As part of the work being done in the Open edX marketing group we want to contribute with creating and maintaining a list of useful additional tools that can be integrated or used in combination with the open edX platform.
The goal is to have this list published in the https://open.edx.org/ website as a tool that potential and current Open edX users can use to discover the possibilities available to extend and enrich their initiatives.
One important bit in which this tool differs from the more organically built recollections we have done so far is that to the extent that it has mainly a marketing purpose, it will be curated to include only include components that meet certain criteria, so that a potential newcomer organization into the space doesnāt get frustrated amidst with poor or not very relevant information.
Another difference is that this list will aggregate different type of resources, such as:
third party tools that play nicely with open edX
xblocks
Pluggins
IDAs that work in combination with Open edX
Themes for the Open edX platform
The vision for this initiative would be to become an active marketplace of 3rd party tools and options with community driven submissions, rattings, comments and more.
@juancamilom The Legal Department of edX gave feedback that no company logos may be shown in the list. So, in order to be able to publish the prototype on the Open edX website, we discussed the development of icons to visually spice up the individual cards of the extensions.
I created a first version of icons for each category (for example Code Grader, Discussion Tool, LMS Theme, etc.). The image files, as well as a first draft, how the icons can be integrated, can be found here: Icons - Google Drive
This community proposal aims to establish a global Open edX extensions marketplace. The marketplace will increase the platformās visibility by attracting new operators seeking customizable and modular LMS solutions. It will also expand the platformās capabilities and strengthen community engagement.
In this proposal, we analyze existing marketplace solutions and identify key features that can serve as prototypes for the Open edX marketplace. We also outline a process for maintaining and supporting the marketplace through community working groups.
Additionally, we propose a technical approach for integrating new solutions into the marketplace using Tutor plugins, along with centralized and third-party Tutor Plugin Indexes. These extensions may include, but are not limited to, Python and ReactJS extensions of the platform core, infrastructure extensions via Tutor plugins, mobile plugins for Open edX apps, xBlocks, and integrations with third-party systems through Tutor plugins.
Thanks for working on this! I really like how your proposal integrates with the existing concept of Tutor Plugin Indices (TPI). That way, anyone can contribute stuff to the extension marketplace very easily, by just opening a PR. Also, the TPI have a clear API, which means that end-users can use Tutor to install extensions from the Open edX marketplace with a single command.
The current TPI API is super basic, so Iām looking forward to the improvements that will be contributed in the process of implementing this marketplace.
From a technical perspective, I think that our reference should be the Debian APT repositories, which expose both a clear API and nice user interfaces to explore extensions.
By leveraging the TPI APIs, we also open the possibility to have different indices based, for example, on the extension stability: āstableā, āexperimentalā, ānon-freeā, etc. We could even have a ācommercialā index, though my past experience tells me itās not such a great idea from a business perspective.
Thanks, @Glib_Glugovskiy ! Itās good to see a concrete proposal to establish a proper marketplace listing.
I have found myself at this thread for another reason, though-- something important Iād like to bring up. While we work on this marketplace, the current Open edX extensions directory is quite out of date and I donāt think we should wait for this new marketplace to be ready before we update the entries in the old one. For now, this one is the authoritative listing for anyone searching the web for a list of blocks, even if it doesnāt hit SEO all that well (a factor Iām grateful the new proposal explicitly intends to address.)
Several months back, we submitted an entry (the Kinescope XBlock) to the extensions directory and it is still yet to be published. In the intermediating time Iāve had many back-and-forth conversations with community members over Slack and email about the fact weāre still waiting on publication. It occurred to me that itās time to bring this out into public-- and perhaps this should have been done earlier-- since it has been devolving into a game of Telephone for a while, with long latency periods.
I have been informed that the directory is ābrokenā, but havenāt gotten a straight answer on whatās wrong-- even after I (and others at OpenCraft) offered to help fix it. Iād like to publicly reiterate this offer. If given access, I will personally go in and fix it if it allows us to publish the backlog of extensions weāve accrued.
Speaking of which, considering the length of time this has taken and the confusion even I, as someone who is active in the community, have had, Iām sure weāre not the only ones holding on to extensions we would like to see published in the short term, without waiting for an entirely new plugin system to be completed or made visible. To that end, Iām sharing this document where weāve been collecting our own extensions ready for publication, and where we invite others to do the same if they also need/want to list extensions in the short term, so we can get a big update done in one go. Send an edit request and Iāll admit you.
What do we need to do to fix the existing directory so we can use it while the new one is being built?
Thanks for offering your support @Fox_Piacenti . I proposed and implemented the first version of this extensions directory, but a few things have happen since then that you should know:
Edly proposed to reimplement this system as a wordpress plugin to provide a better system to keep the information updated.
Such system has been implemented in a number of stages and at some point, the previous mechanism to update the records stopped being supported. Unfortunately, the information that was first loaded to this system was not the most up to date.
While remaining part of the development is carried out, we have tried to be of help by preparing an updated and revised version of the data, with the goal of performing a batch upload of the info soon.
To my understanting, the revised data is ready and we are wainting on the developers to perform the upload. you can track the status of the process here
Once this process finalizes, It should be possible to submit any additional entry or updates to the information, for the administrators of the wordpress site to handle.
Thank you very much for this context, Juan. This clarifies things significantly. A note, however-- Iām not able to look at the GitHub issue you linked-- that doesnāt seem to be public. Is it possible for it to become so?
