EU Life Long Learning Programme Virtual Campus

Virtual Campus for Digital Students - ViCaDiS

134039-LLP-1-2007-RO-ERASMUS-EVC

ViCaDiSServerInstallationand
Networking

How to install Debian for ViCadis

Why Debian ?
Debian is the world's leading non-commercial totally free Linux
distribution. Remaining loyal to the concept upon which Linux was
created, it is produced by hundreds of volunteer developers around the
world. Contrary to a common misconception, Debian is not for Linux gurus
only. As a matter of fact, as you will see on the guide pages, its advanced
package management system makes it one of the easier distributions for
new Linux users to work with. Here are just a few of its advantages:

Non-Proprietary: Debian is a true GNU/Linux distribution using the standard UNIX style
commands. This ensures that what you learn today won't be obsolete in two years and makes it
easier to also learn how to work with UNIX systems.
Easy Maintenance: A seamless, totally-integrated package management system makes it easy to
keep your system up to date and free of orphan files and incompatible products. Most dependent
packages are handled automatically so you don't get the "Failed dependencies" error commonly
encountered when trying to add software on RPM-based systems like Red Hat and Suse.
Automated Patching: The Debian package system also allows you to use a single command to
update your entire system (operating system and installed packages) over the Internet. This allows
you to use a scheduler to routinely run a shell script to automatically update your system with the
latest program, OS, and security patches.
Extensive: Only free software packages (applications, utilities, etc.) are allowed to be included in
the official Debian distributions, and the current binary distribution comes on 31 CDs or 5 DVDs
because there are over 25,000 of them. With Debian, you don't have different "server" and
"workstation" or "personal" editions. It's everything all in one.
Support Options: Peer support is available through a community of listservs (mailing lists) and
chat rooms. Replies to messages may even be from those who helped develop the product. And
since you're likely not the first person to encounter a given issue, there are also searchable archives
of listserv messages. If your company requires commercial support contracts fear not. Numerous
for-profit support operations offer a variety of technical support options. With Debian, you don't
have to worry about forced upgrades due to vendors dropping support for older versions.
Minimal Investment: Debian's peformance is excellent even with the modest hardware
requirements Linux is famous for. While most OSs require newer, faster, bigger hardware, Debian
allows you to utilize those old Pentium systems instead of throwing them into a landfill. This,
along with the fact that you can load a single copy of Debian on as many systems as you want,
means you can set up a full-blown enterprise at very little cost.
Reliable: Debian's focus on stability and reliability results in servers that you may have to reboot
once a year, rather than once a month.
User-centric: New versions of Debian are developed when major changes warrant one, not to
generate revenues from upgrades. (You need only look at the version numbers of the various
distributions to verify this.)1

Equip yourself
First, get a copy of Debian 4.0 installation CDs or DVDs. If you have broadband
internet access, the best strategy may well be to perform a net installation, which
requires only a small CD download and installs everything else over the network. You
ViCaDiS Technical Description

can get Debian's CDs/DVDs from http://www.debian.org/distrib/ .2

Starting the installation

Boot from the installation media. PC users may have to configure their BIOS to
ensure that the machine boots from the CD; Mac users should hold down the C key
on system power-up. On boot, PC users will see a screen as in Figure 1, Mac users a
more basic text display. On both platforms, the normal procedure is to just press the
Enter key to boot the installer.

Fig1
Once booted, the installer will guide you through a succession of menus. Figure 2
shows the first of these, language choice. Navigate the installer menus with the
keyboard: the up and down arrow keys move the selection, and Enter selects it.
When multiple selections are available, the space bar toggles selections on and off.
Where a menu has options such as Go Back, use the Tab key or left and right arrow
keys to jump to those.

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Fig2
Once your language, location, and keyboard choice are set up, the installer attempts
to configure the network.
Choose manuall or dhcp configuration depending on your needs.
The final stage of the network configuration is to choose the hostname and domain
name.

