At the school that I work for we have been using the Group Policy enabled version of Mozilla Forefox from FrontMotion for some time now. We have discussed the idea on several occasions whether or not to allow staff to install extensions. I have decided to set an allowed location (locally hosted) in group policy where staff can find approved extensions to install.
However, we still required the ability to control some of the settings within these extensions. I was able to achieve this by creating Group Policy ADM templates for these extensions. The ADM templates are written to control the about:config settings of the extension which can be found by browsing to about:config in Firefox and filtering for the desired extension. The preferences are set at as a MACHINE CLASS (Computer Policy) and are locked preferences. Below is an example and explanation of a couple of settings of an ADM template for the IEView extension (comments in red): [Complete ADM example attached at the end of this post]
- Define the CLASS type
CLASS MACHINE
- Set the main category name (folder under Administrative Templates in Group Policy)
CATEGORY “Mozilla Advanced Options for Extensions”
- Set the preferences to be locked preferences
KEYNAME “Software\Policies\Mozilla\lockPref”
- Set the category/extension name (level under main category)
CATEGORY “IEView”
Boolean type preference for the Close Page on Reload setting (On or OFF)
- POLICY = Setting name
POLICY “Close Page on Reload”
- EXPLAIN = Explanation of what the setting does
EXPLAIN “Enables or disables the close page after reload option”
- VALUENAME = about:config Preference Name for the setting
VALUENAME “ieview.closeReloadPage”
- VALUEON = The value for the setting when enabled in Group Policy
VALUEON 1
- VALUEOFF = The value for the setting when disabled in Group Policy
VALUEOFF 0
- END POLICY = Ends the options for the current setting
END POLICY
String type preference for the Filter List setting (string of values)
- POLICY = Setting name
POLICY “Filter List”
- EXPLAIN = Explaination of what the setting does
EXPLAIN “Sets list of sites to always open in IE. Sites are separated by spaces. Use * for wildcard.”
- PART = “list” EDITTEXT, sets the values for the “list” part of the setting and edits the current vales
PART “List” EDITTEXT
- DEFAULT = When the setting is enabled in Group Policy, the DEFAULT string values will automatically be filled in
DEFAULT “file:///* http://*update.microsoft.com/ http://www.windowsupdate.com/”
- VALUENAME = about:config Preference Name for the setting
VALUENAME “ieview.forceielist”
- END PART = Ends the options for the current PART of the setting
END PART
- END POLICY = Ends the options for the current setting
END POLICY
- END CATEGORY = Ends the extension name category
END CATEGORY
- END CATEGORY = Ends the main category
END CATEGORY
I hope that made at least a little bit of sense.
As promised the configuration of the Moodle-Google Integration plugin:
- Download Google-Moodle Integration plugin
- Unzip the files and upload them to your Moodle installation
- Login to your Moodle site and click Notifications to update the newly installed blocks
- From the Users menu, select Authentication then Google Authentication
- Enter your Google domain name
- On your Moodle server create the private and public keys:
Private Key (stored in Moodle only)
Command: openssl genrsa -out rsaprivkey.pem 1024(Visit Google Documentation for Key Generation Help)
Public Key (stored in Moodle and Google)
Command: openssl req -new -x509 -key rsaprivkey.pem -out rsacert.pem(Visit Google Documentation for Key Generation Help)
- Upload the created RSA Key File (rsaprivkey.pem) to Moodle (Users -> Authentication -> Google Authentication)
Upload the created SSL Signing Certificate (rsacert.pem) to Moodle (Users -> Authentication -> Google Authentication) - Login to your Google Apps Admin Control Panel (http://google.com/a/yourdomain) in a new window
- Browse to Advanced Tools – > Authentication -> Setup Single Sign-on (SSO)
- Check the Enable Single Sign-on box
- Copy and paste the Sign-in, Sign-out and Change Password page URL’s from the Setup Instructions box located on the Google Authentication setup page in Moodle
- Upload the Verification Certificate (rsacert.pem created in step 6) and Save the changes in Google Apps
- In your Google Apps Control Panel, browse to Users and Groups -> Settings and check the Enable Provisioning API box
Save the Changes
(This allows users to be updated) - Browse to Advanced Tools -> Manage OAuth Domain Key
- Upload the created certificate (rpacert.pem from step 6)
- Copy the OAuth Consumer Secret
- In Moodle, enable all Google Blocks and add them to the Front Page of your Moodle
(I had issues with a couple of the blocks and therefore only enabled the GMail Block. See how you go but if you have issues disabling the other plugins would be the first port of call) - Browse to Modules -> Blocks -> GMail Blocks and paste the Google OAuth Consumer Secret into the supplied field
Save the Changes - Select the Google User Sync block from Modules -> Blocks and fill in your Google Admin info.
Save the Changes - Test the config…
Our current configuration allows our staff and students to login to Moodle using their Active Directory credentials (via the Moodle LDAP authentication plugin) and link straight to their GMail account. This has allowed us to continue to provide a complete Single Sign-on (SSO) environment for our users.
