This blog post is part 1 of a series of 3 on how to integrate SharePoint and Moodle better.

Part 1: How to part 1
Part 2: How to part 2
Part 3: Recommended Changes (this post)

Checks

You if now navigate to the Document Library we created earlier in Internet Explorer you will see that there are folders in there.  This is where you documents will now be uploaded.

Recommendations

Moodle Cache

By default Moodle stores all its caching in the Moodle data location, so having completed this process you will find that a file is allows being written to as users logging onto the Moodle website.  Moodle can also write this cache into the Moodle database.  We are going to move the load off the SharePoint server and on top the database

To make this change log on to Moodle with an administrative user.  Using the navigation down the left hand side click on Server and then Session Handling.

When the page has loaded check ‘Use database for session information’.

slasharguments

In most of my Moodle implementation I have found that images don’t load properly when they have been uploaded through the Moodle document upload process.  If I’m honest, I don’t know why this is but here is how to fix it.

Log onto Moodle with an administrative user.   Using the navigation down the left hand side click on Server and then HTTP.

When the page has loaded uncheck ‘Use slash arguments’.

Remove Folders

One of the views in SharePoint is the ability to show folders.  This can help the user not to look through the strange folder structure the Moodle creates itself.  e.g. folders are called with a numeric number.

To create a new view that doesn’t have folder, open the document library in SharePoint 2010 and click on Modify this View.

Toward the bottom of the page, expand Folders and then check Show All Item without folders.

You document library should now look like this.

This blog post is part 1 of a series of 3 on how to integrate SharePoint and Moodle better.

Part 1: How to part 1
Part 2: How to part 2 (this post)
Part 3: Recommended Changes

Enable Feature

For the Moodle OS to open a WebDAV enabled folder, the Desktop Experience Feature must be enabled.  Do this by adding this feature.

Changes required to Moodle PHP files

I have copied the next step from the Integrating Moodle and SharePoint Better document produced by Microsoft which talks about how to integrate the product better should you be running it on a Windows Server using Apache.

Changes to Moodle PHP Files
There are two changes to make to Moodle PHP files. First, it’s important to prevent Moodle from
creating an administrative file called .htaccess that is not a valid SharePoint file. This file prevents
unauthorized access to the Moodle dataroot folder. Because we will use SharePoint Server to store
files, we will also use SharePoint’s authentication system, and thus can safely prevent the .htaccess
file from being created.
Second, we need to add our own file upload function. This function supports versioning by
preventing Moodle from simply overwriting old files when it uploads files to SharePoint.
Important If a PHP accelerator is present, it may be necessary to either temporarily turn off
the PHP accelerator, or force a purge of the accelerator’s cache, for the changes you make
to take effect. Procedures for temporarily disabling a PHP accelerator and for cache purging
vary by accelerator.
Prevent Moodle from creating an .htaccess file
1. Open the Moodle file setuplib.php from within server/moodle/lib.
2. Search for .htaccess, then comment out the following code:

   1: if (!file_exists($currdir.'/.htaccess')) {

   2: if ($handle = fopen($currdir.'/.htaccess', 'w')) { // For

   3: safety

   4: @fwrite($handle, "deny from allrnAllowOverride);

   5: Nonern"

   6: @fclose($handle);

   7: }

   8: }

Note An alternative to editing the setuplib.php file is to create a SharePoint event handler

that intercepts the file create event and handles it appropriately.

Changes to config.php

Navigate to the root of your Moodle website through Windows Explorer.  Normally this would be c:inetpubwwwroot

Open config.php with notepad and search for docroot and change this location to the same URL we saved during the creation of the document library in SharePoint.  At the moment there are only 2 backlashes for the location.  You need to make this 3.

Navigate to c:inetpubwwwroot and open the file config.php in notepad.

Within the file search for $CFG->dataroot. Change this to sp2010sitesmoodlemoodledocs. Note that this is three backslashes.

Click to go to part 3 and recommendation of integrating Moodle and SharePoint

Over the years the last year I have had many conversation on how to make SharePoint and Moodle better together and in recent posts I have how to install Moodle on a 32bit and how to install Moodle on 64bit operating systems.

In the current version of Moodle any documents, assignments or images are stored in a folder on the local server.  But why can’t we store these files in a SharePoint Document Library so any changes to these documents can be done easily with version controlling or using office web app.  Documents can also be searched and index allowing teachers and students to easily find resource they want.

Back in April Microsoft released a white on how to bring SharePoint and Moodle better together but this only if you are going to run the Moodle website using Apache.   On the page there are a few comments and unanswered questions on how to integrate Moodle running on IIS with SharePoint 2010.

Following the 3 whitepapers on implementing Moodle on 3 different types of Microsoft environments, I thought I would add how to do this through IIS and changing the same code as Microsoft have recommended for it to work.  The following instruction assume you have setup Moodle with IIS as per the whitepapers above.

This blog post is part 1 of a series of 3 on how to integrate SharePoint and Moodle better.

Part 1: How to part 1 (this post)
Part 2: How to part 2
Part 3: Recommended Changes

Accounts Required

SharePoint uses Active Directory to authenticate its users.  For Moodle to write documents to a SharePoint library it will require write access to that document library.  To do this create a Active Directory user called md_admin.  This user will be required to run the IIS website as well authenticated with SharePoint.

Create a new Active Directory user called md_admin.  This user will be required to run the IIS website and will also need permission to the SharePoint document library

SharePoint Configuration

Navigate to the location of where you want your Moodle documents to be stored in SharePoint.  Click on Site Actions and then on New Document Library.  Call your library MoodleDocs or something to your pleasing.  You need to make sure the md_admin user account has write access to this library to ensure the whole process works.

The upload process will move files through the upload process in Moodle to SharePoint through WebDav.  To find out the webdav URL of your site click on the Windows Explorer from the SharePoint Ribbon.

Copy the path of the folder location eg. sp2010sitesmoodlemoodledocs

Later in the process we will be editing some of the Moodle PHP files and will need this URL.

Permissions to Moodle Root

The website will soon be changed for the md_admin user to run the web service but we also need to make sure the user has read permission of the Moodle PHP files.

Navigate to c:inetpub and right click on wwwroot and select properties

Select the Security tab and add the user md_admin with read permissions.

Changes to IIS

As mentioned in the previous step we need to change the web service that runs the website.  This username will connect to SharePoint to upload the files, hence why you will need to use the md_admin username.

Open Internet Information Services Manager and expand the left navigation until you see default website.  Select the default website.  Using the right panel select Authentication which is in the IIS group

You will notice that Anonymous Authentication is Enabled.  Click Edit… in the Actions panel.

Click Set to change the anonymous user identity.

Fill in the details of the domain username you created earlier (md_admin).  You will need to put your domain name before this (domainmd_admin).

Click to go to part 2 of Integrating Moodle and SharePoint
Click to go to part 3 and recommendations of Integrating SharePoint and Moodle