1. Introduction

Welcome to the Mahara user manual. This user manual is designed to provide documentation for people who use Mahara on a day-to-day basis. It covers the functionalities of Mahara to provide you with information about what you see on the screen.

Without further ado, let’s begin!

1.1. What is Mahara?

If you’re wondering what Mahara or an ePortfolio is, why you might want one and what it can do for you, then read on – you’re about to find out.

At the simplest level, Mahara is two things: an ePortfolio [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eportfolio] and a social networking [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_network] system combined. An ePortfolio is a system in which students can record “evidence of lifelong learning” – such as essays, artwork or other such things they produce that can be stored digitally. Such things are known as artefacts in Mahara. Social networking systems need little introduction – think Bebo [http://bebo.com/], Facebook [http://facebook.com/] or MySpace [http://www.myspace.com/]. Basically, they give a way for people to interact with their friends and create their own online communities.

But Mahara is much more than just a place to store files. Mahara also includes blogging, a résumé builder, and Moodle [http://moodle.org/] integration.

1.2. The Mahara framework

With Mahara, you control which items and what information within your portfolio other users see. Such items and information are termed artefacts. To facilitate this access control, all artefacts you wish to show to other users need to be arranged into one area. In Mahara this compilation of selected artefacts is called a ‘page’. You can have as many pages as you like, each with a different number of artefacts, intended purpose and audience. Your audience, or the people you wish to give access to your page, can be added as individuals or as a member of a group. It can even be made publicly available.

For example you could create:

a page for your friends and family that includes holiday photos and a personal journal

a page for your tutor, which includes assessments and your reflective learning journal

a page to showcase your best pieces of work and your résumé for potential employers

…

A single page or a collection of pages can make up your portfolio. Unless artefacts are placed in a page, they are not visible to anybody but you. You can use files that you uploaded or journal entries you wrote in as many pages as you wish. You only need one copy of your artefact.

Imagine you collected all your artefacts in a shoe box. Whenever you have a new artefact, you add it to the shoe box. When you are ready to create your portfolio, you take a look at the artefacts in your shoe box and choose those that you want to make available on a portfolio page. You can arrange the artefacts on that page to your liking.

Portfolio work with Mahara

The diagram below of example artefacts, pages and groups illustrates how content in Mahara can be shared and reused in different contexts and for different audiences.

Mahara framework

1.3. How does Mahara fit in to the e-learning landscape?

If you think of LMSs [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Learning_Management_System] such as Moodle, Sakai and Blackboard as the formal, structured side of e-learning, then Mahara is the social, reflective side. An LMS and an ePortfolio complement one another in an online learning environment.

In particular, while Mahara’s APIs are open to all, Mahara can integrate with Moodle natively to provide a streamlined user experience. Since Moodle 2.0 this is not only limited to SSO via MNet, but students are able to export assignments, blogs and much more straight into Mahara to use as artefacts – which can then, of course, be placed into pages.

1.4. What if Mahara does not support a feature I want?

Mahara has been designed from the ground up to be an open, pluggable system. Creating new artefacts, authenticating against a custom system and much more can be implemented simply through writing a plugin that uses the appropriate core API. What this means is that it is free and easy for you to customise almost anything about Mahara to suit your needs – and paid support is available [https://mahara.org/partners] through a network of Mahara Partners should you require it.

1.5. Other things to do

Now you have a basic idea of what Mahara is, you could:

Read the list of features that Mahara comes with.

Explore the demo [http://demo.mahara.org/] or download Mahara [https://launchpad.net/mahara/] for yourself to play with.

Sign up to the mahara.org community [https://mahara.org/registration.php] and begin asking questions and contributing in the forums [https://mahara.org/interaction/forum/index.php?group=1].

Continue reading this user guide.

1.6. Where can I get ideas of how to use Mahara?

The Mahara 1.4 Cookbook [http://www.packtpub.com/mahara-1-4-cookbook-for-training-education/book] by Ellen Marie Murphy was published in September 2011. It has over 50 ideas of how to use Mahara in different settings. The book can be purchased in PDF and paper formats.

The Mahara E-Portfolios: Beginner’s Guide [http://www.packtpub.com/mahara-e-portfolios-beginners-guide/book] by Derrin Kent and Richard Hand is the updated edition of the Mahara 1.2 E-Portfolios: Beginner’s Guide [http://www.packtpub.com/mahara-12-e-portfolios-beginners-guide/book] and a great reference for step-by-step instructions on how to create a portfolio and perform other tasks.

You may also wish to check what other books [https://wiki.mahara.org/index.php/Marketing/Books] or papers [https://wiki.mahara.org/index.php/Marketing/Papers] have been published on Mahara or what users talk about in conference presentations [https://wiki.mahara.org/index.php/Marketing/Mahara_Presentations].

1.7. Getting help

Contextual help is available throughout Mahara. Watch out for the Help icon help. Click on it to find out more about the action you are about to perform.

You can also ask questions in the forums [https://mahara.org/interaction/forum/index.php?group=1].

1.8. Mahara and accessibility

Mahara aims to be usable by as many individuals as possible, including those with disabilities or special needs. Creating accessible web content is a requirement in many countries. In order to provide international guidelines, the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) were created. There are three conformance levels under the WCAG 2.0 [http://www.w3.org/WAI/intro/wcag20], the latest edition of the guidelines: A, AA, and AAA. Each level requires conformance with previous levels and includes its own specific guidelines for how websites should be made accessible.

With version 1.9, Mahara has reached level AA for user-facing areas of the system. The administration of Mahara is predominantly on level AA as well. Only a few things need to be corrected.

If you come across accessibility issues, please file a report in our bug tracker [https://bugs.launchpad.net/mahara/+filebug] and tag the item “accessibility”.

If you are a screen reader user, you can use the following access keys to navigate the main menu items in Mahara:

Regular user interface:

d:Dashboard

c: Content

p: Portfolio

g: Groups

a: Administration

Administrator interface:

a: Admin home

c: Configure site

u: Users

g: Groups

i: Institutions

e: Extensions

h: Return to site

1.9. Which version of Mahara do I have?

If you do not have access to the administration area, you do not see immediately which version of Mahara you use. Knowing the Mahara version has a couple of advantages:

You can make sure to refer to the correct user manual.

You can find out whether you are on a currently supported version of Mahara or on an older one.

If you are on an older version of Mahara, you can check the user manual for the new features.

When you report a bug [https://bugs.launchpad.net/mahara/+filebug], you are often asked to specify the version of Mahara in which you noticed the problem.

You can find out easily which version of Mahara you use by looking at the site’s HTML source. It’s not as scary as it sounds.

The HTML source reveals the Mahara version number

Firefox and Chrome / Chromium:

In your browser, make a right-mouse click in any of your Mahara pages.

Select the option “View Page Source”.

Look for the meta tag “generator”.

Safari:

Make the “Develop menu” visible: Safari → Preferences → Advanced → select “Show develop menu in menu bar”.

Make a right-mouse click in any of your Mahara pages.

Select the option “Show Page Source”.

Look for the meta tag “generator”.

Note

Only the major version number of Mahara is displayed for security purposes. The minor version number is only visible to the administrator on Administration → Admin home. We recommend you keep Mahara up-to-date with security updates to ensure that your instance is not vulnerable to known security issues.

2. Dashboard

2.1. Login

You always need a login to authenticate yourself and access your personal information, portfolio pages and groups that you belong to. You can log in on the Mahara homepage.

Login form

Username: Type your username in this field (not for Persona, SSO or Moodle accounts).

Password: Provide your password. If you enter your password incorrectly 5 times in a row during one session, access is locked for 5 minutes before you can try again.

Click the Login button to access your account.

Lost username / password: If you do not remember your username or password to your account, click this link to be taken to a page where you can request an email with your details. It will contain your username and a link to change your password.

Register: If you do not have an account, and your institution allows self-registration for an account, use this link and follow the instructions on the next page.

Persona login: If you log in via Persona [https://www.persona.org/], please use this login button instead of the login form.

SSO login: If you log in via your institution’s SSO (single sign-on) account, please use this button to be taken to the SSO login.

Note

The regular login form is only available for internal and LDAP accounts. Internal accounts are accounts for which you registered through your Mahara site or that were created by administrators either manually, or by a CSV file upload.

The “Lost username / password” link only works for internal accounts where you use the regular login form.

If you log in via Persona, SSO or Moodle for example, you must retrieve your password directly from these services. If you do not know how to do that, please ask your administrator.

You only see the Persona and SSO buttons if these authentication methods have been enabled on your site.

new in Mahara 15.04 You can hide the login form entirely if your Mahara instance generally only connects to an external authentication method such as MNet or CAS. In these cases, your users will need to log in via a different site and seeing the login form on the homepage may only be confusing.

You can hide the login form by adding the value $cfg->showloginsideblock = false; to your config.php file. Once you have done that, only a link to the login form is displayed for an administrator to log into the site.

Link to the login form

After you successfully logged in to Mahara, you see your Dashboard. This is your homepage where you can see the latest activity of you and other users on Mahara. You can customise the dashboard so that you always see the items that are most important to you.

Only you can see your dashboard. Nobody else has access to it.

2.2. Overview

You can change certain aspects of your dashboard, namely the user-specific information, but a lot of what you see is static to allow you to quickly access other parts of Mahara.

Your homepage is your dashboard from which you can access a number of areas in Mahara conveniently.

General navigation bar: Move from one area of Mahara to the next. This can be done by having a second-level navigation that is tabbed or a drop-down menu.

Your name: Your name is displayed to indicate who is logged in esp. when viewing portfolio pages where the profile block is not visible. This feature is only present when small page headers are not turned on. You can click on it to go to your profile page.

Note

If an administrator masquerades as another user, this name helps to check quickly, in which account actions are undertaken.

Settings: This link gives you access to your account settings and notifications.

Inbox: Go to your Mahara inbox to check for new messages. When you have unread messages, the counter displays the number of unread messages.

Logout: Link to log out of your current session.

Search: Search for users who have an account to view their profile page and check which pages they have made accessible to you. If your site has fulltext search available, you can search for anything on the site using this search box.

Note

In the User search box you can most often search for users’ display name. Depending on the settings that the site administrator made, you may also be able to search for users’ real name and username. If the site administrator allowed users to hide their real name, you can do so in your general account options.

To provide you with the most relevant search results, you automatically search only for users within your own institution, but can choose to search for everyone on your Mahara installation on the “Find friends” search page you are taken to.

If the site administrator turned on exact user search, you need to provide the correct display name or real name in order to find another user.

Quick links: These quick links take you directly to certain areas of Mahara.

User-specific information: You can customise this area on your dashboard to put blocks there that you want to see every time you log in.

Edit dashboard: The Edit dashboard button allows you to jump directly into the edit screen for your dashboard without having to go to Portfolio → Pages first.

Note

You cannot add a skin to your dashboard page.

Personal information: This sidebar block contains static and dynamic information:

Your name is linked to your profile page.

Your profile picture is linked to your profile pictures page for easy uploading of new profile pictures.

If you are a member of any groups, they are displayed here.

Pending friend requests and group invitations are displayed.

If you tagged artefacts or pages with the tag “profile”, a link to them is placed here.

Online users: If this sidebar block is enabled, you see users who have been logged in during the last 10 minutes. Depending on the settings for your institution that the administrator chose, you may see all users, only users from your institution(s) or no users at all.

Profile completion: You see this sidebar block if your site or institution administrators turned on the profile completion functionality.

Links and resources: List of links to websites or documents that are visible to all logged-in users or the public.

2.3. Quick links

When you log in to Mahara, you see three new boxes with quick links:

Create: Create your electronic portfolio in a flexible personal learning environment. This takes you to Portfolio → Pages.

Share: Share your achievements and development in a space you control. Clicking on this box takes you to Portfolio → Shared by me.

Engage: Engage with other people in discussion forums and collaborate in groups. This takes you to Groups → Find groups.

Mahara usage information and information when you hover over a box with your cursor

With the help of these quick links you can reach the different parts of your portfolio directly from your dashboard.

Note

If you removed these boxes from your dashboard but want to get them back at a later point, you can re-active them under Settings → Dashboard information.

If you do not see the dashboard boxes and do not have the option to turn this setting on, your site administrator disabled this feature in the site configuration.

2.4. User-specific information

The default dashboard includes the following blocks:

Latest pages

My pages

Inbox

Topics I’m following

These blocks are filled with content once you start using Mahara and create pages, receive messages from other users, have access to others’ portfolio pages and use the forums for discussions. You can customize these blocks to your liking by editing your dashboard. Click the Edit dashboard button directly on your dashboard or go to Portfolio in the navigation menu, click the Edit button edit next to the dashboard page and change the blocks like you would change them on any page in Mahara.

See also

Refer to the page editor for more information on adding and removing blocks from a page.

The site administrator can change the default blocks on the dashboard page for new users in Administration → Configure site → Pages.

3. Content

The Content tab holds all artefacts that you can create or upload for use in your portfolio. All information and files you provide here are initially only visible to you. Exceptions are:

your display name or if you don’t have one, your real name

your profile picture

Both these are visible in the Online users sidebar if that is activated. Your display name and profile picture are also visible on your profile page per default.

Only when you put artefacts into your portfolio pages or share them in a group will they be visible to others.

3.1. Profile

3.1.1. About me

3.1.2. Contact information

3.1.2.1. General information

3.1.2.2. Add and delete email addresses

3.1.3. Social media

3.1.3.1. View your list of social networks

3.1.3.2. Add a social network

3.1.4. General

3.2. Profile pictures

3.2.1. Pictures uploaded to Mahara

3.2.2. Remote avatars

3.3. Files

3.3.1. Upload a file

3.3.2. Upload multiple files

3.3.3. Edit a file or folder

3.3.4. Download folder content as a zip file

3.3.5. File quota

3.4. Journal

3.4.1. Change your journal settings

3.4.2. Add a journal entry

3.4.3. Add an image into a journal entry

3.4.4. Add a file as attachment to a journal entry

3.4.5. Work with multiple journals

3.5. Résumé

3.5.1. Introduction

3.5.1.1. Write your cover letter

3.5.1.2. Provide personal information

3.5.2. Education and employment

3.5.2.1. Education history

3.5.2.2. Employment history

3.5.3. Achievements

3.5.3.1. Certifications, accreditations and awards

3.5.3.2. Books and publications

3.5.3.3. Professional memberships

3.5.4. Goals and skills

3.5.4.1. Goals

3.5.4.2. Skills

3.5.5. Interests

3.5.6. License

3.6. Plans

3.6.1. Create a new plan

3.6.2. Add tasks to a plan

3.6.3. View all tasks of a plan

3.6.3.1. View a plan under Content

3.6.3.2. View a plan on a portfolio page

3.6.4. Edit tasks in a plan

3.7. Notes

3.7.1. View your notes

3.7.2. Edit your notes

3.1. Profile

Content → Profile

Your Profile area stores your contact and personal information. Each of the profile fields can be considered separate artefacts which you can add independently to your profile page or any portfolio page. Thus, you can reveal as little or as much information about yourself to others as you wish.

3.1.1. About me

Content → Profile → About me

You must provide a first and last name. All other information is optional. You name is visible to other Mahara users. You may choose to have a Display name. You can change the information here at any time unless an administrator locked certain fields.

Profile: About me

The link Profile takes you directly to the edit screen of your profile page where you can arrange the information you wish to display on this page.

First name: Your real given name

Last name: You real last name

Student ID: Fill it in if it is required

Display name: The name by which you want to be known around Mahara. If you have a display name, your real name will not be visible to regular Mahara users. Only administrators can see your real name and your username at all times.

Introduction: You can write about yourself. This text is placed onto your profile page automatically unless you take the introduction out of your profile page.

Note

If you log in via Moodle and your user information is updated upon each login, your introduction will be overwritten by what you have in your Moodle profile description.

Click the Save profile button to save your changes.

3.1.2. Contact information

Content → Profile → Contact information

3.1.2.1. General information

You may wish to provide some of your contact information for later use in a page. All details you fill in here are only visible to other users when you put them into a page. Until then only you can see them.

Warning

You are not required to provide any of the information asked for on this screen (except for one email address). Do not enter any private information in here that you do not want people to know. When choosing the Profile information block for any of your pages, you can decide which information to show on the particular page for which you choose the block.

However, be very vigilant with your private information. Think about it like providing information on a business card. How much or how little would you want to display there? Do you need to give out your home phone number and postal address? If not, leave them out.

Profile: Contact information

Email address: You must have at least one email address in the system. Your primary email address, i.e. the first one shown, is the one that is used for any notification from Mahara. You can choose to display your secondary email addresses on specific pages.

Official website address: If you have a business and want to put the URL to its website into your portfolio, you can enter it here.

Personal website address: If you have a website for yourself, you can enter its URL in here and include it easily into your pages.

Blog address: If you have a blog, copy its URL in here so you can use display it in your pages easily.

Postal address: Enter your postal address in here if you wish.

Town: Enter the town you live in / work at here. It should match your postal address.

City / Region: If you have a further distinguisher to where you live, enter it here.

Country: Choose the country you live in from the drop-down menu.

Home phone: Enter your home phone number here.

Business phone: Enter your business phone number here if you wish.

Mobile phone: You can also provide your mobile phone number.

Fax number: If you have a fax number where people can send you documents, enter it here.

Click the Save profile button to save your changes.

3.1.2.2. Add and delete email addresses

The email address with which you registered on Mahara is displayed. You can add other email addresses to your profile so that you can use them later on.

Profile: Add or delete an email address

On Content → Profile → Contact information click the link Add email address. A text field is being displayed.

Enter your email address. Make sure you do not have any spelling mistakes in it.

Click the Add button.

Click the Save profile button at the bottom of the page. Only then is the authorization email sent to this email address to verify that it can be added. Follow the instructions in that email to continue.

Once you verified your email address, it is added as secondary address.

Note

If you mark one of your secondary email addresses with the radio button and click the Save profile button, this address becomes your primary email address and the one to which all notifications are sent.

Click the Delete button delete to delete an email address that is not your primary one.

3.1.3. Social media

Content → Profile → Social media

If you use social media, you can enter your usernames / profile URLs here so you can use them in your portfolio later easily.

Note

This tab was called Messaging until Mahara 1.9 and was limited to instant messaging services. In Mahara 1.10 it was changed to provide for more flexibility.

3.1.3.1. View your list of social networks

Profile: Social media

The icon of the social media service is displayed if Mahara knows it.

Social network: The name of the social network is displayed for which you provide a link to your profile.

Your URL or username: Display your username for the social network or URL depending on what is asked for when you select the network. The username or URL is linked so you can click on it and verify it.

Click the Edit button edit if you want to make changes to a certain social network.

Click the Delete button delete if you want to remove a certain social network from the list.

Click the New social media account button if you want to add another account.

3.1.3.2. Add a social network

Profile: Add a social network

Click the New social media account button if you want to add another account.

Social network: Choose the social network from the drop-down menu for which you want to add a profile. If your social network is not displayed, choose the option “Other”.

If you chose “Other” as your social network, enter the name of the site in this field.

Your URL or username: Enter your username or the URL to your profile into this field. If you chose “Other”, you need to enter the URL so that it can be linked properly to your profile. Also enter the URL if you want to link to your Facebook or Tumblr account.

Click the Save button to add your social network profile to your list of profiles or click the Cancel button to abort your changes.

3.1.4. General

Content → Profile → General

This tab is primarily for adult users who wish to use their portfolio in an employment context.

Occupation: Enter your job title if you wish.

Industry: Enter the industry in which you work.

Click the Save profile button to save your changes.

3.2. Profile pictures

Content → Profile pictures

Your profile picture may be a picture of yourself or an avatar image of your choice.

3.2.1. Pictures uploaded to Mahara

You can upload up to 5 profile pictures into Content → Profile pictures. Alternatively, you can use a Gravatar [http://gravatar.com] if you have one and if the site administrator allows its use.

The pictures you wish to use must be between 16x16 and 1024x1024 pixels in size. Ideally, your profile pictures are square. Please use an image editing software before you upload your pictures to reduce a photo’s dimensions to the required ones.

Note

The recommended size of your profile picture is 100x100 pixels. Then the picture looks good on your profile when you want to include it there and also in the smaller sizes around Mahara.

The profile pictures that you wish to upload to Mahara must be available on your computer. Choose one picture at a time to upload. You can also give it a title.

List your profile pictures

Profile picture: Click the Browse button to navigate to your picture on your computer, select it and click Open. You must select an image file to upload.

Image title: Optionally, you can enter a title for your picture.

Click the Upload button to transfer your picture to Mahara. It is uploaded to the images folder in your Files area.

Image: Your picture appears in the list of profile pictures. You see a preview of it.

Image title: If you gave your profile picture a title, you see it here.

Default: Decide which profile picture you wish to make your default one which others can see in the “Online users” sidebar and on your profile page. Click on the radio button next to the picture to choose it as your default picture.

Click the Set default button to make your selected picture the default one.

Delete: Select the picture or pictures you wish to delete from your list of profile pictures.

Note

You cannot delete the standard profile picture or your Gravatar. If you did not upload a profile picture and set it as default, this will be your default profile picture.

Clik the Delete selected profile pictures button to delete your profile pictures. They will also be deleted from the images folder.

Warning

If you use a profile picture in a portfolio page, e.g. chosen via the “Image” block, you do not get a warning upon deletion of the picture from the Profile pictures page.

3.2.2. Remote avatars

If the site administrator allowed users to display remote avatars such as a Gravatar [http://gravatar.com] and you have signed up to that service, your default picture will be this remote avatar until you make one of your uploaded pictures the default picture.

3.3. Files

Content → Files

The Files area is a repository, i.e. a document storage for folders and files, that you can use within your portfolio. Both folders and files are considered artefacts and as such can be added to a page. You may create any number of folders or sub folders. To view which sub folders and files sit within a folder, click on the folder name. Use the Home link to return to the top level folder directory.

You can arrange files and folders by dragging and dropping the icon in front of the file / folder name onto another folder icon. A suitably named and organised filing structure will help you with the long-term organisation and retrieval of your artefacts. If you want to move a file or folder out of a sub folder, move it onto the parent folder icon parentfolder.

You will find that some folders are automatically created by the system such as viewfiles or images. The viewfiles folder includes files from imported pages whereas the images folder includes your uploaded profile pictures. As with any other file, you can move them out of this folder and store them in a different folder.

Note

You can move files and folders to your heart’s content without having to re-link them in the pages where you use them. Also renaming them will not have a negative impact on links.

3.3.1. Upload a file

Before you upload a file, make sure that you are allowed to do so. For any artefacts that you publish in your portfolio, you must have the sufficient rights. That means:

the artefact is your own or

you are allowed to reproduce and distribute it, i.e. it does not violate any copyright legislation and

the artefact also adheres to the Terms and Conditions of the Mahara site you are using

Note

It can be that you have to agree to an upload agreement before you can upload any files to your files area. The site administrator decides about that in Administration → Extensions → Plugin administration → Plugin type: artefact: file.

Upload a file

License: You see this field if the site administrator turned on license metadata. Choose the license for the artefact that you are about to upload. You can set your default license in your account settings.

Licensor: You see this field if the site administrator turned on license metadata. If you are uploading a file that somebody else created, you can attribute the work to them here and provide their name for example.

Original URL: You see this field if the site administrator turned on license metadata. If you are uploading somebody else’s file, provide a link to the original Internet address so that others can go there and view the original file.

Upload file: Upload a file by clicking on the Browse button to search for the file on your computer. Make sure that it is not larger than the maximum upload size that is shown in the parentheses.

If the site administrator turned on the image resizing option, you can decide whether you want to have your images resized if they are larger than the specified dimensions. This option is recommended to save space in your portfolio.

Instead of clicking the Browse button to upload files, you can drag and drop files from your computer directly onto the “drop zone”. You must still observe the maximum file size upload for each file and the maximum total file size cannot be exceeded either.

Note

This functionality is not available in all browsers. Generally, users of Chrome 7+, Firefox 4+, Internet Explorer 10+, Opera 12+ (Windows only) and Safari 6+ can use drag and drop.

Type the folder name and click the Create folder button if you want to create a folder before uploading files. Click the folder to upload files directly into it.

Name: You see all your folders and files that are not in folders listed in this table to access them easily.

Description: View the description of your folders or files to know quickly what the content of them is.

Size: The size of your files is displayed here.

Date: The date you created a folder or uploaded a file is shown.

Click the Edit button edit to edit folder or file properties. Continue with editing a file.

Click the Delete button delete to delete a file or folder. A pop-up window requires you to confirm the deletion because you will not be able to recover the file once it is deleted. If you use a file in a journal entry and / or on a page, the warning message tells you that this file is in use elsewhere so that you don’t delete it by accident.

If a folder or file is an artefact in a page that has been submitted, you are not able to edit or delete it.

Note

You can move your file to a folder by clicking on the icon before the file’s name and then dragging and dropping it onto the folder icon. Similarly, you can click on a folder icon and drag it onto another folder icon to move the folder into the second one.

3.3.2. Upload multiple files

You can upload multiple files at once in three different ways:

You can upload multiple files when you are browsing for them after having clicked the Browse button. Hold down the Ctrl key (or Command key on a Mac) and click on all the files that you wish to upload at once.

You can drag and drop multiple files into the drop zone.

You can also place all files into a compressed file, a .zip file, and upload that to Mahara. This method allows you to upload multiple files from different folders on your computer at once. You can create a zip file from any number of files that you have selected in your document management program by making a right mouse click and selecting Compress… (or something similar).

Zip files in the Finder under MacOSX

Zip files in Ubuntu’s Nautilus

Zip files in Windows Explorer

Once you have uploaded your zip file to Mahara, you can unzip it there. Click on the Unzip button unzip next to the Edit button edit. Please follow the on-screen instructions.

3.3.3. Edit a file or folder

You can edit the properties of a file or folder at any time. The file does not have to be re-linked in portfolio pages, but the properties you changed will be updated automatically.

Edit a file

Click the Edit button edit to edit folder or file properties.

Name: Change the name of the file (or folder). It is not necessary to keep the file extension as Mahara stores it internally. However, it can be good to leave it in case somebody has problems opening the file if no default programme is associated with the file after downloading it. This field is mandatory and each file (or folder) must have a name.

Description: Give the file (or folder) a description to find it again more easily.

Tags: Give the file (or folder) one or more tags. You can choose from your existing tags by clicking on the Show my tags link and then selecting the tags. If you type your tags, separate them with commas.

License: You see this field if the site administrator turned on license metadata. Choose the license for the artefact that you are editing.

Licensor: You see this field if the site administrator turned on license metadata. If you are editing a file that somebody else created, you can attribut the work to them here and provide their name for example.

Original URL: You see this field if the site administrator turned on license metadata. If you are editing somebody else’s file, provide a link to the original Internet address so that others can go there and view the original file.

Allow comments: Decide if users should be allowed to comment directly on the file artefact page when they view it.

Click the Save changes button to keep your changes or click the Cancel button to abort the action.

3.3.4. Download folder content as a zip file

You can download all files and folders within one folder in one go.

Download a folder as zip file

Click the Download folder content as zip file link in order to get a zip file which contains all files and folders of the current folder.

See also

Site administrators decide in the Artefact type: File settings for how long the zip file is kept on the server.

3.3.5. File quota

The site administrator of your Mahara site decides how much space you can have to store files. This can vary across institutions. You can check your file quota in the sidebar in your Files area.

File quota

3.4. Journal

Content → Journal

The Journal is a tool with which you can record your thoughts and experiences online. By adding your journal or individual posts of it to a page you can allow other users to place feedback and comments on it. Thus, you can create a dialogue with your audience.

Per default, every user has one journal available. You can also have multiple journals.

Overview of a journal with journal entries

Journal title

Journal description (optional)

Click the New entry button to create a new entry in this journal.

Click the Settings button to change certain journal settings (see below).

Title of the journal entry

Creation date of the journal entry

Beginning of the journal entry

Tags associated with the journal entry

If a journal entry is labeled Draft, only you can view it. You can then click the Publish button to publish this entry to your journal for others to see when it is included in a page.

Note

When you publish a journal, you do not automatically make it available to others or make it public on the internet. The journal or journal entry still needs to be put into a page that is then shared with others in order for them to see it.

If a journal entry is labeled Published, you can click the Unpublish button to revert it back to draft status.

Click the Edit button edit to make changes to your journal entry.

Click the Delete button delete to delete your journal entry.

Number of entries in your journal

3.4.1. Change your journal settings

You can change the title of your default journal (and all others if you have enabled multiple journals) and add a description as well as tags.

Journal settings

Click on the Settings button of your journal.

Title: Change the title of your journal. This is a mandatory field.

Description: Add a description for your journal. You can format it as you wish.

Tags: Add tags to your journal for easier searching later on. Separate each tag with a comma. You may also choose tags from the ones that you have created previously by clicking on Show my tags and then clicking on the tags you want to use.

License: You see this field if the site administrator turned on license metadata. Choose the license for the journal. You can set your default license in your account settings.

Advanced licensing: You see this option if the site administrator turned on license metadata. If you click it, you see two additional license fields, “Licensor” and “Original URL”, that you can fill in if this in not your own journal.

Click the Save settings button to save your changes or the Cancel button to abort your changes.

3.4.2. Add a journal entry

All journal entries you make are private to you until you put them into a page. Thus, the publishing of a journal / journal entry is a three-step process:

You write your entry and save it.

In a page, you choose one of the journal blocks that suits your purpose best.

You give those who shall see that page access to it.

Post your journal entry by following the steps below.

Journal entry

In your journal, click on New entry.

Title: Provide a title for your journal entry that expresses what you are writing about. This field is mandatory.

Entry: You must also write some text, add pictures etc. The visual editor helps you format your journal entry. This field is mandatory.

Tags: Add tags to your journal for easier searching later on. Separate each tag with a comma. You may also choose tags from the ones that you have created previously by clicking on Show my tags and then clicking on the tags you want to use.

License: You see this field if the site administrator turned on license metadata. Choose the license for the journal entry. You can set your default license in your account settings.

Advanced licensing: You see this option if the site administrator turned on license metadata. If you click it, you see two additional license fields, “Licensor” and “Original URL”, that you can fill in if this in not your own journal entry.

Attachments: Add an attachment or more to your journal entry, e.g. PDF files associated with it or images. You can add files either from your files area or upload new ones directly onto your journal entry.

Draft: Mark your entry as draft if you have not finished it yet. This is especially helpful if you have published your journal in a page, but do not want anybody to read this particular entry (yet). It is always visible to you, but not others.

Allow comments: Check this box if you want to receive comments on the journal entry.

Click the Save button to save your entry or the Cancel button to abort your changes.

3.4.3. Add an image into a journal entry

Note

new in Mahara 15.04 In Mahara 15.04 the way of including images into a journal entry was changed. Please refer to the section “Insert an image into text” for more information.

3.4.4. Add a file as attachment to a journal entry

When you attach files directly to a journal entry, others can see them whenever they have access to the journal entry.

Attachments for journal entries

Click the Add a file button and then the Select button to select the file(s) from your Files area that you wish to attach.

Alternatively, you can upload additional files directly.

License: You see this field if the site administrator turned on license metadata. Choose the license for the artefact that you are uploading. You can set your default license in your account settings.

Licensor: You see this field if the site administrator turned on license metadata. If you are uploading a file that somebody else created, you can attribut the work to them here and provide their name for example.

Original URL: You see this field if the site administrator turned on license metadata. If you are uploading somebody else’s file, provide a link to the original Internet address so that others can go there and view the original file.

Click the Browse button to select a file from your computer to upload.

If you wish, you can have your uploaded images resized automatically if they are larger than the recommended size. You can only see this option if the site administrator made the image resizing option available.

Instead of clicking the Browse button to upload files, you can drag and drop files from your computer directly onto the “drop zone”. You must still observe the maximum file size upload for each file and the maximum total file size cannot be exceeded either.

Note

This functionality is not available in all browsers. Generally, users of Chrome 7+, Firefox 4+, Internet Explorer 10+, Opera 12+ (Windows only) and Safari 6+ can use drag and drop.

If you attached a file that you do not wish to attach anymore, you can click on the Remove button to take it off your list of attachments.

Once you are done, you can click the Close button.

Note

new in Mahara 15.04 You do not need to attach an image in order to display it in your journal entry. You can insert it easily.

3.4.5. Work with multiple journals

Content → Journals

If you wish to use more journals, e.g. to put your writing into categories for making all posts from one category available in a page without having to select each journal entry, you can go to your Settings and tick the checkbox Multiple journals.

Multiple journals enabled

Once you can create multiple journals, click the Create journal button to set up a new journal.

All your journals are listed on Content → Journals with their titles and descriptions. The titles link through to the individual journals.

You see how many entries you have in each journal.

Click the New entry button to create a new journal entry directly from this screen.

Click the Settings button manage to make changes to your journal title, description or tags.

Click the Delete button delete to delete the journal and all its entries.

Warning

When you click the Delete button, you receive a confirmation message whether you really want to delete the journal or not. If you used the journal or an entry of it in a page, Mahara lets you know so you can decide whether to delete the journal or not. Once you agree to delete the journal, your journal and all its content are removed permanently.

3.5. Résumé

Content → Résumé

The résumé plugin allows you to create an online résumé / curriculum vitae. You can either publish your entire résumé or individual components of it in your portfolio.

3.5.1. Introduction

Content → Résumé → Introduction

In the introduction you can write a Cover letter and also provide some Personal information.

3.5.1.1. Write your cover letter

The visual editor allows you to write and format your résumé. There is also a spellchecker installed which will check for any misspelt words once you click the Spellcheck button spellcheck.

Write your cover letter

Go to Content → Résumé → Introduction and click the Edit button in the Cover letter section to enter the edit mode for the cover letter.

Write your cover letter.

Click the Save button below the editor window when you are happy with your cover letter to save it for future use, or click the Cancel button to abort your changes.

Note

If you write your cover letter or any other text in Microsoft Word instead of directly in the editor in Mahara, please use the Paste from Word button tinymce_word to strip out most of the formatting code that Word puts into a document but can interfere online.

3.5.1.2. Provide personal information

None of the fields under Personal information are required. You can choose to include as much or as little information as you wish. Most fields are free form fields.

Note

Mahara is being used around the world. Therefore, some information here or later on in the résumé do not apply to you. If you do not need them, you do not have to fill in the fields.

Add personal information to your résumé

Date of birth: Either choose your date of birth via the calendar icon calendar or enter it in the format YYYY/MM/DD, e.g. 1978/01/30 when you want to say that you were born on 30 January 1978.

Place of birth: Enter your place of birth. You can also enter the country you were born in.

Citizenship: Fill it in as it is shown in your passport.

Visa status: As employment laws vary between countries, you may wish to include your work or travel visa status within your résumé where relevant.

Gender: Select the one that applies to you.

(Not specified): Select this option if you do not want to identify with any of the other genders.

Female: Select this option if you identify as a woman.

Male: Select this option if you identify as a man.

Marital status: Provide it if it is relevant.

Click the Save button when you want to keep that information.

Note

None of the fields in the Personal information are required. You do not need to provide any of that information if it is not required in your portfolio. Decide wisely, which of the above information you want to make available to others.

3.5.2. Education and employment

Content → Résumé → Education and employment

This part of the résumé allows you to create a record of your academic and professional qualifications as well as your work experience.

3.5.2.1. Education history

You can enter as many qualifications for your education history as you want.

Enter your education history one qualification a time

Click the Add button to start a new entry.

Start date: Provide the date for starting your qualification. This field is mandatory.

End date: You can fill in an end date for your qualification.

Note

You can enter the dates any which way you want. It is not a calendar date field because different résumés require different date formats.

Institution: Enter the institution at which you worked on your qualification. This field is mandatory.

Institution address: You can provide the address for your institution.

Qualification type: Enter your qualification type if you wish.

Qualification name: You can enter the name of the qualification you were / are earning.

Qualification description: You can provide more details about your qualification, e.g. minor subjects, final grade gained etc.

Attach file: Attach a file as evidence of your qualification. Click the Browse button to select a file from your computer.

Click the Add button add to attach more files.

Click the Save button to save your entry.

Click the Cancel button to abort your changes.

Note

You can add a file only once. If you need to attach it to another item as well, you must upload the file again.

When you edit your entry, you can attach additional files or remove files as you would do on the File(s) to download block.

When you have filled in all your qualifications in your education history, you can re-arrange the individual items if necessary.

Interpreting the Education history table

Use the up and down arrows move_up move_down to change the order of the individual items.

Start date: The start date is displayed as you entered it.

End date: The end date is displayed as you entered it.

Qualification: Your qualification along with the institution is shown.

Attachments attachment: This column displays the number of attachments you have per item.

Use the Edit button edit to make changes to an entry.

Use the Delete button delete to delete an entry.

3.5.2.2. Employment history

You can enter as many jobs to your employment history as you wish.

Enter your employment history one position a time

Click the Add button to start a new entry.

Start date: Provide the date for starting your job. This field is mandatory.

End date: You can fill in an end date for your job.

Note

You can enter the dates any which way you want. It is not a calendar date field because different résumés require different date formats.

Employer: Enter the employer at which you worked. This field is mandatory.

Employer address: You can provide the address for your employer.

Job title: Enter the title that you held. This field is mandatory.

Position description: You can provide more details about your position, e.g. your primary tasks etc.

Attach file: Attach a file as evidence of your work. Click the Browse button to select a file from your computer.

Click the Add button add to attach more files.

Click the Save button to save your entry.

Click the Cancel button to abort your changes.

Note

You can add a file only once. If you need to attach it to another item as well, you must upload the file again.

When you edit your entry, you can attach additional files or remove files as you would do on the File(s) to download block.

When you have filled in all your job positions in your employment history, you can re-arrange the individual items if necessary.

Interpreting the Employment history table

Use the up and down arrows move_up move_down to change the order of the individual items.

Start date: The start date is displayed as you entered it.

End date: The end date is displayed as you entered it.

Position: Your position along with the employer is shown.

Attachments attachment: This column displays the number of attachments you have per item.

Use the Edit button edit to make changes to an entry.

Use the Delete button delete to delete an entry.

3.5.3. Achievements

Content → Résumé → Achievements

In Achievements you can collect information on:

certifications, accreditations and awards, e.g. Chartered Accountant, Registered Nurse, Award for Best Actress

books and publications

professional membership, e.g. in the American Philosophical Society

The process of adding, editing and moving entries is similar to the process for Education and employment.

3.5.3.1. Certifications, accreditations and awards

Certifications, accreditations and awards provided in the résumé

Click the Add button to start a new entry.

Date: Provide a date when received your certificate, accreditation or award. This field is mandatory.

Title: Enter the title of your certification, accreditation or award. This field is mandatory.

Description: You can provide more details on your certification, accreditation or award.

Attach file: Attach a file as evidence of your certification, accreditation or award. Click the Browse button to select a file from your computer.

Click the Add button add to attach more files.

Click the Save button to save your entry.

Click the Cancel button to abort your changes.

Note

You can add a file only once. If you need to attach it to another item as well, you must upload the file again.

When you edit your entry, you can attach additional files or remove files as you would do on the File(s) to download block.

When you have filled in all your certifications, accreditations and awards, you can re-arrange the individual items if necessary.

Interpreting the Certifications, accreditations and awards table

Use the up and down arrows move_up move_down to change the order of the individual items.

Date: The date when you received your certification, accreditation or award is displayed.

Title: The title of your certification, accreditation or award is shown.

Attachments attachment: This column displays the number of attachments you have per item.

Use the Edit button edit to make changes to an entry.

Use the Delete button delete to delete an entry.

3.5.3.2. Books and publications

Books and publications provided in the résumé

Click the Add button to start a new entry.

Date: Provide a date for your publication. This field is mandatory.

Title: Enter the title of the journal or book in which your contribution appeared. This field is mandatory.

Contribution: Enter the title of your contribution. This field is mandatory.

Details of your contribution: You can provide more details about your contribution, e.g. the full bibliographic reference.

Attach file: Attach a file as evidence of your contribution, e.g. the PDF of the article. Click the Browse button to select a file from your computer.

Click the Add button add to attach more files.

URL: Enter the URL under which your publication is accessible.

Click the Save button to save your entry.

Click the Cancel button to abort your changes.

Note

You can add a file only once. If you need to attach it to another item as well, you must upload the file again.

When you edit your entry, you can attach additional files or remove files as you would do on the File(s) to download block.

When you have filled in all your publications, you can re-arrange the individual items if necessary.

Interpreting the Books and publications table

Use the up and down arrows move_up move_down to change the order of the individual items.

Date: The date you provided for your publication is displayed.

Title: The title of the journal or book in which your contribution appeared is shown along with the title of your contribution.

Attachments attachment: This column displays the number of attachments you have per item.

Use the Edit button edit to make changes to an entry.

Use the Delete button delete to delete an entry.

When you click the title, you will see further information about your publication:

Any details about your publication are displayed.

The URL you provided for your publication.

Any attachments you uploaded to your publication.

3.5.3.3. Professional memberships

Professional memberships provided in the résumé

Click the Add button to start a new entry.

Start date: Provide the date for joining the organisation. This field is mandatory.

End date: You can fill in an end date if you left the organisation.

Title: Enter the title of the organisation. This field is mandatory.

Description: You can enter additional information about your membership.

Attach file: Attach a file as evidence of your membership. Click the Browse button to select a file from your computer.

Click the Add button add to attach more files.

Click the Save button to save your entry.

Click the Cancel button to abort your changes.

Note

You can add a file only once. If you need to attach it to another item as well, you must upload the file again.

When you edit your entry, you can attach additional files or remove files as you would do on the File(s) to download block.

When you have filled in all your memberships, you can re-arrange the individual items if necessary.

Interpreting the Professional memberships table

Use the up and down arrows move_up move_down to change the order of the individual items.

Start date: The start date is displayed as you entered it.

End date: The end date is displayed as you entered it.

Title: The title of the organisation is displayed. If you entered additional information, you can click the link and display it.

Attachments attachment: This column displays the number of attachments you have per item.

Use the Edit button edit to make changes to an entry.

Use the Delete button delete to delete an entry.

3.5.4. Goals and skills

Content → Résumé → Goals and skills

3.5.4.1. Goals

The Goals area is divided into three sections:

Personal goals

Academic goals

Career goals

Personal or career goals are often provided in a résumé for employers to understand how a particular role might suit your ambitions.

You can use the academic goals section to describe achievements you are seeking in your programme of study.

Writing down goals for use in portfolio pages

The three different goals areas are displayed. If you already filled in goals, there will be a link for you to click and see them. The areas where you have not yet provided goals are not linked.

Attachments attachment: This column displays the number of attachments you have per item.

Click the Edit button edit to enter a goal in one of the three goals areas.

Enter a goal

Click the Edit button edit to enter a goal in one of the three goals areas.

Write down your goal(s). You can come back at any time and edit them.

Attach file: Click the Attach a file button to upload a file or attach one from your Files area.

Note

When you edit your entry, you can attach additional files or remove files as you would do on the File(s) to download block.

Click the Save button to keep your changes or click the Cancel button to abort.

3.5.4.2. Skills

The Skills area is divided into three sections:

Personal skills

Academic skills

Work skills

You may include skills that you add here in your portfolio pages.

Employers are always interested in what skills you can bring to a role. You can use this section to display the attributes that you would bring to a collaborative community or working group.

Skills section

The three different skills areas are displayed. If you already filled in skills, there will be a link for you to click and see them. The areas where you have not yet provided skills are not linked.

Attachments attachment: This column displays the number of attachments you have per item.

Click the Edit button edit to enter skills in one of the three skills areas.

Enter skills

Click the Edit button edit to enter skills in one of the three skills areas.

Write down your skills. You can come back at any time and edit them.

Attach file: Click the Attach a file button to upload a file or attach one from your Files area.

Note

When you edit your entry, you can attach additional files or remove files as you would do on the File(s) to download block.

Click the Save button to keep your changes or click the Cancel button to abort.

3.5.5. Interests

Content → Résumé → Interests

The Interests section allows you to list your personal and / or professional interests. This might include your hobbies, sporting activities, volunteer work, areas of research and expertise etc. Listing your interests will help employers form a better picture of who you are and what you would bring to their organisation.

Example of interests for a résumé

Click the Edit button to enter your interests.

Write down your interests. You can come back at any time and edit them.

Click the Save button to keep your changes or click the Cancel button to abort.

3.5.6. License

Content → Résumé → License

Like other artefacts, you can select a license for your résumé.

Note

At the moment, you cannot display that license information on a portfolio page, but it is stored for future use when the functionality is expanded.

Provide a license for your résumé

License: You see this field if the site administrator turned on license metadata. Choose the license for your résumé. You can set your default license in your account settings.

Click the Advanced licensing link to see more options.

Licensor: You see this field if the site administrator turned on license metadata. If you created the résumé of someone else, you can attribut the work to them here and provide their name for example.

Original URL: You see this field if the site administrator turned on license metadata. If the résumé had been posted somewhere else before, provide a link to the original Internet address so that others can go there and view the original résumé.

Click the Save button to keep your changes.

3.6. Plans

Content → Plans

Plans are simple ToDo lists. They are particularly well-suited to plan medium and long-term endeavours. A plan can consist of a number of individual activities with which completion dates are associated.

You could use the functionality to:

set yourself individual goals for a large task.

manage your personal learning activities and keep an eye on how many you have already accomplished during the time frame that you have set yourself.

keep track of workshops you have attended for your professional development over time.

Overview page of Plans

Click the New plan button to create a new plan.

Your existing plans, their descriptions and tags are displayed.

Click the Edit button edit to change the title, description, tags (and license) of your plan.

Click the Manage button manage to add and edit tasks for your plan.

Click the Delete button delete to delete your plan.

3.6.1. Create a new plan

Create a new plan

Click the New plan button on the Plans overview page.

Title: Give your plan a title. This field is mandatory.

Description: Give your plan a description. It is visible when you select a plan for inclusion into a portfolio page and new in Mahara 15.04 on the portfolio page itself.

Tags: Add tags to your plan for easier searching later on. Separate each tag with a comma. You may also choose tags from the ones that you have created previously by clicking on Show my tags and then clicking on the tags you want to use.

License: You see this field if the site administrator turned on license metadata. Choose the license for the plan. You can set your default license in your account settings.

Advanced licensing: You see this option if the site administrator turned on license metadata. If you click it, you see two additional license fields, “Licensor” and “Original URL”, that you can fill in if this in not your own plan.

Note

At the moment, you cannot display that license information on a portfolio page, but it is stored for future use when the functionality is expanded. You can view the license information on the artefact’s detail page though.

Click the Save plan button to keep your new plan.

Now you can add individual tasks to your plan.

3.6.2. Add tasks to a plan

There are several ways to add a task to a plan:

Click on Add task right after you saved your plan.

Click on Content → Plans → the title of the plan → New task.

Click on Content → Plans → the Manage tasks button manage → New task.

Once you are in the New task screen, you can create your new task.

Add a new task to a plan

Title: Enter a title for your task. This field is mandatory.

Completion date: Provide a completion date. Either choose the date via the calendar icon calendar or enter it in the format YYYY/MM/DD (Year - 4 digits / Month - 2 digits / Date - 2 digits), e.g. 2012/06/27. This field is mandatory and allows for tasks to be marked overdue automatically.

Description: Provide more detailed information about the task.

Tags: Add tags to your task for easier searching later on. Separate each tag with a comma. You may also choose tags from the ones that you have created previously by clicking on Show my tags and then clicking on the tags you want to use.

Completed: Set to “On” if you have already completed the task.

License: You see this field if the site administrator turned on license metadata. Choose the license for the plan’s task. You can set your default license in your account settings.

Advanced licensing: You see this option if the site administrator turned on license metadata. If you click it, you see two additional license fields, “Licensor” and “Original URL”, that you can fill in if this in not your own plan’s tasks.

Note

At the moment, you cannot display that license information on a portfolio page, but it is stored for future use when the functionality is expanded.

Click the Save task button to finish editing your task.

Add more tasks immediately or at a later point.

3.6.3. View all tasks of a plan

You can view the tasks of the plan in two different ways if you are the author of the plan:

At Content → Plans → Click on a plan.

Add a plan to one of your pages.

3.6.3.1. View a plan under Content

Plans under Content

The title of the plan under which you created the tasks is shown.

Tags: The tags that you associated with the plan are displayed.

Completion date: You can see the completion date for each task.

Title: The title of each task is shown.

Description: The description for each task is displayed.

new in Mahara 15.04 Tags: The tags that you associated with a task are shown.

Completed: The completion status of each task. Tasks that are completed display the Completed icon completed. Tasks that are overdue show the Overdue icon overdue. Tasks that are not yet completed don’t show any icon.

Click the Edit button edit to make changes to a task.

Click the Delete button delete to delete a task.

The number of tasks in your plan is displayed.

Click the New task button to create a new task in this plan.

3.6.3.2. View a plan on a portfolio page

Plan on a portfolio page

The title of the plan. You can change that as part of the block title. By clicking the details icon, you will be taken to the artefact’s details page.

new in Mahara 15.04 The plan’s description is displayed.

Tags: The tags that you added for this plan are displayed.

Completion date: You can see the completion date for each task.

Title: The title of each task is shown.

When you click the title, which is linked, you can see the description for this task.

new in Mahara 15.04 Tags: The tags that you added for the task are displayed.

Completed: The completion status of each task. Tasks that are completed display the Completed icon completed. Tasks that are overdue show the Overdue icon overdue. Tasks that are not yet completed don’t show any icon.

The number of tasks in this plan is displayed.

3.6.4. Edit tasks in a plan

Click the Manage tasks button manage or the title of the plan on Content → Plans.

Click the Edit button edit next to a task that you want to change.

Make your changes or mark a task as completed.

Click the Save task button and your changes are recorded.

3.7. Notes

Content → Notes

Notes are bits and pieces of text that you can re-use from one portfolio page in another without having to copy the entire page.

3.7.1. View your notes

Though you cannot create notes directly from this page, you can edit your notes. Their content will be changed wherever that note is used.

Notes viewed in the Content area

Note: This column contains the titles of the notes where they appear for the first time.

Titled: This column shows the title of the note blocks so that you can find the requisite note more easily esp. when you changed the title considerably.

The Contained in column lists all the pages in which this note is used. It is matched up with the Titled column.

Attachments attachment: This column displays the number of attachments you have per note.

Click the Edit button edit to make changes to the note. Beware that any changes you make here are made to all instances of the note.

Click the Delete button delete to permanently delete the note. This action cannot be undone and all instances of the note are deleted from portfolio pages.

When you submitted a portfolio page that contains notes, you cannot change the note’s content or delete it until the page is released again.

3.7.2. Edit your notes

You can edit your notes to make changes to them.

Warning

When you make changes to a note from this page, all instances of this note on any portfolio page will be affected.

Edit a note

A warning message appears at the top of the page if you opened a note that is contained in more than one page. If you edit this note, it will be changed in all locations where this note appears.

Note

If you do not wish the note to be changed everywhere it appears, go to the page where the note should stay as it is, go into the block configuration and click the “Make a copy” link above the text editor.

Title: The title of your existing note is displayed.

Note: The content of your note is displayed. If you make changes here, they will be applied to all instances where the note appears.

Tags: Enter tags to find your notes more easily at a later stage. Separate your tags with commas. If you already have tags, you can click on the link Show my tags and select the ones that you think will fit for this collection as well. They will be entered into the text field for you.

License: You see this field if the site administrator turned on license metadata. Choose the license for this note. You can set your default license in your account settings.

Advanced licensing: You see this option if the site administrator turned on license metadata. If you click it, you see two additional license fields, “Licensor” and “Original URL”, that you can fill in if this in not your own note or if you had published it elsewhere before.

Attachments: Attach files to a note as additional evidence for the text you are writing.

See also

When you edit your note, you can attach files or remove files as you would do on the File(s) to download block.

Allow comments: Tick this checkbox if you want to allow others to leave comments on your note.

Click the Save button to keep your changes or click the Cancel button to abort your changes.

4. Portfolio

The Portfolio is the place in Mahara where you assemble the artefacts that you collect in Content into pages. You can then share these pages with others or simply keep them for yourself.

In this section you learn how to:

create portfolio pages

create collections to bundle portfolio pages

share your pages and / or collections

export your portfolio

give feedback on artefacts and pages

view your tag cloud and change tags

4.1. Pages

4.1.1. Overview page

4.1.2. Profile page

4.1.3. Create a new page

4.1.4. Edit an existing page

4.1.5. Copy a page

4.1.5.1. Copy a page by searching for it

4.1.5.2. Copy a page directly from its location

4.1.6. View a page

4.1.7. Give others access to your page

4.1.8. Delete a page

4.2. Page editor

4.2.1. Editor navigation

4.2.2. Edit title and description

4.2.3. Edit layout

4.2.4. Content chooser

4.2.5. Page layout area

4.3. Skins

4.3.1. Create a skin

4.3.1.1. General

4.3.1.2. Skin background

4.3.1.3. Page background

4.3.1.4. Page header

4.3.1.5. Page fonts and colours

4.3.1.6. Page table and buttons

4.3.1.7. Advanced

4.3.2. Choose a skin

4.3.3. What is the difference between themes and page skins?

4.3.4. Disallow skins on a theme

4.4. Collections

4.4.1. Manage your collections

4.4.2. Add a collection

4.4.3. Copy a collection

4.4.3.1. Copy a collection by searching for it

4.4.3.2. Copy a collection directly from its location

4.4.4. Add collection pages

4.4.5. Manage collection pages

4.4.6. Give others access to your collection

4.5. Shared by me

4.5.1. Edit access for users with an account

4.5.2. Edit access to your profile page

4.5.3. Restrict access based on time

4.5.4. Choose advanced options

4.5.5. Edit access for users without an account

4.6. Shared with me

4.7. Export

4.8. Import

4.9. Feedback

4.9.1. View page feedback

4.9.2. View artefact feedback

4.9.3. Give feedback

4.9.3.1. Give feedback being logged in

4.9.3.2. Give feedback when you are not logged in

4.10. Feedback for assessment

4.10.1. Submit a page or collection for assessment

4.10.2. Instructor feedback

4.11. Objectionable material

4.11.1. Report objectionable material

4.11.2. Review objectionable material

4.11.2.1. Inbox notification with objectionable material

4.11.2.2. Email with objectionable material

4.12. Tags

4.12.1. Tag cloud

4.12.2. My tags

4.12.3. Edit tags

4.1. Pages

Portfolio → Pages

A page contains a selection of artefacts which you arrange and present to others. These may include:

selected files

résumé details

text (your added commentary, instructions or orientation)

journal posts

video and audio files

RSS feed to an external blog

etc.

You can re-use the artefacts that you collected under Content in as many pages as you wish.

The same artefacts can appear in multiple pages

4.1.1. Overview page

On the landing page of the portfolio, you can do the following.

The landing page of your portfolio

Click the Create page button to start a new page from scratch.

Click the Copy a page button to choose an existing page of yours or from another user as basis for a new page.

Search: Enter your search term that you want to search for within your portfolio pages.

Decide whether you want to search within the title, description and tags or just within the tags that you associated with a page.

Sort by: Decide on the sort order in which you wish to display your pages.

None (blank): The default sort order lists the dashboard and profile pages before all other pages. Pages are displayed in alphabetical order.

Date created: List the pages in chronologically reverse order with the newest pages first.

Last modified: Display the pages in the order of their last modification with the most recent pages that have been changed first.

Last viewed: Show the pages in the order in which they were viewed by you and others starting with the most recently viewed pages.

Most visited: Display the pages that have been visited most first in the list.

Most feedback: List the pages in descending order based on the amount of feedback they have received.

Note

new in Mahara 15.04 The sort order that you does not change when you navigate away from the page or log out. When you change the sort order, that new setting will be used until you change it again.

Click the Search button to search your pages based on your search and / or sorting criteria.

Click the Edit button edit to make changes to your dashboard page. You cannot delete your dashboard page.

Click the Edit button edit to make changes to your profile page. You cannot delete your profile page.

Click the Edit button edit to update your portfolio pages.

Click the Delete button delete to remove your pages.

When you submitted a portfolio page to a group, you cannot change a great number of the page’s content or delete it until the page is released again.

You can choose how many portfolio pages you wish to display on the overview page at once. Your options are 10, 20, 50, 100 or 500 results. All remaining pages can be reached via the pager.

4.1.2. Profile page

Your profile page is visible to other users on Mahara by default. If your administrator allowed it, you can also make it visible to anybody on the Internet.

Per default only the following information is put onto your profile page:

Your display name (or real name if you do not have a display name)

Your pages that are visible to the person viewing your profile page

Your groups

Your wall

Your friends

We advise you not to use your profile page as your portfolio because you cannot control who can look at the information you make available on your profile. At minimum it is everybody in your institution or who has an account on Mahara. At maximum it can be everybody online. Always remember to think about your own personal security before releasing contact information on a publicly available page or even just for other Mahara users.

Note

Once you have made your profile page or any portfolio page public, Google and other search engines can index and cache it. Even if you take the public access away at some point, the cached version may still be available online. Pages that are made available via a secret URL are not found by search engines unless you link to them from another page.

