All RPGs and Storygames by Tod Foley are now available at DrivethruRPG and RPGnow. Bring these games to your table!

We've started a series of blog posts that tell the story of what makes our developers successful when working with other Drupal teams. The first chapter introduces our workflow and the advantages it brings.
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Some games have quirks, traits, aspects, and other goods along those lines baked right into the game. I’m mainly thinking of GURPS, Hero System, Fate, and Savage Worlds. There are plenty more games that I didn’t list here that have some way to customize and define your characters beyond “I’m a dwarven barbarian with an axe.”
This article is more for those gamers playing the games without these baked-in features of the game, but it can also assist the games that do have these structures.
As a player, I’ve found that my characters are more enjoyable (and memorable) if they have a quirk or three. I generally don’t do more than three because then the character gets annoying to play and to be around. I may even adopt new quirks or allow an old one to be overcome (or simply fade away) as game progresses because of in-game activities.
As a GM, I love adding one quirk (maybe two if it’s a major character) to NPCs that I want the players to remember. It’s a mental hook for them to hang their memory on. They may not remember that “Ragnar” was the fellow with the McGuffin, but they’ll certainly remember “the fellow with the bad limp and comb-over hairstyle.” These mnemonic clues can ease the game for players. This is especially true for those campaigns that may have long gaps between sessions (like a monthly game).
So, let’s get on to some tables you can roll on to generate some quirks. As always, random generation tables are going to produce some really odd results, so use them to spark your imagination. In other words, don’t take the results literally…. Unless that really works for you and your group.
PhysicalTo find a physical quirk, roll a d4 to determine which list to use. Then roll a d20 on that list.
To find a mental quirk, roll a d6 to determine which list to use. Then roll 2d20 on that list.
To find an emotional quirk, roll a d6 to determine which list to use. Then roll 2d20 on that list.
A side note: Yes, I’m aware that 2d20 on a “linear list” isn’t a fair chance for each item on the list, and I didn’t cultivate the list to make oddball quirks more or less likely. I just decided that it’d be easier to lay it out the way I did rather than a d12 followed by a d20, which would be more mathematically fair. It would also give us a chance to use those rarely-rolled d12s. Ah well, such is how I have things done.
I hope you’re able to use this list of quirks and traits in your various games!
Depending on the implementation of the menu it is necessary to check the
"Show as expanded"-checkbox all the time - but the default implementation of the Drupal "Add menu item"-form has false as default value.
That is just annoying - and a potential source of error and frustration!
Show as expanded - always helps the editor to do this (sometimes) unnecessary job: It checks the "Show as expanded"-checkbox by default when creating a new menu item.
Referred to as the de facto standard of e-learning, Shareable Content Object Reference Model aka SCORM was sponsored by US Department of Defense to bring uniformity in the standards of procuring both training content and Learning Management Systems.
Long gone but not forgotten are those days when learning was only limited to books and classrooms. With the development of technology, virtual learning has transformed into an approachable and convenient method.
Can Drupal, which is a widely popular CMS for education websites, conform to SCORM standards? How does it ensure that it remains SCORM compliant?
SCORM is a set of standard guidelines and specifications for the programmers on how to create LMS and training content to be shared across systems.
The agenda to bring SCORM was to create standard units of training and educational material to be shared and reused across systems.
Shareable Content Object refers to creating units of online training material that can be shared and reused across systems and contexts.
Reference Model refers to the existing standards in the education industry while informing developers on how to properly use them together.
Working with the authoring tools to design and produce the content, e-learning professionals, training managers, and instructional designers are the ones who typically use SCORM packages.
Content (used in courses and LMS) is exported to a SCORM package (.zip folder) to deliver the learners a seamless and smooth upload of the content.
The Evolution of SCORMSince SCORM wasn’t built as a standard from the ground up and was primarily a reference to the existing ones, the goal was to create an interoperable system that will work well with other systems.
Till date, there are three released versions of SCORM, each built on top of the previous one solving the problem of its predecessor.
SCORM 1.0 was merely a draft outline of the framework. It did not include any fully implementable specifications but rather contained a preview of work which was yet to come.
SCORM 1.0 included the core elements that would become the foundation of SCORM.In other words, this version specified how the content should be packaged. How content should communicate to systems and how the content should be described.
SCORM 1.1 was the first implementable version of SCORM. It marked the end of the trial implementation phase and the beginning of the application phase for ADL.
SCORM 1.2 solved the many problems that came along version 1.1. It provided with robust and implementable specifications, this version presented its end users with drastic cost savings.
It was and still remains one of the most widely used version.
The 2004 1st edition allowed content vendors to create navigation rules between SCOs. The 2nd edition covered the various shortcomings of the 1st. It brought with it Advanced Distributed Learning which focused on developing and assessing the distributed learning prototypes, enabling more effective, efficient, & affordable learner-centric solutions.
The 3rd edition removed any ambiguity, improving the sequencing specifications for greater interoperability.
The final and 4th edition was focused on disambiguation and addition of new sequencing specifications. These specifications widened the options available to the content authors which made the creation of sequenced content even more simple.
