSales.com, a linked Moodle account is created for each student with the same username and password as the student portal. As the student logs in, Moodle checks with CourseSales.com for the courses the student is registered for, the course dates are created if they don’t already exist, and associated to the student’s Moodle profile.

Student details updated within CourseSales.com, via the administration portal or the student portal are updated in Moodle automatically on a regular basis, as can courses and enrollments. It is necessary to manually maintain the list of course categories in Moodle, as this is the link between Moodle and CourseSales.com courses.

Considerations when implementing CourseSales.com Moodle plugins

• Versions - CourseSales.com plugins have been or are successfully running on Moodle versions 2.6.5, 2.7.2 and 2.7.5, if your Moodle is not one of these versions the plugins still might work, we recommend you test them first.

• You may need to have 1:1 relationships between course category and course, in Moodle and CourseSales.com depending on how you want things set up. The CourseSales.com course category is used to recreate course dates within Moodle. If you don’t have one course per CourseSales.com course category and have multiple courses under one category all these CourseSales.com course dates will be replicated. It can be figured so that the name of the course created in Moodle by the plugins will be the same as the course category: all course masters under a CourseSales.com course category will be created in Moodle. eg. if you have online and face-to-face training under the same course category both will have course dates replicated with the same name in Moodle.

• To be synchronized in Moodle Course Dates must be scheduled (not canceled nor completed) and must be public (not private), Course Masters must be public (not private). For users to be synchronized Documents must be registered and contacts must be active and have a password field. The username will be the unique identifier for the contact eg. Email, USI, Avetmiss contact id.

• You will need to manually link Moodle courses to CourseSales.com course dates if you create courses manually in Moodle, rather than letting CourseSales.com generate them.

Setting up to prepare for configuration

Install the three CourseSales.com Moodle plugins; Enrolment, Authentication and Local, these allow the credentials to be used in Moodle and ensure that the courses the student is registered for are made available to the student. The three folders where the plugins reside are:

• yourmoodle/enrol/coursesales/ (for the CourseSales.com enrollment plugin)

• yourmoodle/local/coursesales/ (for the CourseSales.com completion plugin)

• yourmoodle/auth/coursesales/ (for the CourseSales.com authentication plugin)

You need to create or make active a web services user with the internal type ‘soap’. This user must have a username and password assigned (you will require these details below).

Configuring CourseSales.com for users

You need to add a password to the registration form and to the contact form to enable students to access Moodle. You will also need to create contacts (if not already created) at the point that you want students to access Moodle.

Add a password field (type ‘Password’, Validator ‘Moodle Password Format’) to the Registration form and the Contact form, for students to specify during the registration/enrolment process

• Set up contact matching/creation at the point where Moodle login details need to be created.

• The chosen Default Contact Id will be the Moodle username, your options are:

  • Leave Blank (when you want to create a contact but not issue Moodle nor Student Portal credentials)

  • Use customer email (recommended)

  • Assign next sequential number

  • Use AVETMISS Client Id

  • Use AVETMISS Unique Student Identifier

Configuring the Local Plugin

This stores the majority of the configuration for all plugins and manages course completion within Moodle by the student. The main configuration is the Process Step Id to execute. The Process Step has to be on the Document’s Process Path for this to work. CourseSales.com will execute the step based on the request from Moodle. Read more about how to configure course completion within Moodle here.

To confirm version and installation of the completion plugin within Moodle see Site administration> Plugins>Local Plugins>Manage local plugins

There are two ways to configure Moodle plugins, depending on where original documents reside:

• On CourseSales.com as the originals, synchronized to Moodle, eg. when registrations are taken by CourseSales.com

• On Moodle as the originals, synchronized to CourseSales.com, eg. when registrations are taken by Moodle

Synchronized to Moodle

To configure the Completion plugin within Moodle see Site administration> Plugins>Local Plugins>CourseSales.com

Mapping between CourseSales.com and Moodle

Rules for creating new courses in Moodle using a template

Rules for updating course details in Moodle

Settings for posting new enrolments to CourseSales.com

Plugin logging settings

Note 1:

You may optionally configure the plugin with the Field Id of the moodle template id (get this from the URL of editing the course within Moodle eg http://192.168.0.12/moodle29/course/view.php?id=5). It will let you create a new course based on an existing course, so you have less to setup for each actual course. Note that the user configurable ‘Course ID number’ in Moodle should be blank. Create the template course and then refer to it in the Moodle Course Template field using it’s internal Moodle courseId. When CourseSales.com creates courses of that type it bases them on your template.

