Totara Learn Open Discussions

Core Certificate roadmap

 
Tami Bonnett-Admi
Core Certificate roadmap
by Tami Bonnett-Admi - Tuesday, 24 January 2023, 10:35 AM
 

My clients using Totara all use the Custom Certificate module, due to it being significantly more flexible than the core Totara Certificate plugin with regards to text to be included, fields to be displayed, positioning of text on the certificate background, and perhaps most importantly, the ability for learners to see a My Certificate page that lists all certificates they have earned. It is my understanding that Totara will not support this plugin in later versions and users will be forced to use the core plugin. Is this correct? And if yes, is there anything on the roadmap to update the core certificate plugin to bring it up to par with custom certificate such that:

  • Admins can do the following:
    • Add dynamic course and user fields to the certificate from the front-end of the application, without having to modify any PHP?
    • Varying templates can be set up, again without having to modify any PHP?
    • Location of text on the background image (which, to my understanding, can only be added by using the border pictures functionality?, can be handled from the front-end (preferably by dragging cross-hairs), rather than having to modify XY coordinates in the back-end?
  • Learners can see a single page that lists all of their certificates earned (perhaps through a report store?), rather than having to go course by course to see each of their certificates

Please advise.

Naina Manga-Virtue
Re: Core Certificate roadmap
by Naina Manga-Virtue - Wednesday, 25 January 2023, 2:26 PM
 

Hi Tami, 
I'm the Product Manager for Learn. 

I can completely empathise with you on the lack of functionality on Totara Certificates. 

Unfortunately we have a number of other initiatives that would have a higher impact on our customers and our partners over and above this. This certainly fits within our product vision and I believe it would be useful to a number of customers - it's something that is on our minds, but isn't something we're willing to invest in right now.


Thanks,

Naina.   


Tami Bonnett-Admi
Re: Core Certificate roadmap
by Tami Bonnett-Admi - Wednesday, 25 January 2023, 3:03 PM
 

Thank you for your quick response. I understand it's not on your roadmap, but perhaps you all could work with the developer for Custom Certificates to encourage them to update it for the most recent versions of Totara. This would give people the extensibility they seek when choosing a product like Totara over other proprietary platforms, and enable you all to continue to expand per your roadmap while the community works on other key items. I used to manage client development and all our plugin management at Moodlerooms, and this is how we handled things then (by working with the plugin maintainer). Is this a possibility?

Naina Manga-Virtue
Re: Core Certificate roadmap
by Naina Manga-Virtue - Thursday, 9 February 2023, 12:52 PM
 
Hi Tami, 
Sorry, I didn't notice your reply until just now. 


Yes, we do try to maintain a relationship with our more popular plug in providers, especially where there is an opportunity for a win-win relationship. However, please correct me if I'm wrong, the plug in you're talking about for certificates is a Moodle plug in. And unfortunately there isn't much incentive for Moodle to create plug ins or do upgrades to existing plug ins to work with Totara products.


Thanks, 

Naina. 

Tami Bonnett-Admi
Re: Core Certificate roadmap
by Tami Bonnett-Admi - Thursday, 9 February 2023, 1:38 PM
 

Hi Naina,

I do not think so. The plugin is maintained by Mark Nelson who seems to be a freelance open source enthusiast. It is not a core Moodle plugin. You can see that here:

  • https://moodle.org/plugins/mod_customcert
  • https://www.linkedin.com/in/mdjnelson?originalSubdomain=au