Forum LAMS for Tech-Heads - General Forum: Re: Re: Re: Re: LAMS 2.0 and Moodle Integration Beta Release

By: Anders Berggren

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Hi,
I think I tried to change the
name of a subfolder.

I'm a bit confused with difference
between LAMS v2 in itself and the
LAMS/Moodle integration. LAMS starts
if you want add a LAMS v2 from within
Moodle, right? And if you run LAMS
only then you won't see any tracks of
what you have done with it in Moodle, or?

Cheers, Anders

Posted by Anders Berggren

By: Fiona Malikoff

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Anders,

On the difference between LAMS v2 itself and the integration.

There are three way you go into LAMS from the integration.
* When you add a LAMS v2 and you click on the "Create Sequence" button, you are taken into the LAMS authoring module.
* When you select an existing LAMS v2 resource and click the "Open LAMS Monitor" link, you are taken into the LAMS learner module.
* When you select an existing LAMS v2 resource and click the "Open LAMS Learner" link, you are taken into the LAMS learner module.

So If you run LAMS directly and log into LAMS, then you generally won't see the tracks of what you do in Moodle, but under some circumstances you may see your tracks. In fact, I regularly do have a look at my tracks, so that I can debug problems!

I'll try to explain.

When you are using LAMS via Moodle, your username is actually a combination of a prefix and your moodle username. On the Moodle demo site, my Moodle username is fmalikoff and my LAMS username is lamsv2_fmalikoff and lamsv2_fmalikoff is in a group of users called "lamsv2_2".

Now, the server running LAMS for the demo moodle integration is actually http://demo.lamscommunity.org/lams/. I could also log in to http://demo.lamscommunity.org/lams/ directly using a different username and user group e.g. fmalikoff in group "Playpen". If I logged in as fmalikoff I wouldn't see any of my Moodle based stuff as lamsv2_fmalikoff and fmalikoff are two completely different users, in different groups.

So in that case, I wouldn't see my Moodle tracks.

But, if I go into http://demo.lamscommunity.org/lams/ as lamsv2_fmalikoff (and I don't just log in as lamsv2_fmalikoff - there is a little trick to doing it), then I will see my Moodle tracks. LAMS will think it is me coming in from Moodle and hence show all the Moodle stuff.

If you really want to know the trick I'll tell you, but you probably don't so I won't confuse you further.

So in general, in the normal usage of LAMS you won't see your Moodle tracks within LAMS. But if you use the special trick to "fool" LAMS, then you can see you tracks.

Clear as mud?

Fiona

Posted by Fiona Malikoff

By: Anders Berggren

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Clear as mud diluted with clean water.

I guess everything is collected in the
LAMS database and consequently it can
be retrieved from there, one way or the
other. It makes sense to have different
interfaces, one in LAMS itself and another
in the LAMS/Moodle integration of course.

I would also expect that you can start LAMS
from within Moodle separately, automatically?
Anyway you can obviously also run LAMS only
at the same time using the same instance of
LAMS. LAMS v2 will however not start from
within Moodle, not in my system anyway. Normally
it takes a minute to start LAMS so maybe I
should wait. On the other hand there is no
indication of a start-up-process being initiated
from within Moodle so I am a bit confused, again.

Still can not create any LAMS v2 activities
in Moodle either.

"Could not add a new instance of lamstwo"

But you already knew that.

Anders

Posted by Anders Berggren

By: Fiona Malikoff

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We've finally sorted out Anders' problem with starting lessons. Turns out the LAMS table (mdl_lamstwo) was missing from the database.

Don't know how it has happened as something must have gone wrong with the module installation, but if anyone else finds that they can create sequences but can't start lessons, then check for a table called mdl_lamstwo in your Moodle database.

If you don't have it, then try uninstalling and then reinstalling the LAMS 2.0 module, and if that doesn't work you may have to run the SQL in the mysql.sql file manually (ie the mysql.sql file in the lamstwo/db directory).

Fiona

Posted by Fiona Malikoff