The school I work at currently uses Moodle as our chosen LMS for students. Moodle is linked with our School Management system to sync courses, assignments and course enrollments among other things. This greatly assists in minimising administration work, but more on this at another time…
Our school also uses Google Apps Education Edition to provide our students with Email accounts and usage of the other Google Apps services. Google provides a great LDAP sync tool that can easily sync users and groups memberships but lacks a way to sync users passwords (not secure). For this to be possible a Single Sign On (SSO) system must come into the equation. These systems can cost thousands of dollars (depending on user numbers) from 3rd party developers or require a large amount of IT admin time and server resources to perfect a solid solution. I searched long and hard for a suitable tool for this job and tried a number of solutions but none worked well enough for my liking.
At the same time that I was searching for solutions for this issue I was also browsing around for some useful Moodle plugins. This is where I came across the Moodle-Google Intergration plugin that would solve all my issues. The plugin provides a SAML based authentication method to allow users to use their LDAP credentials (LDAP must be configured in Moodle) to log into their Google Apps account. This plugin talks with the SSO feature built into Google Apps via SAML 2.0 post and the use of the generated keys and certificates for security. Users then login to Moodle and from there can access their Google Apps account.
More to come on the configuration of this plugin. Stay tuned…
I have been looking around for a free FLV video converter (video to FLV) for a while now. I have found a few different ones, but none have been as easy to use as Any Video Converter (AVC). Simplicity is a must as I will more than likely be guiding users with varying levels of IT knowledge to use this application.
The application can convert a video in three easy steps (using default settings)…
- Add the video file/s
- Select the video conversion profile
- Encode the video/s
The following is a detailed guide to the above steps:
1. Add the video file/s:
- Press the ADD VIDEO button.
- Browse to the location of the video/s that you wish to be converted.
- Select the video/s and press the Open button.
2. Select the video conversion profile:
- Select Flash Video Movie (*.flv) from the Profile: drop-down menu.
3. Encode the video/s:
- Press the ENCODE button and wait for the process to complete.
[kml_flashembed movie="http://au.youtube.com/v/_XPZl6LLvik" width="425" height="350" wmode="transparent" /]
More Moodle Videos here…
Recently I was asked to create a forum for our teachers to use to communicate with their students. As a few ofd our teachers are currently using WordPress to post their blogs we decided to find a web2 forum system that would integrate well with WordPress. I have previously used and like Simple Machine Forum (SMF), so I decided to see if WordPress and SMF would play nicely together.
My first result was the WP & SMF plug-in for WordPress. This plug-in once installed, allows you to create users in WordPress and have them automatically populated into your SMF user database. The plug-in also comes with three functions to allow you to show the following information inside WordPress:
1. The last SMF forum posts,
2. The last SMF forum topics,
3. The last SMF forum members,
4. SMF forum statistics; otal Members, Total Posts, Total Topics, Total Categories, Total Board, etc.
The WP & SMF plugin was relatively easy, although I did run into one error which was easily resolved. I will post the installation procedure and the resolution to the issue I encountered soon…
WordPress MU: http://mu.wordpress.org
SMF: http://www.simplemachines.org
ClickView – Check it out!
I recently installed the latest Release Candidate of Firefox 3 (RC3). Firefox 3 checks the compatibility of your installed add-ons to see if they will function correctly. During this process I was reminded of a few add-ons that I had installed some time ago and rarely use. My current list and why I use them is as follows:
ColorfulTabs – This is mainly a cosmetic add-on although it does make distiguishing between tabs a little easier when you have numerous tabs opened. However, this add-on is not supported in Firefox 3 so I will be uninstalling it.
Download Statusbar – Tidies up management and monitoring of downlooads in Firefox by adding a downloads bar above the statusbar when you start a download.
DownThemAll! – Configurable download manager/accelerator for Firefox. I have only just installed this plugin but is seems quite good so far. Comparable to Free Download Manager.
English (Australian) Dictionary – Because I am AUStralian!
Extended Statusbar – Opera like statusbar that displays speed, percentage, time and loaded size. Helpful but once again is not compatible with Firefox 3 as yet.
Fast Dial – Allows fast access to your favourite pages using a thumbnail list of user defined favourite sites. I have this set as my home page.
FaviconsizeTab – The width of the specified tab is resized to the size of the icon (removes name). I use this to minimize the space taken up by the tab that I generally always have open throughout the day.
Google Reader Notifier – A Google reader icon is added to the bottom right hand corner of Firefox and notifies you of new posts. I use Google reader as my main RSS feed reader so this add-on is very helpful for me. This add-on is not yet compatable with Firefox 3 so I will be trialling the alternative Google Reader Watcher soon…
GooglePreview – Inserts a website preview window into Google and Yahoo search results. Helpful to identify pages that you have already visited.
iMacros for Firefox – Record and replay Macros in Firefox. Handy for those repetative tasks.
Image Zoom – Adds zoom functionality to images in Firefox. Save the eyes trying to desifer an image, just zoom in!
