Mahara is modular, and has been written so that its functionality isn't confined to the core code. Developers are able to contribute plugins that extend the main functionality of Mahara.
In this chapter, you will have a look at the parts of Mahara that can be extended and be introduced to some of the extensions that are currently available.
Since they are extensions and don't come packaged with the default Mahara download, you may not have them installed in your own Mahara site. In this chapter, you will be using http://foliofor.me to work through demonstrations of the extensions as it is already configured to use them.
In this chapter you will:
- Look at which features can be extended in Mahara and which extensions are currently available
- Continuing professional development
- Look at the My Learning artefact
- Look in detail at the Embedly block type
- Look at the social sharing block types (Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn)
- See how to embed a LinkedIn profile in a page
Mahara has been written to be pluggable, and this means that anyone with the knowhow and inclination can put together his/her own additions to the code, because the source code is open.
Think of it like LEGO when you were younger. You've got that super-cool pirate ship that has everything you need to start playing — cannons, masts, monkeys, and treasure. But, one day you find out you can get a separate harbor to dock your boat to and new special characters to go on your ship. You don't need these extras, but they would make it more fun to play with.
The extensions don't meddle with the core code. When you have a plugin installed, on occasion it can cause problems for you when you come to upgrade as it is now part of your system. If its functionality breaks when you upgrade your Mahara site, users won't have access to some of their content anymore.
This extension/plugin system means that administrators can pick and choose which extensions to add to their site. In Mahara you are able to plug in content as:
In this chapter, you will look at a few of the artefact and blocktype plugins in detail. Authentication and search plugins are really useful too, and we advise you to look into what's available if you're a more technical reader. If you would like to install any of the plugins in this chapter, it's best to talk to your Mahara site administrator.
All of the plugins that have been made available to the community are listed on the Mahara Wiki at https://wiki.mahara.org/index.php/plugins. This list will be the most up-to-date, so we suggest you hop over and have a look.