Use regular pages to create your portfolio, and then use your profile to make these pages accessible to other people and to establish your digital identity.

See also

You can edit your profile page like any other page. You can find more information about editing a page in the page editor.

4.1.3. Create a new page

You create a new page in your portfolio when you want to display artefacts together, e.g. for presenting it to others, for showing your progress in a project etc.

Create a portfolio page

On the Pages page, click the Create page button.

Page title: Provide a title for your page. This field cannot be left empty. If you do not enter a title, the default “Untitled” will appear.

Page description: Write a brief description summarising your objective of this page. It will appear on the page itself.

Tags: Enter tags to find your page more easily at a later stage. Separate your tags with commas. If you already have tags, you can click on the link Show my tags and select the ones that you think will fit for this page as well. They will be entered into the text field for you.

Name display format: Choose which of your names you want to appear on the page as author.

Anonymise: If the site administrator allowed anonymous pages, you can choose this option here. Instead of your (display) name, “Author’s name hidden” will be displayed to everyone. Administrators and staff can still see your real name.

Click the Save button to save your changes and to continue to the Edit content part.

4.1.4. Edit an existing page

You can edit an existing page in two ways:

Click the Edit button edit when you are on the Pages overview page.

Click the Edit this page button when you are on the actual page.

See also

You find more information on how to edit artefacts on a portfolio page in the Edit content part.

If the site administrator activated clean URLs, your portfolio pages have human-readable URLs which you can change to a certain extend.

Change the URL for your portfolio page

When you are in the page edit mode, click on Edit title and description.

Page URL: Choose the name for your page if you do not like the default one. It must be 3-30 characters long. You can only use lowercase letters from a-z, numbers and - (hyphen).

Click the Save button at the bottom of the page.

Warning

Though you can change the URL to your page at any point, you shouldn’t do that because people who already know the URL to your page will not be able to access it anymore after you have changed it.

The original, internal Mahara URL, e.g. http://mahara-university.org/view/view.php?id=789 will still work.

4.1.5. Copy a page

4.1.5.1. Copy a page by searching for it

You can duplicate your own pages or pages of other users if they allowed you to do that.

Copy a page

Click the Copy a page button under Portfolio → Pages. On the next screen…

Search: If there are many pages or collections from which you can choose, search here for a keyword in the page or collection title or for the name of the page owner.

Collection title: Click on the title of a collection to preview it before copying it.

Page name: Click on the title of the page to see a preview of it before you copy it.

Note

The sort order on the screen is according to page names in alphabetical order.

Owner: Click on the name of the owner to view a larger profile picture and the self description if the owner provided one or to see information about a group it that is the owner.

Click the Copy page button to copy one page only into your own portfolio or

Click the Copy collection button to copy an entire collection with multiple pages into your portfolio. All pages within this collection are copied.

Edit the page as you would do any other page.

Note

The site administrator can decide to leave out “Copy of…” for copied pages or collections. This setting needs to be made in the config.php file. If $cfg->renamecopies = false;, copies of new pages and collections will not have “Copy of” prepended to their titles.

4.1.5.2. new in Mahara 15.04 Copy a page directly from its location

You can copy a page or collection directly when you view it by clicking the Copy button when you see it. The button is displayed on your own pages and collections as well as on pages and collections owned by others when you have the permission to copy them.

Copy a page or collection

Click the Copy button when you want to copy a page that you can duplicate. If the page is not part of a collection, skip to step 4.

If the page is part of a collection, you need to decide in the pop-up window whether you want to copy just the page that you can see currently by clicking the Page button.

Or whether you want to copy the entire collection by clicking the Collection button.

Edit the page or collection as you would to any other.

4.1.6. View a page

You can view a page to check what it looks like when somebody else sees it. Go to the Pages overview page and click on the title of a page.

An example portfolio page. When you are the author, you can click the Edit button and make changes.

Title of the portfolio page.

Author of the portfolio page.

Description of the page.

The Edit button is only visible to you as portfolio author.

new in Mahara 15.04 The Copy button is visible when you can copy the page or collection that you are viewing. You see it on your own pages as well as pages of others.

The artefacts that you placed in the page.

Click the Details icon details to be taken to the Details page for this artefact if there is one.

Click the block title or the Retracted icon retracted to show the entire block content. Click the block title again or the Retractable icon retractable to only show the block title.

Tags which you provided for your page.

If you belong to a group which allows the submission of pages for feedback / assessment, you see the group displayed here or can choose it from the drop-down menu and can submit your page directly from here. For more information see the section on feedback for assessment.

Feedback from users is displayed at the bottom of the page unless you display it with the feedback block elsewhere on the page. Each feedback includes:

Profile picture and name of the commentator that are linked to the profile page.

The feedback itself.

The creation date of the feedback and potentially the last update date and time of the feedback.

Feedback rating.

Any attachments.

A note if the feedback is private only to the commentator and the portfolio page author.

If you (owner) or the commentator (author) removed feedback, this is mentioned.

Your commentators can give a rating in addition to their written feedback if the site adminstrator enabled comment ratings.

If feedback is set to “private” by the feedback author, you can decide to make it public by clicking the Make public button.

You and the feedback author can delete feedback by clicking the Delete button delete. The feedback text is not displayed anymore, but a line is still visible where the old feedback was so you know that you deleted feedback. In addition, if you delete the feedback by someone else, they will receive a notification about it, which includes their feedback text.

Your commentators can upload one or more files in addition to their written feedback, e.g. a file with inline comments, an audio or video file with feedback.

The total number of individual pieces of feedback is displayed.

You and others can use the Place feedback link to leave feedback on the page.

See also

Please refer to the section on giving feedback to see how that can be done.

If a page contains offensive artefacts, users can report them to the administrator by clicking the Report objectionable material link.

Click the Print link to print the page.

Click the Add page to watchlist link if you want to be informed when changes are made to the page. When you make changes to the page or a block on the page, a notification is triggered and sent to anyone who is watching the page. new in Mahara 15.04 This is also the case when you add a new journal entry to a journal that is displayed on your page even when you do not add the entry via the page.

View how many times your page was accessed.

4.1.7. Give others access to your page

See also

Please refer to the section on sharing your pages and collections for further information.

4.1.8. Delete a page

You can delete a page at any time unless it or a collection it is in has been submitted for feedback.

Warning

When you delete a page, links to external content such as embedded external videos and RSS feeds to an external blog are completely deleted. You cannot recover them. There is no revision history. All other artefacts are not deleted because they reside in your Content area.

When you attempt to delete a page, you get the chance to export the page first so that you can make an archive. If your page is part of a collection, the warning message also contains the title and a link to the collection for you to check whether you really want to delete the page and thus make changes to your collection.

Warning when you attempt to delete a page that is in a collection

The title of the page you are about to delete is displayed so you can double-check it is the correct one.

The collection of which the page is a part of is displayed, and you can use the link to view your collection.

If you want to continue deleting your page, you may want to export it first so you have a copy in case you do need it later again. Click the export link to be taken to the options for the export.

Note

We recommend you export your portfolio pages / collections in both HTML and Leap2A formats so that you can view them without the need of Mahara (HTML) or can import them back into the same or another Mahara instance or another portfolio software that supports the Leap2A format.

Click the Yes button if you want to continue with the page deletion or the No button if you want to keep your page.

4.2. Page editor

The page editor is important in Mahara because it allows you to compose your portfolio pages. It consists of a large number of components:

Editor navigation

Content chooser

Page layout area

4.2.1. Editor navigation

Page editor navigation bar

Edit title and description: Add and modify your page title, description and tags.

Edit layout: Change the overall layout of your page.

Edit content: Place your content on a page. See content chooser, individual content blocks and page layout area.

Display page: Preview your page to see how others, who have access to it, would see it.

Share page: Decide who shall have access to your page. See “Shared by me” for more details.

4.2.2. Edit title and description

You should give your portfolio page a unique title so that you can find it again later on. The description helps you to see quickly on the overview page why you have created this page. Furthermore, the tags help you to search your portfolio for these keywords and find your content and portfolio pages.

Provide as much information as possible to distinguish and to be able to search your portfolio later on. You can make changes to these settings at any time.

Page title: You must provide a title for your page. Automatically, every page is called “Untitled”.

Page URL: You see this option if your site administrator activated clean URLs. Choose the name for your page if you do not like the default one. It must be 3-30 characters long. You can only use lowercase letters from a-z, numbers and - (hyphen).

Page description: You can write a brief description for your page, e.g. its purpose. This description is displayed on the overview page and on the portfolio page itself.

Tags: If you have already tagged artefacts or other portfolio pages, you can choose from your existing tags. This makes it easy to avoid spelling mistakes.

If you either do not yet have tags or want to use new ones, you can type them into the text box. Separate multiple tags by commas (and a space). Tags that you have chosen from your existing list of tags are listed in this text box as well when you have clicked on them.

Name display format: You must choose which name should be displayed when somebody else views your portfolio. You can choose between:

First name

Last name

Full name (first and last name)

Display name

Click the Save button to save your changes.

4.2.3. Edit layout

The layout editor is very flexible and allows you to design your layout not only in columns but also in rows. You can decide how many columns each row shall have and also decide how each row shall differ.

Note

Be careful when choosing 4 or more columns. Your portfolio page may look very good on your big 21” screen, but a user looking at it on a notebook or tablet may not have the same experience. In most cases, up to 3 columns is the best choice.

Edit the overall layout of a page by choosing the number of columns and rows

Go to the Edit layout tab.

Basic options: Click the radio button above the layout that you wish to apply to your page. You can change it at any time. When you reduce the number of columns, your blocks simply move to the first column. You can then move them around to their correct position (see page layout area).

Note

When you hover over the layout options, you can see the percentages for each column.

Advanced options: If you wish to have more complicated page layouts, you can choose those here and even create your own layouts.

Click the Save button to save your layout choice.

Note

You can add or remove columns directly in the page layout area when you enable the Show controls to add and remove columns when editing a page setting in your account options.

You can use the Add and Remove buttons for quick changes to the layout when you have enabled them.

If you want to have more options or even create your own layouts, you can choose to view the Advanced options.

Advanced layout options

Click the radio button above the layout that you wish to apply to your page.

Click the Create custom layout link to view your options for creating your own layouts.

Number of columns: Choose the number of columns that you want to display in a particular row. You can choose up to 5 columns.

Column layout: Choose the percentages for the distribution of your columns in the row that you are editing.

Click the Add new row button to add more rows with a different column layout. You can create up to 6 rows.

Layout preview: You can see what your layout is going to look like.

Click the Delete button delete to remove a row if you do not want it in your layout anymore.

Click the Create new layout button to generate your new page layout. It will be saved in the Advanced options, and you can use it in all your pages.

Click the Save button to return to the content editor.

Note

You can add more than one block to a row. The blocks will then be placed underneath each other in the column that you have chosen. If you wish to change the block layout, you can always add another row that has a different column distribution.

4.2.4. Content chooser

All different types of content as well as blocks that pull in external content into a portfolio page are accessible via the content chooser.

The content chooser is available on the left-hand side of a page when you are in the edit mode. It does not scroll. Thus, it makes it easy to add content items also further down on the page.

All content items are accessible in the content chooser

You can select the Text or the Image block directly as these are two of the more frequently used content items.

Note

You may see additional or different blocks in this list of frequently used content items as it is up to the administrator of the site that you use which blocks to display here. new in Mahara 15.04 There is an API [https://reviews.mahara.org/#/c/3943/] available to make adding different items easier.

You can access all other content items via the individual panels:

Media: holds blocks for files that can be displayed as links, in folders or in the case of images and videos directly in the page

Journals: various content blocks which allow you to place journals / journal entries into a page

General: content items that are of a general nature

Personal info: choose profile information or your résumé to display in a block

External: contains blocks to place RSS feeds, external media or GoogleApps documents etc. into a page

See also

The functionality of each block that you can use in your portfolio pages and in group pages is outlined in the section on the individual artefact blocks.

Theme: You may be able to choose a theme for your portfolio page. If that is the case, you see the Theme drop-down menu. That allows you to select a theme in which that page is displayed to others who view your portfolio page. If the option “No theme selected” is displayed, the default theme is applied automatically.

See also

The site administrator must allow page themes in the site’s user settings.

Click the arrow pointing to the left content-chooser-collapse to reduce the size of the content chooser. Only the icons will be displayed giving you more space on a page.

Click the arrow pointing to the right content-chooser-expand to show the block descriptions in the content chooser.

Note

The content chooser is displayed per default only with its icons shown on small devices to maximize the screen size that is available to edit a page.

4.2.5. Page layout area

The page layout area is the place where you arrange all your content items for display in a portfolio page. You should know the following about this area:

All content is placed into it by dragging and dropping their blocks into this space.

The content is arranged as a series of continuous blocks per column. You can also align it vertically in rows if you wish.

You can drag and drop blocks by clicking their headings.

You can change the settings of a block by clicking its Configure button manage.

Drag a block into the page layout area and configure its settings

Click on the block of the content item that you want to include in your page and drag it into the page layout area.

When you see the dotted rectangle, drop the block into it to put it onto your page.

Follow the on-screen instructions on choosing the specific content item you wish to display. Please refer to the content block section for more information on each block’s settings.

See also

Please refer to the section edit layout to learn how to change the number of columns and rows on a page and make certain columns wider than others.

4.3. Skins

Portfolio → Skins

If you see the menu item Skins under Portfolio, you are set to work with skins and can create skins yourself, edit them and use them on your portfolio pages.

Note

If you do not see the menu item Skins, please check with the site administrator. There are two possibilities why you may not be able to use skins:

Skins have not been enabled for the site. A server administrator will need to add the following parameter to the config.php file of your Mahara site: $cfg->skins = true;.

If skins are enabled for the site in general, but your Mahara institution does not yet allow the use of skins. Your institution administrator can change that in the institution settings.

Your Skins overview page

Click the Create skin button to design a new skin.

Click the Import skin(s) button to import skins that others have shared online.

Click the Export skin(s) button to export all your personal skins.

You can decide which skins you want to display:

All skins: All skins that you have access to

Site skins: Only skins created by a site administrator

My skins: Skins created by yourself

Public skins: Other people’s skins that they shared publicly on the site

Click the Edit button edit to make changes to this skin.

Click the View skin information button information to see metadata in a pop-up window about the skin such as:

Title

Owner

Description

Creation date

Modified date

Click the Export button export to export only this one skin.

Click the Delete button delete to remove this skin.

Note

You only see the Edit, Export and Delete buttons when you have the permission to perform these actions for a skin.

Click the Favourite button favourite to mark someone else’s skin as a favourite one so you can choose it for your own pages. It will turn yellow. Clicking the button again will allow you to remove the skin from your list of favourite skins.

Note

You can only favourite another user’s skin, but not site skins. You can always select a site skin for a page, but only see other people’s skins when you favourited them.

4.3.1. Create a skin

You can create skins as:

individual user

site administrator

Depending on the settings of your skin, it will be available only to you or others.

In the following, the individual skin settings will be described. You do not have to change all settings for a skin but can pick and choose which elements of the theme that your page has you would like to change.

See also

Watch this video [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pvckRIkZdJs] demonstrating the page skin feature.

4.3.1.1. General

General settings for your skin

Skin title: Give your skin a title. You will see that on the Skins overview page.

Skin description: Describe your skin here and add any details that will help you in the future to remember why you created the skin, what is special about it etc. You can expand the text box if you need to enter a long description by dragging its bottom right corner.

Skin accessibility: Decide here who shall have access to your skin. The default is This is a public skin.

This is a private skin: Only you can use this skin on pages.

This is a public skin: Others can see your skin and use it.

Click the Save button to accept your changes or click the Cancel button to abort your changes.

4.3.1.2. Skin background

Choose the background for your skin

Skin background colour: You can tick the checkbox to have no special skin background but use the theme’s background. Alternatively, you can click into the field and select the colour you would like to use or type the colour code in.

Skin background image: You can choose to use an image as background. Click the Select a file button to choose an image from your files area.

Background image repeat: Decide whether you want to repeat the background image. This setting is useful if your image is smaller than your page. If you do not choose a repeat option, the background will not be filled with the image entirely. Your options are:

Don’t repeat: No repetition of the image. This option should only be used if you have a very large image or if the image is larger than your page.

Repeat only horizontally: Your image will only be repeated horizontally, but not vertically. This setting can work for a very wide but short page.

Repeat only vertically: Your image will only be repeated vertically, but not horizontally. This setting can work for a narrow but long page.

Repeat both directions: Your image will be repeated both horizontally and vertically. This setting is the most flexible for your page.

Background image attachment: Decide whether your background should scroll or stay fixed.

Fixed: If you select this option, your background stays in place and does not move. Only the page content will scroll.

Scroll: If you select this option, your background will scroll together with the page.

Background image position: Decide where your background image shall be anchored. Click one of the arrows to select the position.

Click the Save button to accept your changes or click the Cancel button to abort your changes.

4.3.1.3. Page background

Choose the background for your page content

Page background colour: You can tick the checkbox to have no special page background but use the theme’s background. Alternatively, you can click into the field and select the colour you would like to use or type the colour code in.

Page background image: You can choose to use an image as background. Click the Select a file button to choose an image from your files area.

Background image repeat: Decide whether you want to repeat the background image. This setting is useful if your image is smaller than your page. If you do not choose a repeat option, the background will not be filled with the image entirely. Your options are:

Don’t repeat: No repetition of the image. This option should only be used if you have a very large image or if the image is larger than your page.

Repeat only horizontally: Your image will only be repeated horizontally, but not vertically. This setting can work for a very wide but short page.

Repeat only vertically: Your image will only be repeated vertically, but not horizontally. This setting can work for a narrow but long page.

Repeat both directions: Your image will be repeated both horizontally and vertically. This setting is the most flexible for your page.

Background image attachment: Decide whether your background should scroll or stay fixed.

Fixed: If you select this option, your background stays in place and does not move. Only the page content will scroll.

Scroll: If you select this option, your background will scroll together with the page.

Background image position: Decide where your background image shall be anchored. Click one of the arrows to select the position.

Page width: Decide how wide you would like your page content to be. You can only choose from the given values.

Click the Save button to accept your changes or click the Cancel button to abort your changes.

4.3.1.4. Page header

Choose the page header properties

Background colour: Choose the background colour of your header (and footer).

Text colour: Decide on the colour for text that appears in the header.

Normal link colour: Choose the colour in which links shall be displayed.

Underline link: Tick this checkbox if you want your links to be underlined.

Highlighted link colour: Choose the colour of your links when you hover over them.

Note

Wherever you have a colour field, you can either click into the field and select the colour you would like to use or type the colour code in.

If you do not want to use a custom colour but retain the theme colour, tick the checkbox Transparent.

Underline link: Tick this checkbox if you want your highlighted link to be underlined.

Logo: Decide which logo you wish to use.

Default theme logo: Display your theme’s logo. This can be a custom logo.

White Mahara logo and text: Choose this logo if you want to display the Mahara logo in white. This is suitable for dark backgrounds.

Dark Mahara logo and text: Choose this logo if you want to display a dark Mahara logo. This is suitable for light backgrounds.

Click the Save button to accept your changes or click the Cancel button to abort your changes.

4.3.1.5. Page fonts and colours

Change font properties

Heading font: Choose the font for your headings. You can choose from any of the installed fonts. The font will be applied to all your headings, e.g.

page title

block titles

headings in the text if you marked them as headings

Text font: Choose the font for all other text. You can choose from any of the installed fonts.

Font size: Choose a relational font size. Headings will be changed proportionally.

Text colour: Decide on the colour for text that appears on the page.

Heading text colour: Choose the colour of your page heading.

Emphasized text colour: Choose the colour of your block titles and other emphasized text.

Normal link colour: Choose the colour in which links shall be displayed.

Underline link: Tick this checkbox if you want your links to be underlined.

Highlighted link colour: Choose the colour of your links when you hover over them.

Underline link: Tick this checkbox if you want your highlighted link to be underlined.

Click the Save button to accept your changes or click the Cancel button to abort your changes.

Note

Wherever you have a colour field, you can either click into the field and select the colour you would like to use or type the colour code in.

If you do not want to use a custom colour but retain the theme colour, tick the checkbox Transparent.

4.3.1.6. Page table and buttons

Change table and button properties

Table border colour: Choose the colour for your table border.

Header background colour: If you set up a table with a header row, you can pick the background colour here.

Header text colour: If you set up a table with a header row, you can choose the header text colour here to go with the header background colour.

Background colour for odd rows: Choose the background colour for odd rows in a table. You do not need to specify which rows are odd.

Background colour for even rows: Choose the background colour for even rows in a table. You do not need to specify which rows are even.

Normal button colour: Choose the colour of your buttons that are displayed on a page.

Highlighted button colour: Choose the colour of your buttons when you hover over them.

Button text colour: Choose the colour for the text displayed on your buttons. Please note that this colour needs to work for both the normal button and the highlighted button.

Click the Save button to accept your changes or click the Cancel button to abort your changes.

Note

Wherever you have a colour field, you can either click into the field and select the colour you would like to use or type the colour code in.

If you do not want to use a custom colour but retain the theme colour, tick the checkbox Transparent.

4.3.1.7. Advanced

Add custom CSS

Custom CSS: If you know how to change CSS, you can change other styles for your skin here and overwrite other elements on a page. You can expand the “Custom CSS” text box if you need to enter a a lot of custom CSS code by dragging its bottom right corner.

Click the Save button to accept your changes or click the Cancel button to abort your changes.

4.3.2. Choose a skin

Portfolio → Pages → Edit a page

When the Skins feature is turned on, you see another item in the page editor navigation: Choose skin.

Choose a skin

Click the Choose skin navigation item to see all skins that are available to you for this page.

If you do not see a skin that you are looking for, click the Manage skins button. You will be taken to Portfolio → Skins where you can add or remove skins.

My skins: Skins that you created are displayed in this area. Click the title of a skin or the preview image to select it.

Favourite skins: Skins from other people that you like are displayed here. If you do not see a skin, click the Manage skins button. You will be taken to Portfolio → Skins where you can favourite more skins. Click the title of a skin or the preview image to select it.

Site skins: Skins created by site administrators on the site level are displayed. Click the title of a skin or the preview image to select it.

Note

If you had selected a skin, but do not want to use it on your page anymore, click the “No skin” image and you will use the regular theme only.

You can see skin information such as:

Title

Owner

Description

Creation date

Modified date

Once you have selected your skin, click the Save button to select it for your page. You are taken out of the edit mode because you can only view your skin when the page is displayed.

If you want to make further changes to your page content, click the Edit this page button.

Note

The skin is only shown when you display your page. When you edit your page, you see the standard theme.

4.3.3. What is the difference between themes and page skins?

Themes

Have been present in Mahara in their current form since 1.2.

Must be uploaded directly onto the web server by a system administrator.

Can override the page template for every single screen in Mahara, giving total control over how everything is displayed.

Depending on site and institution settings, there may be:

a single theme for the whole site

a theme for every institution

the possibility for users to choose their own theme for browsing the site

the possibility for users to apply a particular theme to each portfolio page, the page themes

Skins

Can be created, shared, exported and uploaded by users via Portfolio → Skins.

Are less powerful than themes. They can only change page colours, fonts and background images, and add extra CSS. Basically they add one additional user-controlled CSS stylesheet to a page.

Can only be applied to user-created portfolio pages. They don’t change the way any other part of Mahara is displayed.

When skins and themes collide

If users apply a skin to one of their pages, it adds one additional CSS stylesheet to the page. This is in addition to the CSS from the theme.

Naturally, any particular skin might not look good in all themes, especially if the theme has changed the underlying page templates for portfolio pages.

If you’re a theme designer, the good news is that the skin stylesheet is itself a page template (skin/style.tpl). So, you can specify which page elements each of the skin settings should apply to by overriding that page template.

4.3.4. Disallow skins on a theme

If you use Mahara at an institution, you may wish to prevent anyone making changes to your institution theme with a skin so that your corporate design is preserved and that portfolios created for assessment purposes or as showcases of work done at your institution for example are easily recognizable as belonging to your institution. However, at the same time, you do want to give portfolio authors in your institution the freedom to create personal portfolios with other themes and apply skins to them.

Themes are allowed to use skins per default. If you want to change that, you need to add the parameter $theme->skins = false; to the file themeconfig.php in your theme folder. Once done, users of this theme will see the following message:

“Your Mahara site theme “Name of the theme” does not support page skins. This means the skin you select will have no effect on how you see this page, but it may affect the page’s appearance for other users viewing the site with a different theme.”

Warning that skin cannot be applied

Note

This option works best when users cannot choose the theme in which they want to browse the site. If they do, and choose a different theme from the institution theme, then they could see the skin applied to the page because then the underlying theme is their personal one which may allow skins.

4.4. Collections

Portfolio → Collections

A collection is a set of pages that are linked to one another and have the same access permissions. You can create as many collections as you like, but a page cannot appear in more than one collection. You can create a collection from scratch or copy an existing one - either one of your own or one from another user that is copyable to you.

4.4.1. Manage your collections

When you are on the overview page of the collections, you can do several things.

Collections overview page

Create a new collection by clicking the New collection button.

Copy an existing collection by clicking the Copy a collection button.

Click on the collection title to go to the first page of the collection.

Click on any title of a page within a collection to jump directly to it.

Click the Manage button manage to move pages within a collection, add them to or delete them from a collection.

Click the Edit button edit to change the title and description of a collection.

Click the Delete button delete to delete the collection. The pages will still exist.

When you submitted a collection to a group, you cannot edit or delete it until it has been released.

Note

You can see up to 10 collections on the collections overview page, and then use the pager to move to other collections.

4.4.2. Add a collection

Create a collection

Click the New collection button under Portfolio → Collections. On the next screen…

Collection name: Provide a title for your collection.

Collection description: Optionally, you can write a short description about your collection. You do not have a visual editor, but just a plain text box.

Tags: Enter tags to find your collection more easily at a later stage. Separate your tags with commas. If you already have tags, you can click on the link Show my tags and select the ones that you think will fit for this collection as well. They will be entered into the text field for you.

Page navigation bar: Choose whether you wish to display a tabbed navigation or not. If you choose not to, you will have to include the navigation block for you to go from one page to the next on the individual pages that belong to this collection.

Click the Next: Edit collection pages button or click the Cancel button if you want to abort adding your collection.

4.4.3. Copy a collection

4.4.3.1. Copy a collection by searching for it

You can duplicate your own collections or collections of other users if they allowed you to do that. As every page can only be in one collection at a time, your own pages will be copied when you copy a collection.

Copy a collection

Click the Copy a collection button under Portfolio → Collections. On the next screen…

Search: If there are many pages or collections from which you can choose, search here for a keyword in the page or collection title or for the name of the page owner.

Collection title: Click on the title of a collection to preview it before copying it.

Note

The sort order on the screen is according to collection titles in alphabetical order.

Page name: Click on the title of the page to see a preview of it before you copy it.

Owner: Click on the name of the owner to view a larger profile picture and the self description if the owner provided one or to see information about a group it that is the owner.

Click the Copy collection button to copy an entire collection with multiple pages into your portfolio. All pages within this collection are copied or

Click the Copy page button to copy one page only into your own portfolio.

Edit the collection and its pages as you would do any other collection and pages.

Note

The site administrator can decide to leave out “Copy of…” for copied pages or collections. This setting needs to be made in the config.php file. If $cfg->renamecopies = false;, copies of new pages and collections will not have “Copy of” prepended to their titles.

See also

You can watch a demo of this feature [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L-TbcR__MDg] in action.

4.4.3.2. new in Mahara 15.04 Copy a collection directly from its location

You can copy a page or collection directly when you view it by clicking the Copy button when you see it. The button is displayed on your own pages and collections as well as on pages and collections owned by others when you have the permission to copy them.

Copy a page or collection

Click the Copy button when you want to copy a page or collection that you can duplicate.

If the page is part of a collection, you need to decide in the pop-up window whether you want to copy just the page that you can see currently by clicking the Page button.

Or whether you want to copy the entire collection by clicking the Collection button.

Edit the page or collection as you would to any other.

4.4.4. Add collection pages

In the next step after you have created your collection, you choose which portfolio pages you wish to include in this collection. You see all the potential pages that you can use. If you had already placed a page into another collection, it is not shown here.

Add pages to a collection

Click the Manage pages button manage under Portfolio → Collections. On the next screen…

Put a check mark next to each page that you wish to include in your collection.

Alternatively, you can click the All link to add all pages available to the collection or the None link to revert your selection.

Click the Add pages button to add the pages to your collection.

If you do not wish to click all pages, you can also drag and drop them into the collection by clicking their title and dragging them to the area Pages already in collection.

A dotted line shows you where you can drag your page so you can already drag the pages into the collection in the order that you prefer.

Click the Done button to finish this step.

4.4.5. Manage collection pages

Once you have added your pages to your collection. You can move them around or remove them.

Manage the pages that are displayed within your collection

If you are not already in the page management, click the Manage pages button manage under Portfolio → Collections. On the next screen…

Use the Move up move_up and Move down move_down buttons to arrange your pages in a different order. Alternatively, you can drag and drop the pages within the list.

Click the Remove button delete to take a page out of a collection. The page itself is not deleted.

Put a check mark next to each page that you wish to include in your collection in addition to the ones already in it.

Click the Add pages button to add the pages to your collection and then move them around with the Move up move_up and Move down move_down buttons. Alternatively, you can drag and drop the pages to the position where you would like to have them in the list.

Click the Done button.

When you add pages to your collection that have different access permissions than the collection has, the page’s access permissions get added to the collection and the page is available under the same access permissions as the entire collection because it is part of the collection.

Notice about changes in permissions

If there is a change in access permissions, a warning will be displayed so that you are informed that changes have taken place.

View the result of your collection by clicking on the collection title or any page that is part of your collection.

A collection with the tabbed navigation

4.4.6. Give others access to your collection

See also

Please refer to the section on sharing your pages and collections for further information.

4.5. Shared by me

Portfolio → Shared by me

When you have created portfolio pages (and collections), you may wish to share them with others, e.g. to receive feedback. You can set the access permissions on the Edit access page. It is accessible via Portfolio → Shared by me or directly from the page editor when you edit a portfolio page.

The Share overview page shows you the following.

Share overview page

Collections: Your collections are sorted alphabetically.

Pages: Pages that are not in a collection are listed alphabetically below the collections.

Access list: The list of users, groups or institutions who have access to a particular collection or page.

Edit access: The Edit access button edit_access next to each collection or page allows you to change the permission of who can view a page or collection.

Secret URLs: The Secret URL edit button secret_url next to each collection or page allows you to set up one or more secret URLs for a page or collection. The number of secret URLs that you have generated is displayed next to the button.

4.5.1. Edit access for users with an account

The Edit access page allows you to set the permissions for a single user or multiple users who should be able to view some of your portfolio pages or collections.

You can assign access to a single page or collection at a time or to multiple pages and / or collections at once.

Users and groups to whom you can give access to pages and / or collections

You have a number of choices for selecting who shall be able to see what. Always click the Add button if you want to add a group of people or an individual.

Click the Edit access button edit_access next to the collection or page for which you want to give access permissions under Portfolio → Shared by me. On the next screen…

Choose the collection or collections for which you want to give access by placing a check mark in the checkbox next to it / them. If you made a mistake in your selection, either take the check mark off or click Select all or Select none to check or clear all respectively.

Choose the page or pages for which you want to give access by placing a check mark in the checkbox next to it / them. If you made a mistake in your selection, either take the check mark off or click Select all or Select none to check or clear all respectively.

Public: Anybody online who knows the URL(s) can see your selection of pages / collections.

Note

This option is only available if the site administrator allowed public pages under Administration → Site options → General settions → Allow public pages.

If you are on a multi-tennanted site, the institution administrator must also allow public pages in the institution settings.

Registered users: All users who have an account on the Mahara instance you are using can view your selection of pages / collections.

Friends: All your friends on Mahara can view your selection of pages / collections.

Share with my institutions: Select your institution(s) with which you want to share your selection of pages / collections. This will allow all members in these institutions to have access to this selection.

All my groups: Every member in the groups to whom you belong can view your selection of pages / collections.

A particular group: All members of that group can view your selection of pages / collections.

If none of the above choices are what you are looking for, you can search for specific users or groups. Make your selection to search for:

Your friends

Any group

Any user

Type the name of the user or the name of the group you search for. Searching for the first name or last name instead of both names is often best.

Click the Go button to search for that person or group.

Click on the name of the user or group to verify that it is the correct one. When you clicked on the name of the user or group and want to get back to the access list, close the window.

Click the Add button add next to the user(s) or group(s) to whom you wish to give access.

Click the Save button to keep your changes or click the Cancel button to abort the action.

Note

Your friends or individual users with whom you shared your pages / collections receive a notification. Group members also receive a notification that you shared a page with them if the group administrator allowed that. You as page author and member of the group with which you shared your pages / collections do not get notified.

You do not receive a notification when users share their page with the public, all registered users, an entire institution or friends.

See also

If you use the web services plugin [https://wiki.mahara.org/index.php/Plugins/Artefact/WebServices], you can also share pages with “favourite users”. For more information, please refer to the specifications for this feature [https://bugs.launchpad.net/mahara/+bug/799566].

4.5.2. Edit access to your profile page

You can restrict full access to your profile page to the members of your institution if the site administrator allowed that in Administration → Configure site → User settings → Profile access for all registered users.

If you allow only members of your own institution(s) to see your profile page, other users who have an account can only see basic information, e.g. your name, your institution membership and messaging information.

Restricted view of a profile

4.5.3. Restrict access based on time

In addition to controlling who shall have access to your pages / collections, you can further restrict that access for a specific period of time.

Restrict access to your pages / collections further

Each user or group of people can receive their own time restrictions that are independent of other access groups. You can specify a start date. You can type the date and time in the format YYYY/MM/DD HH:MM or click the Calendar button calendar to select the date.

You can specify an end date by typing it in manually or selecting it via the Calendar button calendar.

You can click the Remove button delete to completely take a user group off your access list.

4.5.4. Choose advanced options

You can choose a number of additional options which are applied to all pages and / or collections that are selected.

Advanced options for editing access to pages / collections

Allow comments: This checkbox is selected by default to encourage you to allow others to comment on your pages.

Moderate comments: If you wish to see any comment before it is made public, i.e. can be see by others who have access to the page on which the comment is made, place a check mark here.

Allow copying: Place a check mark in this box if you want to allow the users who can view your page / collection to make a copy of it for themselves. Any Text or Note block content, files and folders will be transferred to their portfolio. For journals or journal entries you decide separately whether they can copy them or not via the Block copy permission. Profile information, plans and résumé information are not copied.

See also

Check the blocks which can be copied.

Retain view access on copied pages or collections: This option only becomes available when you put a check mark next to the option Allow copying. When you tick this checkbox, you as owner of the page / collection will have access to the copied page / collection automatically. However, the owner of the copied page / collection can take that access away at any time.

Overriding start / stop dates: You set the time frame for when all users who have access to your page / collection can view your page. The dates here override any individual dates you may have set. You can type the date and time in the format YYYY/MM/DD HH:MM or click the Calendar button calendar to select the date.

Click the Save button to keep your changes or click the Cancel button to abort the action.

If you have not allowed comments in general, you can still choose to allow them for a certain person or group of people who are in your access list. That way you can regulate very flexibly who shall be able to place comments on a page / collection and who cannot.

Allow comments on a user-by-user basis

Note

If you edit an institution or site page, you see the additional option Copy for new institution members / Copy for new members when you allowed copying. With this option you can place a page or collection directly into the portfolio of a new user. Existing users still have to copy the page or collection themselves.

4.5.5. Edit access for users without an account

Besides giving users who have a login or the entire public access to your portfolio, you can also give users who do not have an account on Mahara access to your portfolio pages and / or collections without making your work publicly available and searchable by search engines. This can be interesting, e.g.

when you create a portfolio for a job application and the prospective employer does not have a login and cannot get one.

when you want to share your portfolio with your parents and also get feedback from them.

when an external assessor shall evaluate your work.

Add one or more secret URLs to a page or collection

You can create a secret URL the following way: when you are on the share overview page:

Click the Edit secret URL access button secret_url next to the collection or page for which you want to give access permissions under Portfolio → Shared by me. On the next screen…

Click the Add button to generate a new secret URL. You can add as many secret URLs as you wish.

Click the Copy button copy to copy the secret URL to your clipboard. You can then paste it into an email to send to somebody.

You can click the Edit button edit to add a time restriction for access to your page / collection via this URL. The “From” and “To” date fields become visible when you click the Edit button.

Type a start and / or end date (and time) manually following the pattern of YYYY/MM/DD HH:MM or select the date via the Calendar button calendar.

Click the Save button to save the date access changes.

Click the Delete button delete if you do not want to use this secret URL anymore.

Note

Logged-out users or those who do not have an account can only leave comments on public pages or pages which they can access via a secret URL if the site administrator turned on the Anonymous comments function under Administration → Configure site → User settings.

4.6. Shared with me

Portfolio → Shared with me

On this page you can list the most recently modified or commented on pages that have been shared with:

You directly

You as a friend

You as a member of a group

You as a member of an institution

All registered users

The public (excluding secret URLs)

The default search options are:

Search the title, description, tags and owner of a page.

Sort the results by last update or last comment.

Show results of pages that have been shared with you directly, as a friend or a member of a group.

You can adjust these default settings in the advanced options.

Shared with me is a place where you can find the pages that you may be most interested in.

Note

You cannot add or delete anything from this page. It is a display page only.

Shared with me list

Search by title, description, tags and the owner of a page per default. More search options are provided under Advanced options.

Search within: Limit your search results to the word(s) found in the title, description or tags of a page or search only within tags.

Sort results by: You can sort the results by the following options:

Last update or comment

Last update

Owner

Title

Shared with: Select the group of people with whom the page(s) you search for must have been shared. You can select multiple options:

Me

Friends

My groups

My institutions

Registered users

Public: You only see this option if the site / institution administrator allowed public pages.

Note

Use the Select all link to tick all the boxes, and use the Select none link to empty all boxes.

The title and author of the page are linked for you to jump to them quickly. You also see when the page was last updated.

The description of the page is displayed if the author provided one.

Tags on your own pages are linked for you to easily jump to them on the My tags page.

You see the number of comments on each page.

The beginning of the latest comment on the page as well as its author and the date when the comment was left are displayed. By clicking on the comment, you can read it in its entirety.

Use the pager to view results that are not listed directly.

new in Mahara 15.04 You can choose how many portfolio pages you wish to display at once. Your options are 10, 20, 50, 100 or 500 results. All remaining pages can be reached via the pager.

View the total number of results.

4.7. Export

Portfolio → Export

You can export your portfolio to keep your files and Mahara-created content offline. You can create an export at any time and as often as you wish. You have two options for the export:

Standalone HTML website: A zip file containing a website with your portfolio data is created. You cannot import this into Mahara or another portfolio system again, but it is readable in a standard web browser and you do not need a Mahara in order to view it. To view this website, extract the zip file and click on the index.html file that is in the folder.

Leap2A: A zip file containing a folder in the Leap2A standard format [http://wiki.leapspecs.org/2A/specification] is created. You can then import this into another Leap2A-compliant system [https://wiki.mahara.org/index.php/Developer_Area/Import//Export/Interoperability] or have it imported by an administrator into your current Mahara or another one. A new user is created during the import process.

Note

It is recommended that you export your portfolio both in HTML and Leap2A because you never know whether you will be able to import it back into Mahara or maybe even another ePortfolio system.

Export your portfolio

To export your portfolio on Portfolio → Export:

Choose either Standalone HTML website or Leap2A. You can run through the export twice in order to get both formats.

Choose what you want to export:

All my data: Everything that is stored in your account in Content and Portfolio. Excluded are any of your group contributions.

Just some of my pages: You can choose which pages and the artefacts that are contained within them you want to export.

Just some of my collections: You can select which collections and the artefacts that are contained within them you want to export.

Note

new in Mahara 15.04 Your pages and collections are listed alphabetically.

If you have chosen to export just some pages or collections, you can select them here by ticking the individual checkboxes to mark them for inclusion. With the links Select all or Reverse selection you can more quickly decide which portfolio pages or collections to include in the export.

Click the Click to preview link to preview a page or collection before you select it.

Tick the checkbox for Include user feedback if you want to keep that in your export.

Note

This option is only available when you choose the HTML website export.

Click the Generate export button to start the export process.

Depending on the size of your portfolio, the export may take a little bit. Once everything has been processed, a file will either be downloaded automatically to your computer or you can decide to save it. That depends on your browser settings.

Note

If your export gets stuck in the process and the progress bar does not move along at all, your server settings may prevent long operations to avoid slowing down the entire system. You will need to contact your site administrator, e.g. via the “Contact us” form in the footer of the page.

Experimental feature: If your site administrator enabled the feature to queue Leap2A exports, you will receive a notification when the export has finished. You then have 24 hours until the link to the archive expires. If you do not download your export within that time frame, you will need to export your content again.

4.8. Import

Portfolio → Import

You can import your portfolio from another Mahara site yourself. During the import process, you will be asked what you want to do with content that is in your import file. You can decide whether you want to add it to your account or whether you want to ignore it.

You can only import a Leap2A file, but not an HTML file. If you want to import content from another Mahara site, go there and export your portfolio there as Leap2A file. You do not have to export your entire portfolio, but you can choose which pages or collections and thus the artefacts contained on them you wish to export.

Note

You can also import a Leap2A file from another site that support the export of content into a Leap2A file. You may have a bit of clean-up to do once you imported the data.

Select a file to import

Click the Browse button to select the Leap2A file that you wish to import on your computer.

Click the Import button to start the import process.

On the next screen, you can decide which content items and pages and collections you want to import.

Select the content you wish to import

Click the headings of a section to expand it and see all the relevant items.

On the left you see the content in your Leap2A file.

In the middle you see the content in the user account into which you want to import information.

On the right you can decide what to do with the content from your Leap2A file:

Ignore: Do not import this content item.

Replace: Replace the existing value with the new information from the Leap2A file.

Append: Add the information contained in the Leap2A file to the existing information.

Add new: Add the content item to your account since it doesn’t exist yet.

Click the Import button to finish the import, or click the Cancel button to abort the import.

4.9. Feedback

Giving feedback is an essential component for portfolio work. You can give feedback not only on individual artefacts but on entire portfolio pages.

The author of an artefact or portfolio page decides whether you can leave comments or not. Find the comment options for:

files: when editing a file.

journal entries: when editing a journal entry.

notes: when editing a note.

pages: in the advanced options.

4.9.1. View page feedback

You can see the feedback given so far at the bottom of each portfolio page or the artefact page that contains the artefact’s metadata.

View feedback on a page

The profile picture and name of the author of the feedback is shown.

You can see when the feedback author wrote the feedback and also when the last change to it was made.

The feedback is displayed.

Feedback comments can also contain a rating which shows quickly how well the feedback author likes your page or artefact.

As page / artefact owner you see all feedback on your page. Feedback marked as private by the feedback author is only displayed to you and the feedback author.

You or the feedback author can make private feedback public by clicking the Make public button next to the feedback.

You and the comment author can delete a comment by clicking the Delete button delete. The comment text is not displayed anymore. In addition, if you delete the comment by someone else, they will receive a notification about it, which includes their comment text.

You and the comment author can delete a comment by clicking the Delete button delete. The comment text is not displayed anymore. In addition, if you delete the comment by someone else, they will receive a notification about it, which includes their comment text.

If feedback authors decide to remove their feedback, it is marked as such.

Feedback authors can attach a file to their feedback to give you longer feedback or oral or video feedback. The files that they add are placed into your personal Files area so you can use that feedback later on.

You can edit your own feedback, and feedback authors can edit their feedback if it is the last feedback.

As owner of a page or artefact, you receive a notification about new feedback that was placed on it.

4.9.2. View artefact feedback

new in Mahara 15.04 You do not have to go to the artefact’s details page to view feedback left on an artefact. Instead, you can view it directly on a page.

View artefact feedback on a page

See how many comments this content item has already received. If you click it…

You will see the comments directly on the page.

Click the Close button to collapse all comments. Alternatively, you can click the Comments link again.

Click the Add comment link to leave a comment on the artefact’s details page.

If you want to have all feedback management options available, please click the little Details icon details in the header of the block. That will take you to the details page of the artefact where you have more options available for viewing your feedback.

Note

If you do not see “Comments” and / or “Add comment” on an artefact, then you are not allowed to leave comments (anymore). If comments have already been left, you can still view them, but you may not be able to add your own.

4.9.3. Give feedback

You can give feedback on a page and individual artefacts if the page / artefact author allowed that.

4.9.3.1. Give feedback being logged in

Provide feedback

Click the Place feedback link at the bottom of the portfolio page or the details page of an artefact for which you want to write feedback.

Message: Write your feedback into the editor window.

Rating: If the site administrator turned on comment ratings, you can use the 5-star rating scale in addition to your written comments and / or an uploaded file.

Make public: Switch this to “On” if you want everyone who has access to this page to see your comment. If you do not make your feedback public, only you and the page / artefact author can see your comment. This setting is switched on by default.

License: You see this field if the site administrator turned on license metadata. Choose the license for your feedback. You can set your default license in your account settings.

Advanced licensing: You see this option if the site administrator turned on license metadata. If you click it, you see two additional license fields, “Licensor” and “Original URL”, that you can fill in if this is not your own feedback.

Note

At the moment, you cannot display that license information on a portfolio page, but it is stored for future use when the functionality is expanded.

Attach file: Click the Browse button to attach a feedback file from your computer. This file is placed into the Files area of the author of the page.

Click the Add button add to add another file.

Click the Place feedback button to save your feedback or click the Cancel button to abort your changes.

Once you have placed feedback on the page, the author receives a notification about it.

Note

new in Mahara 15.04 Feedback writers receive notifications about additional feedback made by others after they submitted theirs on portfolio pages when that feedback is public. A person leaving feedback is added automatically to the watchlist for the page.

4.9.3.2. Give feedback when you are not logged in

Note

When you are not logged in, you can only give feedback on public pages and pages with secret URLs if the site administrator allowed anonymous feedback / comments.

Provide feedback anonymously

Click the Place feedback link at the bottom of the portfolio page or the details page of an artefact for which you want to write feedback.

Name: You must provide your name to identify yourself. This field is required.

Message: Write your feedback into the editor window.

Note

You have a simple text box available but not advanced editing tools for security reasons and because you wouldn’t be able to use the full image selector.

Rating: If the site administrator turned on comment ratings, you can use the 5-star rating scale in addition to your written comments and / or an uploaded file.

Make public: Switch this to “On” if you want everyone who has access to this page to see your comment. If you do not make your feedback public, only you and the page / artefact author can see your comment. This setting is switched on by default.

License: You see this field if the site administrator turned on license metadata. Choose the license for your feedback. You can set your default license in your account settings.

Advanced licensing: You see this option if the site administrator turned on license metadata. If you click it, you see two additional license fields, “Licensor” and “Original URL”, that you can fill in if this is not your own feedback.

Note

At the moment, you cannot display that license information on a portfolio page, but it is stored for future use when the functionality is expanded.

Click the Place feedback button to save your feedback or click the Cancel button to abort your changes.

Once you have placed feedback on the page, the author receives a notification about it.

4.10. Feedback for assessment

4.10.1. Submit a page or collection for assessment

When you are a member of a group that allows submissions, you can submit portfolio pages and collections for feedback / assessment. This allows an instructor to view the portfolio with much of the content locked into place.

Submit a page or collection to a group

Go to the group homepage of the group in which you want to submit a page or collection. You can choose the collection from the drop-down menu under Submit a page or collection to this group.

Alternatively, you can select a page, which is not part of a collection, from the drop-down menu.

Click the Submit button to lock page content.

Alternatively, you can also display the page or collection that you wish to submit and click the Submit button right above the feedback and the select the group to which you want to submit your work.

Submit a page or collection to a group from the page or collection itself

Note

You do not have to give the group permission to access your page or collection when you want to submit your page or collection for feedback or assessment. When you submit your page or collection, the group administrators and tutors are able to see them and give you feedback whereas regular group members do not have access to them.

During the feedback phase, you cannot make any changes to

files

journal entries

text boxes

links to external content

You can still edit

plans

profile information

résumé information

any external content on the source site, e.g. adding comments to a YouTube video, adding audio to a SlideShare presentation etc. or deleting the media

4.10.2. Instructor feedback

Once pages or collections have been submitted for feedback to a group, you can give feedback on them without the authors being able to change much of their content if you have the role of a tutor or group administrator in that group. You see all submitted pages and collections with a time stamp on the group’s homepage.

Submitted page or collection with time stamp

You can now give feedback on the submitted individual pages or pages in a collection and then click on the Release page / Release collection button so that the authors can continue working on them.

Provide feedback as tutor or group administrator on a submitted page

Click the Place feedback link at the bottom of the portfolio page or the details page of an artefact for which you want to write feedback.

Message: Write your feedback into the editor window.

Rating: If the site administrator turned on comment ratings, you can use the 5-star rating scale in addition to your written comments and / or an uploaded file.

Make public: Enable the Make public checkbox when you want everyone who has access to this page to see your comment. If you do not make your feedback public, only you and the page / artefact author can see your comment. This checkbox is not ticked when you give feedback on submitted pages or collections.

License: You see this field if the site administrator turned on license metadata. Choose the license for your feedback. You can set your default license in your account settings.

Advanced licensing: You see this option if the site administrator turned on license metadata. If you click it, you see two additional license fields, “Licensor” and “Original URL”, that you can fill in if this in not your own feedback.

Note

At the moment, you cannot display that license information on a portfolio page, but it is stored for future use when the functionality is expanded.

Attach file: Click the Browse button to attach a feedback file from your computer. This file is placed into the Files area of the author of the page.

Click the Add button add to add another file.

Click the Place feedback button to save your feedback or click the Cancel button to abort your action.

Click the Release page or Release collection button to allow the author of the page or collection to continue editing.

Once you have placed feedback on the page, the author receives a notification about it.

4.11. Objectionable material

4.11.1. Report objectionable material

You can report content as objectionable when you think it is:

Offensive

Inappropriate

Or otherwise violates the terms and conditions of the site

Individual content items, e.g. files, journal entries, and notes, can be reported as objectionable as can entire pages.

Report content as objectionable

On the item that you want to report as objectionable, click the link Report objectionable material.

Complaint: Write in the text field why you think the content is objectionable and should be removed or changed.

Click the Notify administrator button to send a notification to the administrators for review.

Note

The site administrator and the institution administrator of the institution, in which the user is a member whose content was reported as objectionable, receive the objectionable material notification.

You must confirm that you want to report content as objectionable in the pop-up window. Sometimes people accidentally click on “Objectionable material” instead of “Place feedback”. To prevent false reports, the pop-up window requires you to confirm your choice.

4.11.2. Review objectionable material

If you are an administrator who receives a notification about objectionable material, you can click a link in the notification and are taken to the page or the artefact in question directly. You can view notifications in your Mahara inbox or via email.

4.11.2.1. Inbox notification with objectionable material

The inbox notification contains vital information about the objectionable material.

Inbox notification about objectionable material

new in Mahara 15.04 The name of the person who reported the objectionable material. It is linked to the user’s profile page in case you have clarification questions.

The complaint itself.

More…: A link to the page or artefact in the page that was marked as objectionable.

4.11.2.2. Email with objectionable material

The email notification that you receive contains important information.

Email notification about objectionable material

The complaint itself.

Complaint relates to: A link to the page or new in Mahara 15.04 artefact in the page that was marked as objectionable.

Reported by: A link to the user’s profile page who reported the objectionable material in case you have clarification questions.

Once you received the notification, you can go to the item in question.

Report content as objectionable

As administrator you can then click the Not objectionable button if the content conforms to the terms and conditions of the site. Alternatively, you can contact the user to discuss the content further and require further actions.

When you click the Not objectionable button, every administrator who got the initial objectional material notification receives a notification mentioning that you dealt with the complaint.

Note

Normally, as administrator you do not have immediate access to a user’s content. However, since you need to view the content to evaluate it, you have access to it without needing to log in as the user or request access permissions. Once content is marked as not being objectionable, you do not have access to it anymore.

4.12. Tags

Tags are keywords that you can give to artefacts and pages in your portfolio to find them more easily later on.

Note

A site administrator must have the tag cloud enabled for you to use this feature.

4.12.1. Tag cloud

You can see your tag cloud in the sidebar when you are in the Content and Portfolio areas. Configure how many different tags you wish to display in your tag cloud in your account settings.

Tag cloud

Click on the Tags heading to be taken to all your tags.

Click on any tag to see all artefacts and pages from your portfolio area that have this tag associated.

Note

The more you use a tag for your files, journal entries and pages, the bigger its font size in the tag cloud.

4.12.2. My tags

On the My tags page you see all your tags and the artefacts and pages associated with them. You have a number of filter options to show only the resources that you wish to see.

My tags overview page

Sort tags alphabetically: The default view is to sort your tags alphabetically.

Sort tags by frequency: You can also sort tags by frequency showing the most frequently used tags first.

You can click on any tag and filter the content items and pages you have for it. The number in parentheses tells you how many times a tag occurs in your resources.

Search results for: The tag you filtered on is displayed.

Filter results by: You can filter your results by specific content types or just show portfolio pages or collections.

Sort results by: You can sort the results by their name or creation date.

The title of a resource, its description if available, its associated tags, creation date and time as well as the type of resource are displayed.

Click the Edit this tag button to make changes to the tag that is currently the filter.

Click the Edit tags button to make changes to your tags.

4.12.3. Edit tags

You can edit your tags to correct spelling mistakes or delete a tag.

Edit your tags

Select a tag to edit: Select the tag that you want to edit. Once you have selected your tag, it is highlighted in bold in the list and two new boxes appear.

Name: You can provide the new name for your tag by replacing the old one. This field is mandatory.

Click the Submit button to save your change.

Alternatively, click the Delete button to delete this tag entirely. All occurrences of it will be removed.

You can also click the My tags button to be taken back to the overview page of all your tags and their associated resources.

5. Groups

5.1. My groups

5.2. Find groups

5.3. Set up a group

5.3.1. Create a group as a user

5.3.2. Create a group as staff member or institution administrator

5.3.3. Create a group as a site administrator

5.3.4. Edit general group settings

5.4. Inside a group

5.4.1. Group homepage

5.4.1.1. View group homepage as regular group member

5.4.1.2. View group homepage as group administrator

5.4.2. Members

5.4.2.1. Members page

5.4.2.2. New member invitation

5.4.2.3. Group membership recommendation

5.4.3. Forums

5.4.3.1. Set up a new forum

5.4.3.2. Add a forum topic

5.4.3.3. Reply to a topic or subsequent post

5.4.3.4. Delete a post, topic or forum

5.4.3.5. Administrative forum bulk actions

5.4.3.6. User forum bulk actions

5.4.3.7. Viewing objectionable content on forum topics and posts

5.4.4. Pages

5.4.4.1. Group homepage

5.4.4.2. Regular group pages

5.4.5. Collections

5.4.6. Share

5.4.7. Files

5.4.8. Report

5.5. My friends

5.6. Find friends

5.6.1. Send a friend request

5.6.2. Accept a friend request

5.6.3. Deny a friend request

5.7. Institution membership

5.8. Topics

Groups can be used for collaboration among users as they offer the possibilities to:

discuss topics in forums

create and edit pages and collections together

share files

share pages

submit pages for assessment / feedback

Note

Groups can be created by every user, staff or administrators only. The site administrator decides that in Administration → Configure site → Group settings.

The Groups menu has a number of sub menus:

My groups: Displays the groups that you administer or in which you are a member. You can create new groups from here if you have the appropriate rights.

Find groups: Lists all groups in the system that you can view and allows you to join or request membership in them if groups allow that.

My friends: Displays your friends and gives you easy access to their profile pages.

Find friends: Search for users in Mahara that you may wish to add to your friends list.

Shared pages: Lists the pages that you have permission to view.

Topics: Shows the latest discussion topics in your groups.

5.1. My groups

Groups → My groups

This page lists all your groups. You can see the groups

you own.

you are a member of.

you have been invited to.

If your site administrator allowed you to create groups yourself, you see the Create group button.

The My groups page lists all your groups

Search for a specific group by its title or description and / or choose the filters you wish to apply to view only a subset of your groups and then click the Filter button. You can filter for:

All your groups

Groups you own

Groups you are a member of

Groups you are invited to

Groups by a specific category if group categories exist.

All the groups that you have access to are listed with group title, administrator, description, group type and number of members if the administrator discloses this.

If you are a member of a controlled membership group, you cannot leave the group.

If you are a member of any other group but controlled membership, you can leave it at any time.

Click the Accept button to join a group to which you have been invited or the Decline button to decline membership in that group.

Click the Edit button when you want to update the details for a group in which you are administrator.

Click the Delete button only when you want to delete your group permanently. Group members receive a notification that the group has been deleted.

Warning

When you delete a group, all its content and contributions from users are deleted permanently and cannot be retrieved again.