Now that we have an idea about SCORM and its attempt of reducing chaos in the entire industry, let’s know what benefits it brings along.
Here are some of the reasons that can contribute to a huge factor in terms of using SCORM.
Other than guiding the programmers, SCORM administers two main things, i.e packaging content and exchanging data at runtime to ensure workability.
SCORM recommends contents to be delivered in a self-contained directory or a ZIP file. These files contain content, defined by the SCORM standards and is called Package Interface File (PIF) or in other words SCORM packages.
It contains all the files that are needed to be delivered in the content packages via SCORM runtime environment.
Course manifest files are considered as the heart of the SCORM content packaging system. The manifest is considered as the XML file that describes the content.
Some of the pieces involved in the packaging are:
Resources are the list of parts that bundle up to be a single course. There are two types of resources that contribute to the course.
The first is the collection of one or more files that make up a logical unit presented to the users. The other is SCO or Sharable Content Object which is the unit of instructions that are composed of one or more files, to communicate with LMS. It mostly contains the instructional or static part of a content that is presented to the users via course.
Resources should contain a complete list of all the files that are required for proper functionality of the resources.This is done to port the list to a new environment and function it the similar way.
Organizations are considered as the logical grouping of the parts of resources into a hierarchical arrangement. This is what is delivered to a particular learner when the item has been selected.
Metadata are used to describe elements of a content package in its manifest file. They are important because they facilitate the discovery of learning resources across content package or in a repository.
When a learning resource is intended to be reusable, it is a best practice to describe it with metadata.
For describing learning content, Learning Object Metadata contains many predefined fields.Sequencing is responsible for determining what happens next when a learner exits an SCO. With navigational control, it orchestrates the flow and status of the course as a whole.
However, it doesn’t affect how SCOs operate and navigate internally, that is defined by the content developer.
Drupal With SCORMDrupal is best at managing the digital content, but the task of planning, implementing, and assessing a specific learning process can be best done by an LMS.
How can Drupal become a platform for an organization that delivers effective training, manage learners, individual progress and record results?
Since Drupal is not an LMS, its distributions and modules help it become more effective. When it comes to SCORM compliance, Drupal has Opigno LMS as its core distribution.
Opigno LMS is a Drupal distribution that integrates H5P technology (an open-source content collaboration framework based on javascript), which enable you to create rich interactive training content. It allows you to maintain the training paths that are organized in courses and lessons.
This distribution includes the latest version of Opigno core that offers you effective and innovative online training tools.
Opigno LMS is fully compliant with SCORM (1.2 and 2004 v3) which offers a powerful editor for content management, in particular, to create course material. These courses can eventually be grouped into classes to provide easy and manageable training paths. It should also be noted that this distribution is the quickest way to present a functional e-learning platform out of the box, with the users, courses, certificates, etc.
Based on this distribution, Opigno SCORM implements the SCORM feature in Opigno which allows you to load and play SCORM packages within Opigno training and is also responsible to handle and manage training paths that are organized in courses and lessons.
Opigno LMS comprises an app store that also enables you to install latest features easily, without asking you to upgrade the current install.
According to the requirements and expectations of the learners, Opigno LMS can be summarized by the following specification:
H5P javascript framework makes it easy to create, share and reuse HTML5 content and applications, allowing users to built richer content. With the use of H5P, the authors can edit and construct videos, presentation games, advertisement etc. To create an e-learning platform, the integration of HP5 framework and SCORM is essential.
H5P SCORM/xAPI module allows to upload and view SCROM and xAPI packages. It uses two HP5 libraries namely (HP5 libraries are used to create and share rich content and applications)
You can create a new content type by uploading it in the preceding step of a process using the H5P editor.
In the nutshellDifferent people adopt SCORM for different reasons. You and your team are the only ones that can decide whether sticking to SCORM is worthwhile or not.
Depending upon the nature of your requirement and the course of action, it can be decided which platform is best for you. At OpenSense labs, we have been giving adequate solutions to our customers. Contact us on hello@opensenselabs.com to make the right decision on the correct choice of a platform.
blog banner blog image Drupal Drupal 8 SCORM LMS Learning Management System Shareable Content Object Reference Model SCORM 1.0 SCORM 1.1 SCORM 1.2 SCORM 2004 E-learning Content Aggregation Model Organization Sequencing Resource Opigno LMS Blog Type Articles Is it a good read ? OnThis is used to insert the embedded videos in the CKEditor .This plugin has the following functionality:-
a)Takes the Input as embedded code
b)Generate the HTML of the input code and insert the video in CKEDITOR.
c) This module is multipurpose module so it can be used to insert the video from YouTube website or sound cloud website or any other website.
Drupal is one of the leading open source and secure content management systems used by businesses across the world. Drupal [...]
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Initial works to bridge between Stripe and Drupal on a decoupled approach.
A lot of people have been jumping on the headless CMS bandwagon over the past few years, but I’ve never been entirely convinced. Maybe it’s partly because I don’t want to give up on the sunk costs of what I’ve learned about Drupal theming, and partly because I’m proud to be a boring developer, but I haven’t been fully sold on the benefits of decoupling.
