Rocket.Chat activity for Moodle

This plugin allows teachers to keep synchronized users enrolled in a Moodle course into a dedicated Rocket.Chat private channel.

Main feature

Adding this activity to a Moodle course will create a private channel in Rocket.Chat and push Moodle users associated to this activity as members of this newly created channel. The list of members will then be kept up to date.

It will be possible to access to this Rocket.Chat channel directly from Moodle or through any autonomous Rocket.Chat client.

System requirements

Php 7.1 or 7.2 required

Rocket.Chat settings requirements

Authentication

• LDAP and CAS account fusion is adviced when moodle user account creation is activated for moodle Rocket.Chat account
• Manual Moodle account are possible enabling in plugin settings user creation and advanced user creation options
  • user_creation_adv_options_auth_methods choose "manual account" account method
    • every choosen Moodle auth method selected will be concerned by following option on user creation for Rocket.Chat
    • you can choose to activate each following setting depending of the desired bahaviour
    • user_creation_adv_options_requirePasswordChange force password change while creation an account on Rocket.Chat
    • user_creation_adv_options_setRandomPassword set a random password
    • user_creation_adv_options_sendWelcomeEmail send a welcome mail

Moodle API account creation

• create a RocketChat local account
  • other authentification account such like CAS will work
• confirm it (verified button) through Rocket.Chat administration

Roles and permissions

• Create a new role on Rocket.Chat with following permissions :
  • create-user
  • clean-channel-history
  • delete-user
  • create-p
  • unarchive-room
  • view-full-other-user-info
  • view room administration
  • api-bypass-rate-limit
  • edit-room-retention-policy
  • create-personal-access-tokens
• Create an application user (local or CAS)
• Activate user by checling Verified checkbox
• Give the created user user and previous created role
• CAS authentication
  • In case of user account creation in Rocket.Chat through moodle plugin you must activate following settings
    • Trust CAS username
    • Authorize user creation

Create a personal token for this account

Through Visual interface

• logged as the Moodle api account, though My Account -> Personal Access Tokens
• create a new personal access token with Ignore Two Factor Authentification checked

through command lines

• Retrieve auth token based on login/passowrd

curl https://chat.univ.fr/api/v1/login -d "username=superadmin&password=superpassword" | cut -d\" -f7-14
# {"userId":"XXXUserIDXXX","authToken":"XXXAuthTokenXXX"}

• Generate personal access token

curl -H "X-Auth-Token: XXXAuthTokenXXX" -H "X-User-Id: XXXUserIDXXX" -H "Content-type:application/json" https://chat.univ.fr/api/v1/users.generatePersonalAccessToken -d '{"tokenName": "moodletoken"}'
# {"token":"XXXPersonalTokenXXX","success":true}

• If you want to verify, you can list personal tokens

curl -H "X-Auth-Token: XXXAuthTokenXXX" -H "X-User-Id: XXXUserIDXXX" -H "Content-type:application/json" https://chat.univ.fr/api/v1/users.getPersonalAccessTokens
# {"tokens":[{"name":"moodletoken","createdAt":"2021-02-09T10:35:38.564Z","lastTokenPart":"XXX"}],"success":true}

• Generate a new token in case of lost

curl -H "X-Auth-Token: XXXAuthTokenXXX" -H "X-User-Id: XXXUserIDXXX" -H "Content-type:application/json" https://chat.univ.fr/api/v1/users.regeneratePersonalAccessToken -d '{"tokenName": "moodletoken"}'
# {"token":"XXXNewPersonalTokenXXX","success":true}

Installation

Moodle plugin

1. Copy the Rocket.Chat plugin to the mod directory of your Moodle instance:

git clone https://github.com/EsupPortail/esup-mod_rocketchat MOODLE_ROOT_DIRECTORY/mod/rocketchat

2. Visit the notifications page to complete the installation process

Settings

• recyclebin_patch check this if patch is applied to core moodle file admin/tool/recyclebin/classes/course_bin.php
• patch is available in patch subdirectory
• you can apply it with patch command

patch -p1 /moodlepath/admin/tool/recyclebin/classes/course_bin.php < /moodlepath//mod/rocketchat/patch/admin_tool_recyclebin_classes_course_bin.patch
patch -p1 /moodlepath/admin/tool/recyclebin/classes/category_bin.php < /moodlepath/mod/rocketchat/patch/admin_tool_recyclebin_classes_category_bin.patch
patch -p1 /moodlepath/user/classes/output/user_roles_editable.php  < /moodlepath/mod/rocketchat/patch/user_classes_output_user_roles_editable.patch

Authentication settings

• apiuser will be rocket-chat userid
• apitoken a token generated on Rocket.Chat for the apiuser
  • can be generated on Rocket.Chat for apiuser on Profile -> My Account -> Security -> Personal Access Tokens menu
  • don't forget to enable create-personal-access-tokens permission for the apiuser through its role

Backup settings

On moodle 3.5 versions backup_auto_activities backup settings must be checked otherwise Rocket.Chat module restoration from recycle bin will not work.

See MDL-6621 tracker ticket for more informations

Specials capabilities

the following capabilities define if a role is able to perform some setting in the module instance :

• mod/rocketchat:change_embedded_display_mode : enable a user to choose embbeded Rocket.Chat web client display mode while eidting the module instance
• mod/rocketchat:candefineroles : enable a user to change defaults roles mapping while editing the module instance
• mod/rocketchat:candefineadvancedretentionparamaters : enable a user to define advanced message retention options

Unit tests

settings

• in Rocket.Chat you must adjust the Rate Limiter to enable unit tests large amount of requests
• to run unit tests that involved Rocket.Chat remote server just create a config-test.php file into the module rocketchat root directory
• fill in with following parameters

<?php
set_config('instanceurl','https://rocketchat-server_url','mod_rocketchat');
set_config('restapiroot','/api/v1/','mod_rocketchat');
set_config('apiuser','your_user_on_rocket.chat','mod_rocketchat');
set_config('apitoken','#############','mod_rocketchat');
// fake config test to avoird email domain troubles
set_config('domainmail','your_domain_mail_if_necessary','mod_rocketchat'); // Optional argument.line.

requirements

• see moodle documentation

Provided tests

• don't forget to init phpunit moodle tests environment (requirements)

cd /www_moodle_path
/www_moodle_path/vendor/bin/phpunit "mod_rocketchat_background_enrolments_testcase" mod/rocketchat/tests/backup_enrolments_test.php
/www_moodle_path/vendor/bin/phpunit "mod_rocketchat_backup_restore_testcase" mod/rocketchat/tests/backup_restore_test.php
/www_moodle_path/vendor/bin/phpunit "mod_rocketchat_course_reset_testcase" mod/rocketchat/tests/course_reset_test.php
/www_moodle_path/vendor/bin/phpunit "mod_rocketchat_observer_testcase" mod/rocketchat/tests/observer_test.php
/www_moodle_path/vendor/bin/phpunit "mod_rocketchat_api_manager_testcase" mod/rocketchat/tests/rocket_chat_api_manager_test.php
/www_moodle_path/vendor/bin/phpunit "mod_rocketchat_recyclebin_category_testcase" mod/rocketchat/tests/recyclebin_category_test.php
/www_moodle_path/vendor/bin/phpunit "mod_rocketchat_recyclebin_testcase" mod/rocketchat/tests/recyclebin_test.php
/www_moodle_path/vendor/bin/phpunit "mod_rocketchat_privacy_testcase" mod/rocketchat/tests/privacy_provider_test.php
/www_moodle_path/vendor/bin/phpunit "mod_rocketchat_tools_testcase" mod/rocketchat/tests/mod_rocketchat_tools_test.php
/www_moodle_path/vendor/bin/phpunit "mod_rocketchat_moderator_and_user_roles_testcase" mod/rocketchat/tests/moderator_and_user_roles_test.php
/www_moodle_path/vendor/bin/phpunit "mod_rocketchat_retention_testcase" mod/rocketchat/tests/retention_test.php

Functional tests with behat

Requirements

• see moodle documentation

Settings

• see phpunit settings section

Provided tests

• don't forget to init behat moodle tests environment (requirements)

cd /www_moodle_path
vendor/bin/behat --config /datas/mdlfarm/behat_datas/behatrun/behat/behat.yml --tags mod_rocketchat

for behat funcitonal tests by file

cd /www_moodle_path
vendor/bin/behat --config /datas/mdlfarm/behat_datas/behatrun/behat/behat.yml  /www_moodle_path/mod/rocketchat/tests/behat/maxage_limit.feature
vendor/bin/behat --config /datas/mdlfarm/behat_datas/behatrun/behat/behat.yml  /www_moodle_path/mod/rocketchat/tests/behat/rocketchat_activity_creation.feature
vendor/bin/behat --config /datas/mdlfarm/behat_datas/behatrun/behat/behat.yml  /www_moodle_path/mod/rocketchat/tests/behat/rocketchat_retention.feature
vendor/bin/behat --config /datas/mdlfarm/behat_datas/behatrun/behat/behat.yml  /www_moodle_path/mod/rocketchat/tests/behat/rocketchat_test_connection.feature

License

2020 ESUP-Portail (https://www.esup-portail.org)

This program is free software: you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by the Free Software Foundation, either version 3 of the License, or (at your option) any later version.

This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU General Public License for more details.

You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License along with this program. If not, see http://www.gnu.org/licenses/.

Rocket.Chat moodle module ESUP team

• The Rocket.Chat moodle Esup team is composed of people from various places and from differents working domains.
  • Pedagocical engineer
  • System administrators
  • Developpers
• Institutions
  • Centrale Marseille
  • Université de Lorraine
  • Université de Strasbourg
  • Université de technologie de Troyes

If you need some help, you can contact us via this email address : mod-rocketchat-contact AT esup-portail.org