Click the Create group button when you want to set up a new group. You only see this button if the site administrator allows you to create groups.

5.2. Find groups

Groups → Find groups

You see groups and get basic information about them. If a group administrator decided to hide a group, you will not be able to see it unless you have been invited to it.

A list of groups and certain actions you can perform

Search for a certain group using a word / words from its title or description. You can limit your search results to a certain group category if group categories exist. You can search for

groups you can join. This is the default value and only shows those groups that you are not a member of and that you can join. Thus, it does not show any groups that have controlled membership.

groups you are not in.

groups you belong to.

all groups.

You can find out more about a group by

clicking on the group name to see the group homepage.

clicking on the name of the group administrator to get to their profile page.

clicking on the member link to see who is already a member of this group if the administrator discloses this.

Note

Users who are staff or administrators in Mahara can hide groups. Thus, you may not be able to see all groups that exist in the system.

If you want to become a member of an open group, click the Join this group button, and you will be a member immediately.

If you want to join a group that needs the approval of the group administrator, click the Request to join this group button next to the group. The administrator will receive a notification and decide about admitting you to the group.

If you have been invited to a group, either Accept or Decline the membership invitation.

Note

Usually, you do not see forums, group pages, group collections and group files unless you are a member of a group. If a group is publicly available, you do see the forum discussions.

5.3. Set up a group

Groups → My groups → Create group

You can create different groups depending on your role.

All users

Open membership: Any user of the site can become a member simply by visiting your group page and clicking the Join button.

Request membership Any user can request to join your group. However, as owner you can choose to accept or decline this request. The requesting member will be notified of your decision automatically.

In addition, staff and administrators can create groups with controlled membership:

You can add users directly to your group.

The members cannot leave this group.

You can assign tutors to the group. They can give feedback on submitted pages, but not administer group members.

Group members can submit portfolio pages or collections for feedback / assessment. These pages are locked until released by a group administrator or tutor.

Note

The site administrator can limit the creation of groups to users with staff and / or administrator rights. If you cannot create a group, you will most likely not have the appropriate permission and will have to contact your site administrator, e.g. via the Contact us form, to enquire about the process of having a group set up.

5.3.1. Create a group as a user

If you are allowed to create a group, you see the Create group button on the My groups overview page.

Create a group as a user

Group name: Provide a name for your group. This field is mandatory.

Note

The group name that you choose does not have to be unique. Other groups can have the same name. In order to distinguish them more easily, you can add a group description.

Group description: Briefly describe what your group is about.

Group homepage URL: You can choose what human-readable URL your group should have. You see this field only once you have created your group.

See also

This option is only available if the site allows clean URLs.

Open: Check this box if you want to create an open membership group. This allows users to join the group without approval from group administrators.

Request: Check this box if you wish to create a request membership group. Users will have to send a membership request that requires group administrator approval. Open and request membership groups are mutually exclusive.

Friend invitations: Check this box if you want to allow group members to invite friends to join the group. Regardless of this setting, group administrators can always send invitations to anyone. If the friends accept, they will be added automatically to the group.

Recommendations: Check this box if you want to allow members to send a recommendation for joining this group to their friends from a button on the group homepage. If a request membership group has been recommended and the friends are interested in it, they would still need the approval of the group administrator to join. Friend invitations and recommendations are mutually exclusive options.

Create and edit pages: Decide who shall be able to create and edit pages in the group:

All group members

Everyone except ordinary members, i.e. group administrators and tutors depending on the group type

Group administrators only

Publicly viewable group: Choose this option if anybody shall have access to this group. You only see this setting if the site administrator allowed you to have it. Anybody online can see the group homepage and the discussion forum(s). Depending on the membership visibility, they may also see group members. Only members of the groups can see the group’s pages, unless they have been made public, and the files area.

Participation report: Tick this checkbox if you as group administrator want to view a report displaying all group pages and those that have been shared with the group and see who commented on them.

Start date: As group administrator you can decide when regular group members shall be able to create and edit content, forum discussions, pages and collections in the group. Tick the checkbox Set date to enter a date and time from when editing is allowed. Group administrators can always edit content in a group.

End date: You can allow the editing of group content for regular members up to a certain time. After that they will only be able to view forum discussions, pages, collections and files, but not edit them. Tick the checkbox Set date to enter a date and time until when editing is allowed. Group administrators can always edit content in a group.

Group category: Choose a category if you want to associate your group to one, allowing you to filter groups on the My groups and Find groups page more easily. This setting is only available if the site administrator turned it on.

Shared page notification: Select from the drop-down menu who shall be notified when new group pages are created and when group members share their pages with the group. The options in the drop-down menu are:

All group members

Note

You may not want to use this option in very large groups where lots of pages are shared but members do not have to be notified.

Everyone except ordinary members, i.e. group administrators and tutors depending on the group type

Group administrators only

Note

The page owner who shares their page with the group does not receive a notification.

Feedback notifications: Select from the drop-down menu who shall be notified when feedback is placed on a page or artefacts.

All group members

Everyone except ordinary members, i.e. group administrators and tutors depending on the group type

Group administrators only

Click the Save group button to finish creating your group, or click the Cancel button to abort the group creation process.

5.3.2. Create a group as staff member or institution administrator

In addition to the group settings that a regular user has, institution staff and administrators have a few more options.

Additional options for staff and institution administrators

Controlled: Create a controlled group if you wish to add users who cannot leave the group. This is a useful setting for course groups where you do not want members to leave.

Roles: Choose whether you have only members and administrators or also tutors. The latter can provide feedback and release pages when page submissions are allowed, but they cannot change group settings.

Allow submissions: Use this option to allow group members to submit pages or collections for feedback / assessment. These pages and collections as well as a number of content items in them are locked until released by a group administrator or tutor.

Allow archiving of submissions: Use this option when you want to archive pages or collections that have been submitted to this group. The archive will be made on the server. Administrators can view the archived submissions and download vital information about them.

Note

This is an experimental feature.

Hide group: Use this option to not list this group on the Find groups page.

Hide membership: Use this option to hide the group’s membership listing from non-members.

Hide membership from members: Use this option to hide the group’s membership listing from members as well. Only group administrators can see the members listed. Administrators are still shown on the group homepage.

5.3.3. Create a group as a site administrator

When you have site administrator rights, you have yet another setting when you create a group: Auto-add users. When you tick this checkbox, new users to the site are added to the group automatically.

Add users to a group automatically

Note

This is a great setting when you want to set up a group which all users should join in order to participate in forum discussions etc. On mahara.org [http://mahara.org] this is used to make every user a member of the “Community” group in which discussions around Mahara take place.

5.3.4. Edit general group settings

You can start out editing a group’s settings from three places by clicking the Edit button on:

the My groups page

the Find groups page

the group homepage

You are then taken to the same screen as if you were creating a group and make the necessary changes.

Warning

You can change the group type to a different one. Please be careful if you do so especially when you have allowed submissions of pages and collections to the group. If users have submitted portfolio pages or collections to that group, they remain locked when you untick the setting Allow submissions, and you cannot release the pages until you enable that setting again.

If the site administrator activated clean URLs, your group (homepage) has a human-readable URL which you can change to a certain extend.

Change the URL for your group homepage

Choose the name for your group (homepage) if you do not like the default one. It must be 3-30 characters long. You can only use lowercase letters from a-z, numbers and - (hyphen). Your group will then be available via a URL like http://sitename/group/name-of-the-group, for example: http://mahara-university.org/group/portfolio-task-force.

Warning

Though you can change the URL to your group at any point, you should not do that because people who already know the URL to your group will not be able to access it anymore after you have changed it.

The original, internal Mahara URL, e.g. http://mahara-university.org/group/view.php?id=456 will still work.

5.4. Inside a group

Note

It depends on your role in the group whether you can access / change certain functionalities that you see in the screenshots and that are described in the text.

5.4.1. Group homepage

Groups → Name of the group → About

The group homepage is the central space for a group. There you can get a quick overview of the group and reach all the places that you wish to take a look at in a group. You see a few things per default on the group homepage. The items displayed on the group homepage do not only depend on the default settings but also the options chosen when the group was created.

5.4.1.1. View group homepage as regular group member

View group homepage as regular group member

Group name

As member in the group, you see your status and whether you can leave the group or not.

If the group administrator allowed group members to recommend the group to friends, you see the Recommend to friends button. If the group administrator allowed users to invite friends, you see the Invite friends button.

Group navigation: You see all the areas that you have access to in the group. If you are not allowed to edit pages, you will not see the “Share” tab, for example.

Basic information about this group:

Group characteristics: Important group attributes, e.g. open or request group, possibility of having submissions etc.

Group administrators: Click on their names to view their profile pages.

Group category: Category to which this group belongs; great for filtering groups on My groups or Find groups.

Created: Creation date of the group.

Editable: If the group administrator defined a time frame within which group content is only editable for group members, it is displayed here. If the group administrator did not set a start and / or end date, this setting will not be shown.

Statistics on the number of group members, pages, files, folders, forums, forum topics and posts.

Latest forum posts: A list of the most recent forum posts and a link to the forums.

Group pages: A list of group pages that have been created in the group.

If you are allowed to copy a group page into your own portfolio, you will see the Copy page button next to that group page.

Pages shared with this group: View pages that members have shared with the group. new in Mahara 15.04 Each page has its last modified date displayed so you can see easily when the last edits were made.

Collections shared with this group: View collections shared with the group instead of their individual pages.

Note

A group administrator and tutor also see submitted pages in these two lists.

Submit a page or collection to this group: If the group allows page or collection submissions, select the page or collection that you want to submit for assessment / feedback. You do not have to share the page or collection with the group. The administrator (and tutor) can view the page or collection once it has been submitted.

Note

When a collection was submitted to the group, the collection title is displayed instead of all pages belonging to the collection.

Members: A list of select group members and a link to the full list if the group administrator did not hide the group membership.

5.4.1.2. View group homepage as group administrator

If you are a group administrator, you can put other blocks on the group homepage. Check the blocks in pages context for a list of them.

View group homepage as group administrator

Click the Edit group button if you want to make changes to the group settings.

Click the Delete group button if you want to permanently delete the group. Group members will receive a notification about the deletion.

Warning

Once you deleted a group, you cannot retrieve its content anymore. You cannot export forums or group pages. If you wish to keep group pages, you will need to copy them into your own portfolio (or another group). Pages that have been shared with the group are not deleted.

If you allow page submissions for feedback or assessment, you see them listed under Submissions to this group. Listed are both pages and collections.

5.4.2. Members

Groups → Name of the group → Members

5.4.2.1. Members page

Group members page as seen by a group administrator

On the group members page, a group administrator can:

Invite multiple users to the group at once or add multiple users in bulk if it is a controlled membership group.

Search for group members by putting their name in the search box and then clicking the Search button. You can combine the name search with the sorting options that follow.

Sort group members by selecting one of the following options and then clicking the Search button:

display administrators first

Note

This means that users are displayed according to their roles: First are administrators, then tutors, and members come last.

sort everyone alphabetically from A to Z

sort everyone alphabetically from Z to A

sort everyone chronologically starting with those who joined first

sort everyone chronologically starting with those who joined last

View basic information about group members:

their name

their role

their profile introduction text

their group joining date

Change the role of a user.

Remove a user from the group by clicking the Remove from group button.

Decide how many members you want to display per page.

Note

If you are a regular group member, you are not able to invite or add people from the members page, and you cannot change the role or remove a user from the group.

5.4.2.2. New member invitation

A group administrator can always invite any user to a group from the Members tab by clicking on the link send multiple invitations at once. If the group administrator allowed users to invite friends, they can do so via the Invite friends button on the group homepage.

Invite other users to a group

Potential members: Select the users you want to invite to the group.

If you are a group administrator, you see all users on the site.

If you are a regular group member, you only see your friends.

Search: You can also search for users in the search box if there are too many names listed. Then select the users you want to invite.

Add the users to the list Users to be invited by clicking the right-arrow button right-arrow.

If you put a person into the box for users to be invited by accident, you can remove them from that list by clicking on them.

Then click on the left-arrow button left-arrow, and they are removed from the list.

When you have all the users you wish to invite to this group, click the Submit button.

The invited users will receive a notification. The group will also be listed on the users’ My groups page where they can accept or decline group membership.

Note

You can also double-click a name to move it from one side to the other.

5.4.2.3. Group membership recommendation

If the group administrator allowed membership recommendations when creating or editing a group, group members can recommend the group to their friends by clicking the Recommend to friends button on the group homepage.

Recommend a group to friends

Potential members: Select the friends to whom you want to recommend this group.

Search: You can also search for your friends in the search box if there are too many names listed.

Add the users to the list Users who will be sent a recommendation by clicking the right-arrow button right-arrow.

If you put a person into the box for recommendations by accident, you can remove them from that list by clicking on them.

Then click the left-arrow button left-arrow, and they are removed from the list.

When you have all the users to whom you want to send a recommendation, click the Submit button.

The users will receive a notification and can then decide to join the group.

Note

You can also double-click a name to move it from one side to the other.

5.4.3. Forums

Groups → Name of the group → Forums

The forums are visible to all group members. If you create a public group, anybody online will be able to see the forum discussions. However, they would need to log in to participate. Forums in public groups receive an RSS feed to enable users to subscribe to the discussion forum, e.g. the mahara.org community forums [http://mahara.org/interaction/forum/index.php?group=1].

Group forum overview page

If you have appropriate rights, you can create a new forum by clicking on the New forum button.

Forum: Name and brief description of the forum.

Moderators: View the forum moderators (if appointed).

Group administrators: View the group administrators.

Topics: Number of forum topics in each forum.

If you want to receive notifications about new forum posts, you can subscribe to a forum via the Subscribe button. If you already receive notifications, you will see the Unsubscribe button to have the option to not receive updates anymore.

If you are a group administrator, you see the Edit button edit for making changes to the forum settings.

If you are a group administrator, you see the Delete button delete for deleting the forum and all its topics.

5.4.3.1. Set up a new forum

A group administrator can set up forums in a group.

Add a forum to a group

Click the New forum button to set up a new forum.

Title: Give your new forum a title.

Description: Write a brief description of your forum. This will appear when the forum is listed under the Forum tab making it easier for users to decide whether they want to look at it or not.

Forum indent mode: Specify how the topics in this forum should be indented.

Fully expand: Indentation is used to indicate the replies to individual posts. There is no limit to the level of indentation.

Expand to maximum: Indentation to indicate the replies to individual post specifying the maximum level of indentation (pops up once this option is chosen). All replies beyond the chosen level are not indented further.

No indents: There is no indentation of replies to individual posts, but the forum structure is flat.

Settings: Choose advanced settings for your forum.

Click the Save button to make these changes.

Besides these basic settings, there are additional ones that the administrator can decide on.

Choose further settings in the forum

Automatically subscribe users: Choose whether group users will be subscribed to this forum automatically. When subscribed, users will receive notifications when new posts and replies are made in the forum. Users will have the option to unsubscribe if they do not want to be notified.

Order: A default position for your forum is chosen upon its creation - after the last existing forum. Here you may position it elsewhere in the list of forums. Click the radio button above or below a certain forum to position it before or after it.

Moderators: Choose one or more moderators for your forum. They can edit and delete topics and posts as well as open, close, set and unset topics as sticky. Thus, they can perform some administrative functions without having to receive full group administrator rights.

Select one or more users from the list of Potential moderators on the left or search for a person.

Click the right-arrow button right-arrow to add the user(s) to the Current moderators.

To remove a moderator, select the user in the Current moderators list on the right and click the left-arrow button left-arrow to remove this user.

Who can create topics: Decide who in your group is allowed to create topics within a forum. If set to “All group members”, any group member can create new topics and reply to existing topics. If set to “Moderators and group administrators”, only moderators and group administrators can start new topics, but once topics exist, all users can post replies to them.

Close new topics: If checked, all new topics in this forum will be closed by default. Only moderators and group administrators can reply to closed topics. This is a setting that may be useful for a forum that is solely used for announcements.

Click the Save button to save the settings for the forum or click the Cancel button to retain the previous settings.

5.4.3.2. Add a forum topic

When you have the right to add a forum topic, you see the New topic button when you click on a forum.

Add a new topic to a forum

Note

An administrator also always has the buttons Edit forum and Delete forum available to make changes to the forum set up.

Add a new forum topic

Subject: Type a concise description of what you wish to discuss in this forum thread. This field is mandatory.

Message: Elaborate on the topic. This field is mandatory.

Sticky: Administrator-only setting to keep the topic at the top of the list of forum topics in the current forum.

Closed: Administrator-only setting to prevent others from responding to this post. Moderators and administrators can still post replies.

Send message now: If checked, the notification about your forum post is sent immediately instead of waiting for the forum post delay time to pass. You can still edit your message normally.

Click the Post button to send off your discussion topic, or click Cancel to abort your action.

Note

When you write your forum topic, i.e. your first post, and any other subsequent post, you have formatting options at your hands in the visual editor (when it is enabled). It also allows you to insert images into your post. However, you should not copy the URL of one of your images from your Files area. This image is only displayed to you unless it is also included in a page that you made available to this group, logged-in users or the public. Permissions on artefacts are governed by the permissions set on the page(s) in which they are included.

In some groups you may be able to upload files into the group thus allowing every group member to see the file. You could link it then in your forum post but must be aware that any group member could delete the image.

Once you have finished writing your forum topic, it is displayed in the list of forum topics. Others can see it immediately. The administrator and moderator of the forum can edit or delete a topic at any time. Regular members can edit their topics up to a certain number of minutes after writing the post. The site administrator defines that time in the forum post delay.

Posts in a forum topic

The title of the forum.

The title of the forum topic.

The profile picture and name of the person who wrote the post. The name is linked to the profile page.

The number of posts of this person in all groups.

The date and time of the forum post.

The post itself.

The titles of subsequent posts are clickable and give you the link to this post. That allows you to jump to this post directly and view it at the top of the page.

Click the Reply button to comment on the post.

Click the Report button to report the post as containing objectionable content.

If you are the author of a forum post, you see the Edit button and can make changes to your post at any time. Group administrators and forum moderators can always edit and delete any forum post besides replying to it.

If you are a group administrator or forum moderator, you can delete forum post by clicking the Delete button.

The person starting the forum topic and the group administrator as well as forum moderator have the Edit topic button to make changes to the initial post.

Group administrators and forum moderators can also click the Delete topic button to delete a forum thread.

If your forum topic has more than 10 posts, the posts are paginated and 10 posts per page are shown. You can jump to other posts in the topic by clicking on a page number.

Note

There are no notifications sent when you edit or delete a forum post. If you wish others to know about your changes, you should write a new post instead of editing an existing one.

5.4.3.3. Reply to a topic or subsequent post

Everybody can reply to a forum topic or other posts therein unless the moderator or administrator had closed the topic. The replies are intended to make it easier to see to which comment you reply except in forum topics that do not use indentation.

Reply to a forum post

Click the Reply button below the forum post to which you wish to reply.

The forum post that you are replying to is displayed beneath your reply window making it easier for you to refer to it if necessary.

Subject Set a different subject if you want to by clicking the link Click to set a subject. This is most often not necessary and usually only used if the topic evolves into a different discussion. However, in such cases, usually it is good to open a new forum topic instead.

Message: Write your reply.

Send message now: If checked, the notification about your forum post is sent immediately instead of waiting for the forum post delay time to pass. You can still edit your message normally.

Click the Post button to save your response or the Cancel button to abort your forum post.

Note

Once you have saved your post, you may have time to edit it before it is sent to the forum subscribers. That depends on the site settings for the forum post delay. If you can edit your post, you see the Edit button. In the edit window, you also see how much time you have left until your post is sent.

When you, but also a moderator or an administrator, edit your forum post after this time, it is stated when and by whom the editing was done under “Edits to this post”.

5.4.3.4. Delete a post, topic or forum

A moderator or administrator can always edit or delete a single forum post, a topic or an entire forum.

Warning

Once a forum post, topic or forum is deleted, this action cannot be reversed and the content is gone forever.

5.4.3.5. Administrative forum bulk actions

Group administrators and forum moderators can perform bulk actions on forums in a group.

Forum bulk actions for administrators and moderators

Select the topics for which you want to perform the same action.

Choose the action that you wish to perform from the drop-down menu. You can set all selected topics to

Sticky: They will sit at the beginning of all other forum topics.

Unsticky: They will be placed into the correct chronological order of their last post.

Close: Only the group administrator and forum moderator can add posts to these topics.

Open: Everyone can post to these topics again.

Move to: Move selected topics to another forum.

Note

If you are not subscribed to or unsubscribed from an entire forum, you find two more options in the drop-down menu to subscribe to and unsubscribe from individual forum topics. See user forum bulk actions.

Click the Update selected topics button to save your changes.

5.4.3.6. User forum bulk actions

You can subscribe to or unsubscribe from individual forum topics if you do not wish to get updates for all forum topics. In order to subscribe to individual forum topics, follow the next steps.

Note

The possibility to subscribe to and unsubscribe from individual forum topics is useful in community groups for example, where there are a lot of discussions in one forum, but you are only interested in a select few.

Subscribe to individual forum topics

Make sure that you are not subscribed to the entire forum. You should see the Subscribe to forum button. Click the Unsubscribe from forum button if necessary. Otherwise, you will not be able to complete the following steps.

Select the individual forum topic(s) to which you wish to subscribe.

Choose the option Subscribe from the Choose an action drop-down menu.

Click the Update selected topics button to save your changes.

The forum topics to which you are subscribed, get the Subscribed star icon subscribed.

In order to unsubscribe from individual forum topics, follow the next steps.

Unsubscribe from individual forum topics

To complete the next steps, you cannot be subscribed to an entire forum, and you will have to have been subscribed to at least one forum topic. You can identify the subscribed topics easily because they have the Subscribed star icon subscribed next to their topic titles.

Select the individual forum topic(s) from which you wish to unsubscribe.

Choose the option Unsubscribe from the Choose an action drop-down menu.

Click the Update selected topics button to save your changes. You are no longer subscribed to the topics that you had selected.

5.4.3.7. Viewing objectionable content on forum topics and posts

Group members can report forum topics and individual forum posts as objectionable. When you want to report an entire forum as objectionable, then you need to report the first forum post as that started the forum topic.

Once a forum post or topic has been reported as objectionable, group administrators, forum moderators, and site administrators receive a notification and can review the report.

The person reporting a forum post or topic as objectionable content, sees it in the forum topic the following way:

What the person reporting objectionable content sees

Note

Other regular group members do not see that a forum topic or post was reported as objectionable.

When an administrator or forum moderator is in a forum that contains a topic or post that was reported as objectionable, they see the topic in question highlighted.

A forum topic containing objectionable content is highlighted in red in the list of forum topics

An administrator or forum moderator can see more details about the topic or post in question.

A forum post containing objectionable content is highlighted and contains additional information

Click the Reported details button to see the explanation why somebody reported this post as objectionable.

Click the Not objectionable button if you think this post does not contain objectionable content. A notification is sent to the group administrators, forum moderators, and site administrators.

5.4.4. Pages

Groups → Name of the group → Pages

Members of a group have access to certain pages. These can be:

pages that are created in the group

pages that are shared with the group

The latter are pages that users make accessible to the group from their personal pages by sharing them with the group. Members of the group cannot edit these pages.

Depending on the group settings, either only administrators (and tutors if it is a controlled group) or also regular group members can create and edit group pages.

Warning

Everybody who can edit a group page can add or delete blocks on that page. There is no version tracking that shows who has edited what. Users should trust each other when collaborating on pages together. Otherwise, it may be better if they only shared pages with a group.

5.4.4.1. Group homepage

The group homepage can only be edited by the group administrator. It contains a number of default blocks. You can add more blocks to it to customize the page for the group. Please refer to the overview of blocks for a list of all the blocks that you can use on the group homepage.

5.4.4.2. Regular group pages

Creating, editing and sharing a group page is very similar to creating, editing and sharing a portfolio page. Not all blocks are available when editing a group page in the page editor though due to the different context. Please refer to the overview of blocks for a list of all the blocks that you can use in a group page.

When you leave a comment on a group page, only group administrators (and tutors if it is a controlled group) can delete feedback on pages.

See also

For submitting a page to a group to receive instructor feedback, please refer to the feedback section.

Similarly to group homepages and users’ portfolio pages, group pages can also have human-readable URLs if the site administrator activated clean URLs.

When you create or edit a group page, you can decide whether only the administrator shall have the right to edit the page. With this setting you can allow the general editing of pages in the group, but still be able to lock down certain pages.

Lock a group page for editing by the administrator only

When a group page is created, group members (except the page creator) receive a notification.

5.4.5. Collections

Groups → Name of the group → Collections

Depending on the group settings, either only administrators (and tutors) or also regular group members can create and edit group collections.

Warning

Everybody who can edit a group collection can add or delete pages and content in them. There is no version tracking that shows who has edited what. Users should trust each other when collaborating on pages and collections together. Otherwise, it may be better if they only shared pages and collections with a group.

See also

The adding, editing and managing of group collections work like in your personal porfolio collections.

5.4.6. Share

Groups → Name of the group → Share

If you are allowed to edit pages and collections in a group, you can see the Share tab.

See also

The sharing of pages and collections work like in your personal porfolio. The group in which the page or collection was created is added automatically to the access permissions.

5.4.7. Files

Groups → Name of the group → Files

The Files area in a group holds all files that are uploaded by group members who have the permission to do so. The uploading process works like the one in the personal files.

The site administrator can set a group file quota to restrict unlimited uploading of files. The group quota is displayed in the sidebar when you are in the Files area.

In contrast to the files in your personal files area, there is an additional permissions setting:

Setting permissions on a group file

When you have the permission to upload a file, you can also determine additional permissions of who can view the file and edit its metadata. An administrator has all rights, but you can restrict them to regular group members or tutors.

View: You can see the file in the group files area and add it to a page.

Edit: You can edit the file name, description, tags and permissions.

Publish: You can include a group file in your personal portfolio pages.

Note

The owner of / group member uploading a file retains access to the file even if other group members are not able to use the file.

5.4.8. Report

Groups → Name of the group → Report

When you are an administrator of a group, you can switch on the participation report in the group settings. The report provides you with information on who commented on what pages that were created in or shared with the group.

Participation report for a group

Pages shared with this group: List of all the pages that people have shared with this group.

Shared by: Displays the author of the page.

Members involved: Shows the group members who have commented on the pages publicly.

Non-members involved: Schows the users who have commented on the pages publicly but are not members of the group.

Next to each person who commented on a page is the count for the number of comments they have left on that page.

The total count for the comments by members and non-members is displayed.

Pages owned by this group: List of all the pages that were created within the group.

Note

You can sort each of the columns. The column that is currently sorted, has a little ascending triangle sort-ascend or descending triangle sort-descend next to it.

5.5. My friends

Groups → My friends

Your friends are a special group of users. You can share your portfolio pages or collections easily with them and get in touch with them quickly by going to this page. They differ from a regular group in that they do not have discussion forums, pages or shared files. If you do wish to have access to those with your friends, you have to create a regular group for them.

You can request other users’ friendship in a couple of ways:

Go to their profile page and click the Request friendship link.

Go to the Find friends page and search for potential friends there.

My friends page

If you have a lot of friends and pending friend requests, you can filter them by showing only the category of friends you wish to view:

All friends: Shows you all current and pending friends.

Current friends: Shows you all users whose friendship request you have approved.

Pending friends: Shows you all users who wish to be your friend, but whom you have not yet approved.

You see more information about this friend:

View the profile picture.

Click on the name of your friend to reach their profile page.

The pages of this user to which you have access are listed.

Read the introduction that this user has provided under Content → Profile → Introduction.

Display of the institution membership of this user.

For users whose friendship request you have not yet approved, you still see their profile picture and the reason why they want to become your friend. They have the word pending next to their name.

If a user is in the pending state, approve or deny the friendship request.

Send a message to the user if you wish to do so. This is only possible if the user allowed that. You can change your personal settings for messages from other users in your account settings.

If you no longer want to have a user on your friend list, you can remove them by clicking the Remove from friends button.

If you are a group administrator in a group that one of your friends or potential friends belongs to, you can edit their group membership directly here.

Note

When you click on the institution name that is listed for a friend, you see a list of institution staff and administrators. You can contact administrators directly from this page by clicking on the Send message link.

The institution membership is only visible if your site administrator set up multiple institutions on Mahara. Users on a site with multiple institutions who do not have one displayed do not belong to any institution.

5.6. Find friends

Groups → Find friends

If you want to establish your social network, you can use the Find friends page to find people to connect to. An alphabetical list of all users in your institution(s) or on the entire system is provided.

Find friends page

Use the search box to search for a name of a user. Your search results are limited to users from your institution(s). Choose the option “Everyone” to search for any user on the system.

All results are listed. You can click on the name to view that user’s profile page. You also see if a user is already a friend of yours.

You see more information about this user and can take more actions:

View the institution(s) of which the user is a member.

Send this user a message without requesting friendship.

Send this user a friend request.

Edit this user’s group membership for a group of which you are an administrator.

Note

You can prevent others from sending you messages or friend requests if you disabled these options in your account settings.

5.6.1. Send a friend request

You can send a friend request from the Find friends page by clicking on the Send friend request link next to the user you want to be friends with.

Send friend request

Give a reason why want to request friendship with this user. This reason can be important if the other person does not know you well and thus may likely reject your request. This field is required.

Note

new in Mahara 15.04 Your message cannot be longer than 255 characters.

Click the Request friendship button to send off your friend request or click the Cancel button to abort your action.

Note

You do not need to request the friendship of other users in order to see their portfolio pages or collections. Access permissions are independent of being friends on Mahara.

5.6.2. Accept a friend request

When another user has requested friendship, you receive a notification which is shown in the login box.

Pending friend request

When you click on the friend request, you are taken to your My friends page. All your pending friend requests are shown.

View all your pending friend requests

View the name of the person requesting friendship and a short description if the user had written one in Content → Profile → Introduction. You can click on the name and view the profile page. new in Mahara 15.04 You also see when this user requested your friendship.

Read the reason why this user requests friendship if the user provided a reason.

Click the Approve request button to approve the friend request. Once you approve a friend request, you appear immediately on that user’s My friends page and the user on yours.

Click the Deny request button to deny friendship.

Click the Send message button to communicate with the user before making your decision about this friend request.

5.6.3. Deny a friend request

When somebody sent you a friend request, go to the My friends page to view your pending requests.

Deny a friend request

Next to the person whose request you wish to deny, click the Deny request button.

Provide a reason for your denial if you wish to give one.

Click the Deny friend request button to send your message or click the Cancel button to abort your action.

The user receives a notification which includes your reason for denial.

5.7. Institution membership

Groups → Institution membership

You can see in which institution(s) you are a member when you go to Groups → Institution membership. You may be able to leave your current institution and join other institutions if they allow self-registration. If you cannot leave your institution, you must ask your institution administrator to remove you.

Warning

Leaving an institution does not mean that your account is deleted. You keep your content and portfolio pages when you move from one institution to another as long as you have your account. Institution administrators should not delete your account when they want to remove you from their institution.

Check on your institution membership

Memberships: Here you see to which institution(s) you belong. Click the Leave institution button to remove yourself from an institution. If you do not see this button next to an institution, you cannot remove yourself but must ask an institution administrator to do so.

Requests: If you have already requested membership in an institution, it will be listed here. You must wait for an institution administrator to approve your request. If you wish to cancel a request, click the Cancel request button.

Request membership of an institution: Choose the institution from the drop-down menu that you wish to join.

You can provide an ID if you have one for this institution, but that is optional.

Click the Send request button, and the institution administrator is notified of your request and will deal with it.

5.8. Topics

Topics is a list of the discussion topics from all the groups in which you are a member. The topics are sorted in reverse chronological order starting with the latest comment.

The latest posts in discussion forums

The title of the forum topic as well as the group and the forum in which this topic is discussed are shown. They are all linked so that you can easily go to them.

The number of posts in this discussion topic is displayed.

The beginning of the latest comment in the topic is displayed as well as the name of the author (linked to the author’s profile page) and the date and time when the forum post was made.

The total number of forum topics is displayed. When there are many forum topics, 10 are displayed per page and the rest can be reached via a navigation bar.

6. Blocks

Blocks for internal and external artefacts are used to compose portfolio pages and group pages. There is a large number of blocks available in Mahara. More can be used when plugins [http://wiki.mahara.org/Plugins] are installed.

Content of blocks can be shown on a page immediately, or just the block’s heading can be displayed. The retractable blocks allow you to be more flexible in what you want to show immediately on a page. An example of the use of retractable blocks is the Mahara Partners [https://mahara.org/partners] page.

Note

When you started editing information in a block and you navigate away from it accidentally without having saved your block, you are being asked whether you wish to stay on the page or leave the page.

This does not only apply to editing of blocks, but also pages.

6.1. Files, images and video

6.1.1. Embedded media

6.1.2. File(s) to download

6.1.3. Folder

6.1.4. Image

6.1.5. Image gallery

6.1.5.1. Image gallery with uploaded images

6.1.5.2. Image gallery from external images

6.1.6. PDF

6.1.7. Some HTML

6.2. Journals

6.2.1. Journal

6.2.2. Journal entry

6.2.3. Recent journal entries

6.2.4. Tagged journal entries

6.2.4.1. Add new tagged journal entries directly from a page

6.2.4.2. Select tags to include or exclude

6.2.4.3. Know which tags to include and exclude

6.3. General

6.3.1. Annotation

6.3.2. Creative Commons license

6.3.3. Feedback

6.3.4. Group info

6.3.5. Group members

6.3.6. Group pages

6.3.7. Inbox

6.3.8. Latest pages

6.3.9. Navigation

6.3.10. Note

6.3.10.1. Add a new note

6.3.11. Add an image into a note

6.3.11.1. Attach a file to a note

6.3.11.2. Re-use text from an existing note

6.3.12. Plans

6.3.13. Recent forum posts

6.3.14. Text

6.3.15. Watched pages

6.4. Personal info

6.4.1. My friends

6.4.2. My groups

6.4.3. My pages

6.4.4. Profile information

6.4.5. Social media

6.4.6. Wall

6.4.7. Résumé

6.4.7.1. My entire résumé

6.4.7.2. One résumé field

6.5. External content

6.5.1. External feed

6.5.2. External media

6.5.3. Google Apps

6.6. Blocks in various pages

6.6.1. Files, images and video

6.6.2. Journals

6.6.3. General

6.6.4. Personal info

6.6.5. External content

6.1. Files, images and video

These artefacts are internal Mahara ones to display:

links to files that you have uploaded

folders that contain files

show images

embed audio and video files

6.1.1. Embedded media

Display an embedded video or audio file from your uploaded files. You can display mp3, mp4 and flv files per default.

Note

If you wish to display other file types, the site administrator must allow other media formats. These will not be displayed with the built-in media player but require that you have the correct media player installed to display these videos.

Configure the Embedded media block

Block title: Choose a title for your block.

Files area: Choose from which files area you would like to select a media file:

My files: You see all the folders and files that you have created.

Group files: You see all the folders and files that you are allowed to publish.

Institution files: If you are an institution administrator, you will see institution folders and files.

Site files: If you are a site administrator, you will see all site folders and files. Otherwise, you can only see the ones that are in the folder public in the Site files.

License information: You see these fields if the site administrator turned on license metadata. Additionally, if you are in an institution, your institution administrator may require you to provide a license.

License: Your default license is displayed. You can set your default license in your account settings. You may choose a different license for each individual artefact.

Licensor: If you are uploading a file that somebody else created, you can attribute the work to them here and provide their name for example.

Original URL: If you are uploading somebody else’s file, provide a link to the original Internet address so that others can go there and view the original file.

Upload file: You do not have to go back to your Files area in Content in order to upload a file. You can do so directly from this screen.

Folder path: The breadcrumbs show in which folder you are currently.

Click the Edit button to change any component of a folder or file, i.e. its name, description and tags. If you have a folder or file included in a page that you submitted for feedback, you will not be able to edit them.

Click the Select button to choose the media file you wish to display in the block.

Warning

When you place group, institution or site files into a page, beware that these files may not be available at some point anymore when the person in charge deletes them.

You can also still select files that have been submitted in another portfolio page.

Click the Remove button if you want to revert your selection.

Width: Choose the width (in pixels) for your video.

Height: Choose the height (in pixels) for your video.

Retractable: Choose whether you want to allow users to reduce the block to its heading on a page or see just the heading only automatically. The options are:

No: The block and its content is displayed at all times.

Yes: Allow users to reduce the block to just the heading by clicking the Retractable icon retractable.

Automatically retract: Only the heading of the block is visible, and the user can click the Retracted icon retracted to view its content.

Click the Save button to accept your changes, or click the Cancel button to leave the block’s content as it is. The Remove button is shown only when you place the block into the page for the first time.

You can also click the Close button close in the top right-hand corner to either remove a newly created block before it is being saved or to cancel any changes and leave the block’s content as it is.

Note

Only the files that you are allowed to embed are displayed. If you uploaded a mp4 file but it does not show here, you may have to check if it has the correct codec. Only H.264 mp4 files can be embedded.

6.1.2. File(s) to download

Select files that viewers of your portfolio can download.

Configure the File(s) to download block

Block title: Choose a title for your files block.

Files area: Choose from which files area you would like to select a file:

My files: You see all the folders and files that you have created.

Group files: You see all the folders and files that you are allowed to publish.

Institution files: If you are an institution administrator, you will see institution folders and files.

Site files: If you are a site administrator, you will see all site folders and files. Otherwise, you can only see the ones that are in the folder public in the Site files.

License information: You see these fields if the site administrator turned on license metadata. Additionally, if you are in an institution, your institution administrator may require you to provide a license.

License: Your default license is displayed. You can set your default license in your account settings. You may choose a different license for each individual artefact.

Licensor: If you are uploading a file that somebody else created, you can attribute the work to them here and provide their name for example.

Original URL: If you are uploading somebody else’s file, provide a link to the original Internet address so that others can go there and view the original file.

Upload file: You do not have to go back to your Files area in Content in order to upload a file. You can do so directly from this screen.

If the site administrator turned on the image resizing option, you can decide whether you want to have your images resized if they are larger than the specified dimensions. This option is recommended to save space in your portfolio.

Folder path: The breadcrumbs show in which folder you are currently.

You can still edit any component of the file, i.e. its file name, description and tags by clicking the Edit button.

Choose the file or files you wish to display by clicking the Select button.

Warning

When you place group, institution or site files into a page, beware that these files may not be available at some point anymore when the person in charge deletes them.

You can also still select files (within folders) that have been submitted in another portfolio page.

Click the Remove button to not display a specific file in this block anymore.

Retractable: Choose whether you want to allow users to reduce the block to its heading on a page or see just the heading only automatically. The options are:

No: The block and its content is displayed at all times.

Yes: Allow users to reduce the block to just the heading by clicking the Retractable icon retractable.

Automatically retract: Only the heading of the block is visible, and the user can click the Retracted icon retracted to view its content.

Click the Save button to accept your changes, or click the Cancel button to leave the block’s content as it is. The Remove button is shown only when you place the block into the page for the first time.

You can also click the Close button close in the top right-hand corner to either remove a newly created block before it is being saved or to cancel any changes and leave the block’s content as it is.

Note

You cannot re-order files once you have selected them. You would need to remove them and select them again in the correct order.

When the block is placed on the portfolio page, the following information is displayed:

file name

file description

size

upload date

a link to more details

Details about files that can be downloaded.

If you choose to retract your block, you only see the block’s heading and the Retracted icon retracted. When you click on it, you can see the block’s content.

Block when it is retracted

When users click on the Details link, they are taken to the details page for that particular file and see some more metadata.

More details about a file that can be downloaded.

The title of the page in which the artefact appears is linked.

The author of the page is displayed and a link to the profile page provided.

If the file has been made available within the Folder blocktype, the folder is linked so you can view the other files as well.

The name of the file is displayed.

The name of the file is displayed again but with a link and a file icon.

Additional metadata is displayed for the file:

file type

description

tags

owner

creation date

last modified date

size

license (if license information is turned on by the site administrator)

download link

If the owner of the file allowed comments, you can place feedback directly on the file.

You can also report this file if it contains objectionable content by clicking on the Report objectionable material link.

You can print the metadata page via the Print link.

You can add the page in which the artefact appears to your watchlist by clicking on the Add page to watchlist link.

View the number of comments left on this artefact.

6.1.3. Folder

Select a folder to display all files within it as links on your page.

Configure the Folder block

Block title: If you do not set a title, the name of the folder that you choose to display will be used.

Files area: Choose from which files area you would like to select a folder:

My files: You see all the folders and files that you have created.

Group files: You see all the folders and files that you are allowed to publish.

Institution files: If you are an institution administrator, you will see institution folders and files.

Site files: If you are a site administrator, you will see all site folders and files. Otherwise, you can only see the ones that are in the folder public in the Site files.

Folder path: The breadcrumbs show in which folder you are currently.

You can edit any component of the folder, i.e. its name, description and tags by clicking on the Edit button.

Choose the folder you wish to display by clicking on the Select button.

You can also still select folders that have been submitted in another portfolio page.

Click the Download folder content as zip file link in order to get a zip file which contains all files and folders of the current folder.

See also

Site administrators decide in the Artefact type: File settings for how long the zip file is kept on the server.

Click the Remove button if you wish to revert your choice.

Sort order of files: Decide on the sort order of files in the block when they are displayed on the page. You can choose between:

Ascending

Descending

See also

Site administrators decide on the default sort order of content within folder in the Blocktype: File / folder settings.

Show download link: Tick the download link checkbox if you wish to allow the viewers of your page to download the folder contents as zip file.

See also

Site administrators decide in the Blocktype: File / folder settings whether users are allowed to display the download link or not.

Retractable: Choose whether you want to allow users to reduce the block to its heading on a page or see just the heading only automatically. The options are:

No: The block and its content is displayed at all times.

Yes: Allow users to reduce the block to just the heading by clicking the Retractable icon retractable.

Automatically retract: Only the heading of the block is visible, and the user can click the Retracted icon retracted to view its content.

Click the Save button to accept your changes, or click the Cancel button to leave the block’s content as it is. The Remove button is shown only when you place the block into the page for the first time.

You can also click the Close button close in the top right-hand corner to either remove a newly created block before it is being saved or to cancel any changes and leave the block’s content as it is.

Warning

When you place a folder with group, institution or site files into a page, beware that these files may not be available at some point anymore when the person in charge deletes them.

6.1.4. Image

Display a single image in a block.

Note

new in Mahara 15.04 In a default Mahara instance, this block is available in the content chooser at the top together with the simple Text block. It does not appear in the section Media as well.

Configure the Image block

Block title: Choose a title for your block.

Files area: Choose from which files area you would like to select an image:

My files: You see all the folders and files that you have created.

Group files: You see all the folders and files that you are allowed to publish.

Institution files: If you are an institution administrator, you will see institution folders and files.

Site files: If you are a site administrator, you will see all site folders and files. Otherwise, you can only see the ones that are in the folder public in the Site files.

License information: You see these fields if the site administrator turned on license metadata. Additionally, if you are in an institution, your institution administrator may require you to provide a license.

License: Your default license is displayed. You can set your default license in your account settings. You may choose a different license for each individual artefact.

Licensor: If you are uploading a file that somebody else created, you can attribute the work to them here and provide their name for example.

Original URL: If you are uploading somebody else’s file, provide a link to the original Internet address so that others can go there and view the original file.

Upload file: You do not have to go back to your Files area in Content in order to upload a file. You can do so directly from this screen.

If the site administrator turned on the image resizing option, you can decide whether you want to have your images resized if they are larger than the specified dimensions. This option is recommended to save space in your portfolio.

Folder path: The breadcrumbs show in which folder you are currently.

Click the Edit button to change any component of a folder or file, i.e. its name, description and tags. If you have a folder or file included in a page that you submitted for feedback, you will not be able to edit them.

Click the Select button to choose the image file you wish to display in the block.

Warning

When you place group, institution or site files into a page, beware that these files may not be available at some point anymore when the person in charge deletes them.

You can also still select an image that has been submitted in another portfolio page.

Click the Remove button if you want to revert your selection.

Show description: Switch this setting to “On” if you wish to display the description of your photo. It could contain the source of it for example.

Width: Choose the width (in pixels) for your image. If you do not provide a number, the image will be scaled to the width of the block.

Retractable: Choose whether you want to allow users to reduce the block to its heading on a page or see just the heading only automatically. The options are:

No: The block and its content is displayed at all times.

Yes: Allow users to reduce the block to just the heading by clicking the Retractable icon retractable.

Automatically retract: Only the heading of the block is visible, and the user can click the Retracted icon retracted to view its content.

Click the Save button to accept your changes, or click the Cancel button to leave the block’s content as it is. The Remove button is shown only when you place the block into the page for the first time.

You can also click the Close button close in the top right-hand corner to either remove a newly created block before it is being saved or to cancel any changes and leave the block’s content as it is.

6.1.5. Image gallery

Select a folder with images or individual images to show in a gallery or embed an external image gallery.

6.1.5.1. Image gallery with uploaded images

Configure the Image gallery block with internal images

Block title: Choose a title for your image gallery block.

Image selection: You can choose to display all images from a specific folder or you can select the images individually.

Files area: Choose from which files area you would like to select an image:

My files: You see all the folders and files that you have created.

Group files: You see all the folders and files that you are allowed to publish.

Institution files: If you are an institution administrator, you will see institution folders and files.

Site files: If you are a site administrator, you will see all site folders and files. Otherwise, you can only see the ones that are in the folder public in the Site files.

Folder path: The breadcrumbs show in which folder you are currently.

Click the Edit button to change any component of the folder, i.e. its name, description and tags. If you have a folder or file included in a page that you submitted for feedback, you will not be able to edit the file.

Click the Select button to choose the folder or file you wish to display in your image gallery.

Note

If you selected to display an entire folder in your image gallery, new images that you upload to that folder are added to your gallery automatically.

You can also still select folders or files that have been submitted in another portfolio page.

Click the Remove button if you want to revert your selection.

Style: Decide to show all selected images as thumbnails or as slideshow where you only see one image at a time. If you select the option “Thumbnails (square)”, all your images will be displayed in the same size as thumbnails.

Note

If you select to display your images in a slideshow, you can navigate all images with the help of the icons Next gallery_next and Previous gallery_previous. Use the icons First gallery_first and Last gallery_last to start or end your slideshow.

Show descriptions: Turn this option on if you want to display the image descriptions in the gallery.

Width: Specify the width (in pixels) for your images. The images are scaled to this width.

Retractable: Choose whether you want to allow users to reduce the block to its heading on a page or see just the heading only automatically. The options are:

No: The block and its content is displayed at all times.

Yes: Allow users to reduce the block to just the heading by clicking the Retractable icon retractable.

Automatically retract: Only the heading of the block is visible, and the user can click the Retracted icon retracted to view its content.

Click the Save button to accept your changes, or click the Cancel button to leave the block’s content as it is. The Remove button is shown only when you place the block into the page for the first time.

You can also click the Close button close in the top right-hand corner to either remove a newly created block before it is being saved or to cancel any changes and leave the block’s content as it is.

Warning

When you place group, institution or site files into a page, beware that these files may not be available at some point anymore when the person in charge deletes them.

6.1.5.2. Image gallery from external images

Configure the Image gallery block with external images

Block title: Choose a title for your image gallery block.

Image selection: Select the option “Display images from external gallery”.

Gallery URL or RSS: Copy the link to the external gallery and past it into the text box. You can embed the following external galleries:

Flickr, e.g. http://www.flickr.com/photos/12345678@N01/sets/98765432123456789/

Panoramio, e.g. http://www.panoramio.com/user/123456

Photobucket, e.g. http://s1234.photobucket.com/albums/ee123/username/ or http://s1234.photobucket.com/albums/ee123/username/AlbumName/

Picasa, e.g. http://picasaweb.google.com/user.name/AlbumName#

Windows Live Photo Gallery, e.g. http://cid-123456ab7890cd12.photos.live.com/self.aspx/AlbumName/photo.jpg

Note

To use Flickr, the site administrator has to provide a valid API key.

To use Photobucket, the site administrator has to provide a valid API key and a secret API key.

For Windows Live Photo Gallery to work properly, the link to one of the photos inside the album must be copied and pasted into the text box in order to show the entire album.

Style: Decide to show all selected images as thumbnails or as slideshow where you only see one image at a time. If you select the option “Thumbnails (square)”, all your images will be displayed in the same size as thumbnails.

Show descriptions: Turn this option on if you want to display the image descriptions in the gallery.

Width: Specify the width (in pixels) for your images. The images are scaled to this width.

Retractable: Choose whether you want to allow users to reduce the block to its heading on a page or see just the heading only automatically. The options are:

No: The block and its content is displayed at all times.

Yes: Allow users to reduce the block to just the heading by clicking the Retractable icon retractable.

Automatically retract: Only the heading of the block is visible, and the user can click the Retracted icon retracted to view its content.

Click the Save button to accept your changes, or click the Cancel button to leave the block’s content as it is. The Remove button is shown only when you place the block into the page for the first time.

You can also click the Close button close in the top right-hand corner to either remove a newly created block before it is being saved or to cancel any changes and leave the block’s content as it is.

6.1.6. PDF

Embed PDFs into a page.

Note

If your site was upgraded from a previous version of Mahara, your site administrator will need to install the plugin first in the plugin administration.

Configure the PDF block

Block title: Choose a title for your PDF block.

Files area: Choose from which files area you would like to select a file:

My files: You see all the folders and files that you have created.

Group files: You see all the folders and files that you are allowed to publish.

Institution files: If you are an institution administrator, you will see institution folders and files.

Site files: If you are a site administrator, you will see all site folders and files. Otherwise, you can only see the ones that are in the folder public in the Site files.

License information: You see these fields if the site administrator turned on license metadata. Additionally, if you are in an institution, your institution administrator may require you to provide a license.

License: Your default license is displayed. You can set your default license in your account settings. You may choose a different license for each individual artefact.

Licensor: If you are uploading a file that somebody else created, you can attribute the work to them here and provide their name for example.

Original URL: If you are uploading somebody else’s file, provide a link to the original Internet address so that others can go there and view the original file.

Upload file: You do not have to go back to your Files area in Content in order to upload a file. You can do so directly from this screen.

Folder path: The breadcrumbs show in which folder you are currently.

You can still edit any component of the file, i.e. its file name, description and tags by clicking on the Edit button.

Choose the file or files you wish to display by clicking on the Select button.

Warning

When you place group, institution or site files into a page, beware that these files may not be available at some point anymore when the person in charge deletes them.

You can also still select files (within folders) that have been submitted in another portfolio page.

Click the Remove button to not display a specific file in this block anymore.

Retractable: Choose whether you want to allow users to reduce the block to its heading on a page or see just the heading only automatically. The options are:

No: The block and its content is displayed at all times.

Yes: Allow users to reduce the block to just the heading by clicking the Retractable icon retractable.

Automatically retract: Only the heading of the block is visible, and the user can click the Retracted icon retracted to view its content.

Click the Save button to accept your changes, or click the Cancel button to leave the block’s content as it is. The Remove button is shown only when you place the block into the page for the first time.

You can also click the Close button close in the top right-hand corner to either remove a newly created block before it is being saved or to cancel any changes and leave the block’s content as it is.

Once the PDF is embedded on a page, you can scroll through it and also download it for example. The PDF is displayed in its best possible fit to show one page completely.

Embedded PDF on a page

Title of the block.

Toggle to the sidebar where you can jump from one slide to another either in the thumbnail or document outline view.

You can move to the previous page.

You can move to the next page.

The number of the current page is displayed. You can put a different number in and hit the Enter or Tab key and jump to that directly.

The total number of pages is shown.

Decrease the page size by clicking the Minus.

Increase the page size by clicking the Plus. The block size does not increase.

Click the Print button pdf_print to print the PDF.

Click the Download button pdf_download to download the PDF to your computer.

Use the scrollbar to move through the document.

See also

If you have trouble embedding a PDF file, you might have come across an issue that others have also experienced [https://mahara.org/interaction/forum/topic.php?id=5855]. The mimetype of the PDF may not be recognized correctly. The correct “mimetype” is “pdf”, but programmes can circumvent using this mimetype for PDFs to ensure that their file is downloaded instead of viewed in the browser for example. There is not an easy fix to this issue, and the discussion of possible solutions has started [https://bugs.launchpad.net/mahara/+bug/1249166].

In the meantime, you can delete the incorrect mimetypes from your browser and ensure that only “PDF” is left.

Follow these steps to delete the incorrect mimetypes:

Close Firefox.

Locate your profile folder [http://kb.mozillazine.org/Profile_folder_-_Firefox#Finding_the_profile_folder].

Open the mimeTypes.rdf file in a text editor.

Search for pdf.

Leave only the entry that is application/pdf.

Delete all other PDF references by deleting everything for that entry from <RDF:Description ...> to </RDF:Description>.

Open Firefox and go to Preferences → Applications.

Search for pdf. You should now only see one entry that reads “Portable Document Format (PDF)”.

6.1.7. Some HTML

Display the content of an HTML file in a page.

Configure the HTML block

Block title: Choose a title for your block.

Files area: Choose from which files area you would like to select an HTML file:

My files: You see all the folders and files that you have created.

Group files: You see all the folders and files that you are allowed to publish.

Institution files: If you are an institution administrator, you will see institution folders and files.

Site files: If you are a site administrator, you will see all site folders and files. Otherwise, you can only see the ones that are in the folder public in the Site files.

License information: You see these fields if the site administrator turned on license metadata. Additionally, if you are in an institution, your institution administrator may require you to provide a license.

License: Your default license is displayed. You can set your default license in your account settings. You may choose a different license for each individual artefact.

Licensor: If you are uploading a file that somebody else created, you can attribute the work to them here and provide their name for example.

Original URL: If you are uploading somebody else’s file, provide a link to the original Internet address so that others can go there and view the original file.

Upload file: You do not have to go back to your Files area in Content in order to upload a file. You can do so directly from this screen.

Folder path: The breadcrumbs show in which folder you are currently.

Click the Edit button to change any component of a folder or file, i.e. its name, description and tags. If you have a folder or file included in a page that you submitted for feedback, you will not be able to edit them.

Click the Select button to choose the HTML file you wish to display in the block.

Warning

When you place group, institution or site files into a page, beware that these files may not be available at some point anymore when the person in charge deletes them.

You can also still select files that have been submitted in another portfolio page if they are HTML files.

Retractable: Choose whether you want to allow users to reduce the block to its heading on a page or see just the heading only automatically. The options are:

No: The block and its content is displayed at all times.

Yes: Allow users to reduce the block to just the heading by clicking the Retractable icon retractable.

Automatically retract: Only the heading of the block is visible, and the user can click the Retracted icon retracted to view its content.

Click the Remove button if you want to revert your selection.

Click the Save button to accept your changes, or click the Cancel button to leave the block’s content as it is. The Remove button is shown only when you place the block into the page for the first time.

You can also click the Close button close in the top right-hand corner to either remove a newly created block before it is being saved or to cancel any changes and leave the block’s content as it is.

Note

You can only display a self-contained HTML file in a page, but not an entire site because the links to the files are not retained correctly when you upload files.

6.2. Journals

You can embed content from your journals in various ways in a page:

display an entire journal

display only one journal entry

show the latest journal entries

display journal entries with a specific tag

Note

You must create at least one journal in order to see anything in this block.

Warning

You can allow the copying of your journal (entries). Choose this option wisely because once a user copied your journal content into their portfolio, it looks as if they had written the journal entries. This could lead to plagiarism. However, it can be used very nicely to create templates and to scaffold learning.

6.2.1. Journal

Display an entire journal in your portfolio page.

Configure the Journal block

Block title: The title for the block is chosen automatically from the title of the journal unless you provide a different one.

Journal: Select the journal you wish to display. If you have many journals, you can also search for the one you want to use.

Entries per page: Decide how many entries you want to display. Entries beyond this number are accessible via a page navigation bar.

Block copy permissions: You decide what shall happen with this block when you allow other users to copy your page. Options are:

Skip this block entirely when copying the page

Others may display your journal in their page

Others will get their own copy of your journal

Retractable: Choose whether you want to allow users to reduce the block to its heading on a page or see just the heading only automatically. The options are:

No: The block and its content is displayed at all times.

Yes: Allow users to reduce the block to just the heading by clicking the Retractable icon retractable.

Automatically retract: Only the heading of the block is visible, and the user can click the Retracted icon retracted to view its content.

Click the Save button to accept your changes, or click the Cancel button to leave the block’s content as it is. The Remove button is shown only when you place the block into the page for the first time.

You can also click the Close button close in the top right-hand corner to either remove a newly created block before it is being saved or to cancel any changes and leave the block’s content as it is.

Note

If you share the page publicly in which you make an entire journal visible, your journal receives an RSS feed address to which your readers can subscribe in their favorite RSS readers.

Once you have included the Journal block into a page, you can create a new journal entry directly from that block when you are in the Edit mode for the page. When you click the New entry button, you will be taken to your journal and a new entry is started for you. It is then added to the journal automatically.

