12. Mahoodle

“Mahoodle” is the common name given to the joining of Mahara + Moodle, 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 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.

12.1. 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:

12.2. Mahara to Moodle

You can send information and content from Mahara to Moodle if you wish. The following are possible:

12.3. 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 who published this tip.

  1. In Moodle add the block Network servers to a page (temporarily) after you set up networking to Mahara.

  2. 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.

  3. Paste that URL into a text editor because it is easier to make changes there.

  4. Add &wantsurl= to the end of the URL to yield http://moodle.organisation.net/auth/mnet/jump.php?hostid=3&wantsurl=.

  5. Copy the URL of the Mahara page to which you want to link, e.g. http://mahara.organisation.net/view/view.php?id=1234.

  6. 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.

  7. 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.

  8. 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 for characters that you find in Mahara URLs are:

  • slash / → %2F
  • question mark ? → %3F
  • equal sign = → %3D
  • hyphen - → %2D
  1. 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.