To get the Course Category field ID value for “CourseSales.com Course Category field ID holding the mapping to a Moodle course to use as a template” visit the course and take it from the URL in your browser:

Configure CourseSales.com: You need to add a field (Name=Moodle Category Id, Type=text), to the Course Category form to hold the mapping of CourseSales.com course categories to Moodle categories

Populate the CourseSales.com Course Category forms with the mapping to Moodle categories, When viewing the Course Category in Moodle take from the URL

http://cs.moodletest.coursesales.com/course/editcategory.php?id=4

In this example take the Course Category id is “4”, add that to the field Moodle Category Id on the relevant Course Category in CourseSales.com

Note 2

To duplicate the Blocks and Activities, you have to select “When creating a course using a template, include Blocks” and “When creating a course using a template, include Activities” respectively. Note that when you duplicate activities they will be created under the relevant topics which arealso duplicated (as topics are duplicated by default by specifying a template)

Note 3

To duplicate the filters you must select “When creating a course using a template, include Filters”:

Note 4

Configure the Moodle plugin field “CourseSales.com Course Category field holding the mapping to Moodle categories” with the Field Id of the field Moodle Category Id.

Templates

You may optionally add a field to reference a Moodle Course Template to use when creating courses within Moodle. It will let you create a new course based on an existing course, so you have less to setup for each actual course (see Note 2 and 3). Create the template course and then refer to it in the Moodle Course Template field using it’s internal Moodle Id (see Note 1). You should find that when CourseSales.com creates courses of that type it bases them on your template. If you do not select Blocks, Activities nor Filters the duplicate courses will not include content from the course used as the template, just settings. You can link a CourseSales.com course date to an existing moodle course (which has content) by using the CourseSales.com CourseDateId, see the questions section below.

Course Completion

Step 1

Create the course category

Step 2

Manage the course category, creating a new course (note that the plugins require there to be just one course per course category)

Step 3

Enable completion tracking on the Moodle Course record

Step 4

Configure completion, eg. enable Manual self completion.

Step 5

The self completion block should be added to the course if manual self completion is enabled: while viewing the course Turn editing on (top right corner)

Step 6

Add a self completion block (bottom left corner), read more about blocks here

Step 7

Login as a user enrolled on the course and use the self completion block to say you have completed the course.

Configure the Enrol Plugin

Enable the plugin within Moodle, visit Site administration> Plugins>Enrolments>Manage enrol plugins click on the ‘enable’ icon, if you can see CourseSales.com courses under the ‘Enrolments’ menu then it is already enabled.

After you have enabled CourseSales.com and moved it higher in the priority list it should appear like this:

Configure the plugin with the following variables:

• Make sure the categories of courses you want to sync already exist in Moodle

• There is no need to set anything in the Moodle Course Category settings for the field ' Category ID number'

Configure the Auth plugin

Enable the plugin within Moodle, visit Site administration> Plugins>Enrolments>Manage enrol plugins, click on the ‘enable’ icon

After you have enabled CourseSales.com and moved it higher in the priority list

Configure in Moodle:

• Configure the plugin with REST access to CourseSales.com

• You may optionally configure the plugin with debugging to a file

Test the authentication configuration (once you have configured Moodle & CourseSales.com)

Sign up for a course, check that the correct process rules will be applied by checking the status preview

Confirm:

• That the Contact, after a period specified for the System > Services >Email is created

• That you can log into the student portal: https://[shortname].coursesales.com/studentportal?h=1 (replace [shortname] with your website’s short name eg. ccl)

• That you can log into Moodle using those same credentials

• That the correct course dates are allocated to the student

If things are not working as you expect:

• Check that the course date is scheduled & public

• Check that the course master is public

• Confirm the course date has the correct matching category (and that this category is not being used for other courses in Moodle)

• A contact exists for the student

• Check that the password field exists on the contact form

• The web services ‘soap’ role is set up correctly (active, with a password)

Add further functionality

You may wish to add:

• Links to the student portal from Moodle

• Links from the student portal to Moodle by modifying a customised javascript files

• Configuring a course completion call-back

• Integrating emails to notify students of the Moodle credentials

Upgrading Moodle plugins

You may find that Moodle alerts you when you login for pending upgrades or installation of plugins. At the following screen, choose ‘upgrade Moodle database now’

Updates to existing plugins, just need to be unpacked into /local/coursesales and the update settings script run.