Create a new journal entry directly from the Entire journal block

6.2.2. Journal entry

Display one journal entry in your portfolio page.

Configure the Journal entry block

Block title: The title of the journal entry is chosen automatically unless you provide a different one.

Journal entry: Select the journal entry you wish to display. If you have many, you can also search for the one you want to use. You always also see the title of the journal in which the entry appears.

Block copy permissions: You decide what shall happen with this block when you allow other users to copy your page. Options are:

Skip this block entirely when copying the page

Others may display your journal entry in their page

Others will get their own copy of your journal entry

Retractable: Choose whether you want to allow users to reduce the block to its heading on a page or see just the heading only automatically. The options are:

No: The block and its content is displayed at all times.

Yes: Allow users to reduce the block to just the heading by clicking the Retractable icon retractable.

Automatically retract: Only the heading of the block is visible, and the user can click the Retracted icon retracted to view its content.

Click the Save button to accept your changes, or click the Cancel button to leave the block’s content as it is. The Remove button is shown only when you place the block into the page for the first time.

You can also click the Close button close in the top right-hand corner to either remove a newly created block before it is being saved or to cancel any changes and leave the block’s content as it is.

6.2.3. Recent journal entries

Display recent journal entries across all your journals in your portfolio page.

Configure the Recent journal entries block

Block title: Choose a title for your block.

Journals: Select the journal(s) from which you wish to display the latest entries. If you have many journals, you can also search for the one(s) you want to use.

Items to show: Decide how many entries you want to display.

Retractable: Choose whether you want to allow users to reduce the block to its heading on a page or see just the heading only automatically. The options are:

No: The block and its content is displayed at all times.

Yes: Allow users to reduce the block to just the heading by clicking the Retractable icon retractable.

Automatically retract: Only the heading of the block is visible, and the user can click the Retracted icon retracted to view its content.

Click the Save button to accept your changes, or click the Cancel button to leave the block’s content as it is. The Remove button is shown only when you place the block into the page for the first time.

You can also click the Close button close in the top right-hand corner to either remove a newly created block before it is being saved or to cancel any changes and leave the block’s content as it is.

Note

If you have multiple journals, you can display recent entries from all of them.

Once you have included the Recent journal entries block into a page, you can create a new journal entry directly from that block when you are in the Edit mode for the page. When you click the New entry button, you will be taken to your journal and a new entry is started for you. It is then added to the journal automatically.

Create a new journal entry directly from the Recent journal entries block - one journal only

If you enabled multiple journals and selected more than one for which to display recent journal entries, you will see a slightly different display.

Create a new journal entry directly from the Recent journal entries block - multiple journals available

Choose the journal to which to add your entry from the drop-down menu.

Click the Go button to create your new entry.

6.2.4. Tagged journal entries

Display tagged journal entries across all your journals in your portfolio page.

Configure the Tagged journal entries block

Block title: Choose a title for your block.

new in Mahara 15.04 Display entries tagged with: Choose the tags that you want to use to filter all your journal entries for display. Only tags you used on journal entries are available. You can include or exclude tags. See below for more information.

Items to show: Decide how many entries you want to display.

Show journal items in full: If you switch this option on, your journal entries will be displayed. Otherwise, only their titles are shown and people need to click on them to read your entries.

Retractable: Choose whether you want to allow users to reduce the block to its heading on a page or see just the heading only automatically. The options are:

No: The block and its content is displayed at all times.

Yes: Allow users to reduce the block to just the heading by clicking the Retractable icon retractable.

Automatically retract: Only the heading of the block is visible, and the user can click the Retracted icon retracted to view its content.

Click the Save button to accept your changes, or click the Cancel button to leave the block’s content as it is. The Remove button is shown only when you place the block into the page for the first time.

You can also click the Close button close in the top right-hand corner to either remove a newly created block before it is being saved or to cancel any changes and leave the block’s content as it is.

6.2.4.1. Add new tagged journal entries directly from a page

Once you have included the Tagged journal entries block into a page, you can create a new journal entry directly from that block when you are in the Edit mode for the page. When you click the New entry button, you will be taken to your journal and a new entry is started for you. It is then added to the journal automatically with the tag whose journal entries are displayed on the page.

Create a new journal entry directly from the Tagged journal entries block - one journal only

If you enabled multiple journals and have a minimum of two journals, you will see a slightly different display.

Create a new journal entry directly from the Tagged journal entries block - multiple journals available

Choose the journal to which to add your entry from the drop-down menu.

Click the Go button to create your new entry.

6.2.4.2. Select tags to include or exclude

When you want to choose which tags to use in your block, you can select multiple tags to include or exclude. That way you can be very flexible in which entries to display in your block and which ones to leave out. You must have tagged your journal entries beforehand. If you haven’t done that, please go to your journal entries and tag them. You can find them under Content → Journal(s).

Display all the tags that you used on journal entries

Click in the text field for the tag entries. You can start typing the tag that you are looking for if you know it. The result list that you see underneath gets shorter based on what you type. If you want to exclude a tag, type the minus sign and then the tag.

In the tag result list, click the tag that you want to include. If you want to exclude a tag, type the minus sign and then select the tag.

Once the tags are in the field, you can see directly which ones are included and which ones are excluded.

A selection of tags for the tagged journal entries

Tags that your journal entries must have are displayed in light grey.

Tags that are excluded from your journal entries are displayed in red.

You can remove any tag by clicking the x to the left of it.

Note

When you display your page that has a tagged journal entries block, you see which tags are used to filter your journal entries. For example: Journal entries with tag “learning” but not tag “conference”.

6.2.4.3. Know which tags to include and exclude

You can add multiple tags to limit the results as well as indicate which tags you want to ignore. If you select multiple tags, a journal entry must match all selected tags in order to be listed.

Let’s assume, you tagged your journal entries with the following tags:

learning, formal, education

learning, formal, education, music

learning, formal, education, language

learning, nonformal, education

learning, nonformal, education, music

learning, nonformal, education, language

teaching, nonformal, education

teaching, nonformal, education, music

teaching, nonformal, education, language

When you select:

the tag “education”, all journal entries would be displayed in the block.

the tags “learning” and “language”, journal entries 3 and 6 would be displayed, i.e. the entries that are tagged “learning” and “language”.

the tags “education” and “language”, journal entries 3, 6, and 9 would be shown, i.e. the entries that are tagged “education” and “language”.

You can also exclude tags from the results by putting a minus sign before the tag you want to select.

If you select:

the tag “learning” and exclude “formal” (exclude the tag by typing “-formal” without the quotation marks), journal entries 4, 5, and 6 would be displayed. You search for journal entries tagged “learning” and not “formal”.

the tag “nonformal” and “education” and exclude “music” and “language” (exclude the tags by typing “-music -language” without the quotation marks), journal entries 4 and 7 would be shown. You search for journal entries tagged “nonformal” and “education” and not “music” and not “language”.

Note

The operators and and not are two of the so-called “Boolean operators”.

6.3. General

The artefacts in this tab are of a general nature or do not fit into any other category and can be used around the site.

When you create a page in a group, you do not have the plans block available as you cannot create plans in groups. Additionally, you can choose the following blocks when you edit the group homepage:

Group info

Group members

Group pages

6.3.1. new in Mahara 15.04 Annotation

Add a block to your page which lets you add an annotation for your page.

Note

This feature is an initial implementation of a feature for the SmartEvidence functionality. You can learn more about SmartEvidence from the presentation “SmartEvidence: Why did it come about, and what is it?” [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vvobSsWEsmU].

Configure the Annotation block

Annotation: Write your annotation for your portfolio page. It will help to situate the evidence that you put together on the page, establish the context and tie things together.

Allow feedback: When you allow feedback on your annotation, others can leave feedback as usual. However, as soon as the first feedback has been added, you will not be able to make changes to your annotation text anymore. That is to ensure that the feedback still relates back to the annotation.

Tags: Enter tags to find your annotation more easily at a later stage. Separate your tags with commas. If you already have tags, you can click on the link Show my tags and select the ones that you think will fit for this collection as well. They will be entered into the text field for you.

Retractable: Choose whether you want to allow users to reduce the block to its heading on a page or see just the heading only automatically. The options are:

No: The block and its content is displayed at all times.

Yes: Allow users to reduce the block to just the heading by clicking the Retractable icon retractable.

Automatically retract: Only the heading of the block is visible, and the user can click the Retracted icon retracted to view its content.

Click the Save button to accept your changes, or click the Cancel button to leave the block’s content as it is. The Remove button is shown only when you place the block into the page for the first time.

You can also click the Close button close in the top right-hand corner to either remove a newly created block before it is being saved or to cancel any changes and leave the block’s content as it is.

6.3.2. Creative Commons license

Add a block to your page which lets users know under which Creative Commons license [http://creativecommons.org/licenses/] your page is published.

Configure the Creative Commons license block

Block title: Choose a title for your block.

Allow commercial uses of your work? Decide whether users can re-use your work for commercial purposes.

Allow modifications of your work? Decide whether others can remix your work and create something new and if so under which conditions.

License version: Select under which Creative Commons license you wish to publish your work. You can choose between

Creative Commons 3.0

Creative Commons 4.0

See also

Check out what is new in Creative Commons 4.0 [https://creativecommons.org/version4], and why you may want to choose that license.

Retractable: Choose whether you want to allow users to reduce the block to its heading on a page or see just the heading only automatically. The options are:

No: The block and its content is displayed at all times.

Yes: Allow users to reduce the block to just the heading by clicking the Retractable icon retractable.

Automatically retract: Only the heading of the block is visible, and the user can click the Retracted icon retracted to view its content.

Click the Save button to accept your changes, or click the Cancel button to leave the block’s content as it is. The Remove button is shown only when you place the block into the page for the first time.

You can also click the Close button close in the top right-hand corner to either remove a newly created block before it is being saved or to cancel any changes and leave the block’s content as it is.

See also

For more information about the licenses and their terms, visit the Creative Commons website [http://creativecommons.org/licenses/].

6.3.3. Feedback

Note

This functionality is only available when the site administrator installed the blocktype plugin “Comment”. It is installed by default in a new Mahara installation, but when a site is upgraded, the site administrator needs to install it manually in the Extensions.

You can move the feedback section from the bottom of a page elsewhere onto your page to integrate it better with your page content. Please note the following:

There is no configuration possible for this block.

You only see feedback / comments when you display a page, but not in the edit mode.

If there is a lot of feedback on a page, it will be paginated so that it fits into the size of the block.

You can only place 1 feedback block onto a page as it contains the entire page feedback.

Feedback for individual artefacts is still placed at the bottom of the artefact details pages because you cannot put a block onto these pages.

You can move the block like any other block on your page. If you delete the block, the feedback is displayed at the bottom of the page again.

What the feedback block looks like on a page

The block has the heading “Feedback” unless your Mahara installation uses a different word.

When you click the Place feedback link, a pop-up is displayed in which you can enter your feedback with all the functionality as at the bottom of the page.

There is no feedback link or display of feedback at the bottom of a page when you put a feedback block onto your page.

Pop-up window for placing feedback when it is in a block

When you place feedback in a block, you do so in a pop-up window.

6.3.4. Group info

This block is a default block on the group homepage. There is no configuration possible.

Note

This block can only be used on a group homepage.

Items in the group info block

The block contains information about:

group characteristics

group administrator

group creation date

dates between which regular group members can participate in group activities

group statistics

number of group members

number of pages created in the group

number of files uploaded to the group

number of folders created in the group

number of forums created in the group

number of forum topics created in the group

number of posts in forum topics in the group

6.3.5. Group members

This block is a default block on the group homepage. You can display member profile pictures and their names.

Note

This block can only be used on a group homepage.

Configure the Group members block

Block title: The automatic title for this block is “Members”. You can set another one if you wish.

Shown members: Choose how many members (between 1 and 100) are shown on the group homepage. All others are accessible via the Members tab in the group. The default number of members displayed is 12.

Order: Choose the order in which members are displayed. Options are

latest: display members according to their group joining date in reverse chronological order

random: let Mahara decide which members to display

Retractable: Choose whether you want to allow users to reduce the block to its heading on a page or see just the heading only automatically. The options are:

No: The block and its content is displayed at all times.

Yes: Allow users to reduce the block to just the heading by clicking the Retractable icon retractable.

Automatically retract: Only the heading of the block is visible, and the user can click the Retracted icon retracted to view its content.

Click the Save button to accept your changes, or click the Cancel button to leave the block’s content as it is. The Remove button is shown only when you place the block into the page for the first time.

You can also click the Close button close in the top right-hand corner to either remove a newly created block before it is being saved or to cancel any changes and leave the block’s content as it is.

6.3.6. Group pages

This block is a default block on the group homepage. You can display pages created in and / or shared with the group in this block.

Note

This block can only be used on a group homepage.

Configure the Group pages block

Block title: The automatic title for this block is “Group pages”. You can set another one if you wish.

Display group pages: Decide whether to display pages that were created in the group. “Yes” is the default option.

new in Mahara 15.04 Sort group pages by: Choose in which order to display pages created in the group. “Alphabetical” is the default option, but you can also display them based on when they were last modified.

Display shared pages: Decide whether to display pages that users shared with the group. The options are:

None: No shared pages are displayed.

new in Mahara 15.04 By members of this group: Display only pages that have been shared by members of the group.

Note

This option is particularly well-suited for groups that are used for class purposes. That way, students can share their pages or collections with the group for a long time, but the administrator can choose to display only pages of group members but not those that are not members anymore. The pages of non-group members are still accessible via the Shared with me functionality.

By anybody: Display all pages that have been shared with the group.

Display shared collections: Decide whether to display collections that users shared with the group. The options are:

None: No shared collections are displayed.

new in Mahara 15.04 By members of this group: Display only collections that have been shared by members of the group.

By anybody: Display all collections that have been shared with the group.

new in Mahara 15.04 Sort shared pages and collections by: Choose in which order to display pages and collections shared with the group. “Alphabetical” is the default option, but you can also display them based on when they were last modified.

Display submitted pages and collections: Decide whether to display pages and collections that group members submitted to the group. There is no distinction made between pages and collections. “Yes” is the default option.

new in Mahara 15.04 Sort submitted pages and collections by: Choose in which order to display pages and collections submitted to the group. “Alphabetical” is the default option, but you can also display them based on when they were last modified.

Entries per page: Choose the maximum number of pages or collections you wish to see on the group homepage for the above before a paginator is displayed. You can display a maximum of 100 items per category.

Retractable: Decide whether you want to allow users to reduce the block to its heading on a page. The options are:

No: This is the default option. The block and all its content is displayed.

Yes: The block can be retracted. The user can click the Retractable icon retractable to just show the heading.

Automatically retract: Choose this option if you want to show only the block’s heading when a user views the page. The user can click the Retracted icon retracted to view the entire block.

Click the Save button to accept your changes, or click the Cancel button to leave the block’s content as it is. The Remove button is shown only when you place the block into the page for the first time.

You can also click the Close button close in the top right-hand corner to either remove a newly created block before it is being saved or to cancel any changes and leave the block’s content as it is.

Note

new in Mahara 15.04 A page is considered as updated when the content of at least one block is updated, including the adding of a new Mahara journal entry into the journal block.

6.3.7. Inbox

The Inbox block displays the latest messages that you have received.

Note

This block can only be used on your dashboard.

Configure the Inbox block

Block title: The automatic title for this block is “Inbox”. You can set another one if you wish.

Message types to display: Place a check mark for each message type that you want to display in this block.

Maximum number of items to display: Decide how many messages shall be shown on your dashboard. You can choose between 1 and 100.

Retractable: Choose whether you want to allow users to reduce the block to its heading on a page or see just the heading only automatically. The options are:

No: The block and its content is displayed at all times.

Yes: Allow users to reduce the block to just the heading by clicking the Retractable icon retractable.

Automatically retract: Only the heading of the block is visible, and the user can click the Retracted icon retracted to view its content.

Click the Save button to accept your changes, or click the Cancel button to leave the block’s content as it is. The Remove button is shown only when you place the block into the page for the first time.

You can also click the Close button close in the top right-hand corner to either remove a newly created block before it is being saved or to cancel any changes and leave the block’s content as it is.

When you display messages from other users on your dashboard through the Inbox block, you can see quickly which messages you have not read. They are marked in bold and have a closed envelope. Messages you have read are indicated by an open envelope.

Unread messages have a closed envelope and are displayed in bold whereas read messages have an open envelope

6.3.8. Latest pages

The Latest pages block displays the latest pages to which you have access across Mahara.

Note

This block can only be used on your dashboard.

Configure the Latest pages block

Block title: The automatic title for this block is “Latest pages”. You can set another one if you wish.

Maximum number of pages to show: Decide how many pages shall be shown on your dashboard. You can choose between 1 and 100.

Retractable: Choose whether you want to allow users to reduce the block to its heading on a page or see just the heading only automatically. The options are:

No: The block and its content is displayed at all times.

Yes: Allow users to reduce the block to just the heading by clicking the Retractable icon retractable.

Automatically retract: Only the heading of the block is visible, and the user can click the Retracted icon retracted to view its content.

Click the Save button to accept your changes, or click the Cancel button to leave the block’s content as it is. The Remove button is shown only when you place the block into the page for the first time.

You can also click the Close button close in the top right-hand corner to either remove a newly created block before it is being saved or to cancel any changes and leave the block’s content as it is.

6.3.9. Navigation

Add a navigation block to display links to pages in a collection.

Note

You must create at least one collection in order to use this block.

Configure the Navigation block

Block title: The title of the collection is chosen automatically unless you provide a different one.

Collection: Choose the collection from the drop-down menu for which you wish to display links in the block.

Retractable: Choose whether you want to allow users to reduce the block to its heading on a page or see just the heading only automatically. The options are:

No: The block and its content is displayed at all times.

Yes: Allow users to reduce the block to just the heading by clicking the Retractable icon retractable.

Automatically retract: Only the heading of the block is visible, and the user can click the Retracted icon retracted to view its content.

Click the Save button to accept your changes, or click the Cancel button to leave the block’s content as it is. The Remove button is shown only when you place the block into the page for the first time.

You can also click the Close button close in the top right-hand corner to either remove a newly created block before it is being saved or to cancel any changes and leave the block’s content as it is.

6.3.10. Note

Add a note to your page. This feature is used when you do not want to keep the text in a journal, but still want to be able to re-use the text on other pages.

6.3.10.1. Add a new note

Configure the Note block

Block title: Provide a title for your note.

Block content: Write your text. You can include formatting, external images etc.

Alternatively, you can also use text from another note that you have already written.

License: You see this drop-down menu if the site administrator turned on license metadata. Additionally, if you are in an institution, your institution administrator may require you to provide a license. Your default license is displayed. You can set your default license in your account settings. You may choose a different license for each individual artefact.

Advanced licensing: If you can / must enter license information, you can also provide information about the original licensor and a URL where the original can be found.

Allow comments: Switch this setting on if you wish to allow comments / feedback on your note. This option is on by default.

Tags: Enter tags to find your note more easily at a later stage. Separate your tags with commas. If you already have tags, you can click on the link Show my tags and select the ones that you think will fit for this collection as well. They will be entered into the text field for you.

Attachments: Attach files to a note as additional evidence for the text you are writing.

Click the Add a file button if you wish to add one or more files to a note.

Retractable: Choose whether you want to allow users to reduce the block to its heading on a page or see just the heading only automatically. The options are:

No: The block and its content is displayed at all times.

Yes: Allow users to reduce the block to just the heading by clicking the Retractable icon retractable.

Automatically retract: Only the heading of the block is visible, and the user can click the Retracted icon retracted to view its content.

Click the Save button to accept your changes, or click the Cancel button to leave the block’s content as it is. The Remove button is shown only when you place the block into the page for the first time.

You can also click the Close button close in the top right-hand corner to either remove a newly created block before it is being saved or to cancel any changes and leave the block’s content as it is.

Note

We recommend you do not include images that you have uploaded to Mahara in a note via the link to the image. It cannot be guaranteed that they are displayed for other users if they do not have access to the image via another portfolio page. All access in Mahara is granted to pages and through them to the artefact blocks. An image in a note is not recognized as artefact and can therefore not receive its proper permissions.

6.3.11. Add an image into a note

Note

new in Mahara 15.04 In Mahara 15.04 the way of including images into text was changed. Please refer to the section “Insert an image into text” for more information.

6.3.11.1. Attach a file to a note

Attach a file to a Note block

Click the Add a file button if you wish to add one or more files to a note.

Files area: Choose from which files area you would like to select a file:

My files: You see all the folders and files that you have created.

Group files: You see all the folders and files that you are allowed to publish.

Institution files: If you are an institution administrator, you will see institution folders and files.

Site files: If you are a site administrator, you will see all site folders and files. Otherwise, you can only see the ones that are in the folder public in the Site files.

License information: You see these fields if the site administrator turned on license metadata. Additionally, if you are in an institution, your institution administrator may require you to provide a license.

License: Your default license is displayed. You can set your default license in your account settings. You may choose a different license for each individual artefact.

Licensor: If you are uploading a file that somebody else created, you can attribute the work to them here and provide their name for example.

Original URL: If you are uploading somebody else’s file, provide a link to the original Internet address so that others can go there and view the original file.

Upload file: You do not have to go back to your Files area in Content in order to upload a file. You can do so directly from this screen.

If the site administrator turned on the image resizing option, you can decide whether you want to have your images resized if they are larger than the specified dimensions. This option is recommended to save space in your portfolio.

Folder path: The breadcrumbs show in which folder you are currently.

You can still edit any component of the file, i.e. its file name, description and tags by clicking the Edit button.

Choose the file or files you wish to display by clicking the Select button.

Warning

When you place group, institution or site files into a page, beware that these files may not be available at some point anymore when the person in charge deletes them.

You can also still select files (within folders) that have been submitted in another portfolio page.

Click the Remove button to not display a specific file in this block anymore.

Click the Close button close to hide the file selector.

6.3.11.2. Re-use text from an existing note

You can re-use text from other note from one page in another without having to copy the page first.

Warning

If you do not make a copy of the note content in the block configuration and change it, the text is changed in all other instances where this note is used.

Configure the Note block by copying text

Block title: Provide a title for your note. You should only enter it after you selected the note to re-use as the title of the original note will overwrite anything you had put in before.

Click the link Use content from another note to view all notes to which you have access. These can be:

your own notes

notes from group pages that you can copy

notes from institution or site pages to which you have access

Click Browse or Search to find the note that you want to re-use.

All notes are listed with their title and the first line. Click the radio button next to the note that you want to use again.

If a note does not belong to you but for example to a group, you see the author next to the note’s title.

Use the paginator to move between your notes if more than 5 are displayed.

The content of the note that you have selected is displayed in the Block content box. Now you can make changes.

Warning

The text will be changed in all other instances where this note appears.

If you wish to make changes to the note, but do not want to change it everywhere else, click the Make a copy link above the Block content in the red box. The text is then retained, but it is treated like a new note and the original note is not changed.

Click the Manage all note content link to be taken to your personal Notes to make changes there instead of in an existing note from this popup window here.

All other functionality that you see on the screen is the same as for adding a new note.

6.3.12. Plans

Display one of your plans in a block.

Note

You must create at least one plan in order to use this block.

Configure the Plans block

Block title: The title of the plan is chosen automatically unless you provide a different one.

Plan to show: Choose the plan which you want to display in your page.

Retractable: Choose whether you want to allow users to reduce the block to its heading on a page or see just the heading only automatically. The options are:

No: The block and its content is displayed at all times.

Yes: Allow users to reduce the block to just the heading by clicking the Retractable icon retractable.

Automatically retract: Only the heading of the block is visible, and the user can click the Retracted icon retracted to view its content.

Click the Save button to accept your changes, or click the Cancel button to leave the block’s content as it is. The Remove button is shown only when you place the block into the page for the first time.

You can also click the Close button close in the top right-hand corner to either remove a newly created block before it is being saved or to cancel any changes and leave the block’s content as it is.

Result of an embedded plan in a portfolio page. By clicking on the linked titles, you can show the descriptions of the individual tasks.

6.3.13. Recent forum posts

Display a specified number of recent forum posts from one group on a page.

Note

You must be a member of at least one group in order to use this block.

Configure the Recent forum posts block

Block title: The title of the block is generated automatically unless you provide a different one. The default title is “Recent forum posts”.

Group: Choose the group whose forum posts you wish to display.

Maximum number of posts to show: Decide how many of the latest forum posts you wish to show. The default value is 5. You can show up to 100 posts.

Retractable: Choose whether you want to allow users to reduce the block to its heading on a page or see just the heading only automatically. The options are:

No: The block and its content is displayed at all times.

Yes: Allow users to reduce the block to just the heading by clicking the Retractable icon retractable.

Automatically retract: Only the heading of the block is visible, and the user can click the Retracted icon retracted to view its content.

Click the Save button to accept your changes, or click the Cancel button to leave the block’s content as it is. The Remove button is shown only when you place the block into the page for the first time.

You can also click the Close button close in the top right-hand corner to either remove a newly created block before it is being saved or to cancel any changes and leave the block’s content as it is.

6.3.14. Text

Add text to your page. This feature is used when you want to put a snippet of text onto a page that does not have to be re-used.

Note

new in Mahara 15.04 In a default Mahara instance, this block is available in the content chooser at the top together with the Image block. It does not appear in the section General as well.

Configure the Text block

Block title: Provide a title for your text.

Block content: Write your text. You can include formatting, external images etc.

Retractable: Choose whether you want to allow users to reduce the block to its heading on a page or see just the heading only automatically. The options are:

No: The block and its content is displayed at all times.

Yes: Allow users to reduce the block to just the heading by clicking the Retractable icon retractable.

Automatically retract: Only the heading of the block is visible, and the user can click the Retracted icon retracted to view its content.

Click the Save button to accept your changes, or click the Cancel button to leave the block’s content as it is. The Remove button is shown only when you place the block into the page for the first time.

You can also click the Close button close in the top right-hand corner to either remove a newly created block before it is being saved or to cancel any changes and leave the block’s content as it is.

Note

new in Mahara 15.04 In Mahara 15.04 the way of including images into text was changed. Please refer to the section “Insert an image into text” for more information.

6.3.15. Watched pages

The Watched pages block displays the pages that are on your watchlist.

Note

This block can only be used on your dashboard.

Configure the Watched pages block

Block title: The automatic title for this block is “Watched pages”. You can set another one if you wish.

Items to show: Decide how many pages shall be shown on your dashboard. You can choose between 1 and 100.

Retractable: Choose whether you want to allow users to reduce the block to its heading on a page or see just the heading only automatically. The options are:

No: The block and its content is displayed at all times.

Yes: Allow users to reduce the block to just the heading by clicking the Retractable icon retractable.

Automatically retract: Only the heading of the block is visible, and the user can click the Retracted icon retracted to view its content.

Click the Save button to accept your changes, or click the Cancel button to leave the block’s content as it is. The Remove button is shown only when you place the block into the page for the first time.

You can also click the Close button close in the top right-hand corner to either remove a newly created block before it is being saved or to cancel any changes and leave the block’s content as it is.

6.4. Personal info

The artefact blocks in this tab allow you to include information that you provided in the profile into your portfolio. If you want to make changes to the text or the images, go to Content → Profile.

Furthermore, you can also put certain blocks on your profile page that only exist for that particular page:

My friends

My groups

My pages

Wall

6.4.1. My friends

Add a block that displays your friends’ profile pictures and their names to your profile page. This is a default block on your profile page.

You only need to place the block on your profile page. There is no further configuration possible.

6.4.2. My groups

Add a block that displays your groups on your profile page. It is a standard profile page block. You can decide on the sort order of the groups and also limit the number of groups to be shown before a paginator is displayed.

Configure the My groups block

Sort groups: Decide in which sort order your groups should be displayed:

Most recently joined: Groups are displayed in chronologically reverse order to show the groups that you joined recently first.

Earliest joined: This option displays your groups in the order in which you joined them.

A to Z: Alphabetically from A to Z. This is the default option.

Maximum number of groups to display: Decide how many groups you wish to display in the block before the paginator is shown and the remaining pages can be seen on the next page within the block. Leave this field empty if you wish to display all your groups.

Retractable: Choose whether you want to allow users to reduce the block to its heading on a page or see just the heading only automatically. The options are:

No: The block and its content is displayed at all times.

Yes: Allow users to reduce the block to just the heading by clicking the Retractable icon retractable.

Automatically retract: Only the heading of the block is visible, and the user can click the Retracted icon retracted to view its content.

Click the Save button to accept your changes, or click the Cancel button to leave the block’s content as it is. The Remove button is shown only when you place the block into the page for the first time.

You can also click the Close button close in the top right-hand corner to either remove a newly created block before it is being saved or to cancel any changes and leave the block’s content as it is.

6.4.3. My pages

Add a block that displays your pages on your profile page. It is a standard profile page block. This block should stay on your profile page because other users can see all your pages to which they have acceess.

You only need to place the block on your profile page. There is no further configuration possible.

Note

When other users view your profile page, they only see the pages to which they have access. That also means that you see all your pages while others may see none or just a few.

6.4.4. Profile information

Add a block with profile fields to your page.

Note

Only display as much information as you wish anybody to see. Especially when you make your pages available to the public, i.e. everybody on the Internet, or all logged-in users, decide carefully whether you want to display your street address and / or phone number.

Configure the Profile information block

Block title: Choose a title for your block.

Fields to show: Decide which fields shall appear on the page. Put a check mark in front of each one that you want to show. Displayed are only the ones for which you provided content.

Profile picture: Choose to display one of your profile pictures or none.

Email address Decide whether to display one of your email addresses that you have entered in your profile under Content.

Introduction text: If you do not want to display the introduction text from your profile, you can write another one just for this page here. However, it will be lost when you delete this block.

Retractable: Choose whether you want to allow users to reduce the block to its heading on a page or see just the heading only automatically. The options are:

No: The block and its content is displayed at all times.

Yes: Allow users to reduce the block to just the heading by clicking the Retractable icon retractable.

Automatically retract: Only the heading of the block is visible, and the user can click the Retracted icon retracted to view its content.

Click the Save button to accept your changes, or click the Cancel button to leave the block’s content as it is. The Remove button is shown only when you place the block into the page for the first time.

You can also click the Close button close in the top right-hand corner to either remove a newly created block before it is being saved or to cancel any changes and leave the block’s content as it is.

6.4.5. Social media

Add a block with links to your social networks to your page.

Configure the Social media block

Block title: Choose a title for your block.

Social media accounts to show: Decide which accounts shall appear on the page. Put a check mark in front of each one that you want to show. Displayed are only the ones for which you provided content.

Display settings: Click this link to show the possible display settings.

Display social media accounts as: Decide which way you want to display the links to your social media accounts:

Buttons with icons only: Show only the logos of the social media accounts. This option is a good one if you have lots of accounts and want to save space on your page. However, it might be trickier for people to know instantly which accounts are displayed if they are not familiar with the logos.

Note

If you added a lot of social media accounts through the option “Other”, this option here would not be a good one as the logo for all the services is just a generic icon.

Buttons with icons and text: This is the default option. The logo of the social network is displayed along with its name.

Buttons with text only: This option only displays the name of the social network.

Display default email link as button? Tick this checkbox if you want to provide a button for your primary email address.

Retractable: Choose whether you want to allow users to reduce the block to its heading on a page or see just the heading only automatically. The options are:

No: The block and its content is displayed at all times.

Yes: Allow users to reduce the block to just the heading by clicking the Retractable icon retractable.

Automatically retract: Only the heading of the block is visible, and the user can click the Retracted icon retracted to view its content.

Click the Save button to accept your changes, or click the Cancel button to leave the block’s content as it is. The Remove button is shown only when you place the block into the page for the first time.

You can also click the Close button close in the top right-hand corner to either remove a newly created block before it is being saved or to cancel any changes and leave the block’s content as it is.

This is how the individual options are displayed on your page.

The 3 options for displaying your social media accounts

Buttons with icons only.

Buttons with icons and text.

Buttons with text only.

6.4.6. Wall

Add a block that displays your wall on your profile page. It is a standard profile page block. Other users can leave messages for you, i.e. write on your wall, and they can decide whether everyone looking at your profile page can see them or only they and you.

You only need to place the block on your profile page. There is no further configuration possible.

When you view your wall (or someone else’s wall) on your profile page, you see the following.

A wall on a profile page

Enter your message in the text box. new in Mahara 15.04 You can use the visual editor to format your message.

Make your post private: Decide who shall see your wall post. If you make it private, only you and the person to whose wall you are posting will see the post.

Click the Post button to add your message to the wall.

A wall post always contains the name of the person who made the post, the date and the actual message. Wall posts that ae private are highlighted in a special color / pattern. In the default theme it red stripes.

A public wall post can be viewed by anyone who has access to the profile page.

Click the Delete button delete if you do not want to have a specific post on your wall. The post authors and you as owner of your wall can delete posts.

Click the View whole wall link to see older wall posts.

6.4.7. Résumé

You can display either your entire résumé or parts of it in any portfolio page. If you choose to display only parts of your résumé, you have more control over the arrangement of the information.

6.4.7.1. My entire résumé

Add a block with your entire résumé to your page.

Configure the My entire résumé block

Block title: Choose a title for your block.

Retractable: Choose whether you want to allow users to reduce the block to its heading on a page or see just the heading only automatically. The options are:

No: The block and its content is displayed at all times.

Yes: Allow users to reduce the block to just the heading by clicking the Retractable icon retractable.

Automatically retract: Only the heading of the block is visible, and the user can click the Retracted icon retracted to view its content.

Click the Save button to accept your changes, or click the Cancel button to leave the block’s content as it is. The Remove button is shown only when you place the block into the page for the first time.

You can also click the Close button close in the top right-hand corner to either remove a newly created block before it is being saved or to cancel any changes and leave the block’s content as it is.

Note

When you use this block, you do not have control over the order in which the information is displayed, but Mahara decides that. In order to be more flexible, you can choose to display one résumé field at a time with the next block.

6.4.7.2. One résumé field

Add a block with one résumé field to your page.

Configure the One résumé field block

Block title: The title of the résumé field you want to display is chosen automatically unless you provide a different one.

Field to show: Choose the résumé information that you want to display. You can select one area at a time.

You can jump to the résumé section directly from this pop-up window in order to fill in more content.

Retractable: Choose whether you want to allow users to reduce the block to its heading on a page or see just the heading only automatically. The options are:

No: The block and its content is displayed at all times.

Yes: Allow users to reduce the block to just the heading by clicking the Retractable icon retractable.

Automatically retract: Only the heading of the block is visible, and the user can click the Retracted icon retracted to view its content.

Click the Save button to accept your changes, or click the Cancel button to leave the block’s content as it is. The Remove button is shown only when you place the block into the page for the first time.

You can also click the Close button close in the top right-hand corner to either remove a newly created block before it is being saved or to cancel any changes and leave the block’s content as it is.

6.5. External content

With the help of the external content blocks, you can include RSS feeds, external media or GoogleApps documents etc. into a page.

6.5.1. External feed

Embed an external RSS or ATOM feed, e.g. to display an external blog.

Configure the external feed block

Block title: If you leave the title blank, the title of the feed will be used.

Feed location: Put the entire feed URL from a valid RSS or ATOM feed in here. If the feed is not displayed, try to view it in a regular feed reader to make sure that the URL is correct. You must provide a feed URL here.

Note

Unfortunately, Firefox and Chrome do not display the RSS feed icon for a page immediately near the address bar anymore. In Firefox you will have to go to View → Toolbars → Customize and then drag the RSS icon to your toolbar. It lights up orange / white when a feed is available.

If you use Chrome, you will have to install the RSS Subscription Extension [https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/nlbjncdgjeocebhnmkbbbdekmmmcbfjd].

Insecure SSL mode: Place a check mark in this box if you wish to enable the insecure SSL mode. This mode allows you to override certificate errors generated by a feed.

HTTP username: Provide a username if you wish to access a feed that requires authentication. This is the username to access the feed and not your portfolio system.

HTTP password: Provide a password to access a feed that requires authentication. This is the password to access the feed and not your portfolio system.

Items to show: Decide how many of the latest items in the feed you wish to display. You can choose up to 20.

Show feed items in full: If you do not select this option, only a heading will be shown for each feed item, e.g. the blog heading of a post. If you select this option, the entire content of the feed item will be shown, e.g. the entire blog post or in case of a flickr RSS feed, the photo and its description.

Retractable: Choose whether you want to allow users to reduce the block to its heading on a page or see just the heading only automatically. The options are:

No: The block and its content is displayed at all times.

Yes: Allow users to reduce the block to just the heading by clicking the Retractable icon retractable.

Automatically retract: Only the heading of the block is visible, and the user can click the Retracted icon retracted to view its content.

Click the Save button to accept your changes, or click the Cancel button to leave the block’s content as it is. The Remove button is shown only when you place the block into the page for the first time.

You can also click the Close button close in the top right-hand corner to either remove a newly created block before it is being saved or to cancel any changes and leave the block’s content as it is.

Note

If your feed is not updated automatically, please ask your site administrator to check the cron settings.

new in Mahara 15.04 If you click an entry in the RSS feed, it will open in a new window.

6.5.2. External media

With this block you can embed content from a wide variety of third-party sites. The sites that are allowed are listed below the text area in the pop-up. You see only their favicons, but when you hover over an icon with your mouse, you see the site’s name as well.

See also

Mahara comes with a number of sites that are allowed per default. These are listed on the page. Your site admin can add additional iframe sources.

Configure the external media block

Block title: Choose a title for your embedded content.

URL or embed code: Paste the URL or the embed code of a page where the content is located.

Embed code: Content from the sites listed in this section can be embeded using the <iframe> embed code. Any new site that the site administrator allows will be added in alphabetical order. The default sites are:

Glogster [http://www.glogster.com]

SlideShare [http://www.slideshare.com]

Vimeo [http://vimeo.com]

Voki [http://www.voki.com]

WikiEducator [http://www.wikieducator.org]

YouTube [http://youtube.com]

URLs: Content from the sites listed in this section can be embedded by simply grabbing the page URLs where the content can be found. The default sites are:

Google Videos [http://video.google.com]

Prezi [http://www.prezi.com]

Scivee.tv [http://www.scivee.tv]

SlideShare [http://www.slideshare.com]

TeacherTube [http://www.teachertube.com]

Vimeo [http://vimeo.com]

VoiceThread [http://www.voicethread.com]

Voki [http://www.voki.com]

WikiEducator [http://www.wikieducator.org]

YouTube [http://youtube.com]

Width: Choose the width (in pixels) that the content should take up on the page. This only goes for the content for which you provided the URL.

Note

If you use the embed code, you need to provide the correct width and height directly in the embed code and can ignore this setting here.

Height: Choose the height (in pixels) that the content should take up on the page. This only goes for the content for which you provided the URL.

Note

If you use the embed code, you need to provide the correct width and height directly in the embed code and can ignore this setting here.

Retractable: Choose whether you want to allow users to reduce the block to its heading on a page or see just the heading only automatically. The options are:

No: The block and its content is displayed at all times.

Yes: Allow users to reduce the block to just the heading by clicking the Retractable icon retractable.

Automatically retract: Only the heading of the block is visible, and the user can click the Retracted icon retracted to view its content.

Click the Save button to accept your changes, or click the Cancel button to leave the block’s content as it is. The Remove button is shown only when you place the block into the page for the first time.

You can also click the Close button close in the top right-hand corner to either remove a newly created block before it is being saved or to cancel any changes and leave the block’s content as it is.

Note

You can use the same iframe embed code around Mahara in notes, text and journal entries as well.

See also

Watch the video Saving a video from iPad to MyPortfolio [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_QRl9b0_mP] if you want to see how you can embed a YouTube video into your Mahara portfolio using an iPad. You can use a similar work flow for adding YouTube videos also via Android or on your computer. “MyPortfolio” is the name of a Mahara instance in New Zealand for schools.

6.5.3. Google Apps

Embed any of the following content available via Google (Apps):

books

calendars

documents, spreadsheets, presentations

maps

You can only display the content, but not immediately edit documents, spreadsheets or presentations. You will have to be logged in to your Google (Apps) account to do so. You can use this block with a regular, personal Google account or if you have a Google Apps account via an institution, e.g. your school or university.

Note

If certain documents are restricted to a Google Apps domain or to specific people, a login screen is displayed.

Configure the Google Apps block

Block title: Choose a title for your embedded content.

Embed code or URL: Depending on what kind of content you wish to display, you either provide the embed code or the URL. Click the Help button help for more information on how to embed each Google component.

Height: Choose the height for the embedded content. The width is adjusted to the column width of the block automatically.

Retractable: Choose whether you want to allow users to reduce the block to its heading on a page or see just the heading only automatically. The options are:

No: The block and its content is displayed at all times.

Yes: Allow users to reduce the block to just the heading by clicking the Retractable icon retractable.

Automatically retract: Only the heading of the block is visible, and the user can click the Retracted icon retracted to view its content.

Click the Save button to accept your changes, or click the Cancel button to leave the block’s content as it is. The Remove button is shown only when you place the block into the page for the first time.

You can also click the Close button close in the top right-hand corner to either remove a newly created block before it is being saved or to cancel any changes and leave the block’s content as it is.

Google document

Open the document.

Click File in the menu bar and then Publish to the Web.

Click the Start publishing button.

Copy the document link or embed code.

Paste the link or embed code into the Embed code or URL box in the Google Apps block.

Google spreadsheet

Open the spreadsheet.

Click File in the menu bar and then Publish to the Web.

Click the Start publishing button.

Read through the other options and decide on them.

Copy the link for the option Web page or the embed code for the option HTML to embed in a page.

Paste the link or embed code into the Embed code or URL box in the Google Apps block.

Google presentation

Open the presentation.

Click File in the menu bar and then Publish to the Web.

Click the Start publishing button.

Copy the link or embed code.

Paste the link or embed code into the Embed code or URL box in the Google Apps block.

Google collections

Click on the arrow to the right of the collection name and then on Share and Share again.

Change the permissions to Public on the web and save your changes.

Copy the link.

Paste the link into the Embed code or URL box in the Google Apps block.

Google Calendar

Open Google Calendar.

Click on the little triangle next to the calendar that you wish to embed.

Click on Calendar settings.

On the Calendar details tab scroll down to Embed This Calendar.

Customize the calendar appearance and then copy the embed code.

Paste the embed code into the Embed code or URL box in the Google Apps block.

Google Maps

Open Google Maps.

Click the My Places button.

Click on the name of the map that you wish to embed.

Click on the Link icon to the left of the map.

Customize the appearance of the map and copy the embed code.

Paste the embed code into the Embed code or URL box in the Google Apps block.

Note

Use steps 2 and 3 only if you wish to embed one of your Google maps. If you wish to embed any Google map, you can skip these steps.

Google Books

Open Google Books.

Find the book that you wish to embed.

Click on the book title.

Click on the Link icon above the book.

Copy the embed code of the book.

Paste the embed code into the Embed code or URL box in the Google Apps block.

Note

The link icon only appears if you are allowed to embed this book.

6.6. Blocks in various pages

Certain blocks can only exist in certain page contexts. For example, the wall can only be placed on the profile page whereas a note can be used on any page. There are a number of page contexts which can have different blocks:

portfolio page

group page

institution page

site page

profile page

dashboard page

The following list shows in which contexts a specific block and therefore a specific artefact can be used. It also shows which blocks can be copied. The original idea came from Synergy Learning for Mahara 1.3.

Note

Blocks in a page that are copied from one user to another need to be checked for content accuracy and whether they can be retained as they are or need to be updated.

6.6.1. Files, images and video

Block

User

Group

Institution

Site

Dashboard

Profile

Group homepage

Copyable

Embedded media

File(s) to download

Folder

Image

Image gallery

PDF

Some HTML

6.6.2. Journals

Block

User

Group

Institution

Site

Dashboard

Profile

Group homepage

Copyable

Journal

Journal entry

Recent journal entries

Tagged journal entries

6.6.3. General

Block

User

Group

Institution

Site

Dashboard

Profile

Group homepage

Copyable

Annotation

Creative Commons license

Feedback

Group info

Group members

Group pages

Inbox

Latest pages

Navigation

Note

Plans

Recent forum posts

Text

Watched pages

6.6.4. Personal info

Block

User

Group

Institution

Site

Dashboard

Profile

Group homepage

Copyable

My friends

My groups

My pages

My entire résumé

One résumé field

Profile information

Social media

Wall

6.6.5. External content

Block

User

Group

Institution

Site

Dashboard

Profile

Group homepage

Copyable

External feed

External media

Google Apps

7. Settings

7.1. Account settings

7.1.1. New password

7.1.2. Change username

7.1.3. Change profile URL

7.1.4. General account options

7.1.5. Delete account

7.2. Notification settings

7.3. Notifications

7.3.1. Inbox

7.3.2. Sent

7.3.3. Send a message

7.1. Account settings

The account settings of a user can be accessed via the Settings page. It is located in the top right-hand corner next to Inbox and Logout in a standard Mahara instance.

Link to the Settings page

7.1.1. New password

You can change your Mahara password on the Settings page.

Change your password

Current password: Enter your current password.

New password: Enter your preferred new password.

Confirm password: Re-enter your new password to confirm its spelling.

Make further changes on the page if you wish.

Click the Save button at the bottom of the page.

Your password must have a minimum of six characters. Passwords are case sensitive and must be different from your username.

Note

If you do not see the New password box, you cannot change your password. Your login and password are managed elsewhere. This is the case if your institution has set up single sign-on to other applications for example. If you want to change your password, please contact your institution administrators. They will be able to tell you where you can change your password.

7.1.2. Change username

You need a username to log in to Mahara. If your account is not managed by single-sign on or another authentication method, you see this box. You can then change your username at any time.

Change your username

Note

Usernames are 3-30 characters long and may contain letters, numbers and most common symbols excluding spaces.

7.1.3. Change profile URL

Note

You only see the “Change profile URL” part on your accounts settings page if the site administrator activated clean URLs and allowed you to change your profile URL.

Change profile URL

If you see this option, you can choose an identifier for your profile page. Per default, your username is chosen, but you may change that if the site administrator allowed it. Your identifier must be 3-30 characters long. You can only use lowercase letters from a-z, numbers and - (hyphen).

Your profile page is then accessible via the URL http://url-to-your-mahara-site/user/your-chosen-name. For example: http://mahara-university.org/user/paula.

Warning

Though you can change the URL to your page at any point, you shouldn’t do that because people who already know the URL to your page will not be able to access it anymore after you have changed it.

The original, internal Mahara URL, e.g. http://mahara-university.org/user/view.php?id=123 will still work.

7.1.4. General account options

The general account options are visible to all users no matter whether you can change your username and password or not. However, some options are only available if the site administrator turned them on.

View and change your general account options

Friends control: Choose whether other users may add you to their friends list. If you are added to a friends list, the owner of that list is added to your list as well. When you remove someone from your friends list, you are also removed from their list. Your settings options are:

Nobody may add me as a friend: Other users do not see the option to add you as a friend.

New friends require my authorisation: Before someone can add you to their friends list, you must give your approval.

New friends are automatically authorised: You accept all friend requests automatically.

HTML editor: An HTML editor is available for use in some sections of the site. This is known as a ‘What you see is what you get’ (WYSIWYG) editor. It allows you to apply formatting to your text like in a word processor. If the editor is turned off, you can only enter plain text without any formatting like making text bold or colorise your text. If you do not have this option, the site administrator may have disabled it.

Default license: When the site administrator enabled License metadata in the general site settings, you can select your default license for your content that you create or upload. The default setting is “None selected”, which means that you reserve all copyright.

If your institution administrator requires you to specify a license, you must set a license other than “None selected”.

You can choose any license from the drop-down menu that suits most of your content best. If you upload an artefact by another person that was published under a different license, you can choose that particular license on the artefact’s settings. If the site administrator allowed custom licenses, you can enter one using the drop-down menu option “Other license (enter URL)”.

Note

If you are not sure which default license to choose, please check with your organisation as it may require you to use a specific license. You can also consult a copyright lawyer (at cost).

If you are a member in multiple institutions and choose “Use institution default”, you will not be able to select the institution whose license you want to make the default one. One will be chosen by the system randomly.

Disable email: Use this setting to stop the site from sending you emails. It is advised that you generally regulate what is sent via email and what is not in the notifications.

Warning

If you disable your email address, you cannot reset your password as that requires the sending of an email to your address. You will have to contact an administrator and have your password reset.

Messages from other users: Use this setting to choose who you wish to receive messages from. Use the notifications area to decide how you will receive these messages. Your options are:

Do not allow anyone to send me messages: Other users are not able to send you any messages.

Allow people on my friends list to send me messages: Only your friends can contact you in the system and send you a message.

Allow anyone to send me messages: Any user, no matter whether they are your friends or not, can contact you.

Note

These restrictions do not apply to users with ‘administrator’ or ‘staff’ access.

Language: If your Mahara instance is offered in multiple languages, you see this option and can choose in which language you want to navigate the site. The menu items and the contextual help appear in the language you have chosen. However, the content of portfolios or groups does not switch to that language automatically.

Theme:

If you belong to multiple institutions, you can choose the institution theme with which you wish to browse the site. Other users will see your pages in their own theme as this setting is not for choosing page themes.

If the site administrator allowed it, you can choose any theme that is available to you as your browse theme. The following setting must be made in config.php: $cfg->sitethemeprefs = true;.

Show controls to add and remove columns when editing a page: You can add the Add and Remove buttons in the page editor to change the number of columns in a portfolio page quickly, see edit layout.

Multiple journals: By default, you have one journal. If you check this box, you will be able to create more journals. Once you have chosen this option, it will disappear from your accounts settings page unless you only have one journal again.

Note

If you are using Moodle to export data to Mahara, you should enable multiple journals as content that is transferred using the Leap2A option is often placed into a new journal.

Maximum tags in cloud: Decide how many tags you wish to display in your personal tag cloud in the sidebar in Content and Portfolio.

Maximum number of groups to display: Decide how many groups you wish to display in your sidebar. If you do not enter any value, no group will be displayed.

Sort groups: Decide in which sort order your groups should be displayed in your sidebar:

Most recently joined: Groups are displayed in chronologically reverse order to show the groups that you joined recently first.

Earliest joined: This option displays your groups in the order in which you joined them.

A to Z: Alphabetically from A to Z. This is the default option.

Hide real name: You see this checkbox if the site administrator allows users to hide their real name. If you tick it, others can only search for you using your display name.

Dashboard information: Choose this option if you want to display the quick links on your dashboard.

Profile completion progress bar: Tick the checkbox if you want to display the progress bar set up by your institution and tips on how to complete your profile.

Note

You only see this checkbox if the administrator of your institution set up the profile completion.

If you are a member of multiple institutions, you can switch between the individual institutions in order to view the respective sidebar. sidebar_profile_completion

Mobile upload token: Enter a token, e.g. a word, here and on your Android phone or iPhone to enable uploads from MaharaDroid [http://code.google.com/p/maharadroid/] and PortfolioUp [http://www.brightcookie.com/our-services/consulting-additional-services/portfolioup/]. Your token changes automatically after each upload. See the mobile Mahara section for more information on using Mahara with a mobile device. The site administrator must have allowed mobile uploads for this option to be displayed. You can enter multiple mobile upload tokens allowing you to use all your mobile devices to upload to one Mahara site.

Resize large images on upload: If you enable this option, all large images will be resized to the maximum dimensions per default. You can disable this setting for the upload of individual images. You only see this option if the site administrator allowed it.

Device detection: If you enable this option and browse the site via a smartphone or tablet, you will only see functionality that can be handled comfortably on a mobile device. If you do not enable this option, you will see the site as it is on a mobile device. On small devices, the menu will change to a mobile-friendly one though. You only see this option if the site administrator allowed it.

Click the Save button when you have finished making your changes.

7.1.5. Delete account

If your Mahara site allows self-registration, you can delete your own account by clicking the Delete account button on the top of the Settings page.

Delete your account and your entire content

Warning

Be absolutely sure that you want to delete your account. Your artefacts and portfolio pages cannot be restored once you deleted your account. Everything will be gone. You can make a backup of all your things (excluding group content) by exporting your portfolio.

7.2. Notification settings

Settings → Notifications

Mahara sends notifications for a number of different activities:

System message: Automatically generated by the system or sent to you by one of the site administrators, e.g. account confirmation message.

Message from other users: Sent to you directly from other users of the site.

Watchlist: Notification of activity on any artefact, page or journal you are monitoring.

New page access: Notification that you or one of your groups have been given access to a new or existing non-public page. You do not receive notifications about pages accessible to all logged-in users and the public.

Note

The page or collection title is mentioned in the notification so that you can see quickly what the page / collection is about.

Contact us: Messages to administrators that are sent via the Contact us form.

Objectionable content: Messages to administrators that contain complaints by users about objectionable content.

Repeat virus upload: Messages to administrators about users who repeatedly upload virus-infected files. Virus checking must be turned on.

Virus flag release: Messages to administrators about files that were released by the virus scanner.

Institution message: Automatically generated by the system, e.g. institution confirmation message, institution removal message, institution request sent to administrator.

Group message: Automatically generated by the system, e.g. user request for joining a group.

Feedback: Notification of any feedback or comments received on your pages, artefacts or journal posts.

New forum post: Notification about new posts in forums to which you are subscribed.

Objectionable content in forum: Messages to site administrators, group administrators and forum moderators that contain complaints by users about objectionable content in forum topics and posts.

Note

Only site administrators see the notification types of “Contact us”, “Repeat virus upload” and “Virus flag release”. Only site administrators and institution administrators see the types “Objectionable content” and “Objectionable content in forum”.

You may select how you receive notifications for each activity type.

Notifications

Select the notification type for each type of activity. There are four notification types:

Email: Your primary email address will receive an email each time the activity occurs.

Email digest: Your primary email address will receive an email each day with a list of the activities of the last 24 hours. Typically, this email is sent at around 6 p.m., but this can be changed.

Note

If you select either email or email digest, all activities will also be recorded in your inbox as they happen. They will all be marked as already read. These notifications automatically expire and are removed from your inbox after 60 days.

Inbox: Your notifications area will display a list of activity notifications received.

None: You can opt to not receive any notifications for certain types.

Note

You cannot select “None” for system messages and messages from other users so that you do not miss them.

Click the Save button to save any changes you make to receiving notifications.

Note

Only an administrator with server access can change the time for sending the daily email digest. The variable $emaildigest in the file htdocs/notification/emaildigest/lib.php needs to be changed for that.

7.3. Notifications

You can view the messages you receive in your account and that you have sent in your Notifications area which you access from the top-right corner between Settings and Logout.

Access your Notifications area

7.3.1. Inbox

Your Inbox holds all the messages that you receive in Mahara and whose notification type you have not set to “None”.

Your inbox

You have easy access to your sent messages by clicking the Sent tab. new in Mahara 15.04 You can also write a message to one or more users by clicking the Compose tab.

Activity type: You can filter your notifications according to an activity type to see only a subset of all your notifications.

From: The user who sent the message.

Subject: The subject of the notification is linked so that you can click on it and read the text of the notification.

To: The user(s) who received the message.

Click the Expand icon expand to see all the recipients of the message. You can click their individual names to be taken to their profile page.

Date: The date when the notification was sent. new in Mahara 15.04 When you have unread notifications, these are displayed first so you can attend to them directly and do not have to find them further down in your inbox.

new in Mahara 15.04 Reply: When you click anywhere into the message or the three dots “…” in the Reply column, you see buttons that allow you to reply to a message from another user. Click the Reply button reply to send a message to the sender, or click the Reply all button replyall to send a message to the sender and all recipients of the notification.

Read: Select one or more notifications on that page that you want to mark as read by ticking individual checkboxes or using the Select all link at the bottom of the column. Notifications that are sent to your email are marked as read automatically, and you cannot select them.

Click the Mark as read button to mark the previously selected notifications as read. The icon for messages from other users changes into an open envelope when you have read those messages.

Delete: Select one or more notifications on that page that you want to delete by ticking the checkboxes or using the Select all link at the bottom of the column.

Click the Delete button to permanently delete the notifications that you had selected for deletion.

Click the Delete all notifications button if you want to delete all notifications at once. If you selected a specific activity type, only the notifications matching this type will be deleted.

Warning

Once notifications are deleted, you cannot retrieve them again.

Navigate through the list of your messages with the help of the Paginator.

Maximum items per page: You can select how many notifications you want to see per page by choosing a different number from the drop-down menu.

You can see how many notifications you have in total.

7.3.2. Sent

Your Sent message area holds all the messages that you sent in Mahara.

Your sent messages

You have easy access to your inbox by clicking the Inbox tab. new in Mahara 15.04 You can also write a message to one or more users by clicking the Compose tab.

Activity type: You can filter your notifications according to an activity type to see only a subset of all your notifications.

From: The user who sent the message. In general, your name is displayed here as this is your Sent messages area.

Subject: The subject of the notification is linked so that you can click on it and read the text of the notification.

To: The user(s) who received the message.

Click the Expand icon expand to see all the recipients of the message.