Partitioning the disk

Debian, like any Linux, divides up a disk for different purposes. The minimum basic
configuration is to have two partitions, one for disk storage and one for swap space,
the virtual memory used by Linux to store parts of programs when it doesn't need
them in physical memory.
The partition stage of the installer offers two choices: to erase the entire disk or to
configure the partitions manually.
Following the whole-disk strategy first, the installer will use "guided partitioning"
mode. Here you will face a choice between three setups: all files in one partition, a
ViCaDiS Technical Description

desktop setup with a separate partition for home directories, and a multiuser setup
with a partition for each of /, /home, /usr, /var and /tmp. Just choose the first
option, recommended for new users.
After making a choice on partitioning, you will see a screen similar to that in Figure
3, where you should choose to finish the partitioning and write the changes to disk.

Fig3

Configuring the base system

When partitioning is complete, the installer will copy over the base Debian system to
the hard disk, and then eject the installation CD. At this point, you will be asked to
confirm that you want the computer rebooted.
On reboot, PC users will find themselves looking at the grub boot screen, a list of
operating systems available on the computer. Mac users will find themselves in
yaboot, which offers a choice of booting Linux, OS X, or a CD-ROM. In both cases,
after a few seconds' wait, the machines will boot the default choice, Debian.
There are now just a handful of questions to answer before the installation
completes.
Time zone configuration
Confirm that your hardware clock uses the GMT format here. (Note that UTC, which
the installer displays, is the same as GMT.) After this, pick your time zone from the
list displayed. You can configure the time zone later by running tzsetup as the root
user.

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Root password
The root user, or superuser, is able to modify anything on your machine. This is the
most important system password.
User account
This is an initial user account for you to use. Enter your full name first, and then an
abbreviated login name and password.
APT configuration
APT is the mechanism Debian uses to manage and install software packages. Before
the rest of the installation can commence, you must select a source from which APT
can install packages. When installing via CDs, choose cdrom, and insert each CD in
turn for scanning. If you don't have a network connection, the installer will ask you if
you want to set up a PPP (dial-up) connection in order to download security updates.
This is the recommended approach if you have a modem attached to the computer.
If performing a net installation, choose http. You must then choose which Debian
server, or mirror, to use. Pick the one closest to you. If you are on a network with an
HTTP proxy, there's an opportunity to enter this before proceeding. The installer will
then retrieve the list of available packages, including any security updates, from the
network.
The final choice to make before installation gets under way is the software you wish
to have preinstalled, as Figure 4 shows. You can select one or more of these options
to include a variety of software. If you're doing a net installation, be aware that this
can have a significant effect on download time!

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Fig4
Choose Desktop environment only, the rest of the packages will be installed manuall.
End of Debian installation.

Extra packages
After booting in Debian start the terminal and log in as su by running the command:
>> su
and introduce the root password
After that, install the following packages
Apache 2
To install apache 2 run the command:
>> apt-get install apache2
Edit the file etc/apache2/sites-available/default, by comment the lines that root the
users who acces the server to apache2-default. To edit the file run the command:
>> gedit /etc/apache2/sites-available/default
Mysql server 5.0
To install apache 2 run the command:
>> apt-get install mysql-server-5.0
Php5
To install php5 run the command:
>> apt-get install php5
Link PHP5 with Mysql 5.0
To link PHP5 with Mysql 5.0 install php5-mysql by running the command:
>> apt-get install php5-mysql
phpMyadmin
To install phpMyadmin run the command:
>> apt-get install phpmyadmin
After the installation change the root pass in the phpmyadmin aplication using a
browser.
SSH
To install ssh run the command:
>> apt-get install ssh
PHP5 libraries
Next install the following libraries:
>> apt-get install php5-gd
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>> apt-get install php5-curl

>> apt-get install php5-xmlrpc
Enable mod rewrite
To enable mod rewrite run the command
>> a2enmod rewrite
And restart apache :
>> /etc/init.d/apache2 restart
Mail Mta
Ssmtp is a cut-down MTA that simply sends mail off to another server - ideal for
scenarios where you dont need to receive mail on your web server, but you do want
to be able to use the PHP mail() function.4
To install ssmtp run the command:
>> apt-get install ssmtp
Next you need to edit the conf file at /etc/ssmtp/ssmtp.conf. Set the mailhub= line
to the address of your SMTP server. Put your hostname on the hostname= line, and
put FromLineOverride=YES.

