I've just found out about LTI, a cut-down web service standard that simplifies connecting VLE/LMS to external tools. The Basic LTI is SSO.

Too many TLAs.

TLA = Three Letter Acronym

I could blame the rushed wording on lack of sleep and a wireless access point that kept booting me off, but part of me figured that if you didn't recognize the TLAs, you wouldn't be interested and it's a small area of interest.

For the curious:

1. Virtual Learning Environment (UK usage)
2. Learning Management System (US usage)
3. Single Sign On

Basically, it was a call out to those developing Perl for educational applications.

perl -e 'print qq(Just another Perl Hacker\n)' # where's the irony switch?

if you didn't recognize the TLAs, you wouldn't be interested and it's a small area of interest.

While it might be true for this particular area, it's not true in general. I've used single sign-on systems, both as a user and as a consumer of such an API. Still I only recognized "SSO" on the second or third pass of reading.

Perl 6 - second systems done right

“Gee!   Thanks for signing up to do this!   Is it ready yet??”

In all seriousness ... if there is an industry-related task that people would be interested in, then there will always be a need for a CPAN-available Perl library that does it.

Not Java ... not PHP ... not anything-else-but Perl.   I mean, I don’t really know how else to say it but, Perl is the “freight train” of the software industry.   If you've got a thousand car-loads of education that you need to move from here to there, Perl is going to be the best choice for doing it.  So, a library will surely be well-received.

"I just need someone to write the documentation and a few tests ..."

It doesn't look like there's too much work to get it out the door, so if anybody wants to join me, that'd be just peachy. Net::OAudit supplies the bulk of the implementation, so I'm currently stuck in the design phase. I spent the afternoon going through the PHP code thinking constantly about that quote by Jon Ribbens wondering why they've defined these classes and only ever instanciated them once. If you do that, the only benefit I can see from going OO is the clean namespace, pretty method calls and perhaps the ease in extending the module later. Maybe the java classes will provide a better example.

As for the language debate, Moodle is PHP, Blackboard is Java. Sakai is Perl-based, I believe, but my chances of working with it are slim. I've been dabbling with WeBWorK which is a homework engine for numerically-oriented studies written in Perl, but I'm seeing fewer Perl-based applications these days. Perhaps there's more choice out there or other languages have matured to the point where they are viable alternatives. I also think that CPAN needs a sales person, someone to steer you towards the better modules ... oh, wait, I guess I'm already here.

And besides ... it'll double my module count in CPAN and establish a solid 1 per decade work rate.

perl -e 'print qq(Just another Perl Hacker\n)' # where's the irony switch?

I’m not qualified to participate in this obviously worthy CPAN project, but it is an obviously worthy CPAN project and I am sure that it will attract attention just by being mentioned here.

Hi,

I'm possibly about to dip my toes into LTI, and my preferred implementation language would be Perl.

What's the state of your effort? In case I can arrange things in such a way that I can contribute, I'd love to!

Sorry to say this idea got put on the backburner for me. I've got nothing to contribute to.

Luckily, WebWork has got something working. Have a look at the documentation for their LTI-Advanced Authentication. For working code, you'll have to got to their Github repository because no one has uploaded an LTI module to CPAN yet. This might get you started (or drop you off in the deep end).

And there are blogs (recent) and forums (not so recent) where you can catch up with the current state of LTI and Perl. Get up to speed and then check out the mailing lists.

Best of luck in dipping your toes. If you hit a brick wall, I might be able to carve out some time to work on a specific problem. Reply to this post and I'll see it next time I log in (which could be next week or could be September)

(Edit) Latest version of WebWork has a couple of issues that add features to some LTI links.

Ea

Sometimes I can think of 6 impossible LDAP attributes before breakfast.

YAPC::Europe::2018 — Hmmm, need to talk to work about sending me there or to Mojoconf.