Basic Setup

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Basic Setup

The moodleR package contains functions and algorithms to access Moodle\(^{TM}\) data and perform reporting and/or learning analytics based in these data. For more information about Moodle go to www.moodle.org. For more information about \(\chi^\color{red}2\) (chi square) Laboratories and the work we do in learning analytics, visit our website: www.chi2labs.com.

Installing and loading the package

To install the latest stable release from CRAN use:

install.packages("moodleR")

To install the latest development version:

devtools::install("chi2labs/moodleR")

After which the package is attached in the usual way.

library(moodleR)

Connecting to a Moodle Database

Configuration

When connecting to a moodle database moodleR will look for database information in a config file (config.yml). The fields that need to be included can be seen in the snipped below:

default:
  moodleR:
    user: "root"
    password: "root"
    dbname: "moodle38"
    host: "localhost"
    port: 3306

Connecting to a moodle DB instance

Once the connection information available you can get a connection to the database by calling mdl_get_connection(), with the use_cache set to false:

mdl_con <- mdl_get_connection(use_cache = FALSE)

The reason for use_cache = FALSE will be explained below.

Caching Data

The moodleR package allows you to create a cache of the most relevant data on your local computer.

There are several reasons you would want to cache data locally rather than operating directly on a moodle database:

You don’t want to create additional server traffic that will worry the system administrator and generate bandwidth and hardware charges.
You are experimenting with exotic new features and want to avoid any accidents which may get you banned from accessing the data in the future
You only need a subset of courses
You are conducting exploratory research a sample of courses and want to make sure you data stays stable during your experimentation
You want your Notebooks and Rmarkdown document to compile faster

The moodleR package provides a method moodle_cache which allows for local caching of the data.

Caching to sqlite

When you run the moodle_cache function moodleR will create a local directory mdl_cache in your working directory. In this directory an sqlite database, mdl_cache.sqlite, will be created to contain the cached tables.

mdl_create_cache()

The output should look something like this:

#> Gettng Moodle DB connection
#> Gettng sqlite connection
#> Directory ' /home/sasha/chi2/moodleR/mdl_cache' used by default. 
#> Set config variable in moodleR:mdl_cache_dir to override.
#> This message is displayed once per session.
#> Filename 'mdl_cache.sqlite' used by default. 
#> Set config variable in moodleR:mdl_cache_dir to override.
#> Cache file created: /home/sasha/chi2/moodleR/mdl_cache/mdl_cache.sqlite
#> Downloading course table
#> Joining, by = "categoryid"
#> Caching course table
#> Downloading discussion posts table
#> Caching discussion posts table
#> Downloading user table
#> Caching user table
#> Downloading grades table
#> Caching grades table
#> Downloading config table
#> Downloading log table
#> Caching log table
#> Downloading roles table
#> Caching role table
#> Downloading enrolments
#> Caching enrolments

These binaries (installable software) and packages are in development.
They may not be fully stable and should be used with caution. We make no claims about them.