Now, if your SMTP server requires authentication, you will need the AuthUser,
AuthPass and possibly AuthMethod flags below - add these to the bottom of the
ssmtp.conf:
AuthUser=your smtp username here
AuthPass=your smtp password here
AuthMethod=LOGIN
Now you need to edit your php.ini.
>> gedit /etc/php5/apache2/php.ini
In your php.ini, find the sendmail_path= line.
sendmail_path = /usr/sbin/ssmtp -t
PHP requires the -t flag.
Save your php.ini and restart Apache :
>> /etc/init.d/apache2 restart
Install ftp server
ProFTPd is a FTP server promoted as stable and secure, when configured properly on
a website. It's also promoted as highly configurable, GPL-licensed FTP server
software. The ProFTPd server can easily be used by both home-users and large
corporations without too much effort. To get an idea about how popular and secure
ProFTPd is, the software is used by very large sites such as SourceForge, Samba.org.
ViCaDiS Technical Description

Linksys, Slakware and so on. And to make it even more easier to configure, anyone
can use GproFTPd, a graphical configuration tool for Linux desktop environments.
GproFTPd is an easy to use GTK administration tool created for the proftpd
standalone server. It provides admins with access to virtual hosting, 8layers of
security including chrooted users and encrypted transfers on both the data and/or
control channels. It's ideal for both standalone ftp serving and webhotes.3
Install proftpd by running the command:
>> apt-get install proftpd
Choose to install proftpd in standalone mode.
Install gpoftpd by running the command:
>> apt-get install gproftpd
Run gproftpd by using the command:
>> gproftpd
The GproFTPd main window is divided into several tabs, each containing different
configuration variables. From the Servers tab, you can add different FTP servers that
will run either on virtual hosts, or on different ports. For each selected server, you
can configure its IP, its name, either NAT routing is enabled, the admin email
address, and a lot more directives in the lower half part of the main window. Also
from this tab, you can set the default home and upload directory, the HTML statistics
file path and the user and group the server is running as.
From the next tab, Users, you can manage existing users or add new ones. For each
user, you can modify its username, password, group, home directory and which shell
to use. Moreover, you can set whether the account is locked, as well as if the FTP
server will require a password for that specific user, whether to show it in statistics.
Also, you can add the directories the user is allowed to, set the maximum logins
value and which hosts or IP addresses to allow logins from.

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1.
2.
3.
4.

http://www.aboutdebian.com/
http://www.linuxdevcenter.com/pub/a/linux/2005/09/29/installing_debian.html
http://www.softpedia.com/reviews/linux/GProFTPD-Review-48205.shtml
http://www.davidhurst.co.uk/2007/06/19/php-mail-and-ssmtp-on-debian-linux/

Moodle

Before installing Moodle

Before beginning a new Moodle installation, the following requirements should be

met:

