Allowing direct download of files in Moodle

Moodle 3.0 has been a welcome upgrade from our previous version and includes many security, bug fixes, and interface enhancements.  It also now smartly decides how file content should accessed by students based on the file-type and context the file is published in.

For example, after adding a document (such as a Word document, or PowerPoint file) to a course, Moodle automatically allows users to download the file.  When adding a video file, Moodle automatically brings up the embedded video player when the item is clicked on.

The behaviour for audio file is similar to video, in that the file is played in an embedded player within the browser.  This is great in most cases.  However, we have in the past, allowed users to download audio files so the files can be played offline such as in the car on a smartphone.

We can still allow users to accomplish this, but the setting will need be changed manually for audio files.  Here is how.

Allow downloading of audio files

  1. In the course page when adding an activity or resource, choose File from the Resources section of the Add an activity or resource menu.  Or, find the item, click the Edit drop-down and choose Edit settings.add-file-or-resourceedit-file
  2. In the Update: File screen look for the Appearance section.
  3. In the Appearance section, change the Display setting to either Open or Force download.  Details for each setting are below.edit-audio-file
  4. Click Save and Return to Course or Save and Display.
  5. The file can now be downloaded and saved offline.

Display settings explained

This setting, together with the file type and whether the browser allows embedding, determines how the file is displayed. Options may include:

  • Automatic – The best display option for the file type is selected automatically.  This is the default setting for content of type file.
  • Embed – The file is displayed within the page below the navigation bar together with the file description and any blocks.
  • Force download – The user is prompted to download the file.
  • Open – Only the file is displayed in the browser window.  This will allow users the best of both worlds.  To download the file, users will need to right-click on the link and select Save Link As… save-link-as
  • In pop-up – The file is displayed in a new browser window without menus or an address bar

Update William Installation

William is the main database used at Heritage College and Seminary for managing the institution’s course catalog, student records, financial records, and much more.

William is a Microsoft Access 2003 database and is hosted on our internal servers.  It is accessible via the W: drive for each user who is granted access.  To update your installation of William please follow these simple steps.

  1. Navigate to the W: drive (Start -> Computer -> W:\).
  2. Double-click the update.bat file to run the update utility.
  3. Done.

Yes, it was that easy!

Import Attendance Dates for Courses

Kirsha will send a spreadsheet of class id’s and course dates.  It will look something like this.

ClassID    CourseDate
7943    13-Jan
7943    20-Jan
7943    27-Jan
7949    11-Jan
7949    18-Jan
7949    25-Jan

It will contain a list dates for each class throughout the semester.  Our job is to import this data into the tblClassDates table in William.

How-To

  1. Open William in design mode.
  2. Click ‘External Data‘.  On the Import tab click ‘Excel‘.
  3. Work through the wizard, choosing the spreadsheet and Append a copy of the records to the table.
  4. The table that we need to import into is called tblClassDates.

To verify the result open the Attendence tracking form (frmAttendenceTracking – also there a button called Attendence on the Registrar start form).  Click the ‘Classes and Dates‘ button and choose one of the class that you know should have dates associated with it.  The new semester’s date will appear in the Dates field below.

Heritage IT Helpdesk

I wanted to let you know about a new tool available to us. The Heritage IT Helpdesk. If you have an issue that needs our (my) attention, send an email to helpdesk@heritage-theo.edu. I will see your email in my inbox, and it will automatically get put into a list so that I can view history on in and respond accordingly.

We are planning to use it in the following ways.

  • Track issues with your workstations/laptops/phones/tablets and the server technologies you work with day-to-day.
  • Prioritize problems and requests for new solutions.
  • Get a better handle on our hardware and software digital inventory.

The Heritage IT Helpdesk is super easy to use. Again, if you need support with your workstation, database, applications, etc., send an email to helpdesk@heritage-theo.edu. You can do this from anywhere, using any device (think Outlook or Smartphone) and from any email address. When you write the email, here are some best practices for helping me help you solve the issue quickly and reliably.

  1. In the Subject of your email write a concise, specific description of the problem.
  2. In the body of the email give me a little more detail. For example, if there is an error message, write in the error message.
  3. Give me, in one word, a sense of the priority for the issue. For example, if the problem is blocking you from work, then the priority is high. If the issue is blocking you from working, but you have an adequate work around for the next couple days, then the priority is medium. If it’s a feature request, or idea for improving our lives, it’s likely a low priority.

It is my hope that the Helpdesk will be able to assist us in proper issue tracking. Going forward we will be able to do much better trending analysis on the types of issues that are reoccurring.

Update William Version

Put William into Development mode.  The following procedure should be done on each file that’s part of the William database.  The files are.

  • hdata.mdb – The main database file itself.  Mode tables and stored queries live here.  This file will need to be opened exclusively in order to change the version.
  • heritage.mdw – Workgroup file that contains user authentication and authorization data.
  • h_user.mdb
  • heritage.mdb – The main front end file.

In each file, update the version for the properties of the file.  Procedure is as follows.