On our current project, we’ve continued to take an approach that Dries Buytaert has described as “progressively decoupled Drupal”. Drupal handles routing, navigation, access control, and page rendering, while rich interactive functionality is provided by a JavaScript application sitting on top of the Drupal page. In the past, we’d taken a similar approach, with AngularJS applications on top of Drupal 6 or 7, getting their configuration from Drupal.settings, and for this project we decided to use React on top of Drupal 8.
There are a lot of advantages to this approach, in my view. There are several discrete interactive applications on the site, but the bulk of the site is static content, so it definitely makes sense for that content to be rendered by the server rather than constructed in the browser. This brings a lot of value in terms of accessibility, search engine optimisation, and performance.
A decoupled system is almost inevitably more complex, with more potential points of failure.
The application can be developed independently of the CMS, so specialist JavaScript developers can work without needing to worry about having a local Drupal build process.
If at some later date, the client decides to move away from Drupal, or at the point where we upgrade to Drupal 9, the applications aren’t so tightly coupled, so the effort of moving them should be smaller.
Having made the decision to use this architecture, we wanted a consistent framework for managing application configuration, to make sure we wouldn’t need to keep reinventing the wheel for every application, and to keep things easy for the content team to manage.
The client’s content team want to be able to control all of the text within the application (across multiple languages), and be able to preview changes before putting them live.
There didn’t seem to be an established approach for this, so we’ve built a module for it.
As we’ve previously mentioned, the team at Capgemini are strongly committed to supporting the open source communities whose work we depend on, and we try to contribute back whenever we can, whether that’s patches to fix bugs and add new features, or creating new modules to fill gaps where nothing appropriate already exists. For instance, a recent client requirement to promote their native applications led us to build the App Banners module.
Aiming to make our modules open source wherever possible helps us to think in systems, considering the specific requirements of this client as an example of a range of other potential use cases. This helps to future-proof our code, because it’s more likely that evolving requirements can be met by a configuration change, rather than needing a code change.
So, guided by these principles, I’m very pleased to announce the Single Page Application Landing Page module for Drupal 8, or to use the terrible acronym that it has unfortunately but inevitably acquired, SPALP.
On its own, the module doesn’t do much other than provide an App Landing Page content type. Each application needs its own module to declare a dependency on SPALP, define a library, and include its configuration as JSON (with associated schema). When a module which does that is installed, SPALP takes care of creating a landing page node for it, and importing the initial configuration onto the node. When that node is viewed, SPALP adds the library, and a link to an endpoint serving the JSON configuration.
Deciding how to store the app configuration and make all the text editable was one of the main questions, and we ended up answering it in a slightly “un-Drupally” way.
On our old Drupal 6 projects, the text was stored in a separate ‘Messages’ node type. This was a bit unwieldy, and it was always quite tricky to figure out what was the right node to edit.
For our Drupal 7 projects, we used the translation interface, even on a monolingual site, where we translated from English to British English. It seemed like a great idea to the development team, but the content editors always found it unintuitive, struggling to find the right string to edit, especially for common strings like button labels. It also didn’t allow the content team to preview changes to the app text.
We wanted to maintain everything related to the application in one place, in order to keep things simpler for developers and content editors. This, along with the need to manage revisions of the app configuration, led us down the route of using a single node to manage each application.
This approach makes it easy to integrate the applications with any of the good stuff that Drupal provides, whether that’s managing meta tags, translation, revisions, or something else that we haven’t thought of.
The SPALP module also provides event dispatchers to allow configuration to be altered. For instance, we set different API endpoints in test environments.
Another nice feature is that in the node edit form, the JSON object is converted into a usable set of form fields using the JSON forms library. This generic approach means that we don’t need to spend time copying boilerplate Form API code to build configuration forms when we build a new application - instead the developers working on the JavaScript code write their configuration as JSON in a way that makes sense for their application, and generate a schema from that. When new configuration items need to be added, we only need to update the JSON and the schema.
Each application only needs a very simple Drupal module to define its library, so we’re able to build the React code independently, and bring it into Drupal as a Composer dependency.
The repository includes a small example module to show how to implement these patterns, and hopefully other teams will be able to use it on other projects.
As with any project, it’s not complete. So far we’ve only built one application following this approach, and it seems to be working pretty well. Among the items in the issue queue is better integration with configuration management system, so that we can make it clear if a setting has been overridden for the current environment.
I hope that this module will be useful for other teams - if you’re building JavaScript applications that work with Drupal, please try it out, and if you use it on your project, I’d love to hear about it. Also, if you spot any problems, or have any ideas for improvements, please get in touch via the issue queue.
A framework for progressively decoupled Drupal was originally published by Capgemini at Capgemini Engineering on December 14, 2018.
'Tis the season for giving. This is the first of many articles about why and how to give back to the community. The information can be used by individuals, agencies, and companies that want to increase their community contribution efforts.
https://drupal.stackexchange.com/a/273986/15055
* description needs to be written
* screenshots need to be added
* tests need to be written
* README needs to be added
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It's a simple responsive slider.Its allow to customize as per requirement basis.