Date: The date when the notification was sent.

new in Mahara 15.04 Reply: When you click anywhere into the message or the three dots “…” in the Reply column, you see buttons that allow you to reply to a message from another user. Click the Reply button reply to send a message to the recipient, or click the Reply all button replyall to send a message to all recipients of the original notification.

Delete: Select one or more notifications on that page that you want to delete by ticking the checkboxes or using the Select all link at the bottom of the column.

Note

You can only delete some notifications. new in Mahara 15.04 Those that you cannot delete, do not have a checkbox available.

Click the Delete button to permanently delete the notifications that you had selected for deletion.

Click the Delete all notifications button if you want to delete all notifications that you can delete at once. If you selected a specific activity type, only the notifications matching this type will be deleted.

Warning

Once notifications are deleted, you cannot retrieve them again.

Navigate through the list of your messages with the help of the Paginator.

Maximum items per page: You can select how many notifications you want to see per page by choosing a different number from the drop-down menu.

You can see how many notifications you have in total.

7.3.3. Send a message

You can send a message to multiple people in Mahara. When you clicked the Send message button on a person’s profile page or on the page “Find friends” or “My friends”, you can add more people to whom to send the message.

Send a message

Recipients: The person whom you selected to send the message to is added automatically to the recipient list. You can add more by starting typing and then selecting their name when they come up. You must enter at least one user to send a message to.

Note

It depends on the search settings of the site when you start seeing results for the names that you type. If the option “Exact user searches” is selected for the internal search plugin, then you need to type at least the entire first name for name options to be displayed. If the “Exact user searches” option is not selected, results start showing up as soon as you type the first letter.

Subject: Decide on the subject of the notification like in an email. You must enter a subject.

Message: Write your message. This field is required.

Click the Send message button to send the message to the people in the recipients’ list, or click the Cancel button to abort your action.

You can view all the messages that you sent in your “Sent” area in the Notifications.

8. Fulltext search

The regular Mahara search is limited to finding users and in certain places titles, descriptions and tags of pages or collections. However, Mahara can be extended to use allow for fulltext search capabilities. The Mahara core project team chose to use Elasticsearch [http://www.elasticsearch.org/]. This is a powerful and extensible fulltext search engine. It does require a Java server, e.g. Tomcat, to run and thus may not be available for small instances of Mahara.

Fulltext search is now also available for Mahara instances that run on MySQL.

If the site administrator installed the Elasticsearch plugin and configured the search settings to use the Elasticsearch plugin, your site is set for fulltext search and the “User search” box on the Dashboard is replaced by the fulltext search.

The main search box

The search box on the search page

When you are on your Dashboard, you can start your fulltext search directly in the Search box and click the Go button to start the search process.

You are taken to the search result where you can refine your search.

Click the Search button to search for either the same or another term.

Tick the checkbox Tags only if you want to limit your search to a specific tag.

You see the number of search results displayed.

Note

You see search results from the entire site: your own content, other users’ content, group content etc. The results may vary from user to user because you can only see results to which you have access.

The fulltext search allows you to drill down further into your search results helping you find the things that you are looking for more easily.

8.1. Search for text

The Text facet lists results from text that had been created on the site.

Find results in text

On the search results page click the Text tab to view text results. The tab includes the number of results found.

Filter results by: If you want to drill further down, you can limit your search results by any type listed. Click the All button to see all results again.

Owner: You can decide whether you want to see only results from your own portfolio or from others.

Sort by: Choose how you wish to have your results ordered:

Date (oldest first)

Date (most recent first)

Relevance: The configured relevance of the items. These can be defined for each site separately.

A to Z

Z to A

The title of the item is shown as well as its type.

The beginning of the text is displayed.

The author is displayed where there is one.

If the item was tagged, the tags are displayed as well.

Note

When you click on a tag, a new search is conducted using the tag as search term and limiting the search to tags.

8.2. Search for media

The Media facet lists results from media artefacts that you have uploaded or created.

Find media results

On the search results page click the Media tab to view text results. The tab includes the number of results found.

Filter results by: If you want to drill further down, you can limit your search results by any type listed. Click the All button to see all results again.

Owner: You can decide whether you want to see only results from your own portfolio or from others.

Sort by: Choose how you wish to have your results ordered:

Date (oldest first)

Date (most recent first)

Relevance: The configured relevance of the items. These can be defined for each site separately.

A to Z

Z to A

The title of the item is shown as well as its type.

The author is displayed.

The description of the item is shown.

If the item was tagged, the tags are displayed as well.

Note

When you click on a tag, a new search is conducted using the tag as search term and limiting the search to tags.

Used on page: See where this item is used on the site. You can click the link to the page or you can go to the artefact in the context of the page directly.

8.3. Search for portfolios

The Portfolio facet lists results from pages and collections on the site.

Find portfolio results

On the search results page click the Portfolio tab to view the results. The tab includes the number of results found.

Filter results by: If you want to drill further down, you can limit your search results by any type listed. Click the All button to see all results again.

Owner: You can decide whether you want to see only results from your own portfolio or from others.

Sort by: Choose how you wish to have your results ordered:

Date (oldest first)

Date (most recent first)

Relevance: The configured relevance of the items. These can be defined for each site separately.

A to Z

Z to A

The title of the page or collection is shown as well as its type.

The author is displayed.

The beginning of the page or collection description is shown.

If the page or collection was tagged, the tags are displayed as well.

Note

When you click on a tag, a new search is conducted using the tag as search term and limiting the search to tags.

8.4. Search for users

The Users facet lists people who have an account on the site that meet your search criteria.

Find user results

On the search results page click the Users tab to view the results. The tab includes the number of results found.

Sort by: Choose how you wish to have your results ordered:

Date (oldest first)

Date (most recent first)

Relevance: The configured relevance of the items. These can be defined for each site separately.

A to Z

Z to A

The name and profile picture of a person is displayed. The name is linked so you can go directly to the profile page of that user.

If the user has an introduction, it is displayed.

8.5. Search for groups

The Group facet lists groups that meet your search criteria.

Find group results

On the search results page click the Group tab to view the results. The tab includes the number of results found.

Administrator: You can decide whether you want to see only groups in which you are the adminstrator or others.

Sort by: Choose how you wish to have your results ordered:

Date (oldest first)

Date (most recent first)

Relevance: The configured relevance of the items. These can be defined for each site separately.

A to Z

Z to A

The title of the group is displayed.

The group administrators are listed.

The group description is displayed.

9. Administration

The administration in Mahara is reserved for site and institution administrators. Configuration settings and functionalities that are only available to site administrators with full privileges are marked as such.

9.1. Overview

9.1.1. Admin home

9.1.2. Warnings

9.1.3. Register your Mahara site

9.1.4. Site information

9.1.5. Site statistics

9.1.5.1. Full site information

9.1.5.2. Users

9.1.5.3. Groups

9.1.5.4. Pages

9.1.5.5. Content

9.1.5.6. Historical data

9.1.5.7. Institutions

9.1.6. Close site

9.2. Configure site

9.2.1. Site options

9.2.1.1. Site settings

9.2.1.2. User settings

9.2.1.3. Search settings

9.2.1.4. Group settings

9.2.1.5. Institution settings

9.2.1.6. Account settings

9.2.1.7. Security settings

9.2.1.8. Proxy settings

9.2.1.9. Email settings

9.2.1.10. Notification settings

9.2.1.11. General settings

9.2.1.12. Logging settings

9.2.2. Static pages

9.2.3. Menus

9.2.3.1. Links and resources

9.2.3.2. Footer menu

9.2.4. Networking

9.2.5. Licenses

9.2.5.1. List of licenses

9.2.5.2. Add a license

9.2.5.3. Edit a license

9.2.6. Pages

9.2.7. Collections

9.2.8. Share

9.2.9. Site skins

9.2.10. Fonts

9.2.10.1. Install a local font

9.2.10.2. Edit a local font

9.2.10.3. Install Google font(s)

9.2.11. Files

9.2.12. Cookie Consent

9.3. Users

9.3.1. User search

9.3.1.1. User bulk actions

9.3.1.2. User reports

9.3.1.2.1. Basic user information

9.3.1.2.2. Access list

9.3.1.2.3. Masquerading sessions

9.3.2. User account settings

9.3.2.1. Log in as

9.3.2.2. Change site account settings

9.3.2.3. Change institution settings

9.3.2.4. Suspend user

9.3.2.5. Delete user

9.3.3. Suspended and expired users

9.3.4. Site staff

9.3.5. Site administrators

9.3.6. Export queue

9.3.7. Add user

9.3.8. Add and update users by CSV

9.3.9. Change the authentication method and remote username in bulk

9.4. Groups

9.4.1. Administer groups

9.4.1.1. Group file quota

9.4.1.2. Add or remove administrators

9.4.2. Group categories

9.4.3. Archived submissions

9.4.4. Add and update groups by CSV

9.4.5. Update group members by CSV

9.5. Institutions

9.5.1. Overview

9.5.2. Add an institution

9.5.2.1. Change the institution logo

9.5.2.2. Use the configurable theme

9.5.3. Edit the site institution

9.5.4. Edit an institution

9.5.4.1. IMAP authentication

9.5.4.2. LDAP authentication

9.5.4.2.1. LDAP user sync

9.5.4.2.2. LDAP group sync

9.5.4.3. Persona authentication

9.5.4.4. SAML authentication

9.5.4.5. XML-RPC / MNet authentication

9.5.4.6. Order of authentication methods

9.5.4.7. Suspend institution

9.5.5. Institution static pages

9.5.6. Members

9.5.6.1. People who have requested institution membership

9.5.6.2. People who have not requested membership yet

9.5.6.3. People who have left a given institution

9.5.6.4. People who are already institution members

9.5.6.5. People who have been invited

9.5.7. Institution staff

9.5.8. Institution administrators

9.5.9. Admin notifications

9.5.10. Profile completion

9.5.11. Institution pages

9.5.12. Institution collections

9.5.13. Share institution pages and collections

9.5.14. Files

9.5.15. Institution statistics

9.5.15.1. Institution information

9.5.15.2. Users

9.5.15.3. Pages

9.5.15.4. Content

9.5.15.5. Historical data

9.5.16. Pending registrations

9.5.16.1. Self-register for an internal account

9.5.16.2. Review pending registrations

9.5.16.3. Complete self-registration

9.6. Extensions

9.6.1. Plugin administration

9.6.1.1. Blocktype: File / folder

9.6.1.2. Blocktype: File / gallery

9.6.1.3. Blocktype: File / internalmedia

9.6.1.4. Blocktype: Text

9.6.1.5. Blocktype: Wall

9.6.1.6. Artefact type: Comments

9.6.1.7. Artefact type: File

9.6.1.7.1. Default user quota

9.6.1.7.2. Default group quota

9.6.1.7.3. Upload agreement

9.6.1.7.4. Resize images on upload

9.6.1.7.5. Profile picture size

9.6.1.7.6. Comments

9.6.1.7.7. Folder downloads

9.6.1.8. Artefact type: Profile

9.6.1.9. Authentication: BrowserID / Persona

9.6.1.10. Authentication: SAML

9.6.1.11. Search: Internal search

9.6.1.12. Search: Elasticsearch

9.6.1.13. Interaction: Forum

9.6.2. HTML filters

9.6.3. Allowed iframe sources

9.6.4. Clean URLs

9.6.5. Web services

9.7. Web services

9.7.1. Configuration

9.7.1.1. Web services master switch and switching protocols on and off

9.7.1.2. Networking certificates

9.7.1.3. Manage service groups

9.7.1.4. Manage service access tokens

9.7.1.5. Manage service users

9.7.2. OAuth service registration

9.7.3. Web services logs

9.7.4. Web services test client

9.7.5. Application connections

9.8. Experimental features

9.8.1. Bulk export of Leap2A files

9.8.2. Bulk import of Leap2A files

9.8.2.1. Bulk import using a bulk export file

9.8.2.2. Bulk import from scratch

9.8.3. usersuniquebyusername variable

9.1. Overview

As site and institution administrator you have an additional navigation item, Administration. When you click on it, your navigation changes completely to give you quick access to the administration of Mahara. Depending on your role as site or institution administrator, you may see the full administration (site administrators) or only a subset of it (institution administrators).

Top level navigation for a site administrator once inside Administration

Top level navigation for an institution administrator once inside Administration

9.1.1. Admin home

Administration → Admin home

Note

Admin home is only accessible by site administrators.

You see all administrative items on the main page of the Administration on Admin home.

Administration overview page

Note

Important warnings including their resolution are displayed in red so they cannot be overlooked easily.

If a core Mahara plugin requires an upgrade, you will see a notice about it and only need to click the button Run the upgrade.

Upgrade notice for a plugin

If a plugin needs to be installed, click the Installation via extensions page button to be taken to the Plugin administration for the installation.

Installation notice for a plugin

9.1.2. Warnings

After you have installed Mahara, you may see a number of warnings when you go to the Administration as site administrator. They should all be resolved to ensure that your site is secure and has all the necessary settings.

Session entropy length: Your PHP session.entropy_length setting is too small. Set it to at least 16 in your php.ini to ensure that generated session IDs are random and unpredictable enough. You can learn more about this advisory on the OWASP session management cheatsheet [https://www.owasp.org/index.php/Session_Management_Cheat_Sheet#Session_ID_Properties].

Noreply email address: If the system email address is empty or a malformed email address, you are asked to check and correct it in the system mail address setting.

Site-wide password salt: If you do not have one set, please edit your config.php and set the “passwordsaltmain” parameter to a reasonable secret phrase: $cfg->passwordsaltmain = 'your secret phrase here';

9.1.3. Register your Mahara site

Administration → Admin home → Register

As site administrator you can choose to register your Mahara site with mahara.org [http://mahara.org] and help us compile a list of the Mahara installations around the world and get a picture by how many people Mahara is used. Currently, this list is not published and made available to anyone. When you are on the administration overview page, you will see a link directly to the registration page.

Register your Mahara site

You can preview the data that is sent. Sending weekly updates is recommended so that the information we have is up-to-date. All information is sent anonymously. We will only know, for example, which version of Mahara you are running, how many times blocks or artefacts have been used, how many users you have etc.

Register your Mahara site with the Mahara project

Data that will be sent: Click this link to preview the data that will be sent from your site.

Send weekly updates: Enable this checkbox if you wish so send regular updates about your site to the project. These updates are based on changes in your site and include only anonymous updates.

Click the Register button to finish your registration with the Mahara project.

9.1.4. Site information

The Site information gives you as site administrator a quick overview of:

How your site is used.

When your site was installed.

How big the database is.

How much site data has been accumulated.

Which version of Mahara you are running.

Whether your cron is running or not.

Site information

If you have problems with your Mahara instance and you request information from the community in the forums [http://mahara.org/group/view.php?id=1], this information, esp. about your version and the cron, are useful to have. Furthermore, the version number allows you to check that you have the latest security release of your Mahara version installed.

See also

The cron job is very important in Mahara as a number of vital tasks are only performed when it is running. You can find more information of how to set it up in the wiki [https://wiki.mahara.org/index.php/System_Administrator%27s_Guide/Cron_Job]. If the cron is not running or only partially running, that information is displayed in red.

9.1.5. Site statistics

Administration → Admin home → Site statistics

You can view a number of statistics about your Mahara site that give you an indication of how your site is used:

Overall site information

Overview information about users

Quick information about groups

Basic statistics about pages available on the site

Content statistics for the current week

Historical data for content statistics since the beginning of collecting these statistics

Quick overview of institutions and some of their basic statistics

See also

All site administrators and site staff have access to the statistics. They can also view the statistics individually for each institution.

9.1.5.1. Full site information

The full site information gives you information about a number of important things that site administrators may wish to see in an overview quickly.

Overview of the site

Site installed: Installation date of your site

Users: Number of

registered users, i.e. everybody who has an account

active users, i.e. users that have at least logged in once and have done something

Groups: Number of groups and average group membership of a user

Pages: Number of pages and average pages per user with pages

Database size: Size of your database on the server

Disk usage: The amount of disk space your Mahara installation uses

Mahara version: Version number of Mahara and the latest stable release

Cron: Information on whether cron is running or not

9.1.5.2. Users

On the Users tab of the site statistics, you see some overview statistics about the users on the site.

Statistics about users

You can see the following:

Your average user: Some basic statistics about your typical user such as:

average number of friends with the name of the person with most friends

average number of pages with the author of the most pages

average amount of file quota used with the user who has used most

A graph displays the number of members based on institutions.

Daily user statistics: The statistics show information about how many users logged in, were created and existed in total on a specific day.

Export statistics in CSV format: Download the daily user statistics as CSV file.

9.1.5.3. Groups

On the Groups tab of the site statistics, some information is available about groups.

Statistics about groups

You can see the following:

The number of groups by group type

course group

standard group

The number of groups by access type

open membership

approved membership

controlled membership

A graph shows the groups according to group and access type.

Biggest groups: The groups are listed in descending order according to the number of their members including

number of members

number of pages

number of forums

number of forum posts

Export statistics in CSV format: Download the cumulative statistics about the groups as CSV file.

9.1.5.4. Pages

The Pages tab in the site statistics provides you with basic information about pages that have been created on the site.

Statistics about pages

You can see the following:

The most frequently used blocks in portfolio pages.

A graph shows the distribution of profile, group and portfolio pages.

Most popular pages: The most popular pages are sorted in descending order with links to the pages and the owner.

Export statistics in CSV format: Download the cumulative statistics about the pages and number of views as well as comments as CSV file.

9.1.5.5. Content

The Content tab in the site statistics holds information about

artefacts

general site information

Statistics for the current week for all artefacts etc.

Name: The statistics item itself, e.g. artefact or other general item on site level. It is linked to the Historial data statistics for an overview of the changes over time.

Modified: This column shows the number of updates to an artefact etc. during the current week.

Total: This column shows the total number of instances of the statistics items.

Export statistics in CSV format: Download the cumulative statistics about all the statistics shown for the week as CSV file.

See also

If you wish to see the number of different blocks used in portfolios, please go to the institution statistics.

Note

The number of total content statistics will vary because only when an artefact etc. was used will the statistics be created for that type.

9.1.5.6. Historical data

The Historical data tab in the site statistics holds historical data over time about a particular content item that you have clicked on in the Content tab. Changes are saved per default on a weekly basis. However, whenever you run the cron manually, a new statistics will be created as well. You can also download the statistics as CSV file.

Historical data for individual content items

Historical statistics for field: Display of the artefact or other item that you are looking at.

Date: Display of the date when the statistics were created.

Modified: Display of the number of modifications from the previous date to the next one when the statistics were created.

Total: Total number of instances of this statistical item at the time the statistics were run.

Export statistics in CSV format: Download the cumulative statistics for this particular item as CSV file.

Note

When you click on the Historical data tab without choosing an item to look at in particular beforehand, the number of users are displayed as that is a statistics that is available on all sites.

9.1.5.7. Institutions

The Institutions tab in the site statistics holds cumulative data on basic institution statistics. The numbers reflect the amount of content institution members have created. You find the totals for:

members

pages

blocks

artefacts

forum posts

You can sort each column in the table by clicking on its heading and also download the statistics as CSV file.

Basic institution statistics

Note

If your site allows users to be in more than one institution, their content will be counted twice as they are regarded as members in each institution. However, if looked at just the full site statistics where institutions do not play a role, there their content is only counted once.

9.1.6. Close site

Administration → Admin home → Overview

You may close the site to everyone except administrators. This is useful when you prepare for and complete a database upgrade. Only administrators will be able to log in until you either reopen the site or an upgrade is successfully completed.

Close your Mahara site

9.2. Configure site

Administration → Configure site

Note

Configure site is only accessible by site administrators.

In Configure site you can:

set general parameters for your Mahara site

edit site pages

determine the display of certain menu items

allow networking with Moodle or another Mahara

create and share site pages and collections

upload site files

9.2.1. Site options

Administration → Configure site → Site options

In Site options you can set global options that will apply by default throughout the entire site.

Note

One or more fields may be disabled if overridden by a setting in your config.php file.

When you are done editing one or more settings, click the Update site options button at the bottom of the page.

9.2.1.1. Site settings

Site settings

Site name: Choose a name for your Mahara instance. It appears in certain places around the site, e.g. in the title bar of the browser and in emails sent from the site. Therefore, it should not be too long.

Language: Set the default language for your site. If you have multiple language packs installed, you see a drop-down menu. Otherwise, the standard language, English, is displayed.

Country: The country selected is the default for country selections throughout your Mahara installation, e.g. in contact information.

Theme: Mahara comes with a number of themes that you can use. Choose one from the drop-down menu to make it the default theme for your site. If you have institutions set up, they can choose their own theme. You can search for community-contributed themes [https://wiki.mahara.org/index.php/Themes/Contributed_themes] on the Mahara wiki.

Drop-down navigation: If set to “On”, the main Mahara navigation uses a drop-down menu for its sub navigation.

Show homepage / dashboard information: If set to “On”, information about Mahara and how it is used is displayed on the homepage for logged-out and on the Dashboard for registered users. Registered can disable this. See also Quick links.

Send weekly updates?: If set to “On”, your site sends weekly updates to mahara.org [http://mahara.org] with some statistics about your site. See also Register your Mahara site.

Note

You can install more language packs. There is a complete list of them [http://langpacks.mahara.org/] as well as more information about the language packs [https://wiki.mahara.org/index.php/Language_Packs] on the wiki.

9.2.1.2. User settings

User settings

Users can choose page themes: If this setting is enabled, users can select a theme for their portfolio page. The page is displayed with this theme to other users. Thus, the institution or site theme can be overwritten.

Display remote avatars: If allowed, users’ default profile pictures will be their Gravatar [http://gravatar.com] pictures (remote avatar). Users will need an account with Gravatar for this to work.

Note

If you use your own avatar server to provide profile pictures for your users, you can use that instead of Gravatar for the default profile pictures. In order to do so, you need to add $cfg->remoteavatarbaseurl = 'http://example.com/avatar/'; (with the correct URL to your service) to your config.php.

Users can hide real names: If allowed, users who have set a display name may choose to be searchable only by their display name and will not be found in searches by their real name. In the administration section of the site, users are always searchable by their real names. An administrator (site and institution) always sees the display name, first and last name and username.

new in Mahara 15.04 Never display usernames: If set to “On”, ordinary users cannot search for others using their username in “Search users” on the Dashboard or via Find friends. They will also not be able to see the username of any other user. These restrictions do not apply to staff and administrators. Additionally, Clean URLs (if activated) for profile pages will be generated using display names (if provided) or real names, rather than usernames.

Show users in public search: If allowed, usernames can appear in public search results. In addition, this feature needs to have the value $cfg->publicsearchallowed = true; set in your config.php file and requires a search plugin that allows public search, e.g. Elasticsearch.

Note

When you change this setting, you need to re-index the search index for the change to take effect.

Anonymous comments: If allowed, logged-out users / users without a login can leave comments on public pages or pages they can access via a secret URL.

Profile access for all registered users: If this option is set to “Off”, profile pages are initially viewable by all registered users, but the owner is allowed to restrict access to a smaller group if they wish. Enable this option if you want to make sure all users can see each others’ profile pages. Profiles of institution members will always be visible to other members of the same institution.

Staff report access: If set to “On”, institution staff will have access to the reports page for users in their institutions. This page is normally restricted to administrators and lists extra user information including page access lists.

Staff statistics access: If set to “On”, institution staff will have access to the statistics for users in their institutions. This is normally restricted to administrators and site staff.

Users can disable device detection: If allowed, users can disable mobile device detection in their account settings. This allows them to be more flexible in what they can view and do on a mobile device such as a smartphone or tablet. This setting is part of the responsive design changes to Mahara.

Require reason for masquerading: If set to “On”, administrators will be required to enter a reason for masquerading as other users. This will be logged, and if the setting “Notify users of masquerading” is enabled, included in the notification to the user about the masquerading. This setting needs logging to be turned on.

Notify users of masquerading: If set to “On”, users will be notified when an administrator masqueraded as them. The notification will include who, when and - if enabled under “Require reason for masquerading” - why. This setting needs logging to be turned on.

Show profile completion: If set to “On”, a progress bar with tips about what to complete in the user profile will be displayed in the sidebar to users. They can disable it in their account settings.

See also

Administrators can configure the items that count towards profile completion in Administration → Institutions → institution administration.

Export to queue: If allowed, the export queue will handle the exporting of user portfolios via Leap2A for better server load management.

Note

This feature is still experimental. Turning this feature on will export individual portfolios in Portfolio → Export via the export queue. That means that the export is made when there are enough system resources available. The user exporting a portfolio will receive an email when the export is ready for download.

new in Mahara 15.04 Multiple journals: If allowed, all users will have multiple journals per default. They can still change that setting in their personal account settings.

9.2.1.3. Search settings

Mahara comes with a search plugin that allows you to search for users and pages. If you install another search plugin, you will be able to select which one to use for your site.

Search settings

See also

You can configure the internal search plugin in the administration of the search plugin.

9.2.1.4. Group settings

Mahara cannot only be used for individual work but also to work collaboratively in groups. Some settings are available in that area.

Group settings

Create groups: You decide whether administrators, administrators and staff or everyone can create groups. The default setting is the most permissive “everyone” because Mahara is user-centered and gives the individual users a great deal of control over what they want to do. If you choose to limit the group creation to administrators (and staff), these need to be contacted to set up groups. There is no internal group request system.

Create public groups: Choose whether everyone or only administrators can create public groups. These are groups for which you do not need to be a member of the group or even have a login for Mahara to view the group homepage, discussion forums (and member listing if the group administrator allowed that).

Allow group categories: If turned on, site administrators can create categories for users to assign to their groups. These categories can be used to filter groups in My groups and Find groups.

See also

Group categories are managed by site administrators in the groups area of the administration.

9.2.1.5. Institution settings

You can use Mahara with multiple institutions and separate them for administrative purposes, e.g. user management and permissions, and to give them a different theme.

Institution settings

Confirm registration: If turned on, administrators cannot make the Confirm registration setting optional when configuring an institution. This prevents institution administrators from disabling this setting when it is required site-wide to not allow user accounts to be created without administrator approval.

Users allowed multiple institutions: If turned on, users can be members of several institutions at the same time. Thus, a user who belongs to two or more institutions only needs one account.

Warning time for institution expiry: If set, a notification will be sent to site and institution administrators this amount of time before an institution is due to expire and be suspended. This time may be specified in days, weeks, months, years or “No end date”. If the latter option is chosen, institutions will not expire by default.

Auto-suspend expired institutions: If turned on, this option will allow Mahara to automatically suspend an institution that has expired automatically. This means that users of that institution will not be able to log in until the institution has been unsuspended.

9.2.1.6. Account settings

Account settings

Session lifetime: For security reasons, after a specified period of inactivity, a user will be logged off the site automatically. This field specifies this time in minutes. The default value is 1440 minutes (24 hours).

Default registration expiry lifetime: As site administrator you can decide when pending registrations that require approval expire. This time may be specified in days, weeks, months, years or “No end date”. If the latter option is chosen, pending registrations will not expire by default. The default value is 2 weeks.

Default account lifetime: If set, user accounts will expire after this amount of time from when they were created. When a user account is expired, the user cannot log in. This time may be specified in days, weeks, months, years or “No end date”. If the latter option is chosen, accounts will not expire by default.

Override user account lifetime: Choose for which accounts a change in the default account lifetime shall take effect:

Only for newly created users

For new users and users without an account lifetime already set (excluding site administrators)

For all user accounts (excluding site administrators)

Note

Site administrators are always excluded from a change in the account lifetime as they should always have access to the system.

Default account inactivity time: If set, users who do not log in for this amount of time will be considered “inactive” and will not be able to log in anymore. This time may be specified in days, weeks, months, years or “No end date”. If the latter option is chosen, users are not set to “inactive” by default.

Warning time for inactivity / expiry: If set, a warning message will be sent to users this amount of time before their accounts are due to expire or become inactive. This time may be specified in days, weeks, months, years or “No end date”. If the latter is chosen, users do not receive a warning before their account expires or they are flagged as having an inactive account.

9.2.1.7. Security settings

Security settings

Virus checking: If you want all files that are uploaded by users to be run through the ClamAV virus scanner, you should turn the virus checking option on. You have to have ClamAV [http://www.clamav.net/] installed on your server.

Path to ClamAV: For security reasons, the path to ClamAV on your server needs to be provided in the config.php: $cfg->pathtoclam = '/path/to/your/clamscan';. You see the path here if you provided that config value.

Anti-spam: There are three levels of anti-spam protection available for publicly visible forms such as the contact and registration forms. A form submission is never silently rejected. Rather, an error message is displayed asking the user to try again if the submission is classified as spam. The three choices are:

None: No anti-spam checks are performed on form submissions.

Simple: Some basic checks are performed. Form submissions with email addresses that are not well-formed or that have an excessive number of URLs are rejected.

Advanced: Performs additional checks to determine whether email addresses are real or contain URLs that are blacklisted. This requires an Internet connection.

Enable Spamhaus URL blacklist: If set to “On”, URLs will be checked against the Spamhaus DNSBL. The Spamhaus Project [http://www.spamhaus.org] provides a URL blacklist that is free for non-commercial, low-traffic use. A professional use datafeed service is also available but not supported in Mahara. Please read the Spamhaus DNSBL usage terms [http://www.spamhaus.org/organization/dnsblusage.html] before enabling this option.

Enable SURBL URL blacklist: If set to “On”, URLs will be checked against the SURBL DNSBL. SURBL [http://www.surbl.org] provides a URL blacklist that is free for organizations with fewer than 1000 users. A professional use datafeed service is also available, but not supported in Mahara. Please read the SURBL usage terms [http://www.surbl.org/usage-policy.html] before enabling this option.

Disable external resources in user HTML: Turning this option on will prevent users from embedding external resources such as images from remote sites into their forum posts and other HTML content. It is however a good thing to do from a security standpoint since it does neutralise a few clever phishing attacks. See the HTML Purifier documentation [http://htmlpurifier.org/live/configdoc/plain.html#URI.DisableExternalResources] for more details.

reCAPTCHA on user registration form: If turned on, people who register themselves on the site are required to fill in a reCAPTCHA [http://recaptcha.org/] test. This is a spam protection instrument.

reCAPTCHA site key: Enter the site key for your site’s reCAPTCHA account.

reCAPTCHA secret key: Enter the secret key for your site’s reCAPTCHA account.

9.2.1.8. Proxy settings

Proxy settings

Proxy address: If your site uses a proxy server to access the Internet, specify the proxies in hostname:portnumber notation.

Proxy authentication model: Select your proxy’s authentication model (none or basic [NCSA]), if appropriate.

Proxy credentials: Enter the credentials required for your proxy to authenticate your web server in username:password format.

9.2.1.9. Email settings

Email settings

SMTP host: If you want to force Mahara to use a specific SMTP server instead of the system one, enter its hostname here, e.g. smtp.example.com. It is possible to specify more than one host by separating them with semicolons, e.g. smtp1.example.com;smtp2.example.com, but keep in mind that all other settings, e.g. authentication credentials and port numbers, will apply to all listed servers. It is not possible to specify different credentials for each server in this list. This feature is useful when SMTP host authentication is not required or you list different frontends for the same mail server in which case other settings will work.

SMTP port: If your SMTP server uses a port number different from 25, you may specify it here. When encryption is enabled, the default ports are 465 for SSL and 587 for TLS. You only need to specify a port number if it is different from these. Check the correct settings with your mail service provider.

User: If your SMTP server requires authentication, enter your username here.

Password: If your SMTP server requires authentication, enter your password here.

SMTP encryption: If your SMTP server supports encryption, enable it here.

System mail address: This email address is the address that emails are sent from Mahara.

9.2.1.10. Notification settings

You can set the default options for new users to receive notifications. Users can override these settings on their own Settings → Notifications page.

The options you have are:

Email: Sends an email to your primary email address once the notification was created. In some cases, the cron needs to run first in order for the notification to be sent.

Email digest: Sends one email per day for all the notifications that you set to “Email digest”.

Note

If you select either of the email options, notifications will still arrive in the user’s inbox, but they will be marked as read automatically.

Inbox: All notifications are only sent to your system inbox that you can reach in the top right corner next to the “Logout” button.

None: If you use this option, you will not get a notification for the selected notification type. Use this setting wisely as you may miss important notifications.

Note

You cannot set “System messages” and “Messages from other users” to “None”.

Notification settings

Contact us: Only site administrators see this notification type. These are messages sent via the “Contact us” form that can be accessed in the footer of the site if the site administrators decided to display this link.

Feedback: These are notifications about any feedback or comments received on pages, artefacts or journal posts.

new in Mahara 15.04 Feedback on annotations: These notifications are triggered when feedback is left on an annotation.

Group message: The system generates these notifications automatically, e.g. when a user requests to join a group.

Institution message: These notifications are generated by the system automatically, e.g. institution confirmation message, institution removal message, institution request sent to administrator.

Message from other users: Messages that are sent by other users.

New forum post: These notifications are sent to a user when new forum posts happened in the forums or forum topics that the user is subscribed to.

New page access: This type of notification is sent to you when you, you as a friend or one of your groups has been given access to a page. You do not receive notifications about pages accessible to all logged-in users and the public.

Objectionable content: Only administrators see this notification type. These notifications contain complaints by users about content that an administrator should take a look at because it does not comply with the terms and conditions set out for the site. This setting is for pages and artefacts that contain objectionable content.

Objectionable content in forum: Only administrators see this notification type. These notifications contain complaints by users about content that an administrator should take a look at because it does not comply with the terms and conditions set out for the site. This setting is for forum topics and posts that contain objectionable content.

Repeat virus upload: Only site administrators see this notification type. This notification informs site administrators about users who repeatedly upload virus-infected files. Virus checking must be turned on.

System message: This type of notification is generated automatically by the system or sent automatically by one of the site administrators, e.g. account confirmation message.

Virus flag release: Only site administrators see this notification type. This notification lets site administrators know when files were released by the virus scanner. Virus checking must be turned on.

Watchlist: Notifications of items that you put onto your watchlist are generated automatically and sent in intervals.

9.2.1.11. General settings

General settings

Allow public pages: If turned on, users can create portfolio pages that are accessible to the public rather than only to logged-in users.

Allow public profiles: If turned on, users can set their profile pages to be accessible to the public rather than only to logged-in users. However, only logged-in users can use interactive features such as the wall. If the option “Allow public pages” is chosen, “Allow public profiles” is automatically selected.

Allow anonymous pages: If turned on, users can hide their name as the author of a page from other users. Administrators and staff can still view authorship information by clicking on the “Author’s name hidden” link that will reveal the real name.

Generate sitemap: If turned on, sitemap files from publicly accessible pages, groups and forum topics are generated that can be sent to another service.

Enable portfolio search: If turned on, the “Search my portfolio” side block is displayed in the Content and Portfolio sections of the site. However, it has not been working for most users for a long time.

Enable tag cloud: If turned on, users see a side block in the Content and Portfolio sections of the site with a list of their most frequently used tags. The number of tags displayed is defined by the option “Maximum tags in cloud”.

Maximum tags in cloud: Enter the default number of tags to display in user tag clouds. Users can change this number in their account settings.

Small page headers: If turned on, a small header and site navigation block are displayed when viewing or editing portfolio pages instead of the standard header. This option gives more space for the portfolio content itself. The small page header is visible at all times when you are on a portfolio page.

Show online users: If turned on, users see a side block with a list of the users who have been logged-in in the last 10 minutes (cf. the dashboard).

Online users limit: Enter the maximum number of users to display in the Online users side block.

Registration agreement: If turned on, you force users to agree to the “Terms and Conditions” before registration. You should edit your site’s “Terms and Conditions” page before enabling this option. You can do so under Static pages.

License metadata: If turned on, users can choose under which license they want to make their content available. They can set a default license in their account settings and then decide for each artefact individually as well. This setting can be overwritten by an institution administrator in the institution settings.

Allow custom licenses: If turned on, users can enter any URL as license for their content. If not checked, users will be limited to the licenses configured by the site administrator.

Allow mobile uploads: If turned on, users have the option of setting authentication tokens in their account settings. That allows them to upload content from their mobile devices. You can enter more than one token in order to connect mutliple mobile devices.

HTML editor: Choose whether the HTML editor is used by default or not. If set to User-defined, users will be allowed to choose whether to use the HTML editor in their personal settings or not. Otherwise the specified setting will be used site-wide.

Access to site files: If turned on, registered users will have access to site files in subfolders of the folder “public”. By default, only files directly in the folder “public” are accessible to them.

Watchlist notification delay: Decide how many minutes after editing a page, a watchlist notification is sent. The default value is “20” for 20 minutes.

Note

In the past, a watchlist notification about a change was sent whenever a block was edited on a page. Since that caused a lot of notifications to be sent, a delay has been put in place to accumulate a number of changes so that it can be assumed more that a page and not only an item on the page has changed.

9.2.1.12. Logging settings

Mahara logs a number of events. These can now be collected in the database as well. The primary reason for logging events in the database is the logging of administrators masquerading as users for enhanced audits of these actions.

Logging settings

Log events: Decide which events you wish to log in the database. Events are generated every time the user does something significant on the site, such as editing a page. This log is kept in the event_log table in the database.

None: Nothing is logged in the database.

Masquerading: Only masquerading sessions are logged. This setting needs to be turned on if you wish to report on administrator masquerading.

All: All events that can be logged in the database are logged.

Note

No matter which logging setting you choose, all events are still logged in the access log.

Event log expiry: Decide for how long you wish to keep your database log. If you selected to log all events, the table can grow quite quickly especially on an active site. This time may be specified in days, weeks, months, years or “No end date”. If the latter option is chosen, the event log is not deleted by default.

See also

A report of masquerading sessions is available in the “User reports” section if you turned on logging of masqueraded session or all logging.

The table event_log contains the data that can be logged.

usr: user ID of the person whose account is shown on screen

realusr: user ID of the administrator who masquerades

event: action being carried out, e.g. beginning of a masqueradin session, saving of an artefact, deleting of a page or artefact, update user information, placing a block onto a page

data: additional information about the action, e.g. the ID of a block that is updated

time: time when the action was carried out

9.2.2. Static pages

Administration → Configure site → Static pages

Note

The menu item Edit site pages was renamed to Static pages in Mahara 1.9.

Here you can edit the content of some pages around the site and the pages linked to in the footer:

About

Home (Dashboard)

Logged-out home

Privacy statement

Terms and conditions

See also

Institutions can change the content of thes pages on their static institution pages to their liking and do not have to go with the content from the entire site.

All pages come with default text that you can change entirely. Every page must contain some text. You can use the visual editor to style your page.

Edit static pages

Page name: Choose the page you want to edit from the drop-down menu.

Page text: Change the text in the editor window. You cannot leave this field empty.

Click the Save changes button.

Note

If your site has added custom pages to the menu, e.g. like MyPortfolio.school.nz [http://myportfolio.school.nz] where you have a number of additional informational pages, you can now edit their content from the Static pages screen. In order to do so, a server administrator needs to make changes on the backend [https://bugs.launchpad.net/mahara/+bug/999464].

9.2.3. Menus

Administration → Configure site → Menus

There are two menus in Mahara:

Links and resources

Footer

9.2.3.1. Links and resources

The Links and resources menu appears to all users on most pages in the side bar. You can decide which links or files are available to everybody - also those without a login - and which ones only logged-in users shall see.

Add external links to the Links and resources menu

Choose which Links and resources menu you want to edit: the public or the logged-in users one.

Choose the type External link.

Give your link a name that will appear in the menu.

Provide the full URL to the link including http:// or https://.

Click the Add button.

Click the Edit button to make changes to the existing link.

Click the Delete button to delete the link.

You can also link to files that you have uploaded to the site files area.

Add a site file to the Links and resources menu

Choose which Links and resources menu you want to edit: the public or the logged-in users one.

Choose the type Site file.

Give your site file a name that will appear in the menu.

Choose the file you want to display from the drop-down menu.

Click the Add button.

You can make changes to the name or choose a different file when you click the Edit button.

You can remove the file from the menu by clicking the Delete button. This will only delete the reference to the file in the menu but not the file itself.

Note

If you wish to display your links and resources in a specific order, map that order out before you add the links and files because you cannot change the order afterwards.

Links and resources menu result

9.2.3.2. Footer menu

You have control over which links are displayed in the footer on each page.

Footer menu

Select which site pages shall appear in the footer on each page. You can change the text of “Terms and conditions”, “Privacy statement” and “About” in Static pages.

If you want to link any of these pages to an existing external page, provide the URL in the respective text field.

Click the Save changes button to save your settings.

9.2.4. Networking

Administration → Configure site → Networking

Mahara’s networking features allow it to communicate with other Mahara or Moodle [http://moodle.org] sites. If networking is enabled, you can use it to configure single sign-on (SSO) for users who log in at either Moodle or Mahara or allow users from another Mahara instance to access yours.

From Moodle 2.0 on you can connect Mahara and Moodle to save certain content you created in Moodle through the portfolio feature [http://docs.moodle.org/22/en/Portfolios].

Networking overview

In order to use networking site-wide with any institution, you need to:

Enable networking: Choose “Yes” from the drop-down menu.

Auto-register all hosts: If you choose “Yes”, an institution is created for any host that connects allowing these users to log in to your Mahara site. We recommend you leave the default “No” because that gives you more control over which Moodle or Mahara instances can connect.

Click the Save changes button.

Delete this key: Click the Delete button if you want to generate a new key for your Mahara site.

Depending on which site you wish to connect, you may need to provide some of the other information on the page, in particular the WWW root and the public key.

See also

The comprehensive guide for setting up a Mahoodle [https://wiki.mahara.org/index.php?title=System_Administrator%27s_Guide/Moodle%2F%2FMahara_Integration] can be consulted when connecting Mahara and Moodle.

You set up MNet for an institution when you edit the authentication method XML-RPC.

9.2.5. Licenses

Administration → Configure site → Licenses

The site administrator can allow users to add license metadata to their artefacts in the general site settings. Additionally, an institution administrator can require institution members to choose a license for any of their artefacts in the institution settings.

9.2.5.1. List of licenses

Licenses that are available to all users of the site are defined on the Licenses page. Mahara comes with a number of pre-defined licenses, but the site administrator can add many more or delete any of the existing ones.

Available licenses on the site

Icon: Every license can have an icon / license logo that is displayed on the details page of an artefact.

Display name: The name that is displayed for each license around the site, e.g. the drop-down menu where a user can select a license and on the details page of an artefact.

Acronym: The short name by which the license is also known. This acronym is also displayed to the user on the details page of an artefact.

URL: The Internet address where the license text can be found. When a license is displayed on the details page of an artefact, it is linked to this URL.

Note

It is important for users to be able to click on a link to the license because that allows them to learn about the license conditions and what they can do with the artefact or not.

Click the Edit button edit to change properties of a license. You can change the display name, acronym and the license icon, but not its URL. If you want to change the latter, you will need to create a new license.

Click the Delete button delete to remove a license from the system.

Click the Add a license button to add an additional license that users can choose from.

Note

The Creative Commons 4.0 licenses were added to Mahara. If you upgraded your site, you will also see the 3.0 licenses. If you installed Mahara 1.9 from scratch, you will only see the 4.0 licenses.

Check out what is new in Creative Commons 4.0 [https://creativecommons.org/version4], and why you may want to choose that license.

9.2.5.2. Add a license

As site administrator you can add as many licenses as you wish. Go to Administration → Configure site → Licenses and click the Add a license button.

Add a new license to the site

Display name: Choose a name for your license that will be displayed around the site, e.g. on the details page of an artefact and the drop-down menu in which users and institution administrators choose their defaul license. This field is required.

URL: The Internet address where the license text can be found. When a license is displayed on the details page of an artefact, it is linked to this URL. This field is required.

Acronym: If the license you want to add also has a commonly known acronym, you can enter it.

Icon: If the license you add has a logo that you want to display next to the icense, e.g. on the details page of an artefact, you can link it here.

This can be a http://… or https://… URL to an image elsewhere on your site or anywhere on the Internet.

It can also be a license:… URL to specify license icons from the Mahara theme. For example, the URL license:gfdl.png would refer to the file static/images/license/gfdl.png in the theme.

Click the Save button to add the license to the site.

9.2.5.3. Edit a license

As site administrator you can change the properties of any license. Go to Administration → Configure site → Licenses and click the Edit button edit next to a license that you want to change. You can change all license properties but the URL.

Edit a license on the site

Display name: Change the name of the license that is displayed around the site.

Acronym: Change the acronoym of the license.

Icon: Change the icon that is associated with the license and displayed along with the license’s name around the site.

This can be a http://… or https://… URL to an image elsewhere on your site or anywhere on the Internet.

It can also be a license:… URL to specify license icons from the Mahara theme. For example, the URL license:gfdl.png would refer to the file static/images/license/gfdl.png in the theme.

Click the Save button to keep your changes to the license.

Note

You cannot change the URL of the license. If you have a mistake in the URL, you will need to delete the license entirely and add it correctly.

9.2.6. Pages

Administration → Configure site → Pages

You can create site pages with informational content to share with other users or you can create templates which users can copy into their own accounts. You can also change the default content and layout of the pages for the dashboard, profile and group homepage.

Site pages

Click the Create page button to start a new page from scratch.

Note

Creating and editing a site page is very similar to creating and editing a portfolio page. However, not all blocks are available when editing a site page in the page editor due to the different context. Please refer to the overview of blocks for a list of all the blocks that you can use in a site page.

Click the Copy a page button to choose an existing page of yours or another user as basis for a new page.

Search: Enter your search term that you want to search for within your portfolio pages.

Decide whether you want to search within the title, description and tags or just within the tags that you associated with a page.

Sort by: Decide on the sort order in which you wish to display your pages.

None (blank): The default sort order lists the dashboard and profile pages before all other pages. Pages are displayed in alphabetical order.

Date created: List the pages in chronologically reverse order with the newest pages first.

Last modified: Display the pages in the order of their last modification with the most recent pages that have been changed first.

Last viewed: Show the pages in the order in which they were viewed by you and others starting with the most recently viewed pages.

Most visited: Display the pages that have been visited most first in the list.

Most feedback: List the pages in descending order based on the amount of feedback they have received.

Click the Search button to search your pages based on your search and / or sorting criteria.

Click the Edit button edit to make changes to the default dashboard page. The changes only affect new users who log in for the first time after you made the change.

Click the Edit button edit to make changes to the default profile page. The changes only affect new users who log in for the first time after you made the change.

Click the Edit button edit to make changes to the default group homepage. The changes only affect groups that are created after you made the change.

You see the title and description of a site page.

Click the Edit button edit to make changes to an existing site page.

Click the Delete button delete to remove a site page.

Once you are done creating your site pages, you can share them with others.

Note

When somebody leaves feedback on a site page or artefact, the site administrators receive a notification.

9.2.7. Collections

Administration → Configure site → Collections

You create and copy site collections like regular portfolio collections.

Site collections

Create a new collection by clicking the New collection button.

Copy an existing collection by clicking the Copy a collection button.

Click on the collection title to go to the first page of the collection.

View the description of this collection.

Click on any title of a page within a collection to jump directly to it.

Click the Manage button manage to move pages within a collection, add to or delete pages from a collection.

Click the Edit button edit to change the title and description of a collection.

Click the Delete button delete to delete the collection. The pages will still exist.

Once you are done creating your site collections, you can share them with others.

9.2.8. Share

Administration → Configure site → Share

You share site pages and site collections like any other pages and collections.

See also

Refer to the share options for regular portfolio pages and collections for further information.

Share site pages and collections

When you want to allow copying, you have a few more options available than on regular pages or collections.

Copying site pages and collections

Allow copying: Place a check mark here to see the following copying options.

Copy for new users: Enable this option if all new users on the site - and not just in one institution - shall receive a copy of the selected page(s) or collection(s) into their portfolios.

Copy for new groups: Select the course groups that have members, tutors and administrators if you want them to receive a copy of the selected page(s) or collection(s).

Copy for new groups: Select the standard groups that have members and administrators if you want them to receive a copy of the selected page(s) or collection(s).

9.2.9. Site skins

Administration → Configure site → Site skins

Warning

Skins is a feature that can be applied on top of themes for pages. While you can change a lot of style elements, changing all of them is not advised depending on the theme that is underlying your page.

This feature is only available when the following parameter is added to the config.php file of your Mahara site: $cfg->skins = true;.

You can create skins that will be available to all users of your site.

Site skins

Click the Create skin button to design a new skin.

Click the Import skin(s) button to import skins that others have shared online.

Click the Export skin(s) button to export all site skins.

Click the Edit button edit to make changes to this skin.

Click the Export button export to export only this one skin.

Click the Delete button delete to remove this skin.

See also

The process of creating and editing a site skin is very similar to creating and editing skins in your portfolio.

9.2.10. Fonts

Administration → Configure site → Fonts

You can install additional fonts to be used with page skins. Currently, you cannot use these fonts anywhere else.

Fonts overview page

Click the Install font button to install a font from your computer.

Click the Install Google font(s) button to install fonts you discovered through Google fonts [http://www.google.com/fonts/].

Text: Decide in which preview text the installed fonts should be displayed on this overview page. The default text is “Grumpy wizards…”:

Latin alphabet (ASCII only)

Latin alphabet (ISO/IEC 8859-1)

Latin alphabet (ISO/IEC 8859-2)

Cyrillic alphabet (ISO/IEC 8859-5)

Greek alphabet (ISO/IEC 8859-7)

Numbers and fractions

Punctuation

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit.

Grumpy wizards make toxic brew for the evil Queen and Jack.

The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog.

Note

Not all fonts have the full character set implemented. Especially, the Cyrillic and Greek alphabets may be missing and also some numbers, fractions and pucntuation symbols.

The three last sentences show most / all of the letters in the English alphabet.

Size: Decide on the size of the letters in which the installed fonts should be displayed on this overview page. The default size is 28.

Show: Decide which fonts you want to see on this overview page:

All fonts

Local fonts

Google web fonts

Click the Preview button to change which fonts are displayed depending on the criteria you selected.

The title of the font is shown.

See what your font looks like according to your preview settings.

You see whether it is a Google font or a local font that you uploaded.

Click the View font specimen button to see details about this font.

Click the Edit font properties button on a local font to change some font settings.

Click the Add font style* button to add more styles for a local font.

Click the Delete font button to delete this font.

9.2.10.1. Install a local font

You can install a font that you find online as long as you have the permission to do so. Please always read the license of a font before uploading it to ensure that you are allowed to do so.

See also

There are a lot of websites for finding fonts. One of them where you can use, share and remix them is the Open Font Library [http://openfontlibrary.org/].

Click the Install font button on the Fonts overview page.

See also

If you want to upload a font you found on Google fonts [http://www.google.com/fonts/], please follow the Google fonts installation instructions.

Install a font

Font name: Provide the name of the font.

Font notice: Provide information about the font, e.g. license, and the font creator.

Font style: State what styles the font has available that you upload. If the styles come in separate font files, you need to upload all of them separately:

Regular

Bold

Italics

Bold italics

Font type: Decide where in a page skin the font can be used:

Headings and text

Headings only

Generic font family: To what generic font family does this font belong? Choose from:

serif: Letters and symbols have a small line attached to the end of a stroke to guide the eye and making reading easier. An example is the font “Times New Roman”.

sans-serif: Letters and symbols do not have the guiding line. An example is the font “Arial”.

monospace: All letters have the same space.

cursive: Handwriting fonts.

fantasy: Fonts that are very ornamented.

Font files: You need to upload your font in all these font files in order to ensure that it can be displayed in different browsers and on different devices. Click the Browse button next to each font file type to upload that specific font file.

EOT font file: Embedded OpenType font (for Internet Explorer 4+)

SVG font file: Scalable Vector Graphic font (for iPad and iPhone)

TTF font file: TrueType font (for Firefox 3.5+, Opera 10+, Safari 3.1+, Chrome 4.0.249.4+)

WOFF font file: Web Open Font Format font (for Firefox 3.6+, Internet Explorer 9+, Chrome 5+)

License file: Upload the font license file

See also

You can use the FontSquirrel Webfont Generator [http://www.fontsquirrel.com/tools/webfont-generator/] to convert your fonts into the required formats.

Click the Install font button to finish installing this font or click the Cancel button to abort your action.

9.2.10.2. Edit a local font

You can make certain changes to a local font and also install additional font styles.

Click the Edit font properties button on the Fonts overview page to make changes to a number of settings of a local font.

Edit font properties of a local font

Font name: Edit the font name.

Font notice: Make changes to the license information and the creator of the font.

Font type: Choose whether the font can be used for headings only or also for regular text.

Generic font family: Change the font family to which this font belongs.

Click the Save button to accept your changes or click the Cancel button to abort your action.

Click the Add font style button to upload additional font styles for your font. If your font comes with a number of different styles in separate files, you need to upload them separately.

Add an additional font style to a specific font

Font name: The name of your font for which you are uploading an additional font style is displayed.

Font style: Choose the font style that you are uploading.

Font files: Upload all required font files.

Click the Save button to accept your changes or click the Cancel button to abort your action.

9.2.10.3. Install Google font(s)

Click the Install Google font(s) button to see the instructions and the font upload area for Google fonts.

Install Google font(s)

Follow the instructions for finding and downloading Google fonts.

Visit the Google fonts [http://www.google.com/fonts/] website.

Select the fonts that you wish to make available for all users to choose for skins and add them to your collection on Google.

Download all fonts as a ZIP file.

Valid ZIP file: Click the Browse button to upload the ZIP file that you downloaded from Google.

Click the Install Google font(s) button to add these fonts to your fonts on Mahara or click the Cancel button to abort your action.

9.2.11. Files

Administration → Configure site → Files

Here you can upload files that you can include in the links and resources menu or in site pages. You can add files that are in the home directory to the menu with resources for logged-in users. Files that you save in the public folder can be used in the menu for users who are not logged-in. Additionally, users can put them into their own portfolio pages as files to download.

See also

The process of uploading and managing files is very similar to files in your personal files area.

Site files

9.2.12. Cookie Consent

Administration → Configure site → Cookie Consent

The “Cookie Law”, Directive 2009/136/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council, defines the requirements for consenting to the keeping of cookies across the European Union. Before your site can store or retrieve information from an electronic device, the user of your site must give informed consent for you to do so.

You only need to use this feature if you fulfil the requirements of the directive.

See also

Read the full text of the directive [http://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/LexUriServ.do?uri=CELEX:32002L0058:en:HTML].

Configuration settings for Cookie Consent

Enable Cookie Consent: Tick this checkbox if you want to enable the Cookie Consent feature. Once you have done that, the additional settings become visible immediately.

Types of cookies: Click the Select all or Select none links depending on whether you wish to select all items or deselect any items that have been selected. Tick the checkboxes of the types of cookies that you use on your site. You can choose from:

Social media

Analytics

Advertising

Strictly necessary: This checkbox cannot be unticked if there are cookies on the site that are necessary for operational purposes.

Consent mode: There are two options:

Explicit: No cookies will be set until a visitor consents.

Implied: Set cookies and allow visitors to opt out.

Note

Cookie Consent will always use the explicit mode when a browser’s “do not track” setting is enabled, unless it is overridden in the “Ignore ‘do not track’” setting.

The “do not track” setting is enabled by default in the latest versions of Internet Explorer.

Style: You can change the look of the Cookie Consent choosing one of the built-in styles from the drop-down menu:

Dark

Light

Banner position: Decide where you want to position the Cookie Consent banner by choosing the appropriate one from the drop-down menu:

Top: Place the banner at the top of the browser window. It will be placed over the top of your content.

Push from top (experimental): Position the banner at the top of the browser window. Your site content is pushed down so that you can still see the entire page. It is an experimental feature because there can still be a small overlap.

Bottom: Place the banner at the bottom of the browser window.

Tab position: Choose where the privacy settings tab appears by selecting the appropriate one from the drop-down menu:

Bottom right

Bottom left

Left side

Right side

Hide privacy settings tab: Tick this checkbox, if you plan to use your own privacy settings link in-line, e.g. in your theme’s template.

Page refresh: Tick this checkbox, if you have a server-side application that needs to be aware of the consent to cookies. If you select this option, the page will be reloaded after consent has been given.

Ignore “do not track”: Tick this checkbox to ignore any “do not track” headers from the visitor’s browser.

Use SSL: Tick this checkbox, if any of the pages Cookie Consent appears on use SSL.

Click the Save changes button.

You are taken to the page Additional site modifications to make necessary changes for properly enabling Cookie Consent.

Information on additional modifications necessary for Cookie Consent

Instructions are provided on what you need to do in order to enable Cookie Consent for a specific type of cookie.

You can view an example of what it should look like.

If it didn’t work, you can see some tips.

9.3. Users

Administration → Users

In the Users menu of the administration site administrators can:

search for users

change settings for individual users

suspend and delete users

make users site staff or administrators

check the administrator notification settings

add and update users manually or by CSV

view reports

In the Users menu of the administration institution administrators can:

search for users

change settings for individual users

suspend and delete users

check the administrator notification settings for their institution’s administrators

add and update users manually or by CSV

view reports

9.3.1. User search

Administration → Users → User search

Note

Site administrators can search for any user on the entire site while institution administrators can only search among the users of their institution(s).

