Integrating Ares and Moodle with LTI 1.3

The steps below will allow you to connect Ares and Moodle using LTI 1.3. This process will require configuring side-wide plugin settings using a Moodle account with administrator permissions. Your Ares administrator will then need to configure tables in the Ares Customization Manager with information from the configuration details for the LTI tool in Moodle. It is recommended that both administrators work closely together to coordinate work during this process. 

Overview

The process to configure an LTI 1.3 connection between Ares and Moodle should be performed in the following order and will require input from both your Ares and Moodle administrators:

Step One: Moodle Web Interface Setup

A new LTI 1.3 tool for the Ares connection will first need to be created within the Moodle interface. Your Moodle administrator should follow the steps below when configuring the settings for this tool.

1. Click on Site Administration in the left sidebar menu:

   

2. Click on the Plugins tab then click Manage tools under External tool:

   

3. Click configure a tool manually:

   

4. Under Tool Settings, configure each field with the following values (fields not mentioned here can be left with their default values):

   Tool name	Enter a name that will identify the tool, for example, "Ares Course Reserves" or "Ares LTI 1.3"
   Tool URL	https://<your.AresWeb.domain>/ares/webapi/lti/launch Note: https://<your.AresWeb.domain>/ares/webapi/ is the Web API path used for standard Ares installations. This path may need to be adjusted if your Web API is installed in a non-standard location.
   Tool description	Enter an optional description for the tool
   LTI version	LTI 1.3
   Public key type	Keyset URL
   Public keyset	https://<your.AresWeb.domain>/ares/webapi/lti/keyset Note: https://<your.AresWeb.domain>/ares/webapi/ is the Web API path used for standard Ares installations. This path may need to be adjusted if your Web API is installed in a non-standard location.
   Initiate login URL	https://<your.AresWeb.domain>/ares/webapi/lti/login Note: https://<your.AresWeb.domain>/ares/webapi/ is the Web API path used for standard Ares installations. This path may need to be adjusted if your Web API is installed in a non-standard location.
   Redirection URI(s)	Enter the following two values on separate lines: https://<your.AresWeb.domain>/ares/webapi/lti/launch https://<your.AresWeb.domain>/ares/webapi/lti/deeplink Note: https://<your.AresWeb.domain>/ares/webapi/ is the Web API path used for standard Ares installations. This path may need to be adjusted if your Web API is installed in a non-standard location.
   Custom Parameters	Leave this field blank
   Tool configuration usage	Show as preconfigured tool when adding an external tool
   Default launch container	Embed
   Supports Deep Linking (Content-Item Message)	Checked
   Content Selection URL	Leave this field blank
   Privacy	Set the name and email options to "Always"

5. Click Save changes

6. Find the new tool on the Manage tools page and click the View configuration details button:

   

7. Copy the values that display in the popup box and provide these to your Ares administrator to configure in the Customization Manager's LTIPlatforms table according to the steps in the next section 

Part Two: Ares Customization Manager Setup

Your Ares administrator will need to perform several steps to verify and complete the LTI tool configuration in the Ares Customization Manager. The Ares administrator will need to coordinate with the Moodle administrator for your institution to ensure that certain values are configured consistently across the systems. 

Step One: Verify the APIConfig Table Configuration

The configuration for the Ares API in the APIConfig table should be checked to ensure that the values match those used for the newly created Moodle tool:

1. Open the ClientUploadAPIConfig key under System | Client Upload and note the key's value
2. Open the APIConfig table under System | Integration 
3. Locate the row of the table with an ID matching the value of the ClientUploadAPIConfig key
4. Verify that the Base API Url value of this row has a domain matching that of the domain for the URLs configured in the settings of the Moodle tool in step 4 of the section above. This should match the URLs configured in the LTI tool settings itself and NOT the URLs obtained when clicking the "View configuration details" button for the tool. Note that these values are case-sensitive. 
5. Verify that the Base API Url value of this row contains the same path to the Ares API for the URLs configured in the settings of the Moodle tool in step 4 of the section above. This path is located directly after the domain and will be https://<your.AresWeb.domain>/ares/webapi/ for standard Ares installations. This should match the URLs configured in the LTI tool settings itself and NOT the URLs obtained when clicking the "View configuration details" button for the tool. Note that these values are case-sensitive. 