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Hardware
Disk space: 160MB free (min). You will require more free space to store your
teaching materials.
Memory: 256MB (min), 1GB (recommended). The general rule of thumb is that
Moodle can support 50 concurrent users for every 1GB of RAM, but this will vary
depending on hardware and software combination.
Software
Web server software. Most people use Apache, but Moodle should work fine under
any web server that supports PHP, such as IIS on Windows platforms.
PHP scripting language. (Please note that there have been issues installing Moodle
with PHP-Accelerator). There are currently two versions (or branches) of PHP
available: PHP4 and PHP5 and the version requirements are listed below.
For Moodle version 1.6 or later: the PHP4 (version 4.3.0 or later) or PHP5 (version
5.1.0 or later) are supported.
PHP Settings. Check these settings in your php.ini or .htaccess
register_globals MUST be OFF
safe_mode needs to be OFF.
memory_limit should be at least 16M (32M is recommended for Moodle 1.7 and
40M for Moodle 1.8 or later). Large sites may need more than 128M. PHP 5.2.x
requires higher memory_limit values than previous versions of PHP. 64bit operating
systems require even more memory.
session.save_handler needs to be set to FILES.
magic_quotes_gpc should be ON. (It will be recommended to turn it off in 2.0.)
magic_quotes_runtime needs to be OFF.
file_uploads needs to be ON.
session.auto_start needs to be OFF.
session.bug_compat_warn needs to be OFF.
PHP Extensions and libraries
The mbstring extension is recommended for Moodle 1.6 or later.
The iconv extension is recommended for Moodle 1.6 or later.
GD library and the FreeType 2 library and extensions are needed to be able to
look at the dynamic graphs that the logs pages make. (Freetype support is available
as part of the GD extension for the 5.x versions of PHP)
The mysql extension is required if you are using the MySQL database. Note that in
some Linux distributions (notably Red Hat) this is an optional installation.
The curl extension is recommended for Moodle 1.8 or later.
The tokenizer extension is recommended for Moodle 1.8 or later.
The curl and openssl extensions are required for the Moodle network functionality
(Moodle 1.8 or later).
The xmlrpc extension is required for the Moodle network functionality (Moodle 1.8
or later).
The ctype extension is recommended for Moodle 1.8 or later.
Other PHP extensions may be required to support optional Moodle functionality,
especially external authentication and/or enrolment (e.g. LDAP extension for LDAP
authentication and the sockets extension for Chat server).
A working database server: MySQL or PostgreSQL are completely supported and
recommended for use with any version of Moodle. Support for Microsoft SQL Server
and Oracle has been added in Moodle 1.7. MySQL is the choice for many people
because it is very popular, but there are some arguments in favour of PostgreSQL,
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11

especially if you are planning a large deployment.

For Moodle 1.8 or later, MySQL (version 4.1.12 or later), PostgreSQL (8.0 or later)
or Microsoft SQL Server 2005 (version 9 or SQL Server Express 2005)
MySQL Notes: For Moodle 1.6 or later, If you use latin languages only you can use
MySQL 4.1.12. If you are using non-latin languages you require MySQL 4.1.16 or
later. Currently the MySQL setting "strict mode" must be OFF (set to "" or
"MYSQL40") in the MySQL configuration file.
For settings which use ON/OFF as their values, you can substitute 1 for ON and 0
for OFF if you prefer.
Download and copy files into place
The latest Moodle release can be found on http://download.moodle.org/ (The first
version tested was 1.9.3).
After downloading the installation package (the .zip or .tgz file), you must unpack
the files in a temporary location, before uploading them on the server, using the
preconfigured ftp account.
You can either place the whole folder in your web server documents directory, in
which case the site will be located at http://yourwebserver.com/moodle (you
can rename the folder to vicadis, or any other case-sensitive name), or you can copy
all the contents straight into the main web server documents directory, in which case
the site will be simply http://yourwebserver.com.
System set-up
To ensure that Moodle will install successfully, you need to check that the web
server settings are correct, then create a blank database for Moodle to use and
finally create a directory on your hard disk for Moodle to save your materials and
other files you upload into your courses.
Check web server settings

Firstly, make sure that your web server is set up to use

index.php as a default page (perhaps in addition to index.html,
default.htm and so on). In Apache, this is done using a
DirectoryIndex parameter in your httpd.conf file. Mine usually
looks like this:

DirectoryIndex index.php index.html index.htm Just make sure index.php is in

the list (and preferably towards the start of the list, for efficiency).