You can search for their

first name

last name

display name

username

email address

last login date

User search

You can combine any search and filter options. However, if you use too many, you may not yield any results.

Filter the users you wish to display by their initials of the first and / or last name.

Filter by login date: You have several options:

Any user: Display any user who fits any other search / filter criteria.

Users have logged in: Display any user who has logged in at least once.

Users have never logged in: Display any user who has never logged in.

Users have logged in since: Display any user who has logged in since a specified date and time.

Users have not logged in since: Display any user who has not logged in since a specified date and time.

Choose a date and time for the login filter by either typing it in or selecting it via the calendar icon calendar.

Filter by duplicate email addresses: Tick this checkbox if you only want to display users whose email address is in the system twice so you can deal with them more easily.

Note

Normally, duplicate email addresses are not possible, but if a user imports a Leap2A file or if an external authentication method is used, duplicates can happen.

Search: Type the name, display name, username or email address or any partial thereof you wish to search for in the search field. If you turned on the exact search, you need to provide the correct name or email address and not a partial one.

Institution: Choose the institution from the drop-down menu in which you wish to search for the user.

Click the Go button to start searching.

Results per page: Decide how many results per page you want to view.

View your results. The default order is alphabetical according to the first name. However, you can change the order of the results by clicking on a heading and sort that column in ascending or descending order. The profile picture and the name are linked to the profile page of the user. The available columns are:

First name

Last name

Display name

Username: The internal Mahara username

Email

Institution: You cannot click on the heading and change the sort order. If you want to filter for a specific institution, use the institution filter above.

Authentication: The (primary) authentication method for a user

Last login

Click on the username of the user for which you want to take further actions.

Select all or just a few users for bulk actions.

Click the Edit button to perform the bulk actions to

suspend users

delete users

change the authentication method of users

Click the Get reports button to

view user reports

download user account information for further actions

9.3.1.1. User bulk actions

You can perform a number of bulk actions for users on the Bulk actions page.

User bulk actions

On the User search page, select the users that you wish to edit in bulk for the following reasons and click the Edit button:

suspend them

change the authentication method

delete them

Selected users: Review the users you have selected for performing bulk actions.

Reason for suspension: Provide a reason for suspending the users listed on this page. You need to click the Suspend button in order to suspend the users.

Click the Suspend button to prevent these users from accessing their accounts.

Change authentication method: Choose a new authentication method from the drop-down menu for the users listed on this page.

Click the Submit button to change the authentication method to the new one.

Set spam probation: Choose the number of points a user shall get to be “on probation” from the drop-down menu.

Click the Submit button to change the number of probation points.

Note

This feature is only available on sites that have the 2 following values in their config.php file:

$cfg->probationenabled = true;: This setting decides that users can get a probation status.

$cfg->probationstartingpoints = 2;: This setting determines how many probation points a newly self-registered user has per default.

Newly self-registered users - no matter whether the institution requires explicit administrator confirmation or not - start out with a certain number of “probation points” on their account. While they have any probation points, they are considered a probationary user and cannot create public pages in their portfolio or post links or images to potentially public content such as comments, wall posts or forum posts.

Each time a probationary user makes a post in a forum, and the post is replied to by a non-probationary user, the probationary user loses one probation point. When the number of points reaches zero, they are no longer on probation.

Probation points have no effect on users who have staff or administrator status.

Click the Delete button to delete accounts and all of their content of the users listed on this page.

Warning

When you delete accounts, all user data will be lost and cannot be recovered unless from a server backup file.

9.3.1.2. User reports

The user reports contain a range of reports that are generally only available to administrators.

9.3.1.2.1. Basic user information

You can download basic user information for easier updating of these via a CSV file.

User reports

On the User search page, select the users for whom you wish to see reports and click the Get reports button.

Choose the Users tab.

Selected users: You can review the user information that will be included in the CSV file.

Export users in CSV format: Click the Download link to download the information that you see on this page as CSV file.

Note

You can use this CSV file later on for updating existing accounts.

You only see the column Probation when the site has the spam protection probation points enabled.

9.3.1.2.2. Access list

In addition to downloading basic user information, you can also view all the pages that have been created by the users and with whom they have been shared. This facilitates for example troubleshooting when users cannot view pages of others and the administrator would have to log in to the user account to check page permissions.

Note

This list is only available to site and institution administrators unless staff receive access to this list as well. The site administrator can decide that in the User settings in the option “Staff report access”.

User report page access list

On the User search page, select the users for whom you wish to see reports and click the Get reports button.

Choose the Access list tab.

The owners of the pages are listed.

All the pages that the users have created are listed. If a collection is listed instead, the number of pages it contains is displayed.

The users or groups of people who have access to a page or collection are displayed.

Note

Though all pages, collections and groups are linked, you may not have direct access to them if you are not on the access list or a member of the group yourself.

9.3.1.2.3. Masquerading sessions

When the site administrator turned on the logging of masquerading sessions, they are reported here in the user reports.

Report on the masquerading sessions

On the User search page, select the users for whom you wish to see reports and click the Get reports button.

Choose the Masquerading sessions tab.

The users who have been masqueraded are listed.

If the site administrator required a reason to be provided for the masquerading, it is displayed here.

The masquerading administrator is listed.

The start time of the masquerading session is displayed.

9.3.2. User account settings

Administration → Users → User search → Click on a username

On the Account settings page of a user in the administration area, you can perform a number of actions to manage the user’s account. However, you cannot change personal information about this user, e.g. name or email, from this page. This can only be done in the Content area of the user’s account or via the Add users by CSV page.

Overview of the user account settings page

Log in as this user.

Change site account settings.

Change institution settings.

Suspend this user.

Delete this user.

9.3.2.1. Log in as

As administrator you have the power to log in as any user that you manage and masquerade as them.

Note

Site administrator can log in as any user while institution administrators can only perform this action for users who are members of their institution(s).

It is a great function for troubleshooting a user account because you see everything as the user would without having to know the password.

Warning

This function can be misused by administrators because you can make changes to the user’s portfolio and artefacts as well as participate in groups while logged in as that user. Users should be aware of this function and that an administrator can enter their account.

Sites should have clear policies around the use of this function so that the privacy of users and their portfolios and collaborative work is protected. Therefore, there should also not be many users within an institution who have administrator rights.

Log in as another user

Click on the user’s name to go to this user’s profile page. You can then click the Log in as … link to become that user.

Click the Log in as button to become that user. You see a red bar at the top of the browser window telling you that you are masquerading as that user.

Stop masquerading as another user

When you want to return to your own account again, click the Become [your name] again link at the top of the browser window.

When the site administrator enabled the logging of all or just masquerading events, administrators may be required to provide a reason for the masquerading and a notification about this may be sent to the users.

Provide a reason for masquerading as another user

Write why you are masquerading as this user. This reason may be sent to the user if the site administrator demands that.

Click the Continue button to log in as that user.

If the site administrator decided to have users notified of the masquerading, you would see the screen notice “The user has been notified of this masquerading session.”

When the site administrator decided to send notifications to users when an administrator logs into their account, the users receive this notification in their inbox. Depending on their notification settings, it can also be delivered via email.

Notification a user receives when an administrator masquerades

Activity type: The masquerading notification is a system message. If you receive a lot of notifications, you can filter for just them.

The system message “An administrator logged in as you” contains the name of the administrator and the time when the administrator started masquerading. If the site administrator requires a reason to be sent for the masquerading, it is displayed as well.

The name of the administrator who logged in as you is linked to the profile page for you to easily contact that administrator.

9.3.2.2. Change site account settings

You can view and change a number of settings for a user’s account.

Note

Depending on the authentication method that is associated with this user, you may not be able to edit all settings.

Site account settings of a user

Change username: Give the user a different username. This field is not available when the account is managed by an external authentication method.

Reset password: Change the password for this user account. This field is not available when the account is managed by an external authentication method.

Force password change on next login: Check this box if the user shall change the password upon the next login. This field is not available when the account is managed by an external authentication method.

Site staff: Check this box if the user shall become a staff member for the entire site.

Site administrator: Check this box if the user shall have full administrative rights for the entire site.

Disable email: Check this box to disable the sending of emails for this user. If email is disabled, notifications and messages can only be viewed in the internal inbox. You can set up your Mahara site so that emails are disabled automatically if they are bounced back [https://bugs.launchpad.net/mahara/+bug/993018].

Warning

When the email address is disabled, users cannot reset their passwords themselves as no email can be sent.

Account expires: Tick the checkbox if you want to specify an account expiration date. Once done, the date picker is activated for you to enter a date. Choose the date on which the user’s login will be disabled automatically. The default setting is that the date is not specified. You always see the current date in the greyed out date fields. You can set an automatic account expiry date for all users in the account settings of the site configuration.

File quota: Change the storage allowance for a user’s personal files area. Institution administrators may not be able to update the quota if the site administrator disallowed that. The default value as set in the files configuration in the plugin administration.

Quota used: You can see how much this user has already used of their allocated quota.

Spammer probation status: This setting controls whether the user is considered to be on probation as a possible spammer.

Note

This feature is only available on sites that have the 2 following values in their config.php file:

$cfg->probationenabled = true;: This setting decides that users can get a probation status.

$cfg->probationstartingpoints = 2;: This setting determines how many probation points a newly self-registered user has per default.

Newly self-registered users - no matter whether the institution requires explicit administrator confirmation or not - start out with a certain number of “probation points” on their account. While they have any probation points, they are considered a probationary user and cannot create public pages in their portfolio or post links or images to potentially public content such as comments, wall posts or forum posts.

Each time a probationary user makes a post in a forum, and the post is replied to by a non-probationary user, the probationary user loses one probation point. When the number of points reaches zero, they are no longer on probation.

Probation points have no effect on users who have staff or administrator status.

Authentication method: Choose the authentication method for this user. A site administrator can set up the authentication methods in the institution administration. Depending on the authentication method that you have chosen, you may have to provide a remote username to allow the user to log in.

Note

The field Username for external authentication is only displayed if an authentication method is chosen that requires a remote username. This allows administrators to see if a remote username has been supplied or not.

Tags: A user can be tagged by an administrator. The tag of the institution to which the user belonged prior to joining a new institution is not displayed to avoid its deletion.

Click the Save changes button when you are done editing the settings.

9.3.2.3. Change institution settings

You can view and change settings regarding a user’s membership in institutions. Depending on the site settings for institutions, a user may be added to more than one institution.

Institution settings for a user

Institution: Choose the institution to which you want to add this user from the drop-down menu.

Click the Add user to institution button to make this user a member of this institution.

Membership expires: Tick the checkbox if you want to specify the date when the user will be removed from this institution automatically. Once done, the date picker is activated for you to enter a date. Choose the date on which the user’s login will be disabled automatically. The default setting is that the date is not specified. You always see the current date in the greyed out date fields. You can set an automatic institution membership expiry date for all users in your institution in the settings for your institution.

ID number: Provide an optional identifier for this user in this institution. This field is not editable by the user.

Institution staff: Check this box if you want to give this user staff rights in this institution. This will allow them to create controlled groups for example.

Institution admin: Check this box if you want to make this user an administrator of this institution. This will allow them to manage all users in this institution for example.

Click the Update button to save your changes.

Click the Remove user from this institution button to disassociate this user from this institution. The user’s account will not be deleted. The user will only not be associated with this institution anymore.

9.3.2.4. Suspend user

Suspend a user if they do not follow the terms and conditions of the site and behave inappropriately. Suspended users cannot log in, but all their content is still available.

Suspend a user

Reason: Provide a reason for your suspension. This is particularly useful when you are not the only administrator and / or need to remember after some time why you suspended this user.

Click the Suspend user button to disallow the user from logging in.

Suspension notice on the user account settings page

You can unsuspend a user from this page or together with other users on the Bulk actions page.

Suspended user tries to log in and gets suspension message

When a user has been suspended, the suspension message appears on the user’s account settings page stating the reason and the date for the suspension and giving the administrators the possibility to unsuspend the user by clicking the Unsuspend user button.

When the user tries to log in, they will see the suspension message and the reason. They can then contact an administrator via the “Contact us” form for further action.

9.3.2.5. Delete user

Users can delete their own accounts in their account settings if self-registration is allowed to by their institution. Administrators can also delete user accounts at any time.

Delete a user account

Click the Delete user button to delete this user account permanently. This action cannot be undone. As this is a permanent action, you see a confirmation pop-up window that you will have to acknowledge.

Warning

When you delete a user account, all personal data is wiped from the system. This applies to everything that is in a user’s Content and Portfolio area. This action cannot be undone. The user’s contributions in groups, e.g. forum messages, uploaded files and pages created in a group, are still available, but are made anonymous by changing the name to “Deleted user” as author where an author is shown.

Note

If an account was deleted by accident - either by a user or by an administrator - swift action may result in recovery of (most of) the data from a backup file. This requires access to the server’s backups and the backend of Mahara. More information is available on the wiki under Restoring a deleted user [https://wiki.mahara.org/index.php/System_Administrator%27s_Guide/Restoring_a_deleted_user].

9.3.3. Suspended and expired users

Administration → Users → Suspended and expired users

A list of all suspended and expired users is available in the sub-menu Suspended and expired users. Here you can unsuspend / reactivate or delete them.

Note

Site administrators see all users whereas institution administrators only see users who are members of their institution(s).

List of all suspended or expired users

Show: Select whether you wish to see suspended or expired users.

Select the user(s) for which you want to perform the same action.

Click the Unsuspend users button to reinstate the accounts for all selected users.

Click the Delete users button to delete all selected users in bulk. This action cannot be undone and all personal information of these users will be deleted (see delete user).

Click the Reactivate expired users button if you want to allow these users access to their accounts again.

Warning

When you delete a user account, all personal data is wiped from the system. This applies to everything that is in a user’s Content and Portfolio area. This action cannot be undone. The user’s contributions in groups, e.g. forum messages, uploaded files and pages created in a group, are still available, but are made anonymous by changing the name to “Deleted user” as author where an author is shown.

9.3.4. Site staff

Administration → Users → Site staff

Note

Site staff is only accessible by site administrators.

On this page you can choose which users receive site staff rights. Potential staff members - any user on the site - are listed on the left while existing site staff members are listed on the right.

Give site staff rights

Potential staff: Select the users you wish to make site staff. You can select multiple users at once using Ctrl and Shift click.

Search: If you have too many users on your site and you cannot see / find the users you want, you can search for them here.

Add the potential staff members to the right-hand side - Current staff - by clicking the right-arrow button right-arrow.

Current staff: If you want to remove an existing or accidentally added site staff member, you can remove the user from the list on the right-hand side by clicking on the user.

Then click the left-arrow button left-arrow, and the user is removed from the list.

When you have chosen all members you wish to make site staff, click the Submit button.

Note

You can also double-click a name and it will be moved to the other side.

9.3.5. Site administrators

Administration → Users → Site administrators

Note

Site administrators is only accessible by site administrators.

Site administrators have powerful rights. They can make far-reaching changes and also log in as other users. Be careful whom you give these rights. One site administrator is needed for each site. The total number of site administrators should be kept small.

Give site admin rights

Potential administrators: Select the users you wish to make site administrators. You can select multiple users at once using Ctrl and Shift click.

Search: If you have too many users on your site and you cannot see / find the users you want, you can search for them here.

Add the potential site admin to the right-hand side - Current administrators - by clicking the right-arrow button right-arrow.

Current administrators: If you want to remove an existing or accidentally added site administrator, you can remove the user from the list on the right-hand side by clicking on the user.

Then click the left-arrow button left-arrow, and the user is removed from the list.

When you have chosen all members you wish to make site administrators, click the Submit button.

Note

You can also double-click a name and it will be moved to the other side.

9.3.6. Export queue

Administration → Users → Export queue

This feature is experimental.

The export queue is available for the following exports:

When group administrators or tutors release portfolios in groups that allow the archiving of submitted pages, these submissions will be placed into the export queue and only released once the export completed successfully.

If the site administrator enabled the feature to queue Leap2A exports, Leap2A exports that users initiate via Portfolio → Export are also queued, and once completed, the users receive a notification.

See also

The export queue requires that cron [https://wiki.mahara.org/index.php/System_Administrator%27s_Guide/Cron_Job] runs.

Export queue for Leap2A exports

User search: Type the user’s name if you only want to see results for a particular user in the queue.

Institution: Select the institution if you only want to see the queued portfolios for a particular institution. If you are an institution administrator for only one institution, you only see results for your institution.

Click the Go button to initiate the filtering.

In the results table you see the profile picture of the user.

First name: Displays the first name of the user. This is the default column for sorting results.

Note

Click on the other headings of the table that are links to sort the table differently.

Last name: Displays the last name of the user.

Display name: Shows the display name of the user.

Username: Clicking on the username, you are taken to the user’s administration settings page instead of their profile page as you would with the other names.

Export content: Brief description of what is being exported.

Status: Displays the status of the export. Only pending and failed exports are shown.

Export: Tick the checkboxes in this column if you wish to re-run an export that has failed. You can select all checkboxes by clicking the All link or remove all checkboxes by clicking the None link.

Click the Archive button to export all selected failed exports.

Delete: Tick the checkboxes in this column if you wish to delete any pending or failed exports. You can select all checkboxes by clicking the All link or remove all checkboxes by clicking the None link.

Click the Delete button to delete all selected exports.

9.3.7. Add user

Administration → Users → Add user

You can add users to your site (site administrator) or your institution (institution administrator) by creating accounts for them manually one by one.

Add a user manually

Click the Create new user from scratch radio button if you want to create an empty account. Provide the first name, last name and email address for this user.

Click the Upload Leap2A file radio button if you want to import a user from another Mahara instance or a system that supports the Leap2A standard. Such a user could have exported their portfolio from another Mahara instance.

Username: Give the new user a username. It may contain letters, numbers and most common symbols. It must be from 3 to 236 characters in length. Spaces are not allowed.

Password: Choose a password for the account. The password must be at least six characters long.

Site staff: Check this box if the new user should have site staff rights. Only site administrators see this option.

Site administrator: Check this box if the new user should have site administrator rights. Only site administrators see this option.

Institution: Choose the institution of which the user should be a member.

File quota: Review the allocated file quota. You may change it here for this user if you are allowed to.

Institution administrator: Check this box if the new user should have institution administrator rights in the chosen institution.

General account options: Expand this menu to see default account options that you may choose to change while creating this user. These are the general account options a user can change on the Settings page.

Click the Create user button.

The user will receive an email with the account details.

Note

You can only define the default account settings for a user account, but not force the user to keep them forever. You could only do that by customising the system on the code level.

9.3.8. Add and update users by CSV

Administration → Users → Add users by CSV

You can use this function to upload new users in bulk via a CSV file (comma-separated file) and to update existing users. The first row of your CSV file should specify the format of your data. For example, it should look like this:

username,password,email,firstname,lastname,studentid

For new users, this row must include:

username

password

email

firstname

lastname

Note

new in Mahara 15.04 Mahara also accepts CSV files that have a semicolon as separator instead of a comma.

If you want to update existing users, you do not need to set a password and can leave that field off entirely.

Note

You can mix new and existing accounts in your CSV file. When you add a new user, the password field must be present. If you do not wish the password to be changed for existing accounts, leave that field empty for these accounts.

If your site or institution has locked fields or fields that are mandatory, then you do not have to include them as fields in your CSV upload.

Here is the full list of additional fields that you can add in your CSV file upload.

address - Street address

blogaddress - URL to the blog

businessnumber - Work phone number

city - City

country - Country

faxnumber - Fax number

homenumber - Home phone number

industry - Industry is displayed in the profile

introduction - Introduction is displayed in the profile

mobilenumber - Mobile phone number

occupation - Occupation is displayed in the profile

officialwebsite - Official website

personalwebsite - Personal website

preferredname - Display name

remoteuser - Remote username for external authentication

studentid - Student ID is displayed in the profile

town - Town

Your CSV file could look for example like the following:

username,email,firstname,lastname,studentid,preferredname,remoteuser, password

"percy","percy@pearle.net","Percy","Pearle","","","percy.pearle","mahara1"

"petra","petra@petterson.net","Petra","Petterson","","","petra.petterson","mahara1"

"polly","polly@potter.net","Polly","Potter","","","polly.potter","mahara1"

"admin","admin@mahara.school","Admin","User","","","","mahara1"

"jamesj","james@jetts.com","James","Jetts","","","","mahara1"

When you have created your CSV file, you are ready to upload it.

Add users by CSV file

Institution: Choose the institution and the authentication method for the user accounts that you upload and / or change.

File quota: If you wish, you can set a different file quota for all accounts in the CSV file. Institution administrators can only do so if the site administrator allowed it.

CVS file: You must upload a CSV file by clicking the Browse button and then selecting it from the files area on your computer.

Force password change: If you select this option, users need to change their password before they can log in for the first time.

Email users about their account: If you select this option, users will receive an email with their account information. This is in particular good for internal accounts. For user accounts that are managed for example by Moodle or through LDAP, you do not have to select this option because the users should already know their login information.

Update users: Select this option if your CSV file contains changes for existing users.

General account options: Expand this menu to see default account options that you may choose to change while creating or updating users. These are the general account options a user can change on the Settings page.

Click the Add users by CSV button to upload and / or change users.

Note

Depending on your server settings and / or the size of your installation, you may not be able to upload all user accounts at once. You may wish to upload them in bunches of 100 instead.

new in Mahara 15.04 A progress bar shows the percentage of the completed upload of your users.

9.3.9. Change the authentication method and remote username in bulk

After you have successfully invited or added new members into your institution, you can change their authentication method. That can be useful if the authentication method differs from the one in the previous institution and you want to link the new accounts to a remote username using:

LDAP directory

Moodle accounts via MNet

Single sign-on through an IdP provider

Note

The change in the authentication method for existing accounts should be done before users try to log in with their new credentials to avoid the creation of a second account for these users.

You can change the authentication method for multiple users at once to save you time manually updating each user. Changing the authentication method usually also entails changing the remote username (a.k.a. username for external authentication). Therefore, these two are dealt with together to describe the work flow better.

Find users in an institution to change their remote username

Go to Administration → Users → User search.

Filter for users by specific characteristics, e.g. if you only wish to display users who have not logged in yet.

From the drop-down menu choose the institution in which the members are whose authentication method and remote username you want to change / add.

Click the Go button to limit your results to these institution members.

Change the Results per page if you wish to see more than 10 users per page.

Select the users whose authentication method and remote username you want to change by either putting a check mark in the checkboxes or clicking on All to select all users on that page.

Click the Get reports button to proceed to the next step. You are taken to the User reports page.

User reports page

Update the CSV file with remote username and password

Update user accounts in bulk

Export users in CSV format: Click the Download link so that you get a CSV file which contains all necessary information for you to change the users’ remote username in bulk. This is necessary if their internal Mahara username is not the same as the one they use to authenticate on your system that is linked to Mahara or if they already have a remote username that would be incorrect for your institution.

Open the CSV file in your preferred spreadsheet software. In the column remoteuser, add or change the username that your users have when authenticating in your regular system that you have connected to Mahara. You may also change other fields, e.g. their name, email address etc. If you want to add a new user directly in this CSV file, you can do so as well.

Note

You must provide a password for this new user. All other users do not need to have a value in the password field. If you only want to update existing users, you can leave the password field entirely off.

Go to Administration → Users → Add users by CSV.

Institution: Choose the correct institution and authentication method for which you want to update your users. This allows you to switch all users in the CSV file from one authentication method to another.

CSV file: Choose the CSV file from your computer that you had updated.

Update users: Put a check mark here because you want to update existing user accounts.

General account options: You can make changes to the default account options for all the users, e.g. give them multiple journals by default, change their interface language etc.

Click the Add users by CSV button to start the user update. This process may take a little while depending on how many users you are changing.

You receive a report on the page upon the successful completion of the upgrade. If the upgrade fails, error messages help you to resolve the problem. No users are updated until all errors are resolved.

Note

If you intend to update more than 100 users at the same time, you may run into problems, and the server may reject your CSV file as the update process is a very memory intense one. If that is the case, you would have to split your CSV file into smaller ones with fewer users in them.

You can check that the accounts had their remote usernames added:

Go to Administration → Users → User search.

Select the institution in which the members are whom you want to check.

Click the Go button to limit your user results to this institution.

Select the users for whom you want to check the remote usernames.

Click the Get reports button to proceed to the next step. You are taken to the User reports page.

You see the remote username in the last column.

See also

If you only want to change the authentication method of certain users but do not have to worry about a remote username or updating any other information, you can change the authentication method directly on the bulk actions screen.

9.4. Groups

Administration → Groups

In the Groups menu of the administration site administrators can:

add administrators to groups

delete groups

manage group categories

Add and update groups in bulk

Add and update group membership in bulk

In the Groups menu of the administration institution administrators can:

Add and update groups in bulk

Add and update group membership in bulk

9.4.1. Administer groups

Administration → Groups → Administer groups

Note

Administer groups is only accessible by site administrators.

You see an overview of all the groups on the site.

Administer groups

Search a group by its name or category.

Group name: The table is sorted alphabetically according to the group name. The group names are linked for easy access to their group homepages.

Members: Number of group members in each group.

Administrators: Number of group administrators per group.

Group type: Overview of whether and how users can join this group.

Group category: Display of the group category that is associated with this group.

Visibility: Overview of who has access to this group - members or the public.

Click the Manage button manage to change the group file quota or to add or remove group administrators.

Click the Delete button delete to delete a group.

Warning

When you delete a group, all its content - forum posts, files and pages - will be deleted permanently and cannot be restored.

9.4.1.1. Group file quota

You can specify a default group file quota in Plugins. This allows you to limit the file space that each group can take up. Here you can update the file quota for just one group.

Change the group file quota

You get to this page by clicking the Manage button manage next to a group on the Administer groups page.

File quota: Change the file quota that this particular group can have.

Click the Save button to save your change.

9.4.1.2. Add or remove administrators

Add to or remove administrators from a group by clicking the Manage button manage next to a group on the Administer groups page.

Add or remove group administrators

Potential administrators: Select the users you wish to make group administrators. You can select multiple users at once using Ctrl and Shift click.

Search: If you have too many users on your site and you cannot see / find the users you want, you can search for them here.

Add the potential group administrators to the right-hand side - Current administrators - by clicking the right-arrow button right-arrow.

Current administrators: If you want to remove an existing or accidentally added group administrator, you can remove the user from the list on the right-hand side by clicking on the user.

Then click the left-arrow button left-arrow, and the user is removed from the list.

When you have chosen all members you wish to make group administrators, click the Submit button.

Note

You can also double-click a name and it will be moved to the other side.

9.4.2. Group categories

Administration → Groups → Group categories

Note

Group categories is only accessible by site administrators.

Group categories help you to filter your groups more easily on the My groups and Find groups pages. A group administrator can always assign one group category to a group if categories are enabled.

Manage group categories

Enable group categories: Tick this checkbox to enable group categories for the entire site.

Click the Submit button to save your choice.

Name: Existing group categories are listed.

Create a new group category by typing its name and then clicking the Add button.

Edit a group category name by clicking the Edit button edit, change the name and then click the Update button. If you want to abort the action, click the Cancel button.

Click the Delete button delete to permanently delete this group category.

Note

Group categories are not hierarchical and are available to everybody on the site. Any user who can create groups can assign a group category when the feature has been enabled.

9.4.3. Archived submissions

Administration → Groups → Archived submissions

This feature is experimental.

When group administrators or tutors release portfolios in groups that allow the archiving of submitted pages, these submissions will be displayed here so you can download them easily. They are also placed on the server in a central location for bulk download directly from the server.

See also

This feature requires that cron [https://wiki.mahara.org/index.php/System_Administrator%27s_Guide/Cron_Job] runs.

Review archived submissions

User search: Type the user’s name if you only want to see results for a particular user in the queue.

Institution: Select the institution if you only want to see the queued portfolios for a particular institution. If you are an institution administrator for only one institution, you only see results for your institution.

Click the Go button to initiate the filtering.

Submitted to: This column shows the group to which a particular page or collection was submitted to. You can click the group name in order to go to it directly. If the group was deleted, the submission is still available, but the group name is not linked anymore. It has its deletion date displayed.

ID: The ID of the archive file on the server for easy access when you download the data as CSV file.

The profile picture of the user is displayed.

First name: Displays the first name of the user. This is the default column for sorting results.

Note

Click on the other headings of the table that are links to sort the table differently.

Last name: Displays the last name of the user.

Display name: Shows the display name of the user.

Username: Clicking on the username, you are taken to the user’s administration settings page instead of their profile page as you would with the other names.

Leap2A file: Brief description of what has been archived.

Archived on: Date and time when the archive was made.

Click the Export all data in CSV format link to download data about the archived submissions. The CSV file contains the following information:

Username

First name

Last name

Display name

Email address

Group name to which the portfolio was submitted

ID

Title of the submitted portfolio

Path on disk where the archive is stored

Note

All submissions are stored in the “submissions” folder in your Mahara data directory on the server. Then, each user has a subdirectory and therein are all submissions of this user.

File name

Time when the archive was made

9.4.4. Add and update groups by CSV

Administration → Groups → Add groups by CSV

Note

Both site and institution administrators can add and update groups by CSV file.

You can create multiple groups at once by uploading basic information about them via a CSV file.

Add and update groups by CSV

Create a CSV file that contains at a minimum the fields shortname,displayname,roles.

Institution: Choose the institution for which you want to create the groups. This is just for internal administrative purposes so that institution administrators do not overwrite each other’s groups.

CSV file: Choose the CSV file from your computer that contains the groups.

Update groups: Place a check mark in this box if you are updating already existing groups.

Click the Add groups by CSV button to make the changes.

Note

new in Mahara 15.04 Mahara also accepts CSV files that have a semicolon as separator instead of a comma.

Here is a full list of all the possible fields that you can specify:

allowarchives - Decide whether you want to allow portfolios that have been submitted to the group to be archived automatically.

Note

This option only works when you also allow submitpages.

controlled - Group administrators can add users to the group without their consent, and members cannot leave the group.

description - Brief description about the purpose of this group.

displayname - The group name that appears around the site.

editroles - You can choose which roles will be allowed to create and edit pages owned by the group. If your group contains only members and administrators, then “Group administrators” and “Everyone except members” are identical. These edit permissions will also be used by default for new group files. Permissions can be changed on individual files in the group files area.

all: everyone in the group

notmembers: everyone except members in a course group that has tutors and administrators

admin: only group administrators

hidden - Choose to not list this group on the Find groups page.

hidemembers - Choose to hide group members from non-members.

hidemembersfrommembers - Choose to hide group members from everybody but the group administrator.

invitefriends - Choose to allow group members to invite their friends to the group.

open - Allow users to join the group without approval from the group administrator.

public - Allow people who are not logged in to view this group including the forums.

quota - Define the group file quota.

request - Allow users to send membership requests to group administrators.

roles - Choose to have a course or standard group. The roles in these group types are:

course: member, tutor, administrator

standard: member, administrator

shortname - This is the name used to identify this group in the database. This should be only one word. It is also used to identify the group when you add or update its members by CSV.

submitpages - Choose to allow the submission of pages to this group. If you create a course group, this setting is automatically chosen.

suggestfriends - Allow group members to send their friends a recommendation to join this group.

usersautoadded - Choose to have all new users on the site added to the group automatically.

Note

For fields that require a Yes / No value, you need to put a numeric value into the CSV file:

No = 0

Yes = 1

Sample CSV file for a group upload

When you look at your CSV file in a text editor and not a spreadsheet software, the above sample file looks like this:

"shortname","displayname","roles","usersautoadded","public","hidemembersfrommembers"

"public","Public group","standard",0,1,1

"course","Course group","course",1,0,0

Warning

Do not delete this CSV file if you intend to make changes to your groups in bulk or if you want to add group members in bulk to these groups. There is no easy way to retrieve the group shortname unless you consult the database on the backend of Mahara.

9.4.5. Update group members by CSV

Administration → Groups → Update group members by CSV

Note

Both site and institution administrators can add and update group members by CSV file.

You can easily update members of groups that you have created via a CSV file.

Note

new in Mahara 15.04 Mahara also accepts CSV files that have a semicolon as separator instead of a comma.

Update group members by CSV

Create a CSV file that contains the following fields: shortname,username,role in the first row. Then add groups and users that should become members of these groups. You can check their usernames on the User search page.

Institution: Choose the institution in which the groups were created.

CSV file: Choose the CSV file from your computer that contains the group members mapped to groups.

Click the Update group members by CSV button to add to or remove members from the groups that you have specified.

Warning

If you manually added users to a group whose members you want to update via CSV file, these users will be removed from that group when you update the group membership and do not have them listed in the CSV file. Thus, be careful once you have added users manually.

Always leave at least one administrator in a group.

Note

You can only update group membership by CSV of users who belong to the institution in which you created the groups by CSV. All other users must be added manually.

Sample CSV file for updating group membership

When you look at your CSV file in a text editor and not a spreadsheet software, the above sample file looks like this:

"shortname","username","role"

"public","petra","admin"

"public","paula","member"

"course","petra","admin"

"course","percy","tutor"

"course","paula","member"

Note

If you have many groups and could easily lose the overview, create one CSV file per group.

9.5. Institutions

Administration → Institutions

You can use Mahara as multi-tenanted instance. That means that several different institutions can share one Mahara installation. All users from these different institutions can:

share portfolio pages with each other

give feedback on each other’s pages

work collaboratively in groups across institution boundaries

In Administration you can set up as many institutions as you wish. Institution administrators can only administer their users and their institutions but not make any changes to site settings.

You can also set up institutions for different parts of your organisation to use different themes, have different default settings and / or authentication methods.

Note

Even if you use Mahara with one organisation only and do not want to distinguish different departments within your organisation, we recommend you set up at least one institution and not use “No institution”. By setting up at least one institution you will have two more roles available: institution staff and institution administrator.

You can create institution administrator accounts which are less powerful than the site administrator accounts. By having institution administrators, you can allow them to take care of user account creation and group creation etc. without giving them full powers over the site preventing that too many people can make site changes.

9.5.1. Overview

Administration → Institutions → Institutions (site administrator)

Administration → Institutions → Settings (institution administrator)

You see an overview of all institutions that exist on this Mahara installation (site administrator) or that you have access to as institution administrator.

Note

Institution administrators who manage only one institution do not see this page, but immediately the settings for their only institution.

Overview page for institutions

Search: Search for a particular institution by its name and then click the Search button.

Institution: Institutions are listed alphabetically. If you click the institution’s name, you are taken to the contacts page.

Members: Number of registered members in this institution.

Maximum: Maximum allowed members in this institution.

Staff: Number of institution members with staff rights.

Administrators: Number of institution members with institution administrator rights.

Click the Edit button edit to change institution settings.

Click the Delete button delete to delete an institution. You can only delete an institution when there are no members in it.

Click the Add institution button when you want to create a new institution. This button is only visible to site administrators.

Click the Edit members button when you want to add or remove members from an institution.

Click the Edit staff button when you want to add or revoke staff rights for an institution member.

Click the Edit administrators button when you want to add or revoke institution administrator rights for an institution member.

Note

The institution “No institution” is the default “institution”. It cannot be deleted as it is the standard Mahara site.

9.5.2. Add an institution

Note

Only site administrators can add institutions. However, once an institution exists, institution administrators can change many of the settings.

When you want to add an institution by clicking the Add button on Administration → Institutions → Institutions, you need to provide some basic information for the new institution. You can change all settings except the Institution name later on.

Add a new institution

Institution name: This field is required. It is the unique identifier of this institution in the database. It must be one word without numbers and symbols.

Institution display name: This field is required. It is the name that all users see throughout the site to identify this institution.

Institution expiry date: Tick the Set date checkbox if you want to give this institutuion a specific expiry date. You can then select the year, month and day from the drop-down menus. Institutions do not expire by default.

If you specify an expiry date for this institution, once the warning time for institution expiry has been reached, site and institution administrators will receive a otification about this institution’s impending expiry.

If the auto-suspend expired institutions option is set, then once the expiry date has been reached, this institution will be automatically suspended, and users of this institution will no longer be able to log in.

The warning time for institution expiry and the auto-suspend expired institutions options can be found in the institution settings under Administration → Configure site → Site options.

Registration allowed: Check this box when you want to allow self-registration of new users. As institution administrators, you will be asked to confirm that users can join your institution. If you decline, their new account will be associated with “No institution” unless you have the Confirm registration option clicked. When you do not allow registration, nobody can register a new account, ask to join your institution or leave it without your permission.

Confirm registration: Check this box if you want to control that no new accounts are created unless the administrator approves the registration. You receive a notification about pending registrations when a new user wants to register.

Default membership period: You can set how long users will remain associated with this institution per default. Choose an option from the drop-down menu and then specify the number of days, weeks, months or years. After this length of time, the users will be removed from the institution. Users will receive a notification before this time reminding them that they will be removed soon. However, that does not mean that they will lose their account. They will still have that and be associated with “No institution”.

Language: Choose the language from the drop-down menu that you want the users in your institution to use by default.

Note

This is a default setting. Users in your institution can choose their own language in their account setting.

Logo: You can upload an image that will be displayed to your institution’s members in place of the standard header logo.

Theme: Use the drop-down menu to choose the theme that you wish to use for this institution. All pages in that institution will receive that theme. When users from other institutions view portfolio pages that were created in this institution, they will see this institution’s theme on these pages. If Site default is selected, when a site administrator changes the site default theme, the theme for the users of this institution will change, too. You can install more themes in the theme folder on the server. Check out the community-contributed themes [https://wiki.mahara.org/index.php/Themes/Contributed_themes]. If users are allowed to have page themes, these pages are not affected by theme changes. Mahara also has a configurable theme which allows you to create a theme on the fly.

Drop-down navigation: Check this box if you want your institution to use a drop-down navigation instead the tabbed navigation.

Note

If you use the “Site default” theme option, this checkbox is disabled as the site default settings are applied. If you wish to use the theme that the site uses, but use a different main navigation option, select the theme directly for your institution, and the checkbox becomes available to you for selecting.

Page skins: Check this box if you want your institution members to use page skins.

Note

This feature is only available when the following parameter is added to the config.php file of your Mahara site: $cfg->skins = true;

Show online users: If the site administrator allowed the “Online users” side block, you can decide which group of users you want to have displayed for this institution:

None: The side block is not displayed to institution members.

Institution online: Only institution members are displayed in the side block.

All: All users on the site are displayed in the side block

Require license information: If you check this box, your institution members will need to choose a license for each artefact they upload or create. They can set a default license in their account settings. You only see this option if the site administrator turned License metadata in the general site settings.

Default license: You can choose a default license for your institution members’ content. They can overwrite this default license in their account settings. You only see this option if the site administrator turned License metadata on in the general site settings. If the site administrator allowed custom licenses, you can enter one using the drop-down menu option “Other license (enter URL)”. This license can then also be used by your institution members.

Note

If you are not sure which default license to choose, please consult your organisation’s lawyer or a copyright lawyer.

Default quota: You can set the amount of file quota new users registering with this institution shall have.

Update user quota: If you check this box, the default quota you choose above will be applied to all existing institution members.

Allow institution public pages: Put a check mark into this box if you want to allow users belonging to this institution to create portfolio pages that are accessible to the public rather than only to logged-in users. If you allow public pages, users can also create secret URLs for their pages. Otherwise they cannot.

Maximum user accounts allowed: Specify the maximum number of accounts that can be created in this institution. If you leave this field blank, there is no limit to the number of accounts.

Note

When the maximum number of accounts has been reached and another user tries to register for the institution, the site administrator as well as the institution administrator for that institution receive a notification. That allows them to take further steps.

Locked fields: Put a check mark into each checkbox for which users are not allowed to change the value. Disabled checkboxes are for profile fields which are locked in the institution settings for “No institution”. These profile fields are locked at the site level and cannot be unlocked for individual institutions.

Note

Locking profile fields such as first name, last name and display name can be beneficial for institutions that wish to always identify their users by their real names and not allow users to choose nicknames.

Click the Submit button to save your changes and create this institution, or click the Cancel button to abort the creation of this institution.

9.5.2.1. Change the institution logo

You can upload a logo to any theme replacing the standard logo that comes with the theme. For best results, this image should have the same dimensions as the site logo in your institution’s theme. As each theme can have a different header height, no exact dimensions can be provided.

Note

Of the standard themes, only the “Primary School” theme requires a set height for its logo. The other themes are more flexible.

Upload a logo

Logo: Upload the logo that you want to use on your institution theme from your computer.

Once you have submitted your changes, the logo will be replaced in the header and it also appears in the settings to show what you have uploaded.

Delete logo: If you want to revert back to the standard logo, check this box and click the Submit button at the bottom of the page.

Note

There is a special logo that can be picked up by Facebook in order not to display a random image from the site. This logo must be placed into the theme folder. Mahara’s Raw theme has the Mahara logo, but it could be changed to a different one in another theme. For more information see the tracker item [https://bugs.launchpad.net/mahara/+bug/900529].

9.5.2.2. Use the configurable theme

If you do not want to use one of the built-in themes of Mahara or one of the community-contributed themes [https://wiki.mahara.org/index.php/Themes/Contributed_themes], you can either build your theme from scratch [https://wiki.mahara.org/index.php/Customising/Themes] or use the configurable theme in conjunction with the logo upload.

Note

The configurable theme is only a display theme. That means that users of the institution in which it is in use see the theme applied to the site and their pages. However, when users from another institution browse the portfolio pages of users from this institution, they do not see the configurable theme, but their own theme.

You can change the configurable theme directly on the institution settings page.

Options for the configurable theme

In order to change any of the colours, either provide the hexadecimal color code [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Web_colors] or choose the colour from the colour picker that becomes available as soon as you click in one of the colour fields.

Theme: Choose the “Configurable Theme” from the drop-down menu and the “Custom theme configuration” options become visible.

Background: Background colour for the entire site, esp. visible in the header and footer.

Text on background: The text that is displayed on the background colour, e.g. in the header and footer.

Link: The link colour on any pages unless it is in the sidebar or navigation.

Headings: The heading colour for all headings except in the sidebar.

Sidebar background: The background colour of any sidebar. It should form a good contrast to the heading colour of the sidebar as that is always white.

Sidebar content background: The colour of the inside of a sidebar.

Sidebar link: The colour of a link inside a sidebar.

Navigation background: The colour of the top navigation bar.

Navigation text: The colour of the text / links in the main navigation bar.

Sub navigation background: The colour of the secondary navigation and the highlighted section in the main navigation bar.

Sub navigation text: The colour of the text / links in the secondary navigation and the highlighted section in the main navigation bar.

Row background: The colour of the background anywhere rows appear.

Colour picker: Either type in the hexadecimal colour code directly into the colour field or use the cross and arrow from the colour picker to decide on your new colour.

Reset colours: If you want to go back to a blank slate of the configurable theme, place a check mark in this box to get back to the original colours of the configurable theme.

Click the Submit button at the bottom of the page to make your changes.

Note

If you do not see the theme changes immediately when you are logged in as institution member, you may have to clear your browser cache.

Example of the configurable theme

The numbers on the example page refer to the configurable theme options above.

9.5.3. Edit the site institution

Your Mahara site itself is listed as institution under Administration → Institutions → Institutions. Per default, it has the name “No institution” and you can change certain settings that are applied to the site.

Note

Most settings for the site are made in Administration → Configure site → Site options.

Edit the “No institution” site institution

Institution display name: This field is required. It is the name that people see when registration is allowed for the site without having to register for a particular institution.

Authentication plugin: You can decide which authentication methods you want to allow. See Edit an institution for more information.

Registration allowed: Switch this option on if you want to allow people to register on your site without registering for a particular institution. If you switch this setting on but not the setting Confirm registration, new user accounts do not need approval.

Note

Be careful not using Confirm registration as spammers can misuse your site and simply create accounts without your knowledge.

Confirm registration: Switch this option on if you want to control that no new accounts are created unless the administrator approves the registration. You receive a notification about pending registrations when a new user wants to register.

new in Mahara 15.04 Logo: Here you can replace the standard site logo without having to place it in the theme folder on the server. You can upload an image that will be displayed to everyone who is not in an institution.

Note

When your site uses the small headers option, the logo is only replaced when small headers are not shown. The same is true for custom institution logos. In 15.10 we will make changes to the header and thus leave this limitation in place.

Page skins: Switch this option on if you want your users who are not in a particular institution to use page skins.

Note

This feature is only available when the following parameter is added to the config.php file of your Mahara site: $cfg->skins = true;

new in Mahara 15.04 Comment sort order: Decide on the sort order of comments on artefacts when they are displayed on a page. You can choose between the following:

Earliest: Sort your comments in chronological order showing the oldest comments first and the newest last.

Latest: Sort your comments in reverse chronological order showing the newest comments first and the oldest last.

Locked fields: Put a check mark into each checkbox for which users are not allowed to change the value. Any fields that you enable here are locked from editing in institutions.

Note

Locking profile fields such as first name, last name and display name can be beneficial for institutions that wish to always identify their users by their real names and not allow users to choose nicknames.

Click the Submit button to save your changes, or click the Cancel button to discard your changes.

9.5.4. Edit an institution

Administration → Institutions → Institutions → Click the Edit button next to an institution

Once you have created your institution, you can edit its settings, suspend or delete the institution. You will have to choose at least one authentication method for this institution so that user accounts can be created.

Note

Only site administrators can add, edit and delete authentication methods for an institution and suspend it. An institution can only be deleted if there are no members in it.

You should set up at least one authentication method. Otherwise, nobody can log in to this institution. You can add multiple authentication methods to your institution to account for different users and how they are allowed to authenticate if necessary. That means for example for a university:

Faculty and students could log in with their standard login and password if that is governed by LDAP / Active Directory (LDAP authentication) or single sign-on such as SAML (SAML authentication).

They could also log in via Moodle as that can be added as secondary authentication method for other methods like LDAP or single sign-on (XML-RPC / MNet authentication).

Alumni could have their MNet / LDAP authentication changed to the internal authentication once they finish their studies.

External assessors who do not have a university login, can be given the internal authentication so that they can receive a login, but the university administration does not have to issue a login which would give them access to other infrastructure as well.

All these then still log in to the same Mahara institution. Alternatively, you could also separate the users into their own institutions on your Mahara installation if that is more appropriate for your use case. This could mean for the above example:

Faculty and students log in and are automatically placed into the institution “University”. They see the standard university theme.

Alumni are placed into the institution “Alumni” for easier user management as you could have the alumni coordinator manage the users. Having them in a separate institution on Mahara would make it easy to see who an alumni is. Additionally, they could receive a slightly different university theme that is geared towards alumni, and they can also receive different messages on their dashboard.

External assessors who are placed into the separate institution “Assessors” could again be administered easily by an administrator who is the liaison for them without giving that administrator access to the user management of all other university users. They can receive the stanadrd university theme, but receive different messages on their dashboard.

Before you can use the IMAP, LDAP, SAML or XML-RPC authentication methods, you must install their extensions on your server.

Plugins available for authentication in an institution

Once your institution is created, the settings include an additional option, Authentication plugin. You see all authentication methods that are already in use for this institution listed.

From the drop-down menu choose one of the authentication methods that are available:

IMAP: User accounts are authenticated against an IMAP server. This is the least maintained authentication plugin and rarely used.

internal: User accounts are created by Mahara and the passwords and logins are kept in an internal database. This is the default authentication method for a new institution.

LDAP: User accounts are authenticated against an LDAP server.

none: Anyone can log in by picking a username and password. This should only be used for testing.

SAML: A SAML 2.0 Identity Provider Service is needed that has the user accounts.

XML-RPC: This is the authentication method used for MNet to connect Mahara with Moodle or another Mahara.

Click the Add button to see the configuration screen for an external authentication method before it is added.

Warning

Be careful when choosing the “None” authentication method. This allows anyone to log in. It should only be used for testing purposes.

9.5.4.1. IMAP authentication

You can use this authentication method to receive the login information for your users from your IMAP server.

Set up IMAP authentication

Authority name: Enter a descriptive name to help you identify this authority. Preferably, choose a short name. This field is required.

Hostname or address: Specify the hostname in URL form. This field is required.

Port number: Specify the port under which your IMAP server can be reached. The default is 143. This field is required.

Protocol: Select the IMAP protocol you are using by selecting it from the drop-down menu. This setting is required:

IMAP

IMAP / SSL

IMAP / SSL (self-signed certificate)

IMAP / TLS

Password-change URL: If your users can only change their password in one central space, provide the URL here.

Click the Submit button to enable this authentication method or click the Cancel button to abort your changes.

9.5.4.2. LDAP authentication

Use this authentication method to authenticate against an LDAP server so that your users can log in with their usual login and password.

Set up LDAP authentication

Authority name: Enter a descriptive name to help you identify this authority. Preferably, choose a short name. This field is required.

Host URL: Specify hosts in URL form, e.g. ldap://ldap.example.com. Separate multiple servers with ; for failover support. This field is required.

Contexts: List the contexts where users are located. Separate different contexts with ;, e.g. ou=users,o=org;ou=other,o=org. This field is required.

User type: Select from the drop-down menu how users are stored in the LDAP directory. This field is required. You can choose between:

Novell Edirectory

posixAccount (rfc2307)

posixAccount (rfc2307bis)

sambaSamAccount (v. 3.0.7)

MS Active Directory

default

User attribute: Enter the attribute used to search for users. It is often cn. This field is required.

Search subcontexts: Select “Yes” if you want to search for the users also in subcontexts. This setting is required.

Distinguished name: If you want to use bind-user to search users, specify it here. It should look something like cn=ldapuser,ou=public,o=org. Leave this blank for anonymous bind.

Password: Enter the password for the “distinguished name”.

LDAP version: Choose the LDAP version you are using from the drop-down menu. This setting is required.

TLS encryption: Check this box if you use this encryption mechanism.

Update user info on login: Check this box to update the first name, last name and email address with the corresponding LDAP values at each login. Enabling this option may prevent some MS ActiveDirectory sites / users from subsequent Mahara logins.

We auto-create users: Check this box to create user accounts on Mahara automatically when a user authenticates successfully but does not yet have an account.

LDAP field for first name: Enter the name of the field in the LDAP record that contains the user’s first name.

LDAP field for surname: Enter the name of the field in the LDAP record that contains the user’s last name.

LDAP field for email: Enter the name of the field in the LDAP record that contains the user’s email address.

LDAP field for student ID: Enter the name of the field in the LDAP record that contains the user’s student ID.

LDAP field for display name: Enter the name of the field in the LDAP record that contains the user’s display name.

User sync: Decide whether you wish to synchronize your users via a cron job and make additional settings.

Group sync: Decide whether you want to automatically create groups in Mahara based on your LDAP groups.

Click the Submit button to enable this authentication method or click the Cancel button to abort your changes.

9.5.4.2.1. LDAP user sync

You can set up your LDAP authentication so that user account creation can be automated. User account deletion should be considered carefully.

Configure the LDAP user sync

Sync users automatically via cron job: Enable this setting to activate a task in the cron which will automatically create and/or update user accounts based on records in the LDAP server.

Note

By default, this cron task will execute once daily at midnight (server time). Edit the record in the “auth_cron” table or use the optional command-line script supplied at htdocs/auth/ldap/cli/sync_users.php if you wish to schedule it to run at other times or with other settings.

This setting will have no effect if the cron is not running. See the installation guide [http://wiki.mahara.org/System_Administrator%27s_Guide/Installing_Mahara] for instructions on how to set it up.

Update user info in cron: Tick this checkbox if you wish for user information to be updated via the cron if they changed in the LDAP record.

Auto-create users in cron: Tick this checkbox if you want new users in your LDAP directory to get an account automatically.

Additional LDAP filter for sync: Provide an LDAP filter here, and the sync will only see users in LDAP who match that filter. Example: Example: uid=user*.

Warning

Use this setting with caution if you have auto-suspend or auto-delete enabled, as doing so will cause all user accounts in your institution which do not match the filter to be suspended or deleted.

If a user is no longer present in LDAP: Choose from the drop-down menu what you want to do if users are no longer in your LDAP directory:

Do nothing: Users keep their account. This is the recommended setting.

Suspend user’s account: The user’s account will be suspended. The user will no longer be able to log in, and their content and pages will not be viewable. However, none of their data will be deleted, and the user can be un-suspended by the cron when their LDAP record reappears, or manually by an administrator.

Delete user’s account and all content: The user’s account will be deleted, along with all their content and pages.

Warning

The data is fully deleted from the server when a user’s account is deleted, so this action requires a server backup to reverse.

9.5.4.2.2. LDAP group sync

You can set up your LDAP authentication so that user account creation can be automated. User account deletion should be considered carefully.

Configure the LDAP group sync

Sync groups automatically via cron job: Enable this setting to activate a task in the cron which will automatically create and/or update groups and their membership based on records in the LDAP server.

Note

By default, this cron task will execute once daily at midnight (server time). Edit the record in the “auth_cron” table or use the optional command-line scripts supplied in htdocs/auth/ldap/cli/ if you wish to schedule it to run at other times or with other settings.

Note: You will also need to activate the “Sync groups stored as LDAP objects” and / or “Sync groups stored as user attributes” settings in order for groups to be synced.

Group members can be removed as well as added by this setting. If a group is no longer found in the LDAP records, all of its members will be removed from the group.

This setting will have no effect if the cron is not running. See the installation guide [http://wiki.mahara.org/System_Administrator%27s_Guide/Installing_Mahara] for instructions on how to set it up.

Auto-create missing groups: Tick this checkbox if you want to have new groups in your LDAP directory created automatically in Mahara.

Role types in auto-created groups: Decide which roles users can have in auto-created groups.

Course: Members, tutors and administrators

Standard: Members and administrators

Exclude LDAP groups with these names: If you want to auto-create groups, but do not want to include all groups, you can exclude some. Type their names here.

Include only LDAP groups with these names: If you want to restrict the creation / synchronisation of your groups to a specified number, list them here.

Sync groups stored as LDAP objects: Tick this checkbox if your groups are stored as standalone records in LDAP. Example:

dn: cn=languagestudents,ou=groups,dc=mahara,dc=org

objectClass: groupOfUniqueNames

cn: languagestudents

uniqueMember: uid=user1,dc=mahara,dc=org

uniqueMember: uid=user2,dc=mahara,dc=org

uniqueMember: cn=frenchclass,ou=groups,dc=mahara,dc=org

Group class: Put the LDAP objectclass that groups are expected to have here.

Group attribute: Enter the LDAP attribute that maps to a group’s name. It is often cn.

Group member attribute: Enter the LDAP attribute in which the group’s members are stored in. It is often uniqueMember.

Member attribute is a dn? Tick this checkbox if if each entry in the “Group member attribute” field is a “distinguished name”. Disable this setting if each entry in “Group member attribute” field is a username only.

Process nested group: Tick this checkbox if your groups can contain other groups as members. If enabled, the sync process will recursively include the members of these nested groups into the parent group.

Note

The process will safely cease recursing if it detects a circular reference.

Sync groups in these contexts only: List the contexts where groups are located. Separate different contexts with a semicolon ;. Example: ou=groups,o=org;ou=other,o=org.

Note

If this field is left empty, the group sync cron will fall back to using the same list of contexts as the “Contexts” setting for where users are located.

Search subcontexts: Tick this checkbox if subcontexts should be included in the synchronisation.

Sync groups stored as user attributes: Tick this checkbox if each LDAP user record has an attribute which indicates a group the user should be in. This setting will cause the LDAP sync cron to create a group for each unique value in the specified user attribute (or in those listed in the “Acceptable group names” field), and place each user in the appropriate group (or groups, if they have multiple values for the attribute).

User attribute group name is stored in: Provide the LDAP attribute in which the name is stored.

Only these group names: When creating groups based on user attributes, only create groups with these names. This will not affect groups created via the “Sync groups stored as LDAP objects” setting, if it is active.

9.5.4.3. Persona authentication

new in Mahara 15.04 Persona [https://persona.org/] was a project of the Mozilla Identity Team [http://identity.mozilla.com/]. It allowed people to have one login across multiple sites without having to divulge the password to these sites. All they need to log in to a Persona-enabled site is their email address. The project was discontinued in November 2016. You can migrate existing Persona accounts to internal authentication.

9.5.4.4. SAML authentication

Choose this authentication method for your institution when you have a SAML 2.0 Identity Provider Service set up for your organisation that allows you to use the same login for multiple applications.

SAML 2.0 authentication

Institution attribute (contains “…”): Enter the attribute that will be passed from the Identity Provider (IdP) that shows which institution the user belongs to. This usually directly correlates to the LDAP attribute (the signin service of the IdP), e.g. eduPersonOrgDN. This field is required.

Institution value to check against attribute: Enter the value that will be checked against the institution attribute value as passed from the IdP. If the institution regex checkbox “Do partial string match with institution shortname” is selected, this value can be a regular expression [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Regular_expression] that will be used to check against the institution attribute value. This field is required.

Do partial string match with institution shortname: Check this checkbox to treat the value in “Institution value to check against attribute” like a regular expression.

