Modernize UI Options for Advanced Settings

Feature Ideas
1

:backhand_index_pointing_right: For the full context of the overall project to migrate all Advanced Settings into more suitable locations, see https://openedx.atlassian.net/wiki/x/AwAjOAE

Overview

This project proposes an update to the Advanced Settings page in Studio once settings that belong elsewhere have been relocated. The page will be reorganized into categories/sections, use Paragon input components instead of JSON, and apply visibility rules for Course Authors, Developers, and Deprecated fields.

Problem

The current Advanced Settings page is presented as a single JSON block. This makes it difficult to navigate, forces manual editing, and mixes author-facing, developer-facing, and deprecated fields in one place.

Use Cases

  • As a course author, I want to configure only the settings relevant to my teaching.

  • As a developer, I want technical and integration settings separated from authoring ones.

  • As an administrator, I want deprecated fields clearly marked to avoid misuse.

Supporting Data

The following settings remain in Advanced Settings:

  1. ccx_connector

  2. enable_ccx

  3. giturl

  4. Static asset path

  5. External login domain

  6. Days early for beta users

  7. Course-wide custom js

  8. Course-wide custom css

They include author-facing (e.g., beta release, custom JS/CSS), developer-facing (e.g., giturl, connectors), and system-level fields (e.g., external login domain).

Proposed Solution

  • Group settings could be considered

  • Replace JSON editor with Paragon toggles, inputs, and dropdowns.

2

Days early for beta users could probably be moved into the Instructor dashboard in the live view, right next to where one enrolls beta testers. I’m not sure any other part of the platform mentions beta testing at all.

3

I agree with @colin.fredericks that “days early for beta users” is an enrollment thing, and should go wherever we’re consolidating that.

This was built for Shibboleth support back when Shibboleth support meant running in an Apache module (before Python Social Auth got support for it). I think we should DEPR this entirely.

4

Advanced Settings redesign update, current state:

The main PR is open with CI green: feat: redesign Advanced Settings page with grouped sections and type-specific inputs by SantiagoSuHe · Pull Request #3019 · openedx/frontend-app-authoring · GitHub

Adolfo Brandes reviewed it back in May and asked for one big change. My version hardcoded the metadata for all 82 settings (category, type, enum options) in the frontend, which couples the MFE to a list that lives in the backend. He was right, so I refactored it. The metadata now comes from the API and the frontend just reads it. That needed a backend half, which is here: feat: expose field type and options in advanced settings API by SantiagoSuHe · Pull Request #38784 · openedx/openedx-platform · GitHub

I pushed the refactor on June 19. In August Adolfo opened official tracking issues for both pieces and the work is now on the platform roadmap, so the direction is settled. He’ll do the full review over the next two to three months.