Secondly, if you are using Apache 2, then you should turn on the
AcceptPathInfo variable, which allows scripts to be passed
arguments like http://server/file.php/arg1/arg2. This is
essential to allow relative links between your resources, and
also provides a performance boost for people using your Moodle
web site. You can turn this on by adding these lines to your

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httpd.conf file. (NB: This setting, or any equivalent, is not

required in Apache 1

AcceptPathInfo on
Recheck PHP settings
Moodle requires a number of PHP settings to be active for it to work.
These were given in the Requirements section and On most servers these
will already be the default settings. However, some PHP servers (and
some of the more recent PHP versions) may have things set differently,
so it is useful to double-check that the settings are correct. These
are defined in PHP's configuration file (usually called php.ini) or in
the Apache .htaccess file:

register_globals = 0 ;(necessary)
safe_mode = 0 ;(necessary)
memory_limit = 40M ;(varies: minimum 16M, 32M Moodle v1.7, 40M Moodle
v1.8, 128M large sites)
session.save_handler = files ;(unless you are using another handler,
e.g. mm)
magic_quotes_gpc = 1 ;(preferred but not necessary, 0 will be highly
recommended in 2.0)
magic_quotes_runtime = 0 ;(necessary)
file_uploads = 1
session.auto_start = 0 ;(necessary)
session.bug_compat_warn = 0
You may also want to set other, optional php.ini file settings while
you are already editing it. For instance, you may want to reset the
maximum upload size of file attachments, which usually defaults to
2M(egabytes). For instance, to set these to 16 Megabytes:

post_max_size = 16M
upload_max_filesize = 16M
Using a .htaccess file for webserver and PHP settings
Use the above if you can directly edit your server's files, but if you are setting-up
Moodle on a webhost, or don't have access to httpd.conf or php.ini on your server,
or you have Moodle on a server with other applications that require different
settings, then don't worry, you can often still override the default settings. This only
works on Apache servers and only when Overrides have been allowed in the main
Apache configuration. Moodle is supplied with a htaccess file which you can use, or
you can create your own file manually.

Use the default htaccess file. The easiest thing to do is just

copy the sample file from moodle/lib/htaccess and edit it to suit
your needs. It contains further instructions. For example, in a
Unix shell:

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cd moodle
cp moodle/lib/htaccess .htaccess

Create your own file. Alternatively you can create your own file
called .htaccess in Moodle's main directory that contains lines
like the following.

DirectoryIndex index.php index.html index.htm

php_value memory_limit 40M (adjust to your version of Moodle)
php_flag magic_quotes_gpc 1
php_flag magic_quotes_runtime 0
php_flag file_uploads 1
php_flag session.auto_start 0
php_flag session.bug_compat_warn 0 If you have Apache version 2 installed, add
these lines: <IfDefine APACHE2>
AcceptPathInfo on
</IfDefine> Otherwise add this single line: AcceptPathInfo on Optionally, you can
also do things like define the maximum size for uploaded files, etc by adding these
lines: LimitRequestBody 0
php_value upload_max_filesize 2M
php_value post_max_size 2M The value given in these lines is 2M. You may want to
change this at a later date to allow uploading of larger files.

Note: Use a .htaccess file only as a last resort as it can have an impact on
the performance of your Moodle site and cause pages to load slowly on your
browser.

Database creation
If you have successfully installed PHPMyAdmin in one of the server installation
steps,
creating
the
necessary
database
should
not
be
a
problem.
In your browser, go to http://yourwebserver.com/phpmyadmin, and after
login, create a new database entitled vicadis (or any other relevant name).
After this, it is highly recommended to create a new user (other than root) to
handle all moodle queries. The simplest way to do this is to use the SQL query
facility that PHPMyAdmin provides, and run the nest query:
GRANT ALL ON vicadis.* TO 'vicadis_user'@'localhost' IDENTIFIED BY 'password';
The username (vicadis_user in this case) and the password should be modified
accordingly, and "localhost" should be replaced by a wilcard ("%" symbol) or a
specific location (IP) in the unlikely event that the MySQL server is on another
physical machine. The "vicadis.*" part of the query grants privileges to the newly
created user for the vicadis database (all the tables). If the name of the database is
different, you should modify the query to match this name.

