STACK Question plugin for ILIAS

Welcome to the official repository for STACK for ILIAS.

What is STACK?

STACK is the world-leading open-source online assessment system for mathematics and STEM and the most powerful STEM learning tool available in ILIAS

Note STACK for ILIAS is from 01.06.2023 officially maintained on the SURLABS repository. Original ILIFAU repository has been archived, please change your git remote to the new one in order to keep using the plugin.

Installation & Update

Software Requirements

STACK requires PHP version 7.4 to work properly on your ILIAS 7 platform

STACK requires the mbstring PHP library to run properly, this library is by default included in ILIAS, but please ensure your installation includes that library on the composer.json dependencies.

STACK requires Maxima, an Open-Source Computer Algebra System to work. Ensure you have Maxima instance installed on the web server running your ILIAS installation, or you have a Maxima Pool / Goemaxima connection before installing this plugin in your platform.

• If you are using a local Maxima Installation, ensure it is at least Maxima 5.44
• If you are using MaximaPool or GoeMaxima, the currently expected compiled version is 2023121100

If you are using Goemaxima, ensure you include in the plugin configuration on the Maxima Libraries configuration the four included Maxima libraries: stats, distrib, descriptive, simplex

STACK requires GNUPlot, which is used by Maxima to generate graphical plots of functions etc. It is freely available and part of most Linux distrubutions. GNUplot needs to be installed on the web server running your ILIAS and maxima installations.

STACK requires Mathjax, to be active on your ILIAS installation.

MathJax is an open source JavaScript display engine for mathematics. It is used by the STACK plugin to display maths in question, user input validation and feedback. It can either be linked from cdn.mathjax.org or downloaded to your own web server. It has to be configured in ILIAS:

1. Administration > Third Party Software > MathJax
2. Enable MathJax and enter the URL to MathJax (Currently only MathJax rendered in browser option is supported)
3. Save

Installation steps

1. Create subdirectories, if necessary for Customizing/global/plugins/Modules/TestQuestionPool/Questions/
2. In Customizing/global/plugins/Modules/TestQuestionPool/Questions/ ensure you delete any previous assStackQuestion folder
3. Then, execute:

git clone https://github.com/surlabs/STACK.git ./assStackQuestion
cd assStackQuestion
git checkout ilias7_stack

3. STACK uses the ILIAS composer autoloader functionality so, after installing or update the plugin, ensure you run on the ILIAS root folder

composer du
php setup/setup.php update

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Please ensure you don't ignore plugins on composer.json

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4. Go to Administration > Plugins
5. Choose action "Install" or "Update" for the assStackQuestion plugin
6. Choose action "Activate" for the assStackQuestion plugin
7. Choose action "Refresh Languages" for the assStackQuestion plugin
8. Choose action "Configure" for the assStackQuestion plugin
9. Set the platform type and maxima servers according your installation
10. Go to the tab "Quality" and click "Do Health Check"

If you can see the 3 Plots being rendered at the end of the screen, the plugin has been properly installed

Please, repeat this sequence everytime you update STACK

Authors

• This plugin includes the STACK core classes developed by Chris Sangwin, with support of Matti Harjula and Tim Hunt for its Moodle question type plugin version 4.5.0 (2023).
• This plugin was developed by Jesús Copado with Fred Neumann's support at the University of Erlangen between 2014 and 2022
• This plugin is currently maintained by Jesús Copado, Saúl Díaz and Daniel Cazalla through SURLABS

Bug Reports & Discussion

• Bug Reports: Mantis (Choose project "ILIAS plugins" and filter by category "STACK Question Type")
• SIG Mathe Forum

Version History

• The stable version 8.5.x for ILIAS 8 with the STACK Core version 4.5.0 can be found in the Github branch ilias8_stack
• The stable version 8.0.x for ILIAS 8 with the STACK Core version 4.3.9 can be found in the Github branch old_ilias8_stack2021 is on only security issues mode.
• The stable version 7.5.x for ILIAS 7.13+ with the STACK Core version 4.5.0 can be found in the Github branch ilias7_stack
• The stable version 7.0.x for ILIAS 7.13+ with the STACK Core version 4.3.9 can be found in the Github branch old_ilias7_stack2021 is on only security issues mode.
• The stable version 3.5 for ILIAS 7.13+ with the STACK Core version 4.2.2 can be found in the Github branch unmaintained_ilias713_stack2019 is no longer maintained.
• The stable version 3.4.3 for ILIAS <= 7.12 with the STACK Core version 4.2.2 can be found in the Github branch unmaintained_ilias712_stack2019 is no longer maintained.
• The stable version 3.2.x for ILIAS 6 is no longer maintained.
• The stable version 3.1.x for ILIAS 5.4 is no longer maintained
• The stable version 3.0.x for ILIAS 5.3 is no longer maintained
• The stable version 2.4.x for ILIAS 5.2 to 5.3 is no longer maintained
• The stable version 2.3.x for ILIAS 5.0 to 5.1 is no longer maintained