User attribute: Enter the name of the attribute passed by the IdP that contains the username. This field is required.

Match username attribute to remote username: This box is selected by default and needs to stay selected. It matches the user attribute value to the remote username field assigned to a given user (not the internal Mahara username). Only if you have the experimental feature of “usersuniquebyusername” turned on can you deselect this checkbox. We do not recommend this unless you are very experienced and have control over all applications in question.

Warning

By default, SAML authentication instances have the “Match username attribute to remote username” setting selected. If that setting were unchecked, someone with control over any SAML identity provider could gain control over any user account on that Mahara site by setting the username attribute accordingly. In other words, administrators of one institution could control users in other institutions. You would only be able to deselect this setting if you set the “usersuniquebyusername” variable to “true” in config.php. However, you should not do that on a Mahara instance to which multiple SAML providers connect and you are not in control of all usernames that are created.

See also

If you deselect “Match username attribute to remote username”, you get an error message which talks about the config setting for “usersuniquebyusername”. Please refer to the experimental feature of the “usersuniquebyusername” variable for more information.

Allow users to link own account: Check this box if you want to allow users to link their own internal Mahara account to the authenticated SAML account. This depends on the “Match username attribute to remote username” option being enabled. If this setting is turned on when users try to log in via SSO and their username as well as the email for example match an internal username, they can link their accounts. That would allow them to log in either via the SSO login or via the regular login box into the same account and avoid account duplication.

Update user details on login: Check this box to update the first name, last name and email address with the corresponding IdP values passed through at each login.

We auto-create users: This is unselected by default and needs to stay unchecked if the option “Match username attribute to remote username” is enabled. Check this box to create user accounts on Mahara automatically when a user authenticates successfully but does not yet have an account. Only if you have the experimental feature of “usersuniquebyusername” turned on can you select this checkbox. We do not recommend this unless you are very experienced and have control over all applications in question.

SSO field for first name: Enter the name of the attribute passed by the IdP that contains the user’s first name.

SSO field for surname: Enter the name of the attribute passed by the IdP that contains the user’s last name.

SSO field for email: Enter the name of the attribute passed by the IdP that contains the user’s email address.

Click the Submit button to enable this authentication method or click the Cancel button to abort your changes.

9.5.4.5. XML-RPC / MNet authentication

Use the XML-RPC authentication for connecting a Mahara instance to a Moodle or an other Mahara installation for sharing login information. With Moodle 2 that does not only mean that you can log in to Mahara via Moodle, but also that you can transfer certain activities into your Mahara portfolio from Moodle [http://docs.moodle.org/20/en/Portfolios].

A Moodle site can only be connected to Mahara once no matter how many institutions you have set up. Every XML-RPC authentication instance in Mahara must have its own unique remote wwwroot and must be associated with a single institution.

Note

You must have networking enabled in order to use this authentication method.

Set up MNet authentication

Authority name: Enter a descriptive name to help you identify this authority. Preferably, choose a short name. This field is required.

WWW root: Enter the web address of the root of the remote application, e.g. http://example.com. This field is required. If your WWW root requires a specific port, enter the port number that the remote application is listening at. You probably will not need to add a port unless you are connecting to a https service or your remote application is running on a non-standard port.

Site name: Enter the name to present to your users to identify the remote site. If you enable SSO, they may click on this name to start a session at the remote site. This field is required.

Application: Choose the application on the other end. You can choose between “Mahara” and “Moodle”.

Parent authority: If you set a parent authority from the already existing authentication methods, users will be able to log in using that authority as well as MNet. For example, you could set up SAML authentication and have that be the parent of this MNet authority. That means that users will be able to log in by clicking the SSO login button using their SSO credentials as well as via MNet from their Moodle. You do not have to set a parent authority. If you do not, users using MNet will only be able to access Mahara via MNet, i.e. log in to Moodle or the other Mahara first.

Note

If you choose a Parent authority, ensure that all the users are associated with this authentication method instead of the MNet one. Otherwise, they will not be able to log in via the parent authentication method. If the remote username for MNet and the other authentication method is already the same, you just need to change the authentication method. If they are not yet the same, you need to update the user details together with changing their authentication method.

Wrong login box message: Enter a message to display when a user tries to log in via Mahara’s login form but is not allowed to if you have not set up a parent authority.

SSO direction: Choose your SSO direction from the drop-down menu:

They SSO in: Enable this option to allow users from the remote site to roam to your Mahara site without having to enter their username and password. This is the most commonly used setting.

We SSO out: Enable this option to allow your users to roam from Mahara to the remote site without having to enter their username and password there.

Update user info on login: Enable this option to bring over user data from the remote site upon login and update your Mahara user record with any changes. The following fields, when filled in on Moodle, are filled in Mahara:

first name (always carried over)

last name (always carried over)

email address (always carried over)

profile picture

description (introduction on Mahara)

city

country

language

HTML editor setting

We auto-create users: Check this box to create user accounts on Mahara automatically when a user authenticates successfully but does not yet have an account.

We import content: Not all network-enabled applications support this, but if they do, e.g. Moodle 2.x, this will allow users of the remote site to import content to Mahara. It depends on the option “They SSO in” from “SSO direction” and it is sensible to also have “We auto-create users” set.

Click the Submit button to enable this authentication method or click the Cancel button to abort your changes.

See also

Refer to the comprehensive guide about setting up Mahoodle [https://wiki.mahara.org/index.php/System_Administrator%27s_Guide/Moodle//Mahara_Integration], the combination of Mahara and Moodle, for step-by-step instructions on how to set everything up on the Moodle side and on Mahara. The guide explains the steps for both Moodle 1.9 and Moodle 2.x.

9.5.4.6. Order of authentication methods

If you have set up multiple authentication methods in one institution, you can decide on the order in which they are checked.

Order of authentication methods

Use the Up arrow button move_up and the Down arrow button move_down to move a specific authentication method up or down in the list.

Delete a particular authentication method by clicking the Delete button delete.

Note

You cannot delete an authentication method when there are still users who require it to log in. Before deleting an authentication method, you have to move the users to another authentication method.

9.5.4.7. Suspend institution

A site administrator can suspend an institution at any time.

Suspend and institution

Click the Suspend institution button to make an institution (temporarily) unavailable to its users.

9.5.5. Institution static pages

Administration → Institutions → Static pages

Institution administrators can overwrite the content of the static pages that the site administrator created. These pages are:

About

Home (Dashboard)

Logged-out home

Privacy statement

Terms and conditions

All pages come with default text that you can change entirely. Every page must contain some text. You can use the visual editor to style your page.

Edit static pages for an institution

Institution: If you are a site administrator or an institution administrator of more than one institution, choose the institution for which you want to change page content.

Page name: Choose the page you want to edit from the drop-down menu.

Use site default: Tick this checkbox if you want to use the content that is displayed on the page for the entire site.

Page text: Change the text in the editor window. You cannot leave this field empty.

Click the Save changes button.

9.5.6. Members

Administration → Institutions → Members

You can add and remove members from one institution in bulk. As site administrator, you can always add members to an institution. As institution administrator, you can only invite users to become members.

You can filter users to display fewer and add to or remove them more easily from your institution:

People who have requested institution membership

People who have not requested institution membership

People who have left a given institution

People who are already institution members

People who have been invited

Note

You can double-click a name and it will be moved to the other side. This goes for all functionalities that are similar to this one here.

9.5.6.1. People who have requested institution membership

If your institution allows self-registration, users who are not already members of your institution can request to join it.

Institution administrators receive notifications about membership requests. Site administrators only receive notifications about users wanting to join “No Institution”.

Accept or decline institution membership requests

Users to display: Choose People who have requested institution membership.

Institution: Choose from the drop-down menu to which institution you wish to add users. If there is only one institution, its name will be displayed without the drop-down menu.

Users who have requested membership: Select the users you wish to add to the institution.

Search: You can also search for users in the search box if there are too many names listed.

Add the users by clicking the right-arrow button right-arrow.

Users to be added / rejected: If you put users into the box for users to be added / rejected by accident, you can remove them from that list by clicking on them.

Then click the left-arrow button left-arrow, and they are removed from the list.

When you have all the members you wish to add to the institution, click the Add members button.

Alternatively, if you wish to decline users membership, you can select them and then send a general denial by clicking the Decline requests button.

9.5.6.2. People who have not requested membership yet

An admin can also take the initiative and invite or add users to an institution.

Invite or add users to become institution members

Users to display: Choose People who have not requested membership yet.

Institution: Choose from the drop-down menu to which institution you wish to invite users. If there is only one institution, its name will be displayed without the drop-down menu.

Non-members: Select the users you wish to invite to the institution.

Search: You can also search for users in the search box if there are too many names listed.

Add the users to the list Users to be invited by clicking the right-arrow button right-arrow.

If you put a person into the box for users to be invited by accident, you can remove them from that list by clicking on them.

Then click the left-arrow button left-arrow, and they are removed from the list.

When you have all the members you wish to invite to the institution, click the Invite users button. The users receive a notification and can accept or decline the institution membership invitation.

Alternatively, you can click the Add members button as site administrator and add users directly to the institution without asking them first.

9.5.6.3. People who have left a given institution

An administrator can filter users by the previous institution to which they were attached in order to find them more quickly.

Note

This is only of importance for a multi-tenanted Mahara instance with at least 2 institutions.

Invite or add users to become institution members when they had left an institution

Users to display: Choose People who have left a given institution. “Left” is interpreted loosely, it also means when an administrator removed them from an institution.

Previous institution: Choose the institution from which you want to add users. The users must have left it first to be listed here.

Institution: Choose from the drop-down menu to which institution you wish to invite users. If there is only one other institution, its name will be displayed without the drop-down menu.

Users who have left institution [name of the institution]: Select the users you wish to invite or add to the other institution.

Search: You can also search for users in the search box if there are too many names listed.

Add the users to the list Users to be invited by clicking the right-arrow button right-arrow.

If you put a person into the box for users to be invited by accident, you can remove them from that list by clicking on them.

Then click the left-arrow button left-arrow, and they are removed from the list.

When you have all the members you wish to invite to this institution, click the Invite users button. The users receive a notification and can accept or decline the institution membership invitation.

Alternatively, you can click the Add members button as site administrator and add users directly to the institution without asking them first.

Note

Mahara keeps track of the last institution of a user via an invisible tag.

9.5.6.4. People who are already institution members

You can remove users from an institution, e.g. if they are no longer students at a school or university, but should still have an account on Mahara or when they are just switching institutions on the same Mahara instance.

Remove users from an institution

Users to display: Choose People who are already institution members.

Institution: Choose from the drop-down menu which institution’s members you wish to display. If there is only one institution, its name will be displayed without the drop-down menu.

Current members: Select the users you wish to remove from the institution.

Search: You can also search for users in the search box if there are too many names listed.

Add the users to the list Users to be removed by clicking the right-arrow button right-arrow.

If you put a person into the box for users to be removed by accident, you can remove them from that list by clicking on them.

Then click the left-arrow button left-arrow, and they are removed from the list.

When you have all the members you wish to remove from your institution, click the Remove users button.

9.5.6.5. People who have been invited

An administrator can uninvite users from an institution.

Uninvite users from joining your institution

Users to display: Choose People who have been invited.

Institution: Choose from the drop-down menu which institution’s members you wish to display. If there is only one institution, its name will be displayed without the drop-down menu.

Invited users: Select the users you wish to univite from joining the institution.

Search: You can also search for users in the search box if there are too many names listed.

Add the users to the list Users to be uninvited by clicking the right-arrow button right-arrow.

If you put a person into the box for users to be uninvited by accident, you can remove them from that list by clicking on them.

Then click the left-arrow button left-arrow, and they are removed from the list.

When you have all the users you wish to uninvite from the institution, click the Revoke invitations button.

9.5.7. Institution staff

You can give users staff rights in an institution in which they are members. The staff role will allow them to create course groups for example. This page allows you to do that in bulk for many users at once.

See also

You can also give staff rights on the user account settings page.

Give users institution staff rights.

Institution: Choose the institution from the drop-down menu for which want to give staff rights to members.

Institution members: Select the institution members who shall get staff rights.

Search: You can also search for users in the search box if there are too many names listed.

Add the users to the list Institution staff by clicking the right-arrow button right-arrow.

If you put a user into the institution staff list by accident or want to remove existing staff members and return them to normal membership status, select them.

Then click the left-arrow button left-arrow, and they are removed from the list.

When you have all the members you wish to have as staff in the institution, click the Submit button.

9.5.8. Institution administrators

You can give users administrator rights in an institution in which they are members. The administrator role will allow them to manage users in their own institution. This page allows you to do that in bulk for many users at once.

See also

You can also give admin rights on the user account settings page.

Give users institution admin rights.

Institution: Choose the institution from the drop-down menu for which want to give admin rights to members.

Institution members: Select the institution members who shall get admin rights.

Search: You can also search for users in the search box if there are too many names listed.

Add the users to the list Current admins by clicking on the right-arrow button right-arrow.

If you put a user into the institution admin list by accident or want to remove existing admin members and return them to normal membership status, select them.

Then click on the left-arrow button left-arrow, and they are removed from the list.

When you have all the members you wish to have as admins in the institution, click the Submit button.

9.5.9. Admin notifications

Administration → Institutions → Admin notifications

The Admin notifications page lists all users with institution and site administrator access on your site. It shows their selected notification preferences for all admin notifications. There should be at least one administrator receiving each type of message generated.

Note

Institution administrators only see admin notifications for their own institutions.

Admin notifications are:

Contact us

Objectionable content

Repeat virus upload

Virus flag release

Overview of the admin notification types

9.5.10. Profile completion

Administration → Institutions → Profile completion

Profile completion lets you select content that users of an institution need in order to have a “completed” profile. The parameters for a completed profile can differ from one institution to another. In some cases you can also decide how many content items a user needs of a specific artefact type to complete their profile.

See also

The site administrator needs to enable the profile completion feature in the user settings for institutions to be able to use it.

Set up profile completion for an institution

Institution: If you administer more than one institution, select the one for which you want to set up the profile completion from the drop-down menu.

Profile: Tick the checkboxes next to the items that you want your users to fill in from their profile. That includes, their first name, last name, blog address etc.

Résumé: Select the checkboxes next to the résumé items that your users should fill in to have a completed profile.

Plans: Select the number of plans and tasks a user should have from the drop-down menus.

Journals: Select whether a user needs to have a journal and / or a certain number of journal entries for a complete profile.

Files: In this section you can decide whether users need to upload a certain number of files. You can also specify the file type and decide how many items of each file type users should upload for a complete profile.

Comment: Select from the drop-down menu the number of feedback comments a user should make to gain a completed profile.

Click the Submit button to save your changes.

Profile completion preview: Once you clicked the Submit button, you will see a preview of the progress bar that is displayed to your institution users in the sidebar.

9.5.11. Institution pages

Administration → Institutions → Pages

You can create pages for your entire institution. Although you could always create pages under a regular user account that other users could copy into their own portfolio, the advantage of institution pages is that new members in the institution can receive a copy upon joining the institution.

Create institution pages

Institution: Click on the institution in the drop-down menu for which you want to create or edit institution pages.

Search: If you have a lot of institution pages, you can search for a particular one here. You can search in the title, description and tags or only in tags.

Click the Create page button to start a new institution page.

Note

Creating and editing an institution page is very similar to creating and editing a portfolio page. However, not all blocks are available when editing an institution page in the page editor due to the different context. Please refer to the overview of blocks for a list of all the blocks that you can use in an institution page.

Click the Copy page button to start a new page from a copy of an already existing one. This does not have to be an institution page but can be any page that you are allowed to copy.

View an institution page that you have already created.

Click the Edit button edit to change an existing institution page.

click the Delete button delete to delete an institution page.

Note

When somebody leaves feedback on an institution page or artefact, the institution and site administrators receive a notification.

9.5.12. Institution collections

Administration → Institutions → Collections

You can create collections for your entire institution. Although you could always create collections under a regular user account that other users could copy into their own portfolio, the advantage of institution collections is that new members in the institution can receive a copy upon joining the institution.

Create institution collections

Institution: Click on the institution in the drop-down menu for which you want to create or edit institution collections.

Click the New collection button to start a new institution collection.

Click the Copy a collection button to start a new collection from a copy of an already existing one. This does not have to be an institution collection but can be any collection that you are allowed to copy.

Click on the collection title to go to the first page of the collection.

View the description of this collection.

Click on any title of a page within a collection to jump directly to it.

Click the Manage button manage to move pages within a collection, add to or delete pages from a collection.

Click the Edit button edit to change the title and description of a collection.

Click the Delete button delete to delete the collection. The pages will still exist.

Note

Creating and editing an institution collection is very similar to creating and editing a portfolio collection.

9.5.13. Share institution pages and collections

Administration → Institutions → Share

You can see a list of all institution pages and collections for a specific institution.

Share institution pages and collections

Institution: Select the institution from the drop-down menu for which you want to see the institution pages and collections.

Collections: All institution collections for that institution are listed here.

Pages: All institution pages for that institution are listed here.

Access list: View the access permissions for the pages and collections.

Click the Edit access button edit_access to change the permissions of who can view and copy a page or collection.

Click the Edit Secret URL button secret_url to define a secret URL for a page or collection.

Sharing an institution page or collection is very similar to sharing a portfolio page or collection. The only difference is that you can allow new institution members to receive a copy of an institution page or collection immediately upon joining the institution.

Setting for copying an institution page for new institution members

When you clicked the Edit access button edit_access on the Share page for institution pages and collections, place a tick in the checkbox Allow copying under Advanced options.

Once you have put a check mark into that box, the line Copy for new institution members appears, and you can place a check mark into that box if you wish all new institution members to receive that page or collection automatically upon joining that institution.

Click the Save button at the bottom of the page to save your changes.

9.5.14. Files

Administration → Institutions → Files

The files area in an institution holds all files that are uploaded by administrators as institution files. The uploading process works like the one in the personal files area.

Institution files area

9.5.15. Institution statistics

Administration → Institutions → Institution statistics

The type of statistics you have available for institutions are very similar to the site statistics. You can view statistics for each institution individually and for example use the CSV download options to

compare the institution statistics to the site statistics

compare institutions with each other

Note

All institution administrators have access to their institution(s)’ statistics at any time. If the site administrator set the staff statistics access correctly, institution staff will also be able to see the statistics for their institution(s).

9.5.15.1. Institution information

You have access to basic information about individual institutions. Choose the one you would like to see from the institution drop-down menu before proceeding.

Basic information about an institution

You can view information about:

Growth of your number of users and pages over time in a graph

Institution created: Date when your institution went live

Users: Number of

registered users, i.e. everybody who has an account

active users, i.e. users that have at least logged in once and have done something

Pages: Number of pages and average pages per user with pages

Disk usage: The amount of disk space your institution uses, i.e. the total amount of space occupied by files

9.5.15.2. Users

You can see basic information about an institution’s users to keep track of them.

Daily user statistics per institution

On the Users tab of the institution statistics, you see information about

the average user in this institution:

average number of friends with the name of the person with most friends

average number of pages with the author of the most pages

average amount of file quota used with the user who has used most

daily user statistics with information about how many users

logged in

were created

existed in total on a specific day

link to download the daily user statistics as CSV file

9.5.15.3. Pages

You can view statistics about an institution’s pages in the Pages tab.

Statistics about pages

The information that you can view is:

The most frequently used blocks in portfolio pages.

A graph shows the distribution of profile, group and portfolio pages.

Most popular pages: The most popular pages are sorted in descending order with links to the pages and the owner.

Export statistics in CSV format: Download the cumulative statistics about the pages and number of views as well as comments as CSV file.

9.5.15.4. Content

The Content tab in the institution statistics holds information about

artefacts

blocks

general site information

Statistics for the current week for all artefacts etc.

Name: The statistics item itself, e.g. artefact, block or other general item on institution level. It is linked to the Historial data statistics for an overview of the changes over time.

Modified: This column shows the number of updates to an artefact etc. during the current week.

Total: This column shows the total number of instances of the statistics items.

Export statistics in CSV format: Download the cumulative statistics about all the statistics shown for the week as CSV file.

Note

The number of total content statistics will vary because only when an artefact or block etc. was used, will the statistics be created for that type.

9.5.15.5. Historical data

The Historical data tab in the institution statistics holds historical data over time about a particular content item that you have clicked on in the Content tab. Changes are saved per default on a weekly basis. However, whenever you run the cron manually, a new statistics will be created as well. You can also download the statistics as CSV file.

Historical data for individual content items

Historical statistics for field: Display of the artefact or other item that you are looking at.

Date: Display of the date when the statistics were created.

Modified: Display of the number of modifications from the previous date to the next one when the statistics were created.

Total: Total number of instances of this statistical item at the time the statistics were run.

Export statistics in CSV format: Download the cumulative statistics for this particular item as CSV file.

Note

When you click on the Historical data tab without choosing an item to look at in particular beforehand, the number of users are displayed as that is a statistics that is available on all sites.

9.5.16. Pending registrations

Administration → Institutions → Pending registrations

When you turn on Confirm registration for an institution in the institution settings, no user account in this institution is created without the administrator knowing it. If a user is rejected, no account is created. If the option Confirm registration is not turned on, a user account is created in the “No institution” institution but not in the actual institution.

Below follows the process for self-registration with Confirm registration turned on.

9.5.16.1. Self-register for an internal account

When users try to self-register for your institution, they must provide certain details.

Note

The fields for email, first and last name can appear in a different order if you have chosen the advanced spam protection settings.

User self-registration for an institution

First name: Type your first name.

Last name: Provide your last name.

Email address: Provide your email address.

Institution: Select the institution for which you want to register. There is an indicator whether the institution you wish to register for requires administrator approval.

Registration reason: If administrator approval is required, you can provide a reason why you want to join.

If the site administrator requires users who self-register to agree to the terms and conditions, the “Registration agreement” of the site, you must read through them below and then make your choice.

Click the Register button.

The administrators of that institution and the site administrator receive a notification about the pending registration. They then review pending registrations.

You will receive an email which includes a link to confirm your email address. You must click that link within 24 hours. If you do not, you will have to start the registration process again from the beginning.

9.5.16.2. Review pending registrations

As administrator, you can view pending registrations for your institutions on the Pending registrations page in Administration → Institutions → Pending registrations.

Pending registrations page

Institution: Choose the institution for which you want to view the pending registrations.

Pending registration: You see a list of all registration requests that include the names of the requesters and their email addresses.

Registration reason: The reason for registration is displayed.

Click the Approve button when you want to approve this registration request. You will have to confirm your approval on the next page. The person self-registering receives an email with a link to complete the registration process.

Click the Deny button when you do not want this person to register for your institution and receive an account.

When you approve users, you can decide whether they should receive staff rights immediately. For example, this helps to give all teachers at a school staff access rights upon their self-registration.

Approve pending registrations

Institution staff: Place a check mark in this checkbox if the user shall have staff access rights.

Click the Approve button when you want to approve this registration request or click the Cancel button to abort the approval process.

When you deny a person access to your institution, you can also provide a reason.

Reason for denying institution membership for a self-registering user

Denial reason: Write your reason for denying institution membership that might help the person to know why you do not want to give them access.

Click the Deny button to send a notification to the person’s email address with the reason for the denial.

Click the Cancel button to be taken back to the page with all pending registrations.

9.5.16.3. Complete self-registration

When users are accepted as members in an institution via this process, they must still complete the registration process. This is necessary to provide information in all required fields besides a password and a username.

Complete the self-registration for an institution

New username: Choose your new username. A default username is suggested, but you can provide a different one. If your suggested username is already taken, the system will let you know after you submit your information.

New password: Choose a password for your account. This field is required.

Confirm password: Re-type the new password. This field is required.

Click the Submit button to complete your registration. You will be taken to your Dashboard.

9.6. Extensions

Administration → Extensions

Note

Extensions is only accessible by site administrators.

Extensions in Mahara serve to provide certain functionality in the system. Extensions can be installed at any point and can also be hidden.

9.6.1. Plugin administration

Administration → Extensions → Plugin administration

The Plugin administration lists all the plugins that are currently installed on your Mahara instance and provides a link to the plugin configuration settings where available.

Plugins in Mahara are always installed and can be accessed if users know the URLs and would otherwise have access. Rather than enabling and disabling the functionality, plugins are hidden or made visible by clicking on the hide or show links beside the plugins. When hiding an artefact type plugin, Mahara stops the display of the blocks related to it.

Warning when a plugin is not yet installed

If you added a plugin to your site or if a new plugin was added to Mahara since the last upgrade that you performed, you will need to go through its installation. A plugin that is not yet fully installed is marked with a warning and listed first in its section. Click the Install link to start the installation process.

In order to delete a plugin completely, you must delete the code and all database tables that pertain to the plugin. Additionally, you need to delete it from a number of system tables, e.g. “artefact”, “artefact_config”, “artefact_cron”, etc. As an example, view the information on how to uninstall the My Learning plugin [https://wiki.mahara.org/index.php/Plugins/Artefact/My_Learning/Uninstalling].

Note

Core Mahara functionality can be made unavailable to users by hiding it. This may be useful if you connect Mahara to another system that already provides this functionality or if you do not wish your users to use that functionality. However, the decision about hiding a functionality should be considered thoroughly as it may also mean that users may not be able to have as many artefacts available to them as they should have.

In the following, only the plugins that have additional settings are discussed.

9.6.1.1. Blocktype: File / folder

You can decide the default sort order for files displayed in a Folder block and whether viewers of portfolio pages that contain a Folder block should be able to download the contents of the folder as zip file in one go.

Configure the Folder block

Default sort order of files: Decide whether the default sort order for displaying files in a Folder block should be alphabetically ascending or descending.

Note

Page authors can change the sort order for each block.

Download folders as zip files: If you turn this setting on, you can download the contents of a folder displayed in a Folder block as zip file. Thus, it is very easy for a viewer to grab all files at once and download them to their computer.

See also

Site administrators decide in the Artefact type: File settings for how long the zip file is kept on the server.

9.6.1.2. Blocktype: File / gallery

You can provide additional image gallery settings and also allow your users to make Flickr and Photobucket image galleries available. The settings you make on this page will be the default settings for all users.

Configure the Image gallery block

Use Slimbox2: Turn this option on if you want to use this script to overlay images on the current page.

Use photo frame: Turn this option on if you want to put a frame around the thumbnail of each photo in photo galleries.

Maximum photo width: Set the maximum width (in pixel) to which the photos will be resized when viewed with Slimbox2.

Flickr API key: If you want to allow users to display photos from Flickr, you need a valid Flickr API key. You can apply for the key at Flickr [http://www.flickr.com/services/api/keys/apply/].

Photobucket API key: If you want to allow users to display photos from Photobucket, you need a valid API and private API key. You can get them from the developer page of Photobucket [http://developer.photobucket.com/].

Photobucket API private key: Provide the private API key from Photobucket that you will have received.

Click the Save button to keep your changes.

9.6.1.3. Blocktype: File / internalmedia

Configure which file types users can embed into the Embedded media block. If you disable a file type that has already been used in a block, it will not be rendered any more.

Mahara comes with Flowplayer [http://flowplayer.org/], a media player that can play FLV, MP4 (in H.264 format) and MP3 files. Videos are embedded and audio files played with the help of this player.

Other video file types can be enabled, but users must have the appropriate software installed on their computers and the respective plugin enabled in their browsers to play them.

Configure the Embedded media block

Turn on the file types that you wish your users to be able to show on their portfolio pages.

Width: Choose the default width (in pixels) for a video.

Height: Choose the default height (in pixels) for a video.

Click the Save button to keep your changes.

Note

If you allow the embedding of file types that cannot be played by Flowplayer, some users may not have the necessary software installed for displaying these file types.

9.6.1.4. Blocktype: Text

You can convert Note blocktypes to Text blocktypes across the entire instance.

Configure text settings

Mahara calculates how many notes can be converted. Notes with the following characteristics are included in the conversion process. Notes that:

have not been re-used in another block;

do not have a license attached;

do not use tags;

do not have any attachments;

have not received any feedback.

Turn on the option Convert “Note” blocks to convert all notes.

Click the Save button to start the conversion process. This may take some time depending on how many notes are to be converted.

See also

If you have a large site, the conversion of notes to text may take a very long time. It can be beneficial to use the new in Mahara 15.04 command-line script [https://bugs.launchpad.net/mahara/+bug/1427898].

9.6.1.5. Blocktype: Wall

You can limit the number of characters that are allowed for wall posts in this configuration setting. Existing posts will not be changed.

Configure wall settings

Choose the maximum number of characters for your wall posts.

Click the Save button to keep your changes.

9.6.1.6. Artefact type: Comments

Turn comment ratings on to enable 5-star ratings in the feedback section on artefacts and pages.

Note

Ratings cannot be on their own and require either a comment or a file attachment.

Enable comment ratings

Turn this option on to enable comment ratings.

Click the Save button to keep your changes.

9.6.1.7. Artefact type: File

You can configure a variety of options for uploading files:

Default user quota

Default group quota

Upload agreement

Resize images on upload

Profile picture size

Comments

Folder downloads

9.6.1.7.1. Default user quota

Configure the default user quota

Default quota: You can set the amount of disk space that new users will have as their quota. Existing user quotas will not be changed.

Update user quotas: Turn this option on if you want to update the file quota for existing users with the value under Default quota. Only then will they be updated.

Enforce a site-wide maximum quota: Turn this option on if you do not wish an administrator to go beyond the allowed maximum quota.

Maximum quota: You can set the maximum quota that an administrator can give to a user. Existing user quotas will not be affected.

Quota notification threshold: You can set a percentage for when a user receives a notification about reaching the upload limit for files. They can then decide to delete files to free up space or contact the site or institution administrator to check if they can receive more space.

Site administrator notification: Turn this option on if the site administrator shall receive the quota notification emails for individual users to take action.

Institutional override: Turn this option on if you want to allow institution administrators to set user file quotas and have default quotas for each institution.

Click the Save button at the bottom of the page when you are finished making your changes or continue to the next section on this page.

9.6.1.7.2. Default group quota

Configure the default group quota

Default group quota: You can set the amount of disk space that each group will have as its quota. Existing groups will not be affected.

Update group quotas: Turn this option on if you want to update the file quota for existing groups with the value under Default quota. Only then will they be updated.

Click the Save button at the bottom of the page when you are finished making your changes or continue to the next section on this page.

9.6.1.7.3. Upload agreement

Configure the upload agreement

Require agreement: Enable this option if you want to force users to agree to certain terms before they can upload a file to the site. They must accept this agreement before they are able to choose a file from their computer to upload to Mahara.

Default agreement: This is the default agreement that will be displayed if you selected the option Require agreement and if you don’t want to use your own custom agreement.

Use custom agreement: If you want to write your own upload agreement, turn this option on in addition to Require agreement.

Custom agreement: If you want to use a custom upload agreement, write it here.

Click the Save button at the bottom of the page when you are finished making your changes or continue to the next section on this page.

9.6.1.7.4. Resize images on upload

Configure the image resizing options

Resize large images automatically: Enable this option to resize any image that is uploaded to the maximum width and height settings.

User option: Display users the option to resize images automatically in their account settings.

Maximum width: Choose the maximum width (in pixels) to which images will be resized upon uploading.

Maximum height: Choose the maximum height (in pixels) to which images will be resized upon uploading.

Click the Save button at the bottom of the page when you are finished making your changes or continue to the next section on this page.

9.6.1.7.5. Profile picture size

Configure the size of the profile pictures

Width: Choose the maximum width (in pixels) of the profile pictures for users.

Height: Choose the maximum height (in pixels) of the profile pictures for users.

Click the Save button at the bottom of the page when you are finished making your changes or continue to the next section on this page.

Note

All images uploaded to the profile pictures area will be resized to these dimensions if they are larger.

9.6.1.7.6. Comments

Configure the default comment settings for different file types

Select All to mark all file types.

Select none to clear your selections from the checkboxes.

Default comment permission: Choose the artefact types which shall have comments enabled per default. Users can override these settings for individual artefacts in the files area. You can enable comments for:

archive, i.e. compressed file

audio file

file

folder

image

profile picture

video file

Click the Save button at the bottom of the page when you are finished making your changes or continue to the next section on this page.

9.6.1.7.7. Folder downloads

Configure the folder download settings

Length of time to keep zip files: Choose the amount of time for how long you want to keep the zip files on the server that are created during the folder download process. The default time frame is 3,600 seconds (1 hour).

Click the Save button when you are finished making your changes.

9.6.1.8. Artefact type: Profile

For profile information you can decide which fields a user must provide when a user account is created manually or via CSV file. These fields are marked mandatory fields.

The profile fields marked searchable fields are available for all logged-in users to search on.

Choose mandatory and searchable profile fields

Mandatory fields: Select the fields that you wish all users to fill in. Certain fields cannot be deselected.

Searchable fields: Select the fields that can be searched on by others. Certain fields cannot be deselected.

Click the Save button to keep your changes.

9.6.1.9. Authentication: BrowserID / Persona

new in Mahara 15.04 Persona authentication is discontinued [https://wiki.mozilla.org/Identity/Persona_Shutdown_Guidelines_for_Reliers] as at 30 November 2016. Nobody is able to use that authentication anymore.

When you update to Mahara 15.04.10, Persona authentication will be deactivated, and you cannot re-activate it anymore. You can automatically migrate all accounts that use Persona to internal authentication.

Migrate Persona accounts to internal authentication

Institution: The institutions that use Persona authentication are listed.

Number of active Persona users: A list of all users that have Persona. The link takes you to the user search page and displays only the users with Persona.

Auto-migrate Persona users: Switch to “Yes” if you want to migrate all users to internal authentication that have been using Persona authentication. If you don’t do that, they will not be able to log in.

Note

If an institution does not have an internal authentication set, one will be created so that the users can be moved.

You will need to inform the users that used Persona as their login to reset their password as no email is sent with the account details. They should go to the “Lost username / password” screen and enter the email address of their Persona account in order to retrieve their username and password.

Click the Save button to migrate the users.

9.6.1.10. Authentication: SAML

If you wish to use SAML authentication anywhere on your site, you must provide the path to your SAML php file in these settings.

Prepare your site for SAML authentication

SimpleSAMLphp lib directory: Provide the fully qualified path to the library directory of SimpleSAMLphp, e.g. if the full path to the bootstrap autoload.php is /some_path_to/simplesamlphp_1_3/lib/_autoload.php then this value should be /some_path_to/simplesamlphp_1_3/

SimpleSAMLphp config directory: Provide the fully qualified path to the configuration directory to be used for this Service Provider (SP) SimpleSAMLphp, e.g. if the full path to the config.php is /some_path_to/simplesamlphp_1_3/config/config.php then this value should be /some_path_to/simplesamlphp_1_3/config/

Click the Save button to keep your changes.

9.6.1.11. Search: Internal search

If your site has a lot of users and uses a PostgreSQL database, user searches will be faster with exact user searching enabled. The setting will still work with MySQL databases, but it is unlikely that it increases search performance significantly.

The advantage of the exact user search is that if you have 20 users with the first name “Percy” but different last names, you may find the user you are looking for more quickly because you can search for “Percy Pearle” and the result list will not show “Percy Pearl”, “Percy Sutter”, “Percy Townsend” etc.

However, partial matches on profile fields will not return results, so if for example you have a user called “Percy”, then typing “Perc” into the search box will not find that user anymore.

Configure the internal search plugin

Exact user searches: Turn this option on if you want to enable exact user searches.

Click the Save button to keep your changes.

9.6.1.12. Search: Elasticsearch

The regular Mahara search is limited to finding users and in certain places titles, descriptions and tags of pages or collections. However, Mahara can be extended to use allow for fulltext search capabilities. The Mahara core project team chose to use Elasticsearch [http://www.elasticsearch.org/]. This is a powerful and extensible fulltext search engine. It does require a Java server, e.g. Tomcat, to run and thus may not be available for small instances of Mahara.

Note

Currently, the plugin can only be used for Mahara instances running on a PostgreSQL database. Work is in progress to extend the support for MySQL for Mahara 1.9.

Configure the Elasticsearch plugin

Most of the Elasticsearch configuration needs to be done on the server level. Here you only see the settings, but cannot change them directly.

Cron record limit: Decide on the maximum number of records to be passed from the queue to the Elasticsearch server on each cron run. An empty field or 0 means that there is no limit.

Artefact types: Check the artefact types that you want to include in the search index. Only artefact types that have a hierarchy defined below are valid. You will need to reset artefacts in the queue below for your changes to take effect.

Artefact types hierarchy: Enter the hierarchy for each artefact type separated by | (a pipe). Place each artefact type on a row by itself.

Index reset: View the number of records of each type currently in the queue to be sent to the Elasticsearch server. Items are sent to the Elasticsearch server each time the search plugin’s cron task runs (every 5 minutes).

Click the Reset button to clear the search index and thus deleting all records and requeuing them.

Click the Save button to accept your changes.

See also

You can find more information about Elasticsearch in Mahara on the wiki [https://wiki.mahara.org/index.php/Developer_Area/Specifications_in_Development/Elasticsearch]. There are also some developer notes [https://wiki.mahara.org/index.php/Developer_Area/Specifications_in_Development/Elasticsearch_Plugin] to get you started.

9.6.1.13. Interaction: Forum

The post delay setting determines the time (in minutes) that users have for editing their forum posts before they are mailed out. Once a forum post has been mailed and further edits are made, the date, time and editor are mentioned in the post.

Set the edit time before the forum post is finalised

Post delay: Set the time in minutes before a post is finalised and further edits are marked as such.

Click the Save button to keep your changes.

9.6.2. HTML filters

Administration → Extensions → HTML filters

Mahara uses HTML Purifier [http://htmlpurifier.org/] to filter out malicious code that could threaten the security of the system. If you have code, e.g. iFrames or JavaScript that you wish to use and that otherwise gets filtered out, you will have to write a filter to circumvent that. Filters should always be specific to their purpose and not give ‘carte blanche’ to ensure security as much as possible.

Mahara already comes with a number of installed filters. Others can be uploaded and then installed. If you have created a new set of HTML filters, you can install them by unzipping the files into the folder /htdocs/lib/htmlpurifiercustom and then click the Install button.

Custom filters for iFrames that allow the embedding of media content such as YouTube and WikiEducator allow users to grab the URL of the page on which the media is displayed instead of having to find the actual embed code.

Note

You do not necessarily require bespoke filters for media that you wish to embed via <iframe> embed code. If you are happy to use the original embed code, you can add it to the list of allowed iframe sources.

If you wish to be able to paste the URL instead (like for a YouTube video), then you would need a bespoke filter.

9.6.3. Allowed iframe sources

Administration → Extensions → Allowed iframe sources

This feature allows you as site administrator to specify the base URLs for media that you want your users to be able to embed. These iframes are then considered safe and will not be stripped out of a Text or Note block, the External media block or a journal entry where you can use them. You do not have to write bespoke filters for using these iframe sources.

The administrator interface allows you to add and manage these sources easily. Mahara already comes with a number of built-in iframe sources that you can take as examples.

Add and edit allowed iframe sources

Site: The base URL of the iframe code.

Display name: What the user will see in the external media block.

Click the Edit button edit to update the display name of an existing iframe source or the favicon source.

Click the Delete button delete to remove an existing iframe source.

Display name: Change the display name of an existing iframe source here after having clicked on the Edit button edit.

Icon host: Choose the base URL where the favicon can be found for the site that you are updating in case it is not fetched automatically.

Click the Save button to keep your changes for this site.

Site: Add a new iframe source by entering its base URL here. Please make sure to leave out the http://. Only letters, digits and . / - _ are allowed.

Display name: Choose a display name for your iframe source. Typically, this is the name of the site that hosts the external content.

Click the Add button to place your new site into the list of allowed iframe sources. If the favicon does not display, edit your site and specify the icon host as per Step 6.

Note

Some sites can be reached via a variety of URLs, e.g. GoogleApps, Glogster. You need to provide all possible base URLs to ensure that the iFrames are displayed. If you give the individual sites of one provider the same name, it will only show up once in the list of iFrame sources in the external media block and not clutter the space unnecessarily.

See also

Community members started to collect iFrame sources that they are using on their sites to share which URLs would need to be provided to get the iFrames to work. You can check out the list on the wiki [https://wiki.mahara.org/index.php/Allowed_iframe_sources] and also add your own iFrame sources there.

9.6.4. Clean URLs

Administration → Extensions → Clean URLs

You can configure your site to use human-readable URLs for user profiles, groups and (group) portfolio pages. For example:

profile page: http://mahara.example.com/user/bob

portfolio page: http://mahara.example.com/user/bob/bobs-portfolio-page

group homepage: http://mahara.example.com/group/bobs-group

group portfolio page: http://mahara.example.com/group/bobs-group/an-interesting-group-page

This option allows you to create more memorable URLs.

See also

Please follow the configuration instructions on the wiki [https://wiki.mahara.org/index.php/System_Administrator%27s_Guide/Clean_URL_Configuration] for enabling this feature on your site. You need access to the server to do so.

In the administration area you can generate clean URLs for existing users, groups and pages. This is handy when you upgraded from an earlier version of Mahara or want to reset all custom URLs.

Regenerate clean URLs for existing users in bulk

Click the Submit button to regenerate clean URLs. Please beware that all existing clean URLs are lost.

You see the results of the action at the top of the screen.

Warning

If you generate clean URLs for all users from here, those who have already changed their URLs will lose their changes and links will be broken. We recommend you use this feature only when upgrading your Mahara site or when things have gone wrong with the clean URL generation.

9.6.5. new in Mahara 15.04 Web services

For web services, please see the separate section.

9.7. new in Mahara 15.04 Web services

Administration → Extensions → Web services

Note

Web services are only accessible by site administrators.

Web services allow you to connect your Mahara site with other applications that have web services / APIs as well. It might require some configuration or the development of specific web services functions to accomplish the integration you are looking for. The Mahara web services are a framework that makes it possible to develop additional APIs without having to do a great deal more than defining a function that exposes the required functionality, and the associated interface definition.

In order to use web services, your site must use a SSL certificate.

9.7.1. Configuration

Administration → Extensions → Web services → Configuration

On this page you set up various web services rules and enable or disable them.

9.7.1.1. Web services master switch and switching protocols on and off

You can enable web services globally and then configure protocols individually to suit your needs. Once a protocol is enabled, it can be used for all functions, users and tokens.

Switch web services or individual protocols on and off

Switch web services on or off: If set to “On”, web services are available to be used on your site.

Note

If you set the master switch to “Off”, any activated individual protocols under “Switch protocols on and off” are turned off and would need to be enabled manually again.

SOAP: Allow this protocol if you want to be able to use the Simple Object Access Protocol.

XML-RPC: Set this to “On” if you want to make remote procedure calls to XML content. This protocol is used by MNet.

Note

As long as MNet is supported in Mahara, you can use that to configure your connection to Moodle.

REST: Allow the REpresentational State Transfer protocol by turning this setting on. The REST interface also supports JSON authentication.

OAuth: If you want to use the OAuth (Open Authentication) protocol, turn this setting on.

9.7.1.2. Networking certificates

In this section, the public key of your Mahara certicate that is created on Administration → Configure site → Networking is displayed for convenience.

9.7.1.3. Manage service groups

Service groups are the unit of allocation of access to a user (simple authentication) or user token. They are a collection of functions. Mahara already comes with a series of service groups and functions that you can configure. More service groups can be added.

Overview of the available service groups and their basic settings

Service: The service group under which a number of related functions are grouped that you can enable or disable.

Component: The area through which a service group is available. It is generally “webservice”.

Enabled: If a service group is enabled, you see the Enabled icon enabled. If it is not enabled, you see the Disabled icon disabled.

Authorised users only: If the service group can be used by people who log in with a username and password, you see the Enabled icon enabled. If it is not possible to use it as such a user, you see the Disabled icon disabled.

User token access: You see the Enabled icon enabled if access to the functions of this group requires a user token. If access via a user token is not allowed, you see the Disabled icon disabled.

Functions: This is a list of functions that are associated with the service group.

Note

Clicking on one of the functions takes you to the web services documentation for this function. More information about the web service function is available there including a description of the functions API, input and output parameters, and error handling.

Click the Edit button edit to make changes to the service group as described below.

Click the Delete button delete to completely remove the service group.

Note

In many cases you may not want to delete the web service group entirely as you would need to re-create it and associate functions with it if you required it at a later stage. Disabling the group would often be sufficient.

If you want to create a new service group, add it in this field and click the Add button. You can then see your new group in the list of service groups and configure it by clicking the Edit button edit next to it.

When you selected the service group you want to edit, you see the following screen.

Edit the settings of a service group

Service: Set this to “On” if you want to use this service group. You can tweak the individual functions below.

Authorised users only: Set this to “On” if only people with a username and password should be affected by this service group.

User token access: Set this to “On” if you want users to have individual tokens in order to access certain functionalities.

Note

The user token access gives the enitre Mahara userbase the possibility to make use of the API. Therfore generally, it should be restricted to service groups that give access to user-focused functions like mahara_user_get_my_user for the current user’s own details.

The name of the function.

Enabled: This setting enables or disables the use of this function.

Class name: The name of the class that is part of the function.

Method name: The name of the method that is being called. The link takes you to the web services documentation for that method.

Click the Save button when you are finished making your changes, or click the Back button if you want to cancel the changes.

9.7.1.4. Manage service access tokens

You can generate access tokens for individual users and associate service groups to which that user shall have access.

Overview of the access tokens

Username: Type a username and click the Generate token button for a new access token to be created for that user. You are taken to a screen where you can associate a service group to this token (see below). You can only enter one username.

Note

You can either start typing the name or the username of a person registered on your site. You will receive suggestions for names as you type.

Token: The token that was generated for a particular user.

Institution: Lists the institution in which the user is a member.

User: The username is displayed and linked to the user’s settings page in the administration.

Service: The service group for which the token was generated.

Enabled: If this service group is enabled, you see the Enabled icon enabled. If it is not enabled, you see the Disabled icon disabled.

Web services security: If the web services security is enabled, you see the Enabled icon enabled. Otherwise, you see the Disabled icon disabled.

Functions: This is a list of all the functions that the token has access to for the selected service.

Click the Edit button edit to make changes to the settings.

Click the Delete button delete to remove the token.

When you create a token for a user, you need to provide some additional information.

Configure a service access token

Verify that you are editing the correct token.

Institution: Select the institution of the user.

Username: Verify that you have the correct username for which you want to set up a token.

Service: Choose the service group from the drop-down list for which you want to enable the token. Only services that allow user token access can be chosen.

Enabled: The token is automatically enabled when the service group is enabled.

Note

If you want to disable a service group, please do so in the section Manage service groups.

Authorised users only: This checkbox is not used in this context because here you create a token.

Functions: A list of functions that the token has access to.

Note

When you change the service, the list of functions is not automatically updated. You only see the updated list when you save the page.

Enable web services security (XML-RPC only): This feature is only available for XML-RPC based authentication.

Public key: Enter the public key for added web service security (only for XML-RPC based authentication).

Public key expires: Date on which the public key that you entered expires. The date is only updated once you save the form.

Click the Save button to save your changes or the Back button to cancel your changes.

9.7.1.5. Manage service users

If you do not wish to use a token for your users, but give them access to functions via their usernames, you should choose this option. Users must:

only be configured once.

have the “webservice” authentication method in an institution in which they are a member.

Note

Users with the authentication method “webservice” can only access Mahara via web services and cannot use the standard login form.

Manage service users overview section

Username: Type a username and click the Add button. You are taken to a screen where you can associate a service group to that user (see below). You can only enter one username.

Note

You can either start typing the name or the username of a person registered on your site. You will receive suggestions for names as you type.

User: The username is displayed of the user for whom you configured a service group. It is linked to the user’s account settings page in the administration.

Institution: Lists the institution in which the user is a member.

Service: The service group that is associated with the user.

Enabled: If this service group is enabled, you see the Enabled icon enabled. If it is not enabled, you see the Disabled icon disabled.

Web services security: If the web services security is enabled, you see the Enabled icon enabled. Otherwise, you see the Disabled icon disabled.

Functions: This is a list of all the functions that the user has access to for the selected service.

Click the Edit button edit to make changes to the settings.

Click the Delete button delete to remove the user from the access to the associated service group.

When you add a user, you need to provide some additional information.

Associate a user with a specific service group

The username is displayed.

Institution: Verify that the institution of the user is correct. If it is not, you can change the institution on the user’s account settings page.

Username: Verify that you have the correct username for which you want to set up a token.

Service: Choose the service group from the drop-down list to which you want to give the user access. Only services that allow access via a username can be chosen.

Enabled: The settings are automatically enabled when the service group is enabled.

Note

If you want to disable a service group, please do so in the section Manage service groups.

Authorised users only: This checkbox is selected automatically when the service group is configured to allow access via a username.

Functions: A list of functions that the user has access to.

Note

When you change the service, the list of functions is not automatically updated. You only see the updated list when you save the page.

Enable web services security (XML-RPC only): This feature is only available for XML-RPC based authentication.

Public key: Enter the public key for added web service security (only for XML-RPC based authentication).

Public key expires: Date on which the public key that you entered expires. The date is only updated once you save the form.

Click the Save button to save your changes or the Back button to cancel your changes.

9.7.2. OAuth service registration

Administration → Extensions → Web services → OAuth

OAuth service access is configured separately. This enables the selection of an institution and service definition, for which a consumer key and secret will be generated automatically.

Register an OAuth service

Application: Give your application that you want to add a name.

Choose which institution shall have access to your chosen application via OAuth.

Choose the service group that you want to associate with this application.

Click the Add button to create the OAuth authentication for the seleced service. You are taken to a screen where you can configure your application (see below).

Application: Lists the applications that are connected via OAuth.

Owner: User who has set up the OAuth service.

Consumer key: The consumer key for the OAuth service.

Consumer secret: The consumer secret for the OAuth service.

Enabled: If the application is enabled, you see the Enabled icon enabled. If it is not enabled, you see the Disabled icon disabled.

Callback URI: The callback URI for the application.

Click the Edit button edit to make changes to the settings.

Click the Delete button delete to remove the application so it cannot connect anymore to Mahara via OAuth.

When you want an application to connect via OAuth to Mahara, you need to provide some more information.

Configure an OAuth service

Server key: The consumer key for the OAuth service.

Consumer secret: The consumer secret for the OAuth service.

Application title: Give your application that you want to add a name.

Service owner: User who has set up the OAuth service.

Appliation URI: URI of the application.

Callback URI: The callback URI for the application.

Institution: Select the institution for which you want to set up OAuth.

Service: Select the service group that you want to set up for OAuth.

Enabled: The application is automatically enabled when OAuth is enabled.

Functions: A list of functions that the application has access to.

Note

When you change the service, the list of functions is not updated automatically. You only see the updated list when you save the page.

Click the Save button to save your changes or the Back button to cancel your changes.

9.7.3. Web services logs

Administration → Extensions → Web services → Web services logs

You can view the logs from the web services and narrow you search so you only see the relevant information.

Search the web services logs

User: Type the username of the person for whom you want to see the logs. You can only enter one username.

Note

You can either start typing the name or the username of a person registered on your site. You will receive suggestions for names as you type.

Protocol: Select the web services protocol that is associated with the user. You can only see the protocols that are enabled.

Auth type: Choose the type of authentication that you selected for the user. The options are:

All: Display the logs for any authentication type.

Token: Only display logs when the user has a user token.

User: Display the logs when the user uses the username for the web service.

OAuth: Select this option if you only want to see logs when the user logs in via OAuth.

Function: Search for the function that you are interested in.

Only errors: Tick this checkbox if you only want to see log information that contains an error.

Click the Go button to start your search.

User: Display the username of the user that you searched on.

Institution: Display the name of the institution in which the user is a member.

Protocol: Show the protocol that is associated with the user for the chosen context.

Authentication type: Show the authentication type that is associated with the user.

Function: Display the function you searched on.

Time taken: The time it took to fetch the log.

When: Display the date that the log entry was produced. You can change the sort order for this column.

Info: Error messages are displayed here.

9.7.4. Web services test client

Administration → Extensions → Web services → Web services test client

The test client gives you the opportunity to test your settings. Please beware that the functions are executed for real on the system.

Web services test client

Note

When you start the configuration, you only see the protocol and the authentication type if you only have one protocol selected. The other fields are revealed once you made a decision on what to test.

Protocol: You only see the web services protocols that are currently enabled. If you see more than one, select the one that you want to test.

Authentication type: Select the authentication type that you would like to include in your test.

Service: Choose the service group that you want to test.

Functions: Select the function that you want to include in your test.

wstoken: Enter the web services token for the user that you want to test.

Click the Execute button if you want to run the test or click the Cancel button if you want to abort the test.

Once the test has run, the results of the test are displayed on the screen.

9.7.5. Application connections

Administration → Extensions → Web services → Application connections

This is an overview page of all the connections that you have allowed either via personal user tokens or OAuth access tokens.

Overview of the application connections

The section Personal user tokens displays all the tokens that you have generated for individual users and whether they have been accessed or not amongst others.

Service access: This column displays the service group for which you created a token.

Enabled: If the service group is enabled, you see the Enabled icon enabled. If it is not enabled, you see the Disabled icon disabled.

Token: The token is displayed here.

Functions: The functions that are part of the service group are listed and linked. The links go to the web services documentation for the function that you selected.

Last access: Lists the date and time of the last use of the token.

Expires: Shows the expiry date of the token.

Click the Generate button manage to generate a new random token.

Click the Delete button delete to delete the token. The user group and functions are still available. You can then click the Generate button manage to create a new token.

In the OAuth access tokens section you see any tokens generated to be used with OAuth.

9.8. Experimental features

As site administrator you have three experimental features available to you:

bulk export of Leap2A files

bulk import of Leap2A files

usersuniquebyusername variable

You cannot access these features from any navigation, but you must type the URL directly in the case of the bulk options or set up a config.php variable.

Warning

The export and import of portfolios uses quite a lot of computing power. Therefore, these bulk options require even more memory. Please try them first out on a test installation or export / import only a small number of users instead of an entire institution at once.

9.8.1. Bulk export of Leap2A files

[your regular Mahara URL]/admin/users/bulkexport.php

If you need to export the portfolios of multiple users at once, you can do so from the bulk export page. Please remember that this is an experimental feature at the moment.

Experimental feature: Bulk export

Institution: Choose the institution from the drop-down menu for which you want to export all user portfolios in the Leap2A format.

Usernames to export: Alternatively, choose this option if you only wish to export some users’ portfolios. Each username must be on a separate line.

Click the Export users button to start the export process. This might take a while.

Note

You can look up the usernames on the user search page or if you exported a CSV file of users, you have the usernames in there as well.

9.8.2. Bulk import of Leap2A files

[your regular Mahara URL]/admin/users/bulkimport.php

If you need to import the portfolios of multiple users at once, you can do so from the bulk import page. Please remember that this is an experimental feature at the moment. You must have Leap2A files to import. The import of HTML files is not possible.

The easiest option to import user portfolios in bulk is to use the bulk export file as all information is contained therein. If that is not possible, you can create the necessary ZIP file manually.

9.8.2.1. Bulk import using a bulk export file

Experimental feature: Bulk import

Ideally, you have exported the users you wish to import using the bulk export functionality on the other Mahara instance. Then the bulk export file already contains all necessary files and mappings.

Institution: Choose the institution in which the users shall become members.

Bulk export file: Choose the bulk export ZIP file which contains all users that shall be created. A new user account will be created for each of them.

Email users about their account: Check this option if the new users shall receive an email about their new account. This is especially important if you change their username and if they do not know that their account has been moved.

Click the Import button to start the process. Please be patient as the import may take some time.

Note

Before importing these new user accounts, you can change the usernames for these new accounts in the usernames.csv file that is included in the bulk export file.

9.8.2.2. Bulk import from scratch

If you want to import user portfolios into one institution using their Leap2A files that you did not receive via the bulk export functionality, you can still import them in bulk.

Create a folder, e.g. mahara-bulk-import.

Create the CSV file usernames.csv in the folder mahara-bulk-import.

Create a line for each user that you are importing that contains the username and the name of the ZIP file that contains the corresponding Leap2A file.

Create the sub folder users in it. Do not choose a different name.

Place all Leap2A files that you wish to import into one institution into the users sub folder. Make sure that each ZIP file has a corresponding entry in usernames.csv.

Create a ZIP file from the folder mahara-bulk-import once you have all users in it.

Go to [your regular Mahara URL]/admin/users/bulkimport.php.

Institution: Choose the institution in which the users shall become members.

Bulk export file: Choose the bulk export ZIP file which contains all users that shall be created. A new user account will be created for each of them.

Email users about their account: Check this option if the new users shall receive an email about their new account. This is especially important if you change their username and if they do not know that their account has been moved.

Click the Import button to start the process. Please be patient as the import may take some time.

Note

The CSV file usernames.csv should look like this and does not have a header row:

"petra","mahara-export-leap-user4-1334451885.zip"

"polly","mahara-export-leap-user5-1334451888.zip"

9.8.3. usersuniquebyusername variable

usersuniquebyusername is a config.php setting that should be used with extreme caution as it could be misused.

