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Basic ILIAS APP

New Ticket here: Progressive Web App

1 Initial Problem

E-learning in schools takes more and more place on mobile devices such as tablets. Schools that investing in IT equipment do no longer buy standalone computers or laptops but tablets. Hardware providers like Apple or Samsung are actually pushing this by special projects and conditions for German schools. This change has also a strong implication on how e-learning applications are used today. Teachers and pupils are more and more focused on apps. For example, Apple released the app „iTunes U“. This allows the management of learning materials and course management. Although the system is far inferior to the functionalities of ILIAS or other LMS, it is very popular in schools as it is available as an APP.

Teachers and pupils want an icon on their tablet that starts their ILIAS installation without logging in. But it doesn’t matter if this installation is presented in a browser. A native app is no requirement. Most of these users do not even know the difference. But they expect to find ILIAS in the App Store or Google Play Store.

The already existing Pegasus App is not a solution for these schools. They do not want - or are not able - to pay the annual fee for using it. They also do need most of the features offered by Pegasus and prefer not to have concurrent tools in both systems. The basic requirement for these schools is just a simple app that authenticates the user and opens her/his ILIAS installation on the tablet (or mobile phone). And there shouldn’t be apps for each school or university in the App Store but one - the official one published by the ILIAS society and under its control.

2 Conceptual Summary

In a first basic version, an ILIAS app should be available at Apple’s and Google's app stores and support the following workflows:
installation the first time.

1. ILIAS app can be installed on mobile devices and tablets using the actual iOS and Android versions

2. After installation, the app offers a list of known ILIAS installations provided by the ILIAS society to which a user can connect oneself. Selected installation is stored permanently

3. User enters user name and password once and app will always offer straight access to ILIAS without authentication from then on.

4. User clicks on app icon and gets presented ILIAS in the default browser of the device. User’s start page depends from setting in target installation.

5. All interaction with ILIAS takes place in the responsive browser version of ILIAS.

In a later extension of the app it would be nice to

• use the notification features of the mobile device to notify a user about events and notifications at the ILIAS installation (that are currently send to the external e-mail account), e.g.: new discussion postings, course subscriptions, a.s.o. App could check for example every 15 minutes for new notifications on the ILIAS installation and push a message on the device screen if there is a new one.

• offer a customised icon for the app delivered by the selected installation (instead of presenting the ILIAS logo). Such a logo should be offered by the ILIAS installation itself and adapted by the app when the user connects to the installation the first time.

3 User Interface Modifications

3.1 List of Affected Views

{Please list all views (screens) of ILIAS that should be modified, newly introduced or removed.}

3.2 User Interface Details

{For each of these views please list all user interface elements that should be modified, added or removed. Please provide the textual appearance of the UI elements and their interactive behaviour.}

3.3 New User Interface Concepts

{If the proposal introduces any completely new user interface elements, you might consult UI Kitchen Sink in order to find the necessary information to propose new UI-Concepts. Note that any maintainer might gladly assist you with this.}

4 Technical Information

{The maintainer has to provide necessary technical information, e.g. dependencies on other ILIAS components, necessary modifications in general services/architecture, potential security or performance issues.}

5 Contact

• Author of the Request:
• Maintainer: {Please add your name before applying for an initial workshop or a Jour Fixe meeting.}
• Implementation of the feature is done by: {The maintainer must add the name of the implementing developer.}

6 Funding

If you are interest in funding this feature, please add your name and institution to this list.

• …

7 Discussion

Forster, Ulrich [uforster] Graet! Talk to board and sig mobile people. Solution: (Small)-Pegasus for Schools?  Jump in :)

Klees, Richard [rklees], 2018-02-21: This approach to me has clear advantages over the attempts made via the Pegasus App Group so far. To be clear: Anyone may be happily creating Apps using ILIAS, as long as the ILIAS license (GPL) is respected, as far as I am concerned. Having an "ILIAS App" is a whole different thing, as we have processes in the community that define how features are added to ILIAS. This FW-Entry has advantages in this regard:

• It uses the process for new features as every other feature does.
• Via this Wikipage there is a tangible description of the desired features of an app, that could be read and discussed, online and offline.
• The proposed app is a minium viable product, that we could (or could not) add features on, as we like, again through our feature wiki process.
• There is a clear reference to existing ILIAS features, such as the responsive layout, that makes it clear how the app could fit into the current ILIAS environment.

I would be very happy to see that this (or a similar) approach to an ILIAS App is further pursued and realized.

Killing, Alexander [alex], 22 Feb 2018: I would like to see this being a pure HTML5 progressive web app approach. The landing page (list of institutions) could just be a small website being hosted by the ILIAS society. The easiest way would be a static website where new installations are registered by Pull Requests. A small registration back-end would of course be nicer. We already implemented a "keep me logged in" feature in another project which could be valuable for the second step (redirect into the ILIAS installation without login, except the first time), FW entry is available here: No automatic log out / Users stay logged in

I would currently object any link and/or dependency to the PegasusApp, because it currently puts something being named "the Community App" (it's central entry point) behind a pay wall: https://www.ilias-pegasus.de/get-it/ (additionally you have to pay to be involved in the development process)

The app should be free and registering new installations for the standard app should be free, too. The ILIAS society already paid for registration of apps in app stores in the past (conference app) and already hosts web sites. Nothing new budget-wise in my opinion.

And being involved in the development should be free of charge. And access to information about bugs, updates and planned releases should be free, too.

Amstutz, Timon [amstutz], 23. Februar 2018: I completely agree with Richard in every aspect. We too would be very happy to see that this (or a similar) approach to an ILIAS App is further pursued and realized.

Hübsch, Wolfgang [wolfganghuebsch], 07. March 2018: I am with Alex. It should not become too complecated and it`s time for a big step. I am not shure why we are so late withe the app. Maybe not everyone has receognize that not since yesterday  everything went mobile. 

Kiegel, Colin [kiegel] 2021-02-03: I fully support the MVP / html5-based approach.

• The ILIAS open source e-learning e.V. should commit itself to do the basic maintenance
  • maintaining the landing page (list of available institutions)
  • publishing new app releases in relevant app stores (at least Apple + Google, maybe other alternative Android app-stores too)
• Please introduce some kind of "officially supported Android/iOS versions" goals/guidelines/guarantees
  • each ILIAS version could have official support for specific Android/iOS versions (i.e. when a new ILIAS major release is published it should target the current most popular mobile OS versions and try to keep support for these until the end of life of that ILIAS major version - new mobile OS versions should be supported too as soon as they are published)
  • the app itself should at least be compatible with all mobile OS versions, which have this kind of official support by currently supported ILIAS releases
• Please consider to link the official DEMO installation demo.ilias.de - in a special section of the landing page "Do you want to try out ILIAS?"
  • Someone might install the app out of curiosity without having an actual ILIAS account or installation.
  • We should offer this important audience a very smooth first encounter with ILIAS - we all know the importance of the first impression ;-)
  If this topic gets funding (e.g. by the advisory council) - I suggest to also invest some funding into a tech concept for further progressive web app optimization recommendations + according feature wiki tickets (e.g. a future roadmap how to improve the mobile user experience with and without the app)

8 Implementation

{The maintainer has to give a description of the final implementation and add screenshots if possible.}

Test Cases

Test cases completed at {date} by {user}

• {Test case number linked to Testrail} : {test case title}

Approval

Approved at {date} by {user}.