I’ve had Moodle and Matrix integrated for a while now.
Where are you at with this project? (Idea, testing, production?)
Production
Have you received any day-to-day feedback from testers or users?
Yes – there are quite a few hurdles, and not all of them are solved yet.
Any other tips or missing features that would make it usable for you?
Open issues:
In Moodle, users can’t see whether they have unread messages in Matrix.
(My plan is to solve this via the API and a custom field in Moodle.)
Ideally, Matrix would be fully embedded inside Moodle.
SSO is a must. Otherwise, users have to log in once for Moodle and once for Matrix.
In Matrix, it’s really hard to find:
new messages
messages where a user was @mentioned
My workaround (which only works for my Matrix instance, not for external Matrix hosts – not a huge issue though):
I programmed two Matrix bots:
One creates (and updates) a room with all new @user messages
Another one creates a room with all rooms & threads that have new messages since the user was last active.
Threads don’t work in the new Element X app yet. They do work on desktop, but it’s a pain for now.
Element X only supports one Matrix account. FluffyChat handles multiple accounts better, but they’ll probably never implement threads.
First-time user login in Matrix (with security keys and multiple devices) is annoying – compared to platforms like Discord, Slack, or WhatsApp groups.
(One workaround is to start with unencrypted rooms so users can at least get in and see something – especially useful if email notifications are sent out, so users can preview the message. Of course, this bypasses the privacy model that makes Matrix so great in the first place.)
Email notifications (whether the room is encrypted or not) are helpful so users know when something’s new.
So, that’s the collection of my current observations. Still a lot of open issues.
The biggest pain point: getting users to log into Matrix and actually find their first room.
Happy to exchange thoughts – I’ll be in Lübeck from the afternoon of the 3rd to the 5th.
Where are you at with this project? (Idea, testing, production?)
Production
Have you received any day-to-day feedback from testers or users?
Yes – there are quite a few hurdles, and not all of them are solved yet.
Any other tips or missing features that would make it usable for you?
Open issues:
In Moodle, users can’t see whether they have unread messages in Matrix.
(My plan is to solve this via the API and a custom field in Moodle.)
Ideally, Matrix would be fully embedded inside Moodle.
SSO is a must. Otherwise, users have to log in once for Moodle and once for Matrix.
In Matrix, it’s really hard to find:
new messages
messages where a user was @mentioned
My workaround (which only works for my Matrix instance, not for external Matrix hosts – not a huge issue though):
I programmed two Matrix bots:
One creates (and updates) a room with all new @user messages
Another one creates a room with all rooms & threads that have new messages since the user was last active.
Threads don’t work in the new Element X app yet. They do work on desktop, but it’s a pain for now.
Element X only supports one Matrix account. FluffyChat handles multiple accounts better, but they’ll probably never implement threads.
First-time user login in Matrix (with security keys and multiple devices) is annoying – compared to platforms like Discord, Slack, or WhatsApp groups.
(One workaround is to start with unencrypted rooms so users can at least get in and see something – especially useful if email notifications are sent out, so users can preview the message. Of course, this bypasses the privacy model that makes Matrix so great in the first place.)
Email notifications (whether the room is encrypted or not) are helpful so users know when something’s new.
So, that’s the collection of my current observations. Still a lot of open issues.
The biggest pain point: getting users to log into Matrix and actually find their first room.
Happy to exchange thoughts – I’ll be in Lübeck from the afternoon of the 3rd to the 5th.