Moodle Export Maps

Name, Username, Password and email for the Moodle login are defined in the contact record created during registration process step. These details are exported by creating a Moodle export map which is linked to the process step via a process rule. Username, password and email credentials are maintained in CourseSales.com.

Step 1

Configure Moodle as follows:

• Enable web service REST: see Moodle: Using web services.

• Create a user with the rights to use web services and to create users, see Moodle: Managing accounts

• Generate a token for that user, see Moodle: Using web services.

Step 2

Configure CourseSales.com:

Create a Export map of Type ‘Moodle’ (see below), include the host, eg. http://cs.moodletest.coursesales.com/, the user token eg. a5feccd14dfa1c8e8c0f6d24d15106fc and the Moodle API Function, ie moodle_user_create_users. Link the export map to a Process rule, and the Process rule to the Process step (which should be on a current process path). The Export Map must have the following fields mapped, these will therefore need to be mandatory on the CourseSales.com form, with the required validation set to ensure the Moodle account is created:

• username (automatically made lower case)

• firstname

• lastname

• email

• password (On the contact and registration forms use the validator “Moodle password format”, The password must have at least 8 characters, at least 1 digit, at least 1 lower case letter, at least 1 upper case letter, at least 1 non-alphanumeric character)

These fields can be included in any order

FAQ - Moodle plugins and export maps"

What happens when a new user name already exists in Moodle?

The account is not created, see System/Logs for diagnosis

How do I know credentials (username and password) have been set up correctly in Moodle?

Attempt to login to view the login details from the Administration panel within Moodle, Also you can do an API call to CourseSales.com (see below: “How can I confirm that I have CourseSales.com correctly configured?")

How does a student reset their password?

For Moodle plugins the student must request the password to be updated manually. For the export maps the student must navigate to Moodle and update the Moodle password from there.

How does a student find out their username?

Depending on the configuration of the export it could be the email address, or another field. This field will be on the registration and contact form - the student can visit that form for the original username, it should be clearly indicated on the registration form when the student books the course.

Can other details be sent via the export map to Moodle when setting up the Moodle account?

Moodle limits the information that can be setup via the account creation mechanism. There are two other custom fields that can be created.

What if I already have Moodle courses created - can I link these to course dates in CourseSales.com?

Yes, this is possible, take the coursedateid (when editing a course date it is included in the URL, or click on the cog in the blue title bar) and add that value to the user adjustable course id field of a course you have already created (see Note 4). Be sure to have already removed that same course date from Moodle if it already exists (you cannot have two courses with the same course id). Any registrations will therefore be added to the course date following cron running (cron is a time driven running of software, used to keep all courses between CourseSales.com and Moodle synchronized).

I created a course in Moodle but it does not include ‘CourseSales.com enrol’ as an enrolment option - just “manual enrol.”

This will not matter, even courses without ‘CourseSales.com enrol’ will still enrol students from CourseSales.com

How can I confirm that I have CourseSales.com correctly configured?

You can use the following API call in your browser to confirm that the CourseSales.com side of things works, however this does not confirm that your moodle is configured correctly, just that CourseSales.com is working as expected. You will need to replace the following fields:

[short name] - with the short name of your CourseSales.com domain eg. ccl
[Soap User Name] - with the CourseSales.com user that has the internal type 'Soap'
[Soap Password] - with the CourseSales.com password of the user that has the internal type 'Soap'

https://[short name].coursesales.com/rest/index?q={"Options":{"OptionType":["Course Category"],"OptionSoapDetail":"All"},"Course Dates":{"CourseDateType":["CourseDateListNextId"],"ServiceType":"Moodle Course Date Id"},"page":1,"pageItemLimit":"1","debug":"on","LoginUsername":"[Soap User Name]","LoginPassword":"[Soap Password]"}

Output should look something like this:

{"Options":{"Course Category":[{"1":"4384","2":"Nationally Recognised Training","3":"1","5":"4281","4":"1639","6":{"8620":"40","8144":"\n

