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Access Restrictions in the Expert Mode

Introduction to Expert Rules

The settings in the tabs "Visibility" and "Access" are only available in conventional courses. This means that the expert mode can only be used in conventional courses and not in "Learning path Courses".

In the tabs "Visibilty" and "Access" of conventional courses, you can configure additional preferences for many course elements. For instance, you can block a course element for learners, grant access only for certain groups or unlock it depending on the date.

In case of more complicated visibility or access rules you can use the expert mode, thus enabling you to configure visibility and access of course elements as required. You can e.g. limit access to a course element to specific user names, link several types of restrictions to each other or work with relative date values. The following example illustrates this:

Questionnaire example

You want to activate a course questionnaire only in the last last course week, but want to set this option up so that you don't forget it later.

This means that you activate the course element "Survey" date-dependently so that you no longer have to worry about it during the course. In the Visibility and Access tabs of the "Survey" you can enter the start and end dates in simple mode. You can also make your questionnaire only accessible to a certain group of participants. Select "Group-dependent" under Visibility or Access. For example, you could use two different questionnaires for cross- institutional online courses. The only requirement is that you have divided the course participants into (two) different groups which they can now assign.

Expert rules primarily serve to save you time and work or just simplify it. Therefore, it is worth the effort to take a closer look at them. Just like any language, expert rules follow a syntax. OpenOlat will indicate an error should you make a syntactic mistake. This is very helpful, especially at the beginning if one does not have any or just little programming skills. Expert rules verify if a certain attribute is TRUE or FALSE.

As an introduction to the syntax of expert rules, you should at first define a rule in the simple mode. For example, you may generate a "single page“, and click on "Blocked for learners“ in the "Access" tab.

Then click on "Display expert mode“ and see your first expert rule:

(  ( isCourseCoach(0) | isCourseAdministrator(0) ) )

The whole term is enclosed in double brackets. The two outer brackets can be omitted in this case. Just try it out. The vertical line in the center "|“ is the Boolean operator OR and connects the course coach with the course administrator. Both of them have exclusive access to the "single page“.

Now change the Boolen Operator into "&“:

isCourseCoach(0) & isCourseAdministrator(0)

This rule grants access exclusively to those course coaches who are also course administrators. This preference is only possible in the expert mode.

You can try out any number of scenarios and insert further attributes and operators. In this chapter you will find further attributes and examples illustrating their meaning to help you become more acqainted with expert rules.

Configuration of Expert Rules

Expert rules certify if there is an attribute with a specific value.

Attribute Description Example Expert rule
isGuest accessible only for guests isGuest(0)
isCourseCoach available only for coach isCourseCoach(0)
isUser available only for one specific user isUser("pmuster")

Working with the Constants "TRUE" and "FALSE"

By using the constants "true“ and "false“, the existence (“true” = “1”) or non-existence (“false” = “0”) of an attribute can be verified. In this case, we refer to a so-called Boolean Variable (named after George Boole, the father of the Boolean Algebra). These variables can only take a limited number of values or states. In our specific case, the variable can only take the two values (“true” = “1” = existing or “false” =”0” = non-exisiting).

Guest example

To give a practical example in our OLAT context, we will use a simple expert rule for managing the access to a course:

Case 1: Only guest-users get access to the course. The respective user therefore only gets access if the attribute “isGuest” is true. There are three alternatives for this expert rule:

isGuest(0) oder isGuest(0)=1 oder isGuest(0)=true

Case 2: In this case we want guest-users not to have access. The respective user therefore only gets access if the attribute “isGuest” is false. There are two alternatives for this expert rule:

isGuest(0)=0 oder isGuest(0)=false

An extensive list of all relevant components needed for applying expert rules can be found in the following box.

Functions, operators and other expert rule components

Type Syntax Meaning
Constants TRUE or 1 True
FALSE or 0 False
ANY_COURSE Query should be applied to every course (only for
isCourseAdministrator(), isCourseCoach(), isCourseParticipant())
Variable now Actual time of server system
Functions _ date(" [date] _")__ Retrieve date
inLearningGroup(" [string] ") Generates TRUE for all members of the
learning group [string]
inRightGroup(" [string] ") Generates TRUE for all group members with
the same rights [string]
isLearningGroupFull(" [string] ") Generates the boolean TRUE (= full)
or FALSE (= vacancies) for the learning group indicated.
isUser(" [string] ") Results in TRUE for users with the user name
[string]
inLearningArea(" [string] ") Generates TRUE for all group members in
the learning area [string]
isGlobalAuthor(0) Generates TRUE for all members of the OLAT author group
isCourseAdministrator(0) Generates TRUE for all owners of a course
(learning resource)
isCourseAdministrator( _ANY_COURSE )_ Generates TRUE for all users which
have owner rights on at least one course on the system
isCourseCoach(0) Generates TRUE for all users supervising a learning
group or are supervising the course
isCourseCoach( _ANY_COURSE )_ Generates TRUE for all users supervising at
least one learning group of a course or are supervising at lease one course on
the system
isCourseParticipant(0) Generates TRUE for all participants of this course
isCourseParticipant( _ANY_COURSE )_ Generates TRUE for all users on the
system that participate in at least one course
isGuest(0) Generates TRUE for all users visiting OLAT as guests
hasAttribute(" [AttrName] "," [string] ") Generates TRUE, if [string]
corresponds to the relevant user's value of the AAI attribute [AttrName] .
isInAttribute(" [AttrName] "," [substring] ") Generates TRUE, if
[substring] corresponds to part of the relevant user's value of the AAI
attribute [AttrName].
__ General information on AAI
AAI attributes
[ __ Specification of AAI attributes (pdf
file)](http://www.switch.ch/aai/docs/AAI_Attr_Specs.pdf)
getUserProperty("userPropertyname") Generates the value of a specific
user attribute. By means of "=" this value can be compared to another fixed
value.
getPassed(" [integer] ") Generates the Boolean TRUE (=Passed) or FALSE
(=Failed) from a course element with specified ID
getScore(" [integer] ") Generates the score from a course element with
specified ID
getAttempts(" [integer] ") Generates the number of completed attempts
from a course element with specified ID. Can be applied to course elements of
the type Test , Self-test , Questionnaire (possible return values 0 or
1) and ~~Task (deprecated)~~ (return value = number of files handed in).
getLastAttemptDate(" [integer] ") Generates the date of the last
attempt from a course element with the specified ID. Can be applied like the
getAttempts method.
getInitialEnrollmentDate(" [integer] ") Generates the date of the first
registration of the relevant course participant from the course element
Enrolment with specified ID.
getRecentEnrollmentDate(" [integer] ") Generates the date of the last
registration of the relevant course participant from the course element
Enrolment with specified ID.
getInitialCourseLaunchDate(0) Generates the date