  • With the file open in Access, go to Menu -> Manage -> Database Properties.
  • In the Properties dialog, in the Custom tab click on the ‘Version’ name in the Properties list/field.  Increment the value.
  • Click Modify.  Click Ok.
  • Choose Menu -> Manage – > Compact and Repair.
  • Save it and close.

Wowza GoCoder Setup for HeritageLive

Heritage Live uses the Wowza Streaming Engine on the back end to facilitate ingestion of external video and audio sources, transcoding of those sources, and publication to an external site.  To setup GoCoder as an ingestion source for the Wowza Streaming Engine hosted by Heritage College and Seminary, please use the following instructions and settings.

The Wowza GoCoder is supported on iOS and Android mobile devices.

  • Download the Wowza GoCoder app from the app store on your device (i.e. the Apple App Store or the Google Play Store).
  • Once the app is installed, launch it and it will show you a brief legend for each of the apps buttons.
  • Open the Server Info section.  The settings are as follows:
Host -> Server: streams.heritage-theo.edu
Host -> Port: 1935
Application -> Application: HeritageLive
Application -> Stream Name: can be anything that will identify your device in the system.  Use only letters with no spaces.
Login -> Use the Publisher Name and Password sent to you by the Heritage IT department.
  • In the Video Options section of the application you can change what is being sent with your stream, such as video & audio, video only, or audio only.  You can also change video encoding settings such as the size.  For primary video we will be starting with a 720p stream and re-encoding that using the streaming engine on the server.  For secondary source such as a secondary classroom, using a lower resolution such as 640×360 would be appropriate.  The key is to use a sufficient bit rate.  The bit rate setting can be found on the main screen in the lower left corner.
  • Once you’ve got all your setting made, try it.  Punch the big red button in the lower right corner.  If the app is successful in publishing the stream to the server the message will change from Connecting to Connected!

You’re done.  Congratulations!

We first used the Wowza Streaming Engine with an Introduction to the Bible course taught by Gord Oeste in the fall of 2015.

Outlook Asks For My Password

Sometimes, Outlook 2007 briefly looses its connection with the back end Exchange 2010 server.  This happens despite a healthy network connection on the workstation.  If this occurs, there are two ways to get around the issue temporarily.

Enter your fully qualified domain username and password

In the password dialog that has so rudely interrupted your workflow, enter your fully qualified username and password into the fields provided.  A fully qualified username is one that also includes the domain name that the user is associated with.  For example, if my username is stupendous and my domain is marbles.local, the the fully qualified username is as follow.  Note the back slash.

marbles.local\stupendous

Putting this into our context, my fully qualified username for the Heritage network is as follows.  Again, note the back slash.

heritagecollege.local\rshouldice

Next, enter your Heritage account password into the password field.

It's also wise to check the Save Password checkbox so your updated credentials are cached by Outlook.

Then hit OK.

Close Outlook and reopen it

This is as straight forward as it sounds.  Just close Outlook and reopen it.  It will use cached credentials based on your most recent Windows login to re-authenticate with the Exchange server.

If that doesn’t work

In the event that neither of those things work, logging off and logging back into Windows will force all of your credentials to be re-cached.

The dropped connection is characterized by a message in the bottom right corner of Outlook.  It will say something like:

  • Password Needed, or
  • Offline with Microsoft Exchange.

A successful connection message will read:

  • Connected to Microsoft Exchange.
  • Online with Microsoft Exchange.

So, make note of the message that shows up in that location.

Donation Receipt Processing

One-Off Receipt Processing

Add receipt data to the tblReceipts table

Data Points:

  • Receipt number (increment from previous number).
  • Date the donation was received.
  • FID (The ID of the person/company from the persons table.
  • Amount of the donation.
  • Check off if tax deductible.  Most will be.
  • Check off Annual Receipt.

Add ReceiptID into the donations table

For the donation, update it’s record in the tblDonations table.

  1. Find the row that corresponds to this donation by cross-referencing the FID.
  2. Add the ReceiptID from the tblReceipts table to the receiptID field.

Run the report

Run the Report rptReceipt which grabs the receipts generated for today.  It’s formatted on legal sized paper.

Typically, I will print or export this report to a PDF for the office staff to print onto our formal receipt paper.

Media Organization

It’s important to catalog our published media so that they are properly organized, easy to find later, and able to be backed up.  The Media folder contains directories for each year.  Your media should be saved inside the directory corresponding to the year it was published.  A folder should be created for each event/date with the following naming convention.

yymmdd description

i.e...

151008 Chapel

That way each entry will be sorted by date and easy to find later.  Further the description helps for search-ability.

The location for our published media is:

\\heritagecollege.local\public\media

A rough process for publishing media files is as follows…

1. Production - i.e. Capturing audio and video.
2. Save RAW footage to external USB hard disk.
3. Copy RAW footage to internal drive for editing.
4. Editing - compile final cut using an DAW (audio) or NLE (video).
5. Save the completed work to the Media folder.
6. Publish the media to Moodle or other web location.

Relevant Links

Get Organized: How to Manage Video Files

For editors, how do you keep track of/organize all of your raw video footage?