Reactive UI for Moodle Plugins

Reactive UI for Moodle Plugins

by Tim Trappen -
Number of replies: 3

With the popularity of H5P still rising among educators, I feel most of it's success comes down to offering "current day" interactivity, i.e. UI components that do not require a page reload to re-render. Currently, Moodle looks to offer a native implementation of reactive JavaScript, but its implementation is still barebones.

Since I do have a few years of experience working on enterprise-scale applications with modern JS Frameworks like React and Vue, I figured I'd do an interest check if anyone wants to build a little interactive/reactive plugin, while simultaneously learning the basics of the necessary tooling (Webpack, Vite) and integrating such a framework with Moodle.

I've already worked on a Moodle plugin with this tech stack, and thus can also offer some insight on potential issues that might need to be considered. However, there's also some topics which I would like to learn more about, for example building a restful API for a Moodle plugin (which would enhance the possibilities of such a plugin immensely) or offering multiple localisations, which can be instantaneously switched without changing the language from the user's settings.

Let me know if you'd be interested in something like this for the DevCamp! Also, feel free to share your current level of experience and any preferences when it comes to the tech stack - personally, due to my previous experience, I'd be most comfortable with Vue 2/3 and Webpack 5, but am open for everything!

In reply to Tim Trappen

Re: Reactive UI for Moodle Plugins

by Luca Bösch -
Oh wow that sounds great, Tim and reminds me of https://moodle.org/plugins/local_differentiator that had a major development boost during MoodleMootDACH 2019 in Vienna.
It was done using Vue.
In reply to Luca Bösch

Re: Reactive UI for Moodle Plugins

by Tim Trappen -
That looks really cool! I'll try to find the time before MoodleMoot to have a look at the code, maybe I can already find some further learnings that I struggled with while working on the ORCA.nrw-Plugin in your plugin! Thanks for sharing!
In reply to Tim Trappen

Re: Reactive UI for Moodle Plugins

by Thomas Niedermaier -

Hi Tim,

I'm with you. I think Moodle should go this way quickly. I am a beginner with react/typescript, webpack, tailwind etc but vue would be ok for me too.

A first thought: I've had the idea to transform the Moodle core plugin "choice" to a modern looking student response system with grading and a chart as "gamification" elements. I'm finishing the grading feature at the moment, but a fancy new layout and the new chart would be good examples of this new way of programming, wouldn't they...? Just one of many possible "fields of applications"...