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14

Creating the data directory

Moodle will also need some space on your server's hard disk to store uploaded
files, such as course documents and user pictures. The Moodle installer tries hard to
create the moodledata directory for you but if it fails then you will have to create a
directory for this purpose manually.

Security warning: For security purposes, it is CRITICAL that this directory is NOT
accessible directly via the web. The easiest way to do this is to simply locate it
OUTSIDE the web site root directory (it is the folder that the main part of your URL that is, the part up to the first single / - points to; for example, in
http://your.domain.com/moodle/admin/cron.php, it is http://your.domain.com/).
But if you must have it in the web directory (and you are using Apache
AND the web server configuration allows .htaccess files to restrict
access to directories) then protect it by creating a file in the data
directory called .htaccess, containing these lines:

order deny,allow
deny from all

Ownership & Permissions: To make sure that Moodle can save uploaded files in
this directory, check that the web server software has permission to read, write and
execute in this directory. On Unix machines, this means setting the owner of the
directory to be something like "nobody" or "apache", and then giving that user read,
write and execute permissions. As an example, to change the owner to "nobody" you
could use:

chown -R nobody:apache moodledata

To change the permissions so that the owner has read,write and execute
permissions, use something like this:

chmod -R 0770 moodledata

Note: If you are receiving permission denied messages, try chmod -R 0770
moodledata and then adjust the settings so that they are more secure. A more
secure setting is chmod -R 0750 moodledata. According to the comments in configdist.php, "On hosting systems you might need to make sure that your group has no
permissions at all while others have full permissions." To do this you could use
chmod -R 707 moodledata. See also the security page.
Remember that by default moodle will issue a warning about moodle data directories
created inside the web directory, but otherwise this directory can be located where
you wish. You can later move or change the location of this directory, but if you do,

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15

be sure to edit the setting in the config.php file that sets this; e.g. if moodledata is
under a directory called data, then it would look like this:

$CFG->dataroot = '/data/moodledata';
Run the installer script to create config.php
To run the installer script (install.php), just try to access your Moodle main URL
using a web browser, or access http://yourwebserver/install.php directly (or
http://yourwebserver/moodle/install, or any other variation).
(The Installer will try to set a session cookie. If you get a popup warning in your
browser make sure you accept that cookie!)
Moodle will detect that configuration is necessary and will lead you through some
screens to help you create a new configuration file called config.php (you will need
to remember the previous settings, such as installation directory -if different than
webserver root-, vicadis mysql database name, user and password, and the location
of the moodledata directory). At the end of the process Moodle will try and write the
file into the right location, otherwise you can press a button to download it from the
installer and then upload config.php into the main Moodle directory on the server.
Along the way the installer will test your server environment and give you
suggestions about how to fix any problems. For most common issues these
suggestions should be sufficient, but if you get stuck, check in the Installation Forum
for more help.

Should any problems arise, such as file permission issues (the only directory that
needs full control -777- is moodledata), you can alternatively create your own
configuration file, directly on your server. The easiest way is to rename the file
config-dist.php into config.php, and edit the following fields with the appropriate
values:
$CFG->dbhost

= 'localhost';

$CFG->dbname = 'moodle';
$CFG->dbuser = 'username';
$CFG->dbpass = 'password';
$CFG->wwwroot

// eg localhost
// database name, eg moodle or vicadis
// your database username (vicadis_user)
// your database password

= 'http://yourwebserver/vicadis'; //the address you type in your

browser to access moodle

$CFG->dirroot = '/home/example/public_html/vicadis'; //the full path on the server

to
your moodle installation
$CFG->dataroot = '/home/example/moodledata'; //the full path you chose for the
moodledata directory

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16

After you have modified and renamed the config file, you will now have to access
the moodle page in your browser (http://yourwebserver/vicadis) in order to set
up the database structure. All the operations are automated and optionally
unattended.
When the database has been set up, you will create your first administrator user,
and then some general information about the moodle site (here you will need
common Vicadis information, which can also be added later), and voila!... moodle is
now installed.
Initial settings
All moodle settings can be accessed through the Site Administration block,
available on the front page to site administrators.
Common moodle settings include cron operations and backups.
Regarding Vicadis, a series of already existing facilities need to be activated, as
well as some new modules installed.
Moodle Networking
Maybe the most important part of your moodle platform is it's ability to
communicate and exchange users (providing a reliable Single Sign-On functionality)
among different moodle platforms. In order to achieve this, you need to activate
moodle networking.
There are a few steps. First go to Networking>Settings and switch networking to
On. Then, under Users>Authentication>Manage authentication, enable Moodle
Network authentication (click on the closed eye), then click on Settings (next to the
now open eye), and switch the Auto add remote users option to Yes. All that remains
is to add another moodle site (in Networking>Peers) in order to share users and
insure SSO access.

RSS
A very useful feature that is not activated by default is the syndication of user
generated content (forums, blogs, etc.). To enable site feeds, you first have to
enable them globally (from Server>RSS), then for each activity type that supports it
() and then, finally, for each and every forum or blog, by the creator of said content.
Most of the tools that moodle has to offer have to do with courses, therefore the
creation of at least one course is mandatory. This can be done by accessing
Courses>Add/edit courses.
Users are managed (added, deleted, etc.) through the Users>Accounts section of
moodle.

In order to achieve all the functionalities that the Vicadis project requires, some
additional modules need to be installed. They will be listed as follows, along with
instructions for installation.
Generally speaking, installing a module in moodle (be it an activity, or a block) is
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17

not that difficult. You need to copy the folder (or folders) that are in the downloaded
archive to the appropriate section (the block folder for blocks, or mod for activity
modules). Then, in order to set up the tables necessary for the additional
functionality, an administrator must access Notifications from the Site Administration
block. Any error during installation will appear here, so that debugging is possible.
Additional modules

MLE - Mobile learning environment

One of the most important features of Vicadis is mobile access. While there is
no native support in moodle, the MLE third party script ensures a pretty advanced
mobile functionality, such as mobile alerts or quizzes.
The script can be found at:
http://moodle.org/mod/data/view.php?d=13&rid=1802&filter=1, along with
instructions for installation and use. Basically, after copying the folders on the
server, go to Notifications to set-up the tables and that's about it. All other
configurations are easy to use and relevant to local users only.

Video-class Streaming

is possible using a local installation of the VLC streaming server, and the
module found here: http://moodle.org/mod/data/view.php?d=13&rid=871&filter=1.
The installation is quite straightforward, however, there is a lack of an adequate
language file (the developer of the module was from Brazil and didn't bother with an
english version). Using Google Translate, you can obtain your own localized version
of the plugin, or we could provide with an english version obtained in the same
fashion.

Media Center

This module provides useful functionality in handling media files, by uploading

audio/video material, managing it, and providing podcasts. You can find it here:
http://moodle.org/mod/data/view.php?d=13&rid=1038&filter=1

OUBlog

The native blog functionality of moodle is not intuitive enough in order to be

used efficiently as a social tool. The plugin found here:
http://moodle.org/mod/data/view.php?d=13&rid=1820&filter=1 eliminates this
drawback.

File Manager

This plugin offers great file management capabilities, allowing users to

upload files and share them. It can be found here:
http://moodle.org/mod/data/view.php?d=13&rid=1105&filter=1 and is as easy to
install as the other ones.

ViCaDiS Technical Description

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Most of these blocks need an active course in order to be activated. Once a course
is selected, you can create a new activity of any kind, by turning editing on (as
administrator), and adding the necessary blocks and/or activities. This is the case
with chat, for instance, or wikis, which have to be added first, in order to be
accessible to common users.

ViCaDiS Technical Description

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