Proposals/MNet replacement

For work to be done on the MNet replacement. Bellow are the tasks that were identified to be necessary for moving away from MNet. Take a look at the Moodle roadmap for more specific Moodle information as well as the Moodle tracker item for specific progress.

For individual work items and their progress, please check the Mahara blueprint.

Key architectural considerations up for further discussion

• importing SimpleSAMLphp as a first class addition to Moodle and Mahara to make the process of configuration simpler
• introduction of wizards and automations that hide the complexity of SSO integration configuration

Common tasks

• Deprecation roadmap - figure out the tasks, and milestones required to determine what releases will mark out the deprecations of the existing MNet functionality as the web services and SAML authentication replacement becomes available.
• Standardise on REST + JSON

Tasks divided by system

The following task lists are divided by system, but this does not necessarily delineate responsibility.

Mahara-centred tasks

• Done: Land the Web Services plugin in Mahara core
• Include SimpleSAMLphp as first class library
• Connection manager for client connections in web services - ssphp connection wizard, wizard for inter-Moodle/Mahara connections "just enter URL + Token"
• Migrate MNet functionality to Web Services for Portfolio, account provisioning
• Update Launch block for network servers

Moodle-centred tasks

• Include SimpleSAMLphp as first class library
• Connection manager for client connections in web services - ssphp connection wizard, wizard for inter-Moodle/Mahara connections "just enter URL + Token"
• Migrate MNet functionality to Web Services for mahara portfolio plugin, assignment plugin, account provisioning
• Assignment plugin was originally proposed to be replaced with LTI based functionality, but a better approach has been suggested using a repository plugin.
• Authentication sources separate from mdl_user table
• Investigate community hubs and MNet use ?
• Launch block replacement for MNet servers jump point