Below is the documentation that can be found in the code. This feature is discussed for example in the discussion topics Mahara Moodle integration and bug? [https://mahara.org/interaction/forum/topic.php?id=1118] and SSO: Mahara to Moodle [https://mahara.org/interaction/forum/topic.php?id=2022].

Note

When turned on, this setting means that it does not matter which other application the user SSOs from, they will be given the same account in Mahara.

This setting is one that has security implications unless only turned on by people who know what they are doing. In particular, every system linked to Mahara should be making sure that same username == same person. This happens for example if two Moodles are using the same LDAP server for authentication.

If this setting is on, it must NOT be possible to self register on the site for ANY institution - otherwise users could simply pick usernames of people’s accounts they wished to steal. That is why you should not see the registration checkboxes in any institution if you have this feature turned on.

10. Staff access

Institution staff members enjoy a number of additional rights to regular members, for example:

creation of controlled groups

viewing of the real name of users

access to the User search page

viewing of the access list of user’s pages

Institution staff members have an additional navigation item: Institution information.

Main navigation bar for staff members

10.1. User search

Institution information → User search

When you are on the User search page, you can view all members of your institution or just a select few.

User search page as viewed by a staff member

Filter the users you wish to display by their initials of the first and / or last name.

Filter by login date: You have several options:

Any user: Display any user who fits any other search / filter criteria.

Users have logged in: Display any user who has logged in at least once.

Users have never logged in: Display any user who has never logged in.

Users have logged in since: Display any user who has logged in since a specified date and time.

Users have not logged in since: Display any user who has not logged in since a specified date and time.

Choose a date and time for the login filter by either typing it in or selecting it via the calendar icon calendar.

Search: Type the name, display name, username or email address or any partial thereof you wish to search for in the search field. If you turned on the exact search, you need to provide the correct name or email address and not a partial one.

Click the Go button to start searching.

Results per page: Decide how many results per page you want to view.

View your results. The default order is alphabetical according to the first name. However, you can change the order of the results by clicking on a heading and sort that column in ascending or descending order. The profile picture and the name are linked to the profile page of the user.

Select all or just a few users for whom you wish to view a report.

With selected users: Click the Get reports button to

view user reports

download user account information for further actions

Note

Institution staff members only see the reports area if the site administrator allowed staff members to view the access reports.

10.2. Viewing user reports

Institution information → User search → click on Get reports

See also

The functionality available to staff members is similar to the one for institution and site administrators as described in the administrator section on user reports if the site administrator allowed staff members to view the access reports.

This functionality can be especially interesting to a Mahara site that is being used with young learners who may require more scaffolding and supervision of which pages they make accessible to other users or the public.

Note

Despite the access to the reports and the CSV download file, staff members cannot manipulate user accounts or access user pages to which they have not received direct access from the user. The reports page only lists the pages, but does not give default access.

10.3. Institution statistics

The functionality available to staff members is similar to the one for institution administrators as described in the administrator section on institution statistics if the site administrator allowed staff members to view the statistics.

11. Mahoodle

“Mahoodle” is the common name given to the joining of Mahara + Moodle [http://moodle.org], an open source learning management system. Both systems have built-in support for each other in the form of:

single sign-on

transfer of content

Refer to the comprehensive guide about setting up Mahoodle [https://wiki.mahara.org/index.php/System_Administrator%27s_Guide/Moodle//Mahara_Integration] for step-by-step instructions on how to set everything up on the Moodle side and on Mahara. The guide explains the steps for both Moodle 1.9 and Moodle 2.x.

You can always only link one Moodle to one Mahara be it on the site level or in an individual institution. You cannot link from one Moodle into multiple institutions on Mahara.

11.1. Moodle to Mahara

Most of the time, Moodle is the primary system and users log in from Moodle to Mahara. However, it can also be set up the other way around. You can transfer the following information when an institution in Mahara is set up to be connected to a Moodle site:

Login information

User account details, see the information in the XML-RPC authentication method settings

Content that is exported via the Moodle 2 “Portfolio export” functionality [http://docs.moodle.org/22/en/Mahara_portfolio]

11.2. Mahara to Moodle

You can send information and content from Mahara to Moodle if you wish. The following are possible:

Login information

Submitting pages for assessment [https://wiki.mahara.org/index.php/System_Administrator%27s_Guide/Moodle//Mahara_Integration/View_Submission]

Displaying dashboard content [https://bugs.launchpad.net/mahara/+bug/882376]

Using Moodle’s login page [https://bugs.launchpad.net/mahara/+bug/885029]

11.3. Link to specific Mahara page in Moodle

Normally, when you log in to Mahara from Moodle, you land on the dashboard page. However, there is a trick to go directly to a specific page in Mahara.

See also

Thanks to Gordon McLeod [http://twitter.com/LearnTribe] who published this tip [http://portfolio.gla.ac.uk/view/view.php?id=20304].

In Moodle add the block Network servers to a page (temporarily) after you set up networking to Mahara.

Copy the Mahara URL. It usually looks like this: http://moodle.organisation.net/auth/mnet/jump.php?hostid=3.

Note

If you only have one MNet session to Mahara set up, the host ID is usually 3. However, if you deleted an MNet connection or have multiple ones, it might be different.

Paste that URL into a text editor because it is easier to make changes there.

Add &wantsurl= to the end of the URL to yield http://moodle.organisation.net/auth/mnet/jump.php?hostid=3&wantsurl=.

Copy the URL of the Mahara page to which you want to link, e.g. http://mahara.organisation.net/view/view.php?id=1234.

Append that URL to the Moodle jump URL, e.g. http://moodle.organisation.net/auth/mnet/jump.php?hostid=3&wantsurl=http://mahara.organisation.net/view/view.php?id=1234.

Delete the domain part of the Mahara URL, e.g. http://mahara.organisation.net. That leaves you with http://moodle.organisation.net/auth/mnet/jump.php?hostid=3&wantsurl=/view/view.php?id=1234.

Edit the remaining part of the Mahara URL to replace symbols with the URL hex code, e.g. http://moodle.organisation/auth/mnet/jump.php?hostid=3&wantsurl=%2Fview%2Fview.php%3Fid%3D1234.

See also

Common hex codes replacements [http://www.obkb.com/dcljr/charstxt.html] for characters that you find in Mahara URLs are:

slash / → %2F

question mark ? → %3F

equal sign = → %3D

Copy the resulting URL and link your text or a navigation menu item to arrive at this specific page in Mahara.

Note

If you want to allow all your Moodle users to arrive at a specific page or group in Mahara, you need to make sure that your users have access to the page or group. Otherwise, they would not see the content.

12. Mobile Mahara

You can user Mahara to a certain degree from a mobile device such as a smartphone or tablet that has internet browser capabilities. Depending on the device, not all functions may be available to you.

When you have an Android device or an iPhone, you can use an application to upload files directly from your device to Mahara.

12.1. Mobile browsing

Mahara comes with a responsive design [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Responsive_web_design]. The purpose is to provide the best viewing experience on any device, but in particular mobile devices. Furthermore, certain functionality is not available on a mobile device if it does not allow for it, e.g. the use of the visual editor.

Currently, the responsive design is only implemented for the default theme of Mahara. However, the device detection works across all themes.

That’s what the default theme looks like on an Android smartphone 2.3 (screen size 320 x 480) with device detection turned on.

3 different screens of Mahara with the default theme on an Android phone with device detection turned on

There is only one column. Everything is pushed to it, but as soon as the screen is big enough, the content moves back to its original columns.

A mobile friendly menu that can be unfolded to reach all navigation items.

Since blocks cannot be dragged over the screen, radio buttons below them allow them to be selected.

Once a block icon has been selected via its radio button, place it into the page by clicking the Add new block here button.

Text and Note blocks are shown without the visual editor as that does not work on an Android smartphone (2.3).

The following table captures features of Mahara and how they are represented on various mobile devices when device detection (dd) is turned on or off. Users can decide in which mode they want to browse if the site administrator allowed it in the user settings.

Feature

Android smartphone dd on

Android smartphone dd off

Android 10” tablet dd on

Android 10” tablet dd off

iPhone / iPad dd on

iPhone / iPad dd off

Place page edit blocks via radio buttons instead of drag & drop

Regular drag & drop interface in page editor

check - but cannot be used

check - but cannot be used

Visual editor (WYSIWYG editor)

check - but cannot be used

check - difficult

Plain text editor

Print link

Report objectionable content link

Add to watchlist link

12.2. MaharaDroid

The open source software MaharaDroid [http://code.google.com/p/maharadroid/] enables Android devices to share / upload content to a Mahara instance. This can basically be any content that you can share on your Android mobile phone or tablet.

You do not have to install any additional software for Mahara in order to use this functionality. Follow the instructions on the MaharaDroid site for more information on how to set up the application and link it to your Mahara.

12.3. PortfolioUp

PortfolioUp [http://www.brightcookie.com/our-services/consulting-additional-services/portfolioup/] is an image uploader for Mahara that can be used on the iPhone. You need to install an additional plugin on your Mahara instance in order to use this app.

13. Glossary

The glossary has two parts. Every user encounters the basic terms in Mahara. The advanced terms are for users who want to understand more and are especially for administrators.

The glossary gives you a very quick definition of a term. Where possible, terms are linked to their primary occurrence in the manual. As terms are interconnected and can appear in multiple places, please refer to the index for further locations or use the fulltext search in the sidebar to search for a specific concept.

Access

Your content is generally protected and private and not accessible to others by default. You put your content into pages and collections. Then you decide to publish your pages and collections for other individual users, groups or the public.

Access means that depending on the access permissions you give for a page or collection, individuals, members of a group, all users on your Mahara instance or anybody online can read and possibly also comment on your content if that functionality is enabled.

See also: Share

Account

You have personalised access to Mahara via a login and password. Your account identifies you in the system. Your name (and profile picture) are displayed around the system, e.g. on your profile page, forum posts, portfolio pages etc. You can manage your account in your settings.

Artefact

Artefacts are all types of content that you add to your personal content area, i.e. text, journal entries, pictures, audio files, video files, images etc.

Authentification

Mahara can administer users fully internally by creating accounts manually of by CSV file. If user account data is stored in external applications, e.g. an LDAP directory, a SimpleSAML identity provider or Moodle, users can use their usual logins and passwords to connect to Mahara. The authentication methods used in an institution are managed in the institution settings byt the site administrator.

Author

In general terms, authors are content creators and have the full rights on their works be it text, audio, video, still images or any other form of expression. If you are not the author of your own artefacts but wish to use somebody else’s work, make sure that you are allowed to do so. If you cannot use their work, you should not put it into your portfolio or use it in groups.

Block

Blocks exist on pages. They contain your artefacts that are displayed in context on a page to make up the portfolio.

Closed topic

A forum topic can be closed for members by the group administrator or forum moderator. The group members can read the topic content, but they cannot reply.

Collection

A collection is a bundle of pages that contain your artefacts. A navigation block or the navigation bar helps to move from page to page in a collection.

Controlled group

Controlled groups are similar to courses in learning management systems. The administrator can place users into the group who then cannot leave it. Usually, the administrator allows the submission of pages and collections to this group for assessment purposes.

Course group

Course groups allow the administrator to assign certain members the tutor role. Tutors can then give feedback on submitted pages and collections if these are allowed, but cannot add or remove users from the group.

Cover letter

Generally, the cover letter is the first page in an employment application and forms part of your résumé. It could be the first page in a collection for an employment or internship portfolio.

CSV file

CSV means “comma separated values” and describes the structure of a text file in which table columns are separated by a comma (or sometimes also semi-colon). You can create a CSV file with your data most easily in a spreadsheet software such as Libre Office Calc or MS Excel. You can use CSV files in Mahara to create and edit user accounts and groups as well as manage group members.

Dashboard

The dashboard is your start and overview page after you logged in. You can customise the information you see on your dashboard and for example have easy access to pages shared with you, your notifications, forum topics you are following etc.

Display name

You may not want to use your first and last name around the site and can thus create a display name, i.e. a nickname, if the site or institution administrator allows that. Furthermore, in huge institutions where several members have the same first and last name, the display name can be used to differentiate between them.

Embed code

You can make content from other websites such as videos, audio, animations, presentations etc. visible in Mahara by linking to it. If the external content can be embedded via an iframe or code that starts with <object> or <embed> for example, it can usually be displayed in Text or Note block or journal entry. Iframes can also be displayed in the External media block on a page. The site administrator may need to add specific iframes that you wish to embed to the allowed iframe sources.

Exact search

Exact search reduces the number of search results you get for users. Only results that are identical to the search terms will be found. For example, if you search for “james smith” without exact search turned on, your results page lists everyone starting with “james” no matter whether the last name is “smith” or not. If you turn on exact search, only users whose first and last name is “james smith” will be found. There is no need to use quotation marks when searching. Quotation marks are only necessary if you want to search for a display name that consists of two names. You must be a site administrator to turn exact search on or off.

Feedback

You can ask other users and / or friends to give feedback on your pages and / or collections that you have shared. Feedback should be constructive and helpful. It should point out things that you did well and others that you may need to improve by providing constructive suggestions and encouragement for further learning.

The feedback area is at the bottom of each page, but can also be turned off by the author of the page or artefact.

Files area

You can use files in different locations: in your personal portfolio, groups, institutions and on the site level if you have access to the latter ones. The site administrator defines the size of the files area. Organise your files area carefully by placing your files into folders and by adding metadata such as descriptions and tags to your files and folders. That makes it much easier to distinguish a file after months from several dozen or hundreds of others.

Filter

You can limit your search results to find your search term in tags only when you search shared pages. Furthermore, you can also limit your search for pages that have been shared with you or others.

Forum

Written asynchronous discussions in groups are separated into topics for better organisation and make up a forum.

Forum moderator

Forum moderators can edit forum posts and add posts in closed topics. They can edit forum topics or create new ones with the forum for which they are moderators.

Friend

Friends are your contacts on the site. You can ask other registered users to become your friends. If they agree, you can then invite them into groups or share pages or collections with them more easily. However, you do not have to become someone’s friend to view their portfolio pages or collections per se. A user can always share pages or collections with you without making you a friend.

Grading

You can use the submission functionality in groups to lock portfolio pages or collections when giving feedback. Mahara itself does not have a gradebook, but you could still record any grading results in the feedback section at the bottom of each page and make it visible only to the author. Some institutions use the ranking functionality in the feedback section for grading purposes.

For more formal assessments, you can link Mahara to a learning management system. In Moodle for example, you can use the Mahara assignment submission plugin [https://wiki.mahara.org/index.php/System_Administrator%27s_Guide/Moodle//Mahara_Integration/View_Submission] to assess portfolios directly in Moodle using standard Moodle grading options such as outcomes or rubrics.

Group

You can create groups and invite other users into your groups to work collaboratively on projects. Groups can use forums for discussions, a group files area for sharing files and create and share pages and collections. The site administrator can disable the functionality to create groups for regular users.

Group administrator

Group administrators define group settings, create new forums and administer group members.

Group homepage

The group homepage is the starting point for activities in a group. You can show the group description, a list of group members, latest forum posts etc.

Inbox

Your inbox is the place where you can access the notifications and messages you received from other users or the system. You can decide whether you want to read your messages in your inbox or receive them via email.

Invitation

You can invite any other users to your groups if you are the group administrator, or you may be able to invite your friends into groups where you are a member. The invited users can accept the invitation or reject it.

Institution

A Mahara site can consist of any number of independent institutions in which users and certain institution settings are administered. This allows the use of one Mahara instance for many organisations without the need to install Mahara for each.

Institution administrator

Institution administrators can manage institution settings and users. They do not have access to other institutions or settings on the site level.

Institution page

Institution administrators can create institution pages that can be used as examples or templates for institution members. They can be copied automatically into the accounts of new institution members.

Journal

You can collect personal reflections about a topic or learning progress in a journal. It consists of a series of these reflections that you write in individual journal entries. Per default, you have one journal, but you can add more if you enable multiple journals in your settings. You can add journals to pages as a whole, as individual entries or selected based on tags.

You can decide to publish a journal entry so others can see it if it is in a page or keep it as draft for yourself only.

Leap2A

Leap2A is a portfolio standard that is used by a number of ePortfolio systems for data exchange. In Mahara, users can export their entire portfolio or parts of it as Leap2A file and then have it imported into another Mahara instance or an ePortfolio system that supports Leap2A to continue straight away without having to redo their portfolio.

Mahoodle

Mahoodle is the term used for connecting Mahara and Moodle for single sign-on and content exchange.

Member

Users in an institution are institution members and users in groups are group members.

Message

Messages are sent to you by other users. The messages appear in your inbox and can be delivered via email as well.

Moodle

Moodle [http://moodle.org] is a learning management system (LMS) and thus teacher-centred. Courses in Moodle are filled with learning content by teachers. Students (users) get access to the content and can discuss it and are often graded on their performance. Moodle and Mahara can be used in combination. If connected, users only need one account for both systems and can switch between them without a new login. Mahara can be used as personal repository for users, and they can copy their own assignments and course contributions into their Mahara account as artefacts.

Notification

Notifications are automatically created by the system and inform you about new feedback on your pages, new forum posts in groups, new access to other users’ pages etc. The notifications appear in your inbox and can be delivered via email as well.

Objectionable material

On the page of a user to which you have received access, you might come across content that is inappropriate, offensive or violates the terms of usage of the site. You can click on the Report objectionable material link at the bottom of the page or the artefact details page and give your reason why you marked this content as objectionable. Administrators are notified, can review the content and could block the offender from accessing the system until the content is removed. It cannot be defined in general terms what is considered inappropriate. The owner of the site has to define this based on purpose of the site and age of its users.

Online users

This sidebar shows other users that have been online during the last 10 minutes. Institution administrators can limit this list to show only users from their own institution.

Open group

Open groups can be joined by anyone without group administrator approval.

Owner

The owner is the person or group that has created a page or collection or to whom artefacts belong.

Page

You can design pages by arranging artefacts on them. You define the page layout and - if enabled - the theme for it. You give access to pages to other users so they can view your work and give you feedback. Several pages can be added to a collection. All users can create personal pages and group members may be able to create group pages.

Pages can also be created as templates for further use by others.

Page layout

The page layout defines the number and width (wide or narrow) of columns on a page.

Plan

Plans are simple ToDo lists consisting of tasks. You can add your plans as blocks into your pages.

Portfolio

Portfolios gather stuff, i.e. learning artefacts and evidence. In Mahara you place your artefacts into pages which you can bundle up into collections. A page or a collection can then already be your portfolio. Thus, you can create many different portfolios. You decide whether you want to share your portfolios with others or keep them for yourself. You can create portfolios for many purposes, e.g.

reflecting on courses

creating and reflecting on projects

personal reflecting on individual development or separate learning processes

creating résumés and your learner biography

creating a showcase of your best work and much more.

Privacy statement

Information about the use of private data from the Mahara site. Usually, there is a link in the page footer to it.

Profile

Your profile page is visible to other users on Mahara. You should only display as much information about yourself as you are comfortable for other users to see. Your display name or if you do not have one, your first name and last name, is displayed along with your profile picture. Users may also be able to contact you and invite you to groups. All other elements on your profile page are optional.

Public group

Public groups are visible to anyone on the Internet. You do not have to be a member of the group to follow forum discussions or view pages. However, you need to be a group member to participate in the discussions or create pages yourself.

Recommendation

You can recommend a group to your friends if the group administrator allowed that. The group administrator then still needs to approve the group membership.

Résumé

The résumé details your education and employment history, your achievements as well as skills and interests in a tabular format. Generally, you use it when you apply for an internship or job. However, as the elements in your résumé are reusable, you can also use individual elements in other portfolios.

RSS feed

RSS feeds aggregate news from portal pages, forums or blogs. You can add RSS feeds from external sites to your pages using the “External feed” block. The content will be updated continously. Mahara can also create RSS feeds for forums in public groups and journals that appear in public pages.

Search

You can search for pages by title, description or tags on Shared pages and will see a list of results immediately. A fulltext search is not yet available. You can also search for users by using the user search box. If the site administrator turned on exact search, you need to provide the complete name of users in order to find them. Otherwise, a part of their name is enough but often yields too many results.

Secret URL

You can create secret URLs for pages and collections to give users who do not have a login to the site access to your pages or collections. The difference to making pages or collections public is that search engines cannot find these pages (unless a link to them appears on a web page).

Share

You can share your pages and collections with other users by giving them access to them. The people with whom you have shared your pages and collections may give you feedback on them. You can also share pages with people who do not have an account on the system by sharing your pages and collections with them via a secret URL.

Single sign-on

Single sign-on (SSO) describes the process to log in to one application and switch to another connected application without having to log in again. Moodle and Mahara are often connected via SSO, which is called MNet. The other built-in SSO authentication method in Mahara is SAML. Others can be added via plugins.

Site

Site means the whole site and the administration on the global level for a Mahara instance.

Site administrator

Site administrators can define system (site) settings for an entire Mahara instance. They can add, edit and delete user accounts and have access to all content even in private user areas as they can log in as any user, e.g. to assist with troubleshooting issues.

Site files

Files area on system (site) level that the site administrator can work with. Files that are placed in the public folder in the site files are available to all users.

Site page

Pages created on site level that can be put into new user accounts automatically as templates.

Staff

Staff on the site or institution level have a few additional permissions compared to regular users. For example, they can create controlled groups and hide groups, and they can also view statistics if the site administrator allowed that. Institution staff are also listed alongside institution administrators on their institutions contact page.

Sticky topic

Topics in a forum are sorted according to the date and time of posts. The topic with the latest post is normally shown first. Sometimes topics should get more attention even if there are no new posts. They can be marked “sticky” and stay at the top of the topics list. Group administrators and forum moderators can mark topics as sticky or disable this setting.

Tag

Tags are keywords that facilitate searching for your artefacts, pages and collections when the title and description are not enough. You can view all your tagged content in a tag cloud in the sidebar and thus find things again.

Tag cloud

You can display your most often used tags in the sidebar in a so called tag cloud. The tags are shown in different sizes: A tag that is used more often is bigger than a tag that is used seldomly.

Task

Tasks are created as part of a plan to provide more details on it. They can also be used to list items on a ToDo list. A task is defined by a title, a description and a completion date.

Template

Pages and collections can be offered as templates to other users. They can be copied, or institution and site administrators can have them added automatically into the portfolio area of new users. Templates are used to jumpstart the collection of content and the creation of portfolios.

Terms and conditions

The terms and conditions define the appropriate use of the site. The site administrator can display a link to this page in the footer of every page and also ask users to confirm them during registration.

Theme

The graphical interface design is called theme. If you have institutions on your site, they can have their own theme. Users can also use individual themes for their portfolio pages if the site administrator allows that.

Topic

Discussion forums are made up of topics that represent a discussion around a particular theme each.

Tutor

Tutors only exist in course groups. They can give feedback on submitted pages that are locked from editing while they give feedback. After they are finished, they release the pages or collections and the portfolio authors can fully edit their content again.

User

Users are people who have access to the Mahara site and can log in in with a personal account.

Wall

The wall is a block on your profile page. Other users can leave a message on your wall.

Watchlist

You can add pages and collections that have been shared with you to your watchlist. You will receive notifications when these pages are updated.

14. Tips and tricks

This section of the user manual contains tips and tricks that Mahara users might find useful.

14.1. Insert an image into text

14.2. Open Badges

14.2.1. Create a collection of badges

14.2.2. Select the badge collection in Mahara

14.2.3. Generate an iframe for your badge collection

14.2.4. Embed your badge collection in a Mahara page

14.3. Link to specific Mahara page in Moodle

14.1. Insert an image into text

You can add images to any text in two ways by using the same functionality:

Link to the image that is available elsewhere online.

Use an image that you have on Mahara.

Note

Images are easy to add to text. However, make sure that you have the permission to use the image you link or upload.

Insert an image into text

Go to the visual editor and click on the Image button tinymce_image.

Image URL: Paste or type the image URL to an external image into this field. It must start with http:// or https://. You can then skip to step 7. If you are inserting an image from Mahara itself, the URL will be added automatically in the next steps.

new in Mahara 15.04 Files area: Choose from which files area you would like to select an image:

My files: You see all the folders and files that you have created.

Group files: You see all the folders and files that you are allowed to publish.

Institution files: If you are an institution administrator, you will see institution folders and files.

Site files: If you are a site administrator, you will see all site folders and files. Otherwise, you can only see the ones that are in the folder public in the Site files.

License information: You see these fields if the site administrator turned on license metadata. Additionally, if you are in an institution, your institution administrator may require you to provide a license.

License: Your default license is displayed. You can set your default license in your account settings. You may choose a different license for each individual artefact.

Licensor: If you are uploading a file that somebody else created, you can attribute the work to them here and provide their name for example.

Original URL: If you are uploading somebody else’s file, provide a link to the original Internet address so that others can go there and view the original file.

Upload file: You do not have to go back to your Files area in Content in order to upload a file. You can do so directly from this screen.

If the site administrator turned on the image resizing option, you can decide whether you want to have your images resized if they are larger than the specified dimensions. This option is recommended to save space in your portfolio.

Folder path: The breadcrumbs show in which folder you are currently.

Click the Edit button to change any component of a folder or file, i.e. its name, description and tags. If you have a folder or file included in a page that you submitted for feedback, you will not be able to edit them.

Click the Select button to choose the image file you wish to display in the block.

Dimensions: Change the size of your image. If the image is recognised correctly, you have the image’s dimensions (in pixels) displayed directly. The first value is the width of the image and the second one is the height.

Note

When you want to change the dimensions, make sure the checkbox “Constrain proportions” is ticked. Then you only need to change one value and the second one is changed accordingly.

Vertical space: Add more space (in pixels) above and below the image.

Horizontal space: Add more space (in pixels) to the left and righ of the image.

Border width: Add a simple black border to your image if you wish to do so. Here you can choose how wide that border will be.

Alignment: Decide where you want to place the image in relation to the text.

Style (CSS): Add CSS style information if you want to make specific changes beyond the basic settings. If you made any changes above, they will be placed into this field so you can change them directly here.

Click the Submit button to keep your changes. Alternatively, click the Cancel button if you want to abort inserting the image.

Click the Close button close if you want to abort inserting an image.

If you are not happy with how the image looks, select it (it will get little square handles) and click on the Image button tinymce_image again to make adjustments.

14.2. Open Badges

Open Badges [http://www.openbadges.org/] is Mozilla [http://mozilla.org]’s open source answer for showing recognition of skills and competencies online. Moodle 2.5 [https://moodle.org/mod/forum/discuss.php?d=228539] became a badge issuer in May 2013 and Mahara will become a badge displayer in the future. For the time being, however, there are two ways of displaying your Open Badges:

Have the plugin Open Badge Displayer [https://mahara.org/user/ajk/open-badge-displayer] installed (available since 8 August 2013).

Use an iframe. This method is not recommended any longer as there is no verification of the email address and you could essentially display someone else’s badges.

See also

This tip was first published in the blog post “Open Badges in Mahara: The quick way [http://virtualbreath.net/curious/2013/05/25/open-badges-in-mahara-the-quick-way/]” by Kristina D.C. Hoeppner [http://twitter.com/anitsirk].

14.2.1. Create a collection of badges

Go to your Mozilla Backpack [http://backpack.openbadges.org]. You must have already pushed at least one badge to it to complete the following steps.

Click the Collection navigation item to enter your badge collection area.

Drag one of your badges onto a (new) collection space.

Drag a badge onto a new collection space

Give your new collection a title by clicking onto “New collection” and typing your title.

Tick the checkbox public so others can see your badges.

Click the Share icon. You will be taken to a page where you can see all the badges in the collection that you created.

Create a new collection

14.2.2. Select the badge collection in Mahara

Note

Follow this section if you have the Open Badge Displayer [https://mahara.org/user/ajk/open-badge-displayer] plugin installed.

Choose the Open Badges block

Configure the Open Badges block

Create a page in your portfolio or edit an existing portfolio page where you want to display your badge collection.

Drag the Open Badges block onto your page. This block is only available when you have the plugin installed.

Block title: Choose a title for your block.

Select the badge collection that you want to display.

Retractable: Tick this checkbox if you want to allow users to reduce the block to its heading on a page. The user can click the Retractable icon retractable to just show the heading.

Automatically retract: Tick this checkbox if you want to show only the block’s heading when a user views the page. The user can click the Retracted icon retracted to view the entire block.

Click the Save button to accept your changes, or click the Cancel button to leave the block’s content as it is. The Remove button is shown only when you place the block into the page for the first time.

You can also click the Close button close in the top right-hand corner to either remove a newly created block before it is being saved or to cancel any changes and leave the block’s content as it is.

Note

If you do not have the “Open Badge Displayer” plugin installed, you can follow these next steps.

14.2.3. Generate an iframe for your badge collection

Copy the URL of your public collection.

Create an iframe around it so you can embed it into a Mahara page.

See also

You can use the Online iFrame generator [http://7thspace.com/webmaster_tools/iframe_generator.html] for example to create your iFrame easily. Or you can copy this iframe code and replace the URL with your own.

<iframe src=”http://backpack.openbadges.org/share/da6db5b196b80bb3fda3d3e89a552028/” style=”border:0px #FFFFFF none;” scrolling=”no” frameborder=”1″ marginheight=”0px” marginwidth=”0px” height=”800px” width=”800px”></iframe>

Copy the entire iframe code.

14.2.4. Embed your badge collection in a Mahara page

Create a page in your portfolio and set the layout to 1 column.

Note

For the next steps to work, your site administrator must have added backpack.openbadges.org/share to the list of allowed iFrame sources. If this URL changes, your site administrator will have to correct it so your badges can still be displayed.

Once other badges backpacks become available, each will need to be added as allowed iframe if you store badges there.

Drag the External content block onto your page.

Paste your iframe into the URL or embed code field.

Give your block a title.

Save your changes. Your badge collection is now embedded in your page.

14.3. Link to specific Mahara page in Moodle

Normally, when you log in to Mahara from Moodle, you land on the dashboard page. However, there is a trick to go directly to a specific page in Mahara.

See also

Thanks to Gordon McLeod [http://twitter.com/LearnTribe] who published this tip [http://portfolio.gla.ac.uk/view/view.php?id=20304].

1. ToDo list

2. Information for Mahara user manual writers and translators

by Kristina D.C. Hoeppner

This is a list in progress as I work on the user manual. There are a number of things for which I created conventions. I want to keep them in a central space so that others have access to them and that I can refer to them as well. ;-)

The list is not in any particular order.

2.1. Screenshots

are placed using the “figure” directive.

always include alt text and a figure description. The latter will be numbered in the PDF export. That sets them apart from the text.

are generally placed above a list if they are part of step-by-step instructions.

should have as few instructions as possible about the steps that are to be taken in them. Preferably, only the step numbers so that they can be exchanged more easily and the text of the steps is translatable because it is text and not part of the image. That could also mean that translators can translate the steps but don’t immediately have to change the screenshots.

get callouts that are created in Gimp with the script [https://mahara.org/view/view.php?id=60234] that Iñaki adapted.

that have callouts refer to the steps that need to be taken and that are explained below the figure.

should only show the necessary area and not the entire screen or URL address bars etc. where not necessary.

Most screenshots are added with the figure directive:

Example of including a screenshot

The first line provides the path to the file. The * replaces the file extension and Sphinx chooses the file that is most appropriate. Thus, files could have different image extensions or you could have the same screenshots in different file formats that are then chosen by the programme to best suit the end format of the manual.

The second line represents the alt text that is dispalayed when hovering over the image, when no images are displayed or when viewing the page via a screen reader.

The third line must follow an empty line. This is the text that is displayed below the screenshot as figure description. In the PDF output, the descriptions will be numbered continuously.

If you don’t want to display all the information from a screen but only the top and the bottom part, you can use the file z_omission.xcf and place it into your screenshot. The sinus waves were created using the gimp plugin Shape paths [http://registry.gimp.org/node/59] with the following settings:

Sine Wave

Start X: 0

Start Y: 200 and upon the second run 215 to get the gap between the lines

Amplitude: 3

Wavelength: 25

Number of cycles: 40 (but depends on how wide the screenshot is)

Tick for Stroke path

Stroke color: CCCCCC

Note

If you want to include an image inline with the text and don’t want to or can’t use the regular figure, you should create a substitution and place it into the shortcuts.rstext file.

2.2. Admonitions in use are

note: for anything that should receive a bit more attention

Note

Notes can be placed directly within a bulleted list. As usual, an empty line before and after the note must be placed and the admonition must be indented by 3 spaces.

warning: for anything that needs to be done with caution

Warning

Try not to put everything into an admonition because then the truly important information is lost.

seealso: for references to other documents if they need special attention. References to other documents can also be included in the text inline.

See also

The Sphinx user documentation [http://sphinx.pocoo.org/] is a great place to deepend your knowledge and understanding of using rST with Sphinx. If you have any questions, you can also check out the Sphinx discussion group [http://groups.google.com/group/sphinx-dev/].

todo: for keeping a running ToDo list

2.3. Conventions

Each section that is related to a navigation menu item should have the path listed, e.g. Content → Files. It is best if you copy the arrow to get the correct one.

Buttons such as Save or Copy page and also portfolio sections such as Content, Porfolio etc. are highlighted as emphasized text (with a single *).

Little buttons can be included in the text like edit, manage. They are added through a substitution. All replacements are kept in the file shortcuts.rstext which is included in each file in which a substitution is used by placing “.. include:: /shortcuts.rstext” in the first line of the file. Substitutions are referenced in the text as “*Edit* button |edit|” for example pointing out what the action is that you do with them. Translators should not edit the substitution “|edit|” itself, but only change “*Edit* button” taking care to include the * again without placing any spaces between the * and the text to ensure that the word appears highlighted.

An index entry should be created for each section.

New features receive an index entry as well in the form “single: New in Mahara 1.x, [the functionality that is new]”.

Long sections should be broken up into several pages to make the editing more manageable instead of having everything on one very long page.

reStructuredText does not have a set hierarchy of heading levels. They depend on the individual files. However, to be consistent, the following convention exists:

Heading 1, e.g. 1.: ===============

Heading 2, e.g. 1.1.: —————

Heading 3, e.g. 1.1.1.: ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Heading 4, e.g. 1.1.1.1.: ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

Headings below h4 should be avoided.

The index page does not have headings besides the main heading. That prevents the table of contents and the other sections that have headings to be the main chapters of the manual. Keep index page headings to just bold with **.

2.4. In-text formatting

Bulletted lists have * as symbol to start each bullet point.

Numbered lists have #. to start each numbered item.

If you require an indented bulleted or numbered list, place a free line before the indented list and then indent each line with 3 spaces. There also needs to be an empty line when the indented list ends.

Emphasized text starts and ends with 1 *, e.g. *this*. It will then look like this.

Bold text starts and ends with 2 *, e.g. **this**. It will then look like this.

2.5. Hyperlinks

External links: “`[text that is linked] <URL>`_” - Translators should only replace “[text that is linked]”.

Internal references to which can be linked from elsewhere in the manual are created by placing “.. [reference_text]:” in a line right before a heading. I usually leave an empty line between the reference and the heading.

Linking to an internal reference: “:ref:`[text that is linked] <the internal reference>`” - Translators should only replace “[text that is linked]”.

The ` is an accent mark and not a straight single quote.

An in-text target can be achieved by placing the text to be linked within accent marks preceded by an underscrore: _`the internal reference`. Referencing is the usual :ref:`[text that is linked] <the internal reference>`.

2.6. Index entries

Index entries are used to jump to relevant information quickly. Entries can be created right above a heading or also inline. Inline has the advantage that you are taken exactly where you want to go.

Inline index entries are created like this, for example: :index:`Your profile picture <single: New in Mahara 1.10; Link to profile pictures page>`.

2.7. Translators beware

Do not change the target for internal links that is placed between < >. If you do, the reference cannot be found. There should always be an explanatory text right before the pointy brackets. You can change that.

Similarly, you can change the text for a URL but not the URL itself unless you want to replace it with a URL to a site in your language.

If you translate the screenshots and other images, please ensure that you keep the folder structure of the “images” folder as you can see in the respective branch of the manual version you are editing on Gitorious [https://gitorious.org/mahara/manual/trees].

You can find original images used for the manual in the folder “images_original” and then their respective subfolders. You can use them for your own translations if you only want to exchange the background but keep the callouts.

You do not have to redo any images that you do not “translate”, e.g. block icons, general buttons around Mahara and the text editor buttons. Any images that are not in your translation will be taken from the English original.

The user manual is updated once a day and new translation strings pulled in from Launchpad and images uploaded to Git prior to the compilation of the manual.

Currently, not everything can be translated in Sphinx. Hopefully, later versions will fix that.

Note

If you want to mention the names of the main translators of the user manual for your language, you can add a sentence right after “The Mahara user manual is written by Mahara community members.” That paragraph appears before the table of contents. There is no equivalent sentence in the English manual because it is not a translation.

Index

A | B | C | D | E | F | G | H | I | J | L | M | N | O | P | Q | R | S | T | U | V | W | X

A

Access to site files in subfolders

Accessibility

Account

Custom profile URL

Delete account

General account options

Notification settings

Notifications

Password

Settings

Username

Account registration confirmation

Account settings

Administration

Default registration expiry lifetime

Override user account lifetime

Add groups by CSV

Add institution

Institution

Add institution staff rights during registration approval

Add new journal entry directly from a page

Add new journal post directly from a page, [1]

Add user

Administration

Add users by CSV

Administration

Admin institution invitation

Institution membership

Admin notifications

Administration

Administer groups

Group

Administration

Account settings

Add user

Add users by CSV

Admin notifications

Change authentication method in bulk

Change user institution settings

Configure site

Cookie Consent

Delete user

Email settings

Experimental features

Export queue

Extensions

Fonts

Footer menu

General settings

Group

Group settings

Institution

Institution settings

Licenses

Links and resources

Log in as

Logging settings

Maintenance mode

Menu

Networking

Notification settings

Overview

Profile completion

Proxy settings

Registration with the Mahara project

Search settings

Security settings

Share site pages and collections

Show users in public search

Site administrators

Site collections

Site files

Site information

Site options

Site pages

Site settings

Site skins

Site staff

Static pages

Suspend user

Suspended and expired users

Update users by CSV

User account settings

User bulk actions

User reports

User search

User settings

Users

Warnings

Web services

Administrator interface for adding iframe sources

Advanced search options for shared pages

Allow anonymous pages

Allow authenticated feeds

Allow user CSV upload to ignore non-essential mandatory fields

Allow users to link own SAML account

Allow viewers to download files in a folder block

Annotation

Blocks

Anti-spam

Archived submissions

Group

Artefact

Objectionable material report

Objectionable material review

Attach a file to a note

Note

Attachments on notes

Attachments on résumé fields, [1], [2], [3], [4], [5], [6], [7], [8], [9], [10], [11], [12], [13]

Authentication

Authentication method order

IMAP

LDAP

SAML

XML-RPC

Authentication method

Authentication method order

Authentication

Automatic access to copied page or collection

Automatically allow public profiles with public pages

B

Block category

External content

Files and images and video

General

Journal

Personal info

Blocks

Annotation

Creative Commons license

Display an entire journal

Display my entire résumé

Display one journal entry

Display one résumé field

Display recent journal entries

Display tagged journal entries

Embedded media

External feed

External media

Feedback

File to download

Folder

Google Apps

Group info

Group members

Group pages

Image

Image gallery

Latest pages

My friends

My groups

My inbox

My pages

My watched pages

Navigation

Note

PDF

Plans

Profile information

Recent forum posts

Social media

Some HTML

Text

Wall

Blocks usage matrix

BrowserID

Plugins - configurable

Bulk export

Experimental features

Bulk import

Experimental features

Button for copying a group page

C

Change authentication method

Change authentication method in bulk

Administration

Change default account settings upon user creation, [1]

Change remote username

Change user institution settings

Administration

Choose only from tags used in journal entries

ClamAV

Clean URLs

Collaboration

Collection

Add collection

Add pages

Assessment

Copy collection

Feedback on a submitted collection

Manage collections

Manage pages

Share

Comments

File settings

Plugins - configurable

Compose a message

Compose a message to multiple people

config.php

Hide login form

pathtoclam

remoteavatarbaseurl

skins, [1], [2], [3]

Configurable default video size of "Embedded media"

Configurable theme

Institution

Configuration of external image galleries

Configure site

Administration

Confirm registration site-wide

Confirmation message before deleting journal that is in use

Content

Files

Journal

Notes

Plans

Profile

Profile pictures

Remote avatars

Résumé builder

Content chooser on the left-hand side

Cookie Consent

Administration

Copy secret URL to the clipboard via a copy button

Copy an existing note

Note

Copy collection

Copy page

Creative Commons 4.0 licenses

Creative Commons 4.0 licenses used in the license block

Creative Commons license

Blocks

Cron errors are displayed in red

Curriculum vitae

see Résumé

Custom group URL

Custom profile URL

Custom URL for group pages

Custom URL for portfolio pages

D

Dashboard

Blocks

Quick links

Default account inactivity time

Default account lifetime

Default group quota

File settings

Default institution language

Default notification method

Default sort order of files in a folder block

Default user quota

File settings

Delete user

Administration

Device detection, [1], [2]

Disable bounced email addresses automatically

Disallow skins on a theme

Display an entire journal

Blocks

Display authentication method in the user search

Display external / remote username field only for required authentication methods

Display group members according to their roles

Display my entire résumé

Blocks

Display note title on Notes overview page

Display one journal entry

Blocks

Display one résumé field

Blocks

Display recent journal entries

Blocks

Display tagged journal entries

Blocks

Display tagged journal entries in full

Display up to 10 collections

Display up to 100 members in the Group members block

Display used file quota in admin area

Display warning message when editing a note under "Content" that is used multiple times

Displaying dashboard content in Moodle

Don't specify gender

Double-click action when moving users

Download basic page statistics for institutions

Download basic page statistics on the site level

Download daily user statistics for institutions

Download daily user statistics on the site level

Download folder content as a zip file in the "Files" area

Download folder content as a zip file in the "Folders" block

Download folder content as a zip file in the "Folders" block configuration screen

Download group statistics on the site level

Drag and drop files into files area, [1]

Drag and drop pages into a collection

Drag and drop pages within a collection to sort them

Drop-down navigation as institution settings

Drop-down site navigation

E

Edit access to profile page

Edit institution

Institution

Edit site institution

Institution

Editability of group content

Email settings

Administration

Embed PDF

Embedded media

Blocks

Plugins - configurable

Enable multiple journals

Enhanced site statistics

Enter the port directly with the WWW root for XML-RPC / MNet

Exact search

Exact user search

Exempt page owner to receive notification when sharing with group

Expand the custom CSS text box

Expand the skin description text box

Experimental features

Administration

Bulk export

Bulk import

usersuniquebyusername

Export

HTML

Leap2A

Export feedback in HTML export

Export Leap2A via queue

Export queue

Administration

Extensions

Administration

HTML filters

Plugins

External content

Block category

External content block

External feed

External media

Google Apps

External feed

Blocks

External media

Blocks

External media iframe filters

External resources in HTML

F

Feedback

Anonymous feedback

Blocks

Give feedback

Give feedback anonymously

View feedback

Feedback block

Feedback notification for institution pages and artefacts

Feedback notification for site pages and artefacts

File

Edit file

File quota

Plugins - configurable

Upload a file

Upload multiple files

File settings

Comments

Default group quota

Default user quota

Folder downloads

Profile picture size

Resize images on upload

Upload agreement

File to download

Blocks

Files and images and video

Block category

Files and images and video block

Embedded media

File(s) to download

Folder

Image

Image gallery

PDF

Some HTML

Filter by duplicate email addresses

Filter by login date in "User search"

Find friends

Accept friend request

Deny friend request

Send friend request

Flexibility in number of portfolio pages shown on overview page

Flexibility in number of users shown per page

Flexible page layout: Arrange content on pages in rows

Folder

Blocks

Plugins - configurable

Folder downloads

File settings

Fonts

Administration

Footer menu

Administration

Forum

Add forum topic

Bulk actions - administrator and moderator

Bulk actions - user

Delete

Objectionable content on forum topics and post

Plugins - configurable

Post forum reply

Set up a forum

Friend invitation to join a group, [1]

Friend recommendation to join a group, [1]

Fulltext search, [1], [2], [3]

Plugins - configurable

Fulltext search also for MySQL databases

G

General

Block category

General block

Annotation

Creative Commons license

Feedback

Group info

Group members

Group pages

Latest pages

My inbox

My watched pages

Navigation

Note

Plans

Recent forum posts

Text

General settings

Administration

Generate new public key for MNet by deleting the existing one

Generate sitemap for public content

Glossary

Google Apps

Blocks

Gravatar, [1]

Group

Administer groups

Administration

Archived submissions

Collections

Create

Files

Forum

Group administrators

Group bulk creation and update

Group category - manage

Group homepage

Group members bulk update

Members

Pages

Settings

Share

Group administrators

Group

Group bulk creation and update

Group

Group category

Group category - manage

Group

Group collections

Group deletion notification

Group display in sidebar

Decide the sort order of your groups in the sidebar

Maximum number of groups to display in sidebar

Group file quota

Group homepage

Group

Group info

Blocks

Group information to include number of forums, topics and posts

Group members

Blocks

Group members bulk update

Group

Group page editing permission

Group pages

Blocks

Group settings

Administration

Groups

Find friends

Find groups

Group functionalities

Institution membership

My friends

My groups

Shared pages

Topics

H

Hide group

Hide group membership

Historical statistics about content for institutions

Historical statistics about content on the site level

HTML editor

HTML export

HTML filters

Extensions

I

Image

Blocks

Image descriptions in image gallery, [1]

Image gallery

Blocks

Plugins - configurable

Image gallery from external images

IMAP

Authentication

Import

Leap2A

Import Leap2A file

Inbox

Notifications

Insecure SSL mode for feeds

Insert an image into a note

Note

Insert an image into text

Installation notice on "Admin home"

Institution

Add institution

Administration

Configurable theme

Edit institution

Edit site institution

Institution administrator

Institution files

Institution logo upload

Institution pages

Institution staff

Members

New account

Pending user account registration

Share institution collections

Share institution pages

Static pages

Suspend institution

Institution administrator

Add user

Add users by CSV

Change authentication method in bulk

Export queue

Group administration

Institution

Institution administration

Update users by CSV

User management

Institution collections

Institution default quota

Institution default quota update

Institution files

Institution

Institution homepage

Institution logo upload

Institution

Institution membership

Admin institution invitation

Members who left institution

Remove members from institution

Request institution membership

Revoke membership invitation

Institution membership to be found in "Groups"

Institution pages

Institution

Institution setting for "Online users" side block

Institution setting for public pages

Institution settings

Administration

Institution staff

Institution

Institution static pages

Institution statistics

Institution statistics accessible by staff members

Institution statistics on the site level

Institution theme configuration

Internal search

Plugins - configurable

J

Journal

Add attachment

Add image

Add journal entry

Block category

Multiple journals

Settings

Journal block

Display an entire journal

Display one journal entry

Display recent journal entries

Display tagged journal entries

L

Latest pages

Blocks

LDAP

Authentication

LDAP group sync

LDAP user sync

Leap2A export, [1]

Leap2A import, [1]

License metadata

License metadata: Add license information to a journal

License metadata: Add license information to a journal entry

License metadata: Add license information to a note

License metadata: Add license information to a plan

License metadata: Add license information to a plan's task

License metadata: Add license information to files

License metadata: Add license information to your résumé

License metadata: Configure licenses

License metadata: Institution settings

License metadata: Set default license

Licenses

Administration

Limit the number of users in the "Online users" sidebar

Limit user search results to institution

Limited deleting of feedback on group pages

Link group names from administrator interface

Link profile picture and name to user profile in "User search"

Link to profile pictures page

Link to the edit screen of your profile page

Links and resources

Administration

List of accessible portfolio pages on "My friends" page

Local customisation of the "Static pages" list

Log in as

Administration

Logged-in profile page access

Logging settings

Administration

Login

M

Mahara

Books

E-learning

Enhancing the software

Framework

Get involved

Help

Test it

Usage

Version number

What is it?

Mahara logo that can be picked up by Facebook

Mahoodle, [1]

Link to specific Mahara page from Moodle

Mahara to Moodle

Moodle to Mahara

see XML-RPC

Maintenance mode

Administration

Map student ID and display name from LDAP

Masquerading

see Log in as

Masquerading: Logging settings

Masquerading: Masquerading notification

Masquerading: Notify user

Masquerading: Provide reason

Masquerading: Report

Masquerading: Require reason

Members

Institution

Members who left institution

Institution membership

Menu

Administration

MNet

see XML-RPC

Mobile Mahara

MaharaDroid

Mobile browsing

PortfolioUp

Mobile upload, [1]

Moodle

see XML-RPC

Move discussion topics to another forum

Multiple institutions

Institution expiry; Auto-suspend expired institutions

Multiple mobile upload tokens

My friends

Blocks

My groups

Blocks

Limit number of groups in the "My groups" block"

Sort groups in the "My groups" block

My inbox

Blocks

My pages

Blocks

My watched pages

Blocks

N

Navigate to the first or last image in an internal slideshow

Navigation

Blocks

Networking

Administration

New account

Institution

New in Mahara 15.04

Add other items to the shortcut list of the content chooser via an API

Allow multiple journals for everyone per default

Alphabetical listing of pages and collections for export

Annotation

Annotation feedback

CSV files can have semicolon as separator, [1], [2]

Change the comment sort order for artefacts

Command-line script for converting notes to text

Copy button directly on a page / collection that you can copy, [1], [2]

Direct link to objectionable artefact instead of page only

Display plan description on portfolio page, [1]

Display tags for a plan's task

Display tags on plan tasks on a page

Display the name of the person reporting objectionable material in the "From" field in the inbox

Display unread notifications first

Hide login form

Image block only appears once in the content chooser

Insert an image from Mahara into text

Insert an image into text, [1]

Limit friendship request message to 255 characters

Link to compose a message from your inbox, [1]

More block content is considered to trigger a new page update date

Never display usernames

Only display collections from group members

Only display pages from group members

Open RSS entries in new window

Page sort order is remembered

Progress bar for uploading users by CSV

Receive notifications about additional feedback

Reply to a message from the inbox, [1]

See which notifications you can delete

Select multiple tags to display tagged journal entries

Show date when a friend request was issued

Show last changed date for shared pages on the group homepage

Sort group pages

Sort shared pages and collections

Sort submitted pages and collections

Text block only appears once in the content chooser

Trigger watchlist notification when journal entry is added to a journal in a page

Upload site logo

Use visual editor for wall post

View artefact feedback on a portfolio page

Web services

New in Mahara 15.04.10

Migrate Persona accounts

Removal of Persona

Not yet installed plugins are listed first

Note

Attach a file to a note

Blocks

Copy an existing note

Insert an image into a note

Notes

Notification settings

Account

Administration

Notification to administrators about full institution membership quota

Notification to group members when new group page is created

Notifications

Account

Inbox

Sent messages

Notify group members about feedback on group pages

O

Online users side block

OpenBadges

Override default site pages

Override user account lifetime

Overview

Administration

Owners retains access to their uploaded files in a group

P

Page

Assessment

Copy page

Create

Delete

Display page

Edit

Export

Feedback

Feedback on a submitted page

Import

Lock page

Objectionable material report

Objectionable material review

Overview

Page editor

Share

Skins

Page editor

Content chooser

Edit layout

Edit title and description

Editor navigation

Page layout area

Pagination of posts in a forum topic

Parent folder icon

Participation report, [1]

Path to ClamAV shown in security settings

PDF

Blocks

Pending user account registration

Institution

Persona

Plugins - configurable

Personal info

Block category

Personal info block

Display my entire résumé

Display one résumé field

My friends

My groups

My pages

Profile information

Social media

Wall

Plan

Add task

Edit task

New plan

Plans

Blocks

Plugins

Extensions

Plugins - configurable

BrowserID

Comments

Embedded media

File

Folder

Forum

Fulltext search

Image gallery

Internal search

Persona

Profile

SAML

Text

Wall

Portfolio

Assessment

Collection

Export

Feedback

Feedback on a submitted collection

Feedback on a submitted page

Import

Objectionable material report

Objectionable material review

Page

Share

Shared by me

Tag

Portfolio search

Probation status bulk change

Probation status for new self-registered users

Profile

About me

Add email address

Contact information

Delete email address

General

Plugins - configurable

Social media

Profile completion

Administration

Profile completion activation

Profile information

Blocks

Profile page

Profile picture location

Profile picture size

File settings

Proxy settings

Administration

Public group

Public pages

Public profile

Q

Quota notification threshold

R

reCAPTCHA

Recent forum posts

Blocks

Rectractable blocks

Registration agreement

Registration with the Mahara project

Administration

Remote avatars

Content

Remove members from institution

Institution membership

Report a forum topic or post for containing objectionable content

Request institution membership

Institution membership

Resize images on upload

File settings

Resize images on upload - per file upload

Resize images on upload - user default setting

Responsive design, [1]

Revoke membership invitation

Institution membership

Résumé builder

Achievements

Cover letter

Education and employment

Goals

Interests

License

Personal information

Skills

S

Safeguard before moving away accidentally before having saved information

SAML

Authentication

Plugins - configurable

Search for friends on "Edit access"

Search only for groups you can join

Search settings

Administration

Search shared pages by the owner

Security settings

Administration

Select all pages at once to be added to a collection

Select group members to notify of new and shared pages

Send a message

Send a message to multiple people

Send forum post notification immediately, [1]

Sent messages

Notifications

Session lifetime

Settings

Share

Advanced options

Edit access

Profile page access

Secret URL

Time-based access

Share institution collections

Institution

Share institution pages

Institution

Share site pages and collections

Administration

Share with "Favourite users"

Share with institution

Show if institutions require approval

Site administrator

Account settings

Add user

Add users by CSV

Administration overview

Bulk export

Bulk import

Change authentication method in bulk

Clean URLs

Configure site

Cookie Consent

Email settings

Experimental features

Export queue

Extensions

Fonts

Footer menu

General settings

Group administration

Group settings

HTML filters

Institution administration

Institution settings

Licenses

Links and resources

Logging settings

Maintenance mode

Manage iframe sources

Menu

Networking

Plugins

Proxy settings

Registration with the Mahara project

Search settings

Security settings

Share site pages and collections

Site administrators

Site collections

Site files

Site information

Site options

Site pages

Site settings

Site skins

Site staff

Static pages

Update users by CSV

User management

User settings

Warnings

Web services

usersuniquebyusername

Site administrators

Administration

Site collections

Administration

Site files

Administration

Site information

Administration

Site statistics

Site options

Administration

Site pages

Administration

Default dashboard page

Default group homepage

Default profile page

Site settings

Administration

Site skins

Administration

Site staff

Administration

Site statistics

Site information

Sitemap

Skins, [1]

Disallow skins on a theme

Skins as institution settings

Small page header is visible at all times

Small page headers

Social media

Blocks

Some HTML

Blocks

Sort group members

Sort order of files in the "Folder" block

Spam protection

Probation status for new self-registered users

reCAPTCHA

Staff

Additional group creation options

Institution statistics

Staff report access

User search

Staff information

Staff report access, [1]

Staff statistics access setting

Static pages

Administration

Institution

Statics about forum content in a group

Submit a collection for assessment

Submit collections to a group

Suspend institution

Institution

Suspend user

Administration

Suspended and expired users

Administration

System mail address

T

Tag cloud

Tagging

Edit tags

My tags

Tag cloud

Tagging, Tag

Tags on collections

Tags on plans

Tags on tasks

Temporarily lock account after too many wrong tries

Text

Blocks

Plugins - configurable

Turn on the archiving of pages / collections in a group as staff member or administrator

U

Unpublish a journal entry per the "Unpublish" button

Update file quota in bulk

Update group members by CSV

Update group quota

Update groups by CSV

Update users by CSV

Administration

Upload agreement

File settings

Upload multiple files

URL for publication

Use export queue for personal portfolio export (experimental)

Used user quota

User account settings

Administration

User bulk actions

Administration

User can choose institution theme when in multiple institutions

User can choose theme for browsing the site

User reports

Administration

User search

Administration

User search for staff members

User settings

Administration

User tags

Username display on the dashboard

Users

Administration

usersuniquebyusername

Experimental features

Using Moodle's login page

V

View and reactivate expired users in bulk

View skin metadata, [1]

Virus checking

W

Wall

Blocks

Plugins - configurable

Warning about changes in access permissions when adding pages to collection

Warning about small PHP session entropy length

Warning time for inactivity / expiry

Warning when deleting a page that is in a collection

Warnings

Administration

Watchlist notification delay

Web services

Administration

Application connections

Configuration

OAuth service registration

Web services logs

Web services test client

Web services configuration

Manage service access tokens

Manage service groups

Manage service users

Master switch

Networking certificates

Switching individual protocols on and off

Weekly statistics about content for institutions

Weekly statistics about content on the site level

X

XML-RPC

Authentication