Nationally is that training that is recognised under the AQF by ASQA the National Training Authority<\/p>\n"}},{"1":"4383","2":"CPC30413 - Certificate III in Demolition","3":"2","5":"4384","4":"1639","6":{"8620":"","8144":""}}],"Course Category Forms":{"1639":{"8620":{"1":"8620","6":"0","2":"0","3":"0","5":false,"4":false,"7":"","8":"","9":"","10":"","11":"","12":"","13":false,"FieldName":"Moodle Category Id","FieldLabel":"Moodle Category Id","FieldTooltip":"","FieldType":"Text","FieldInternalId":"","FieldIdForExport":"0","FieldForeignKey":"0","FieldValidation":"0","FieldVisibility":"Internal only","FieldHeight":"0","FieldWidth":"0","FieldValLenMin":"0","FieldValLenMax":"0","FieldDependsOnId":"0","FieldListDefaultId":"0","FieldWidthClass":"fldWd50"},"8144":{"1":"8144","6":"0","2":"3","3":"0","5":false,"4":false,"7":"","8":"","9":"","10":"","11":"","12":"","13":false,"FieldName":"Description","FieldLabel":"Description","FieldTooltip":"","FieldType":"HTML","FieldInternalId":"","FieldIdForExport":"0","FieldForeignKey":"0","FieldValidation":"0","FieldVisibility":"Public","FieldHeight":"0","FieldWidth":"0","FieldValLenMin":"0","FieldValLenMax":"0","FieldDependsOnId":"0","FieldListDefaultId":"0","FieldWidthClass":"fldWd100"}}}},"Options meta":{"Course Category":{"OptionId":1,"OptionName":2,"OptionDepth":3,"OptionParentId":5,"OptionFormId":4,"OptionContent":6}},"Course Dates":{"CourseDateListNextId":{"26519":{"0":"26519","1":"2015-12-01","2":"2015-12-01","3":"1004","4":"1100.00","32":"1100.00","5":"1100.00","33":"1100.00","7":"0.00","34":"0.00","35":0,"8":"20","9":"0","10":"0","11":"0","12":"0000-00-00","13":"0.00","36":"","14":"3247","15":"1","16":"2","17":"333","18":"516","19":"1","20":"4401","21":"Asbestos Removal CPCCDE3015A - Class A","22":"4280","23":"0","24":"4301","25":"Brisbane Queensland Australia","26":"Head Office","27":null,"29":"0.0000000","28":"0.0000000","30":"","31":"","37":"","38":"","39":null,"40":null,"41":null}},"CourseDateListNextId meta":{"CourseDateId":0,"CourseDateStart":1,"CourseDateEnd":2,"CourseDateVenueId":3,"PriceCurrent":4,"PriceRRP":5,"PriceMinimum":6,"PriceResidential":7,"PlacesTotal":8,"CourseDateEnquiries":9,"CourseDateRegistrations":10,"CourseDatePriceRuleId":11,"CourseDatePriceRuleDate":12,"CourseDatePriceRuleNextPrice":13,"DescriptionId":14,"StatusId":15,"Visibility":16,"CourseMasterCourseFormatId":17,"CourseMasterCurrencyId":18,"ElapsedDays":19,"CourseMasterCourseCategoryId":20,"CourseMasterDisplayCategoryName":21,"CourseMasterSalesAgentId":22,"CourseMasterResidentialDescriptionId":23,"CourseMasterProviderId":24,"CourseDateLocation":25,"CourseDateVenueName":26,"CourseDateVenueUrl":27,"CourseDateVenueLatitude":29,"CourseDateVenueLongitude":28,"CourseDateDescriptionShort":30,"CourseDateDescriptionLong":31,"CourseDateFmtPrcCurrent":32,"CourseDateFmtPrcNext":36,"CourseDateFmtPrcResidential":34,"CourseDateFmtPrcRrp":33,"CourseDateFmtPrcSaving":35,"CourseDateFormat":37,"CourseDateCount":38,"CoursePricesPriceCurrent":39,"CoursePricesCurrencyId":40}}}

I get an error when connecting to the test environment using the Moodle plugins:

Call CourseSales.com
Synchronise Enrolments
Exception::__set_state(array(
   'message' => '',
   'string' => '',
   'code' => 0,
   'file' => '/var/www/html/moodle29/local/coursesales/cs_lib.php',
   'line' => 2978,
   'trace' =>
  array (
    0 =>
    array (
      'file' => '/var/www/html/moodle29/local/coursesales/cs_lib.php',
      'line' => 836,
      'function' => 'callCourseSales',
      'class' => 'cs_lib',
      'type' => '->',
      'args' =>
   .....<snip>
      array (
      ),
    ),
  ),
   'previous' => NULL,
))

This is known, when using <shortname>.test.coursesales.com you must use http not https