M.A.D. - My Analytics Dashboard

Introduction

My Analytics Dashboard is an alternative project of the Apereo OpenDashboard application. It is made for University of Lorraine and the ESUP-Portail consortium.
MAD is an efficient CASified application that provide visualizations and data for professors and students about their Learning Analytics.

1. Features

• CAS Authentication
• GDPR compliant
• LDAP Access
• Roles (admin, professor and student)
• Admin tools
• Multilingual
• Modern Design
• Responsive-Design
• Dynamic Charts

2. Requirements

• Apache or Nginx
• OpenLRW
• PHP ⩾ 7.1
• PHP modules:
  • LDAP module

3. Technology Used

• Back-End:
  • Symfony Framework (v4.3.4)
  • OpenLRW PHP Client
• Front-End:
  • Chart.js
  • Semantic UI
  • jQuery

Installation

1. Clone the repository

$ git clone https://github.com/xchopin/my-analytics-dashboard

2. Install the PHP dependencies

$ composer install

3. Setup permissions

You will have to give write permissions to the var/cache/ and var/logs/ folders

Example given

$ chown -R someuser:somegroup  var/cache var/logs

4. Fill the settings file

$ cp .env.dist .env ; nano .env

5.1 Apache settings

Example of a Virtual Host:

<VirtualHost *:80>
    ServerAdmin foo.bar.com
    ServerName foo.bar.com
    ServerAlias www.foo.bar.com

    DocumentRoot /Library/WebServer/www/mad/public
    <Directory /Library/WebServer/www/mad/public>
        AllowOverride None
        Order Allow,Deny
        Allow from All

        <IfModule mod_rewrite.c>
            Options -MultiViews
            RewriteEngine On
            RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
            RewriteRule ^(.*)$ index.php [QSA,L]
        </IfModule>
    </Directory>

    # optionally disable the RewriteEngine for the asset directories
    # which will allow apache to simply reply with a 404 when files are
    # not found instead of passing the request into the full symfony stack
    <Directory /Library/WebServer/www/mad/public/bundles>
        <IfModule mod_rewrite.c>
            RewriteEngine Off
        </IfModule>
    </Directory>
    ErrorLog "/private/var/log/apache2/mad-error_log"
    CustomLog "/private/var/log/apache2/mad-access_log" combined
</VirtualHost>

5.2 Nginx settings

server {
    server_name domain.tld www.domain.tld;
    root /var/www/project/public;

    location / {
        # try to serve file directly, fallback to index.php
        try_files $uri /index.php$is_args$args;
    }

    location ~ ^/index\.php(/|$) {
        fastcgi_pass unix:/var/run/php7.2-fpm.sock;
        fastcgi_split_path_info ^(.+\.php)(/.*)$;
        include fastcgi_params;
        # When you are using symlinks to link the document root to the
        # current version of your application, you should pass the real
        # application path instead of the path to the symlink to PHP
        # FPM.
        # Otherwise, PHP's OPcache may not properly detect changes to
        # your PHP files (see https://github.com/zendtech/ZendOptimizerPlus/issues/126
        # for more information).
        fastcgi_param SCRIPT_FILENAME $realpath_root$fastcgi_script_name;
        fastcgi_param DOCUMENT_ROOT $realpath_root;
        # Prevents URIs that include the front controller. This will 404:
        # http://domain.tld/index.php/some-path
        # Remove the internal directive to allow URIs like this
        internal;
    }

    # return 404 for all other php files not matching the front controller
    # this prevents access to other php files you don't want to be accessible.
    location ~ \.php$ {
        return 404;
    }

    error_log /var/log/nginx/project_error.log;
    access_log /var/log/nginx/project_access.log;
}

6. Optimization

For a faster loading you have to add the MongoDB indices written in the OpenLRW documentation. Enable OPCache and APCu for better cache performances.

Customisation

1. Add a new language

Go to the translations/ directory then copy the en.json file in order to use it as a template. Once you translated into the desired language, you have to save the file by only using the alpha-2 of the language (eg: de.jsonfor a German translation).

That's it! the application is smart enough for adding it by itself to your navbar menu.

2. Dashboard

2.1 Use the included dashboards

In order to use the included dashboards you need to have the following structure for the Risk data collection

{ 
    "_id" : "533332b21c83439383278409cc46d27c", 
    "orgId" : "62313a4d-f633-4be1-94b0-863067302671", 
    "tenantId" : "5888c16a53f86dab4261523d", 
    "userSourcedId" : "foobar", 
    "classSourcedId" : "28138", 
    "dateTime" : ISODate("2019-10-14T00:00:00.000+0000"), 
    "timeZoneOffset" : NumberLong(3600), 
    "active" : true, 
    "metadata" : {
        "consultedResources" : "33/35", 
        "activeDays" : "28/52", 
        "clicksCount" : "220/356", 
        "submittedWorkWeight" : "0.31", 
        "activitiesResultsWeight" : "0.56", 
        "forumViews" : "1/2", 
        "activitiesResults" : "9.81/10.0", 
        "global18" : "14/100", 
        "consultedResourcesWeight" : "0.28", 
        "forumViewsWeight" : "0.37", 
        "activeDaysWeight" : "0.32", 
        "global12" : "52/100", 
        "clicksCountWeight" : "0.13", 
        "global10" : "14.3/100", 
        "global16" : "33/100", 
        "submittedWork" : "8/9", 
        "global14" : "49/100"
    }, 
    "_class" : "org.apereo.openlrw.risk.MongoRisk"
}

globalX attributes represent the score of a student for the value X. Other attributes are indicators for the pie chart. All the attributes with Weightas a suffix are the visual 'weight' (width) of an indicator (reminder: a full chart is 2pi, the application will adjust automatically if it's less than this value).

2.2 Create your own dashboard

You will have to edit the full ClassController.php in order to create the own logic of your dashboards. For the front-end part, it is managed in templates/User/Student/Class/*.twigand templates/User/Professor/class.twig.