Step Two: Configure the LTIPlatforms Table

The LTIPlatforms table in the Ares Customization Manager will then need to be configured for the new connection to Moodle using information about the LTI 1.3 tool created in the Moodle configuration process detailed above. Some additional information about your Ares setup and the LTI roles used by Moodle that you would like to map to the instructor and course proxy roles in Ares will also be required. The Ares administrator should coordinate with the Moodle administrator to complete the following steps:

1. Open the LTIPlatforms table under System | Integration
2. Click New Record to create a new entry in the table

3. Fill out each field with the information obtained from clicking the View configuration details button on the Ares LTI tool created in Moodle (step 6 in the Moodle section above):

   Authentication URL	Enter the value in the Authentication request URL in the Moodle tool configuration details
   Ares Web URL	This field is only needed if you use multiple CMS systems that use multiple sets of web pages. Otherwise, leave it blank and it will use the SystemURL customization key value.
   Issuer	Enter the value in the Platform ID in the Moodle tool configuration details
   Client ID	Enter the value in the Client ID in the Moodle tool configuration details
   Deployment ID	Enter the value in the Deployment ID in the Moodle tool configuration details
   Key	Leave this field blank
   Key Set URL	Enter the value in the Public keyset URL in the Moodle tool configuration details
   Instructor Roles	A comma-delimited list of all of the roles from your CMS that will be considered Instructors in the Ares system. These roles should be entered in the URI format detailed in the IMS Global documentation, e.g. 'http://purl.imsglobal.org/vocab/lis/v2/membership#Instructor'
   Course Proxy Roles	A comma-delimited list of all of the roles from your CMS that will be considered Course Proxies in the Ares system. These roles should be entered in the URI format detailed in the IMS Global documentation, e.g. 'http://purl.imsglobal.org/vocab/lis/v2/membership/Instructor#TeachingAssistant'

4. Click Save
5. Note the ID value of the new row in the LTIPlatforms table you have just created. This ID will need to be entered for each mapping entered in the LTIPlatformMappings table detailed below.

Step Three: Configure the LTIPlatformMappings Table

Once the LTIPlatforms table is created to initiate the connection between Ares and Moodle, the LTIPlatformMappings table should be configured with information on how to map the LTI fields used by Moodle to the fields in Ares. Information can also be migrated from the LTIFieldMappings table into this table if you had previously configured an LTI 1.1 connection between Moodle and Ares, however, please note that the existing LTI Field Name values will need to be updated according to the changes noted in the IMS Global documentation:

1. Open the LTIPlatformMappings table under System | Integration
2. Click New Record to create a new entry in the table

3. Fill out each field with your preferred mappings. Ensure that the LTIPlatformID for each entry matches the ID value for the entry you just created in the LTIPlatforms table :

   LTI Platform ID	Enter the ID of the row in the LTIPlatforms table you configured for the Moodle tool in the previous section.
   Ares Field Name	The name of the Ares database field to which to map the LTI field
   Ares Object Name	Course or User
   LTI Field Name	The name of the LTI field that should map to the specified Ares field Please consult with your campus Moodle administrator to obtain the proper LTI parameter field names to use for each Ares field mapping. More information on the formatting required for LTI parameter names in LTI 1.3 is available in the IMS Global documentation.

4. Click Save
5. Repeat steps 1-4 until all field mappings are configured.

Part Three: Testing the Connection and Adding Ares Links to Moodle Courses

Once all settings have been configured between Moodle and Ares, the new LTI tool should be tested within the Ares and Moodle interfaces to ensure that all mappings and settings have been configured correctly and that the connection is working as intended. To do so, follow the instructions below to add the new LTI 1.3 links configured for the Ares course home page and for the deep links to Ares items to your Moodle course pages.

Step One: Adding a Link to the Ares Course Home Page

Once the Ares LTI 1.3 integration has been successfully configured in Moodle and Ares, links to Ares courses can be configured on the Moodle course pages by course administrators: 

1. From the Moodle course page, click Turn editing on to enter edit mode

   

2. Click 'Add an activity or resource'

   

3. Click 'External tool'

   

4. Expand the 'General' section with the 'Show more' link 

   

5. Fill out the following fields (those not mentioned can be left blank): 
   • Activity name: Enter a description for the link, e.g. "Ares Course Home"
   • Preconfigured tool: Select the LTI 1.3 tool configured in the first section of this article
   • Launch container: Select "Embed"
6. Click Save and return to course. The link from the course should now be functional

Step Two: Adding Deep Links to Ares Course Items

<script type="text/javascript" src="js/ltiContentItem.js"></script>

Once the Ares LTI 1.3 integration has been successfully configured in Moodle and Ares, deep links to Ares course items can be added to Moodle course pages by course administrators: 

1. From the Moodle course page, click Turn editing on to enter edit mode

   

2. Click 'Add an activity or resource'

   

3. Click 'External tool'

   

4. Expand the 'General' section with the 'Show more' link 

   

5. Fill out the following fields: 
   • Activity name: Enter a description for the link, e.g. "Ares Course Home"
   • Launch container: Select "Embed"
6. Under Preconfigured tool, select the LTI 1.3 tool configured in the first section of this article
7. Click the Select content button located under the preconfigured tool dropdown

8. The Ares course homepage will display the Reserve Items table. Click the Select button next to the relevant Ares item in this table.

   

9. Some web pages will load and submit in the Ares course window, then the window will close
10. Once returned to the Moodle tool configuration page, a new entry will appear in the Custom parameters field, e.g. "item=2"
11. Click Save and return to course and test the link to confirm it works as expected.