frontend-app-learning

Purpose

This is the Learning MFE (micro-frontend application), which renders all learner-facing course pages (like the course outline, the progress page, actual course content, etc).

Getting Started

Prerequisites

Tutor is currently recommended as a development environment for the Learning MFE. Most likely, it already has this MFE configured; however, you'll need to make some changes in order to run it in development mode. You can refer to the relevant tutor-mfe documentation for details, or follow the quick guide below.

Cloning and Setup

1. Clone your new repo:

git clone https://github.com/openedx/frontend-app-learning.git

2. Use node v20.x.

The current version of the micro-frontend build scripts supports node 18. Using other major versions of node may work, but this is unsupported. For convenience, this repository includes an .nvmrc file to help in setting the correct node version via nvm.

3. Stop the Tutor devstack, if it's running: tutor dev stop
4. Next, we need to tell Tutor that we're going to be running this repo in development mode, and it should be excluded from the mfe container that otherwise runs every MFE. Run this:

tutor mounts add /path/to/frontend-app-learning

5. Start Tutor in development mode. This command will start the LMS and Studio, and other required MFEs like authn and account, but will not start the learning MFE, which we're going to run on the host instead of in a container managed by Tutor. Run:

tutor dev start lms cms mfe

Startup

1. Install npm dependencies:

cd frontend-app-learning && npm ci

2. Start the dev server:

npm run dev

Then you can access the app at http://local.openedx.io:2000/learning/

Troubleshooting

If you see an "Invalid Host header" error, then you're probably using a different domain name for your devstack such as local.edly.io or local.overhang.io (not the new recommended default, local.openedx.io). In that case, run these commands to update your devstack's domain names:

tutor dev stop
tutor config save --set LMS_HOST=local.openedx.io --set CMS_HOST=studio.local.openedx.io
tutor dev launch -I --skip-build
tutor dev stop learning  # We will run this MFE on the host

Local module development

To develop locally on modules that are installed into this app, you'll need to create a module.config.js file (which is git-ignored) that defines where to find your local modules, for instance:

module.exports = {
  /*
  Modules you want to use from local source code.  Adding a module here means that when this app
  runs its build, it'll resolve the source from peer directories of this app.

  moduleName: the name you use to import code from the module.
  dir: The relative path to the module's source code.
  dist: The sub-directory of the source code where it puts its build artifact.  Often "dist", though you
    may want to use "src" if the module installs React as a peer/dev dependency.
  */
  localModules: [
     { moduleName: '@openedx/paragon/scss', dir: '../paragon', dist: 'scss' },
     { moduleName: '@openedx/paragon', dir: '../paragon', dist: 'dist' },
     { moduleName: '@openedx/frontend-enterprise', dir: '../frontend-enterprise', dist: 'src' },
     { moduleName: '@openedx/frontend-platform', dir: '../frontend-platform', dist: 'dist' },
  ],
};

See https://github.com/openedx/frontend-build#local-module-configuration-for-webpack for more details.

Deployment

The Learning MFE is similar to all the other Open edX MFEs. Read the Open edX Developer Guide's section on MFE applications.

Plugins

This MFE can be customized using Frontend Plugin Framework.

The parts of this MFE that can be customized in that manner are documented here.

Environment Variables

This MFE is configured via environment variables supplied at build time. All micro-frontends have a shared set of required environment variables, as documented in the Open edX Developer Guide under Required Environment Variables.

The learning micro-frontend also supports the following additional variables:

CREDIT_HELP_LINK_URL

A link to resources to help explain what course credit is and how to earn it.

ENABLE_JUMPNAV

Enables the new Jump Navigation feature in the course breadcrumbs, defaulted to the string 'true'. Disable to have simple hyperlinks for breadcrumbs. Setting it to any other value but 'true' ('false','I love flags', 'etc' would disable the Jumpnav). This feature flag is slated to be removed as jumpnav becomes default. Follow the progress of this ticket here: https://openedx.atlassian.net/browse/TNL-8678

SOCIAL_UTM_MILESTONE_CAMPAIGN

This value is passed as the utm_campaign parameter for social-share links when celebrating learning milestones in the course. Optional.

Example: milestone

SUPPORT_URL_CALCULATOR_MATH

A link that explains how to use the in-course calculator. You can use the one in the example below if you don't want to have your own branded version.

Example: https://support.edx.org/hc/en-us/articles/360000038428-Entering-math-expressions-in-assignments-or-the-calculator

SUPPORT_URL_ID_VERIFICATION

A link that explains how to verify your ID. Shown in contexts where you need to verify yourself to earn a certificate. The example link below is probably too edx.org-specific to use for your own site.

Example: https://support.edx.org/hc/en-us/articles/206503858-How-do-I-verify-my-identity

SUPPORT_URL_VERIFIED_CERTIFICATE

A link that explains what a verified certificate is. You can use the one in the example below if you don't want to have your own branded version. Optional.

Example: https://support.edx.org/hc/en-us/articles/206502008-What-is-a-verified-certificate

TWITTER_HASHTAG

This value is used in the Twitter social-share link when celebrating learning milestones in the course. Will prefill the suggested post with this hashtag. Optional.

Example: brandedhashtag

TWITTER_URL

A link to your Twitter account. The Twitter social-share link won't appear unless this is set. Optional.

Example: https://twitter.com/openedx

Getting Help

If you're having trouble, we have discussion forums where you can connect with others in the community.

Our real-time conversations are on Slack. You can request a Slack invitation, then join our community Slack workspace. Because this is a frontend repository, the best place to discuss it would be in the #wg-frontend channel.

For anything non-trivial, the best path is to open an issue in this repository with as many details about the issue you are facing as you can provide.

https://github.com/openedx/frontend-app-learning/issues

For more information about these options, see the Getting Help page.

Contributing

Contributions are very welcome. Please read How To Contribute for details.

This project is currently accepting all types of contributions, bug fixes, security fixes, maintenance work, or new features. However, please make sure to discuss your new feature idea with the maintainers before beginning development to maximize the chances of your change being accepted. You can start a conversation by creating a new issue on this repo summarizing your idea.

The Open edX Code of Conduct

All community members are expected to follow the Open edX Code of Conduct.

License

The code in this repository is licensed under the AGPLv3 unless otherwise noted.

Please see LICENSE for details.

Reporting Security Issues

Please do not report security issues in public. Please email [email protected].