Link Alert – Changes your cursor to indicate the file type of a link. This add-on allows you to select from a list of predefined file types and add your own.
Nightly Tester Tools – Used for testing the latest build release of Firefox. I use this add-on to force FIrefox to install incompatible add-ons to see if they will work.
PDF Download – Presents you with an option to either download the PDF, view it with an external app. or view it as HTML. This add-on was mainly helpful for me when my Firefox Acrobat Reader plugin was playing up.
PicLens – Transforms Firefox into an amazing photo and video gallery viewer. This add-on is one of my favourites (see PicLens in action).
Pronounce – Pronounce English words. A voice will say the selected word using the correct pronunciation.
Split Browser – Splits your browser window according to where you specify. Very helpful for making comparisons.
Taboo – Allows you to save you current open tabs, their location and even partially filled in forms.
TwitterFox – This add-on notifies your at set intervals of your Twitter activity. I haven’t been able to get into Twitter so I was hoping that this add-on might help me use it more.
VideoDownloader – Download embedded video and audio from websites. This add-on does not work with Firefox 3, boy do I miss it! (alternative – Flash Video Resources Downloader).
Thats it! I can safely say that I do somewhat use all the add-on that I have installed. While writing this post I found many other add-ons that might prove themselves useful Stay tuned for an update…
FrontMotion have a community edition of Firefox that enables network admins to control Firefox settings via Group Policy. (FMFirefoxCE)
- Download the latest release of FrontMotion Firefox Community Edition MSI (Download).
- Download either the firefox.adm or the mozilla.adm templates (Download).
- firefox.adm is used to control settings at a user level.
- mozilla.adm is used to control settings at a computer level and is also more advanced.
Configuring Group Policy:
- Copy the downloaded adm template/s into the %SystemRoot%\windows\inf of your Active Directory server (this is where Windows stores its adm templates).
- Open Active Directory, right-click on the OU that you want to set the Firefox policy for and select Properties.
- Select the Group Policy tab and either create a New policy or Edit an existing policy.
- Here you have two options;
- Computer Configuration, which will set the policies at a computer level. Both firefox.adm and mozilla.adm templates can be used at this level.
- User Configuration, which will set the policies at a user level. Only firefox.adm can be used at this level.
I would recommend using Computer Configuration as the level of configuration is far more granular. - Right-click the Administrative Templates folder under the desired levels tree and select Add/Remove Templates…
- Select the Add… button from the window that pops up and select either the firefox.adm or the mozilla.adm template.
- A new folder containing the settings for the ADM template will be displayed under the Administrative Templates tree. Firefox if the firefox.adm template was used or Mozilla Advanced Options if the mozilla.adm template was used (I have added both for the example).
- You now need to configure the desired settings:
- firefox.adm, only has a total of 7 configurable settings.
- mozilla.adm, (see about:config for listing of settings) can be configured to use either Locked or Default settings. Locked Settings mean that the user cannot change any of the configured settings whereas Default Settings are set initially for the user but the user will have the ability to change these settings if they wish.
Note: mozilla.adm settings will override firefox.adm settings.
Deploying FrontMotion Firefox Community Edition via Group Policy:
If you have a small number of workstations then you can install manually the latest FrontMotion Firefox Community Edition on each of them and the settings that you set above will be configured. For larger organisations this is not an option, so software deployment is neccessary:
- Software deployment can once again be done at a computer or user level.
- Computer level installations will install the package on the computer in the selected OU.
- User level installations will install the package on each computer that the users in the selected OU log on to. - Copy the downloaded FrontMotion Firefox Community Edition MSI pack to a shared directory on your file server. Depending on the level of installation you have chosen to use, you need to give either Domanin Computers or Domain Users read access to the folder that the MSI is stored in.
- Open Active Directory, right-click the OU containing either the users or the computers that you want to deploy the package to and select Properties.
- Select the Group Policy tab and either create a New policy or Edit an existing policy.
- Expand the Software Settings folder under the desired levels tree, right-click Software installation, select New, select Package…
- Select the FrontMotion Firefox Community Editions MSI file and click the Open button.
- Select Advanced from the window that pops up as we want to set some options.
- I generally leave most of the options as default, but occasionally change the name as this is what will be displayed for the user when the software is being installed. - Select the Security tab, give Domain Computers or Domain Users read access depending on the level of installation that you chose and click the OK button.
- You should now see the newly created package in the Software installation list.
- The software shoud now be installed after a restart of the workstation or next time the users logs on depending on the level of installation that you chose.
To make searching your favorite websites through Firefox easier and more efficient keyword searches can be added:
- Browse to the site that you want to add a keyword search for. For this example I will user YouTube.
- Right-click in the sites search box and select “Add a Keyword for this Search…”.
- Add a name for the bookmark, the keyword you would like to use for the search and where you would like to save the bookmark and click OK.
- To use the keyword search type the keyword followed by what you would like to search for in the Firefox address bar.
- Example: yt wordpress (will search for wordpress on youtube.com)
- Example: yt wordpress (will search for wordpress on youtube.com)
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