moodle

Ziba Scott <ziba@linuxbox.com> 11/19/04

This is a beta demonstration of a utility to convert Blackboard
Course export zip files into Moodle course export zip files. It
has been successfully tested with Blackboard 5.5 and
Moodle 1.4.1 and Moodle CVS. There is minimal Blackboard 6 support.
It will convert:

    * Course Name/Title
    * Forum Topics
    * Course Documents
    * Assignments 
    * External Links 

The current status of this project is
exploration/proof-of-concept. We have successfully converted
basic Blackboard course information as well as course documents
and forum topics using the XSLT methods described above. 

AUTOMATED OPERATION:
  
  REQUIREMENTS FOR WEB INTERFACE:
    *Moodle 1.4.1 or greater
    *PHP compiled with --enable-xslt  --with-xslt-sablot options
    (Check php.net for instructions on enabling xslt for your platform)
  
  INSTALLATION:
    *Unpack this file into the "backup" directory



MANUAL OPERATION:

  REQUIREMENTS:
    
    *An XSLT 1.0 processor (like Sablotron)
    *A zipping utility

  REQUIREMENTS FOR WEB INTERFACE:

    *Linux/Unix
    *PHP compiled with --enable-xslt  --with-xslt-sablot options.
    *Apache with write access to /tmp
    *A commandline zipping utility
    
  COMMAND LINE INSTRUCTIONS:

    1) Download and uncompress the Blackboard export into a directory.
    
    2) Copy bb2moodle.xslt into the Blackboard course directory.
    
    3) Run your XSLT processor on imsmanifest.xml with bb2moodle.xslt
       as the input and moodle.xml as the output.  If you are using
       Sablotron on linux, this command will look like this:
          sabcmd bb2moodle.xslt imsmanifest.xml > moodle.xml 
          
    4) Create a moodle zip file with this structure:
       moodle.xml
       user_files/
       course_files/
       
    5) Copy every subdirectory and its contents from the Blackboard
       export directory into the course_files directory.  This does
       not include the Blackboard XML files, only the course
       documents.  Your moodle zip file will now look similar to
       this:
       moodle.xml
       user_files/
       course_files/res0009/myfile.doc
       course_files/res0010/myotherfile.doc
       course_files/res0010/mypicture.jpg

    6) Upload and restore your moodle zip file