This Plugin was developed as a part of the course Project 1 at BFH. It was made with the intention to help teachers with their file and course management.
If you want to test out this plugin, just download the newest Release and install it in the local/ directory under local/rsync. If you dont know how to install plugins in Moodle, please refer to this help page.
There are many different ways to talk to the endpoints.
In this project we used cURL for testing. It is still a possible option, if that's you thing.
Documentation for how to use cURL with this plugin is here.
If it's not your thing there is also a python script, which can found in the clients folder.
This makes use of the requests library. How to use it without options is documented here and with options here.
If you want, you can make your own scripts, so that it mimics your workflow.
These are the endpoints that were introduced in this plugin.
| Function name | Function usage | Parameters |
|---|---|---|
| local_rsync_create_file_resource | Creates a file in a course. The file needs to be in the private files of the user. | filename, courseid, sectionnumber, displayname |
| local_rsync_set_section_visibility | Sets the visibility of a section. | courseid, sectionnumber, visibility (0 or 1) |
| local_rsync_remove_file_from_section | Removes a module from a section. | courseid, sectionnumber, filename |
| local_rsync_rename_section | Renames a section. | courseid, sectionumber, sectionname |
| local_rsync_remove_section | Removes a section. | courseid, sectionnumber |
| local_rsync_set_file_visibility | Sets the visibility of a module. | courseid, sectionumber, filename, visibility (0 or 1) |
| local_rsync_remove_all_files_from_section | Removes all modules from a section. | courseid, sectionnumber |
| local_rsync_move_file_to_other_section | Moves a module from a section to an other. | courseid, sectionnumber, targetsectionnumber, modulename |
| local_rsync_move_all_modules_to_other_section | Moves all modules from a section to an other. | courseid, sectionnumber, targetsectionnumber |
| local_rsync_remove_all_sections | Removes all section of a course. | courseid |
| local_rsync_copy_module | Copies a module and puts it in the specified section. | courseid, sectionnumber, targetsectionumber, modulename |
| local_rsync_change_course_visibility | Changes the visibility of a course. | courseid, visibility (0 or 1) |
| local_rsync_copy_course | Copies a module into an other module. The data in the target module is overwritten. | courseid, newcourseid |
| local_rsync_copy_all_section_modules | Copies all modules in a section and puts it in the specified section. | courseid, sectionnumber, targetsectionumber |
| local_rsync_create_section | Creates a new section. Is used when a user wants to upload a whole folder, so the foldername is the name of the new section. | courseid, sectionname |
Here is a list of all possible parameters and what they do:
| Parameter | Description |
|---|---|
| courseid | Id of the course. Can be found in the url. |
| sectionumber | Number of the section. Can be found in the url. |
| targetsectionnumber | Number of the target section. Can be found in the url. |
| filename/modulename | Name of the module. |
| newcourseid | Id of the target course. Can be found in the url. |
| visibility | If the target is visibile or not. 0 for hidden, 1 for shown. |
| sectionname | Name of the section |
A cURL request to an endpoint may look like this:
curl -d 'wstoken=<rsync_token>' -d 'wsfunction=<function_name>' -d 'courseid=<courseid>' <more_data> <moodlehost>/webservice/rest/server.php
You can find the <rsync_token> in Preferences->Seurity Keys. The <function_name> is documented in the above table.
The script in the clients folder can be invoked without commands:
python3 Rsync.py
After the start of the script, you will be asked to input a token and a host url. If you leave both inputs empty, the script will use the default values which are coded in the script.
The script in the clients folder can also be invoked with commands:
python3 Rsync.py <option> <command>
Option and command list:
| Options | Description | Commands |
|---|---|---|
| -c | Course options. | v, cp |
| -s | Section options. | v, rn, rm, rma |
| -m | Module options. | v, rm, rma, mv, mva, cp, cpa |
| -t | Rsync token. | |
| -u | Host url. | |
| -p | Push. | f, d |
| -h | Shows the help page. |
Command description:
| Option + command | Description | Invocation |
|---|---|---|
| -c v | Changes course visibility. | -c v,courseid,visibility |
| -c cp | Copies a course. | -c cp,courseid,newcourseid |
| -s v | Changes section visibility. | -s v,courseid,sectionnumber,visibilty |
| -s rn | Renames a section. | -s rn,courseid,sectionnumber,sectionname |
| -s rm | Removes a section. | -s rm,courseid,sectionnumber |
| -s rma | Removes all sections in a course. | -s rma,courseid |
| -m v | Changes module visibility. | -m v,courseid,sectionnumber,modulename,visibility |
| -m rm | Removes a module from a section. | -m rm,courseid,sectionnumber,modulename |
| -m rma | Removes all modules from a section. | -m rma,courseid,sectionnumber |
| -m mv | Moves a modules from a section to an other. | -m mv,courseid,sectionnumber,targetsectionnumber,modulename |
| -m mva | Moves all modules from a section to an other. | -m mva,courseid,sectionnumber,targetsectionnumber |
| -m cp | Copies a module from a section to a target section. | -m cp,courseid,sectionnumber,targetsectionnumber,modulename |
| -m cpa | Copies all modules from a section to a target section. | -m cpa,courseid,sectionnumber,targetsectionnumber |
| -p f | Pushes a file from the local machine to a section. | -p f,filepath,filename,courseid,sectionnumber,displayname |
| -p d | Pushes a directory from the local machine to a section. The name of the directory is the name of the new section. Not recursive. | -p d,directory_path,courseid |
There is a possibility to upload files to a Moodle course. For that you need the Moodle mobile web service.
If you use the script you can change the variable web_service_token in the Rsync.py file.
An option to override the default is coming in the future.
If you use cURL you need to make 3 calls:
curl -F "file_1=@$<filename>" "<moodle_host>/webservice/upload.php?token=$<web_service_token>1.1 Copy the item id of the response.curl "<moodle_host>/webservice/rest/server.php?wstoken=$<web_service_token>&moodlewsrestformat=json&wsfunction=core_user_add_user_private_files&draftid=$<itemid>curl -sS "<moodle_host>/webservice/rest/server.php?wstoken=$<rysnc_token>&wsfunction=local_rsync_create_file_resource&filename=$<filename>&courseid=$<courseid>§ionnumber=$<sectionnumber>&displayname=$<displayname>"
Thanks a lot to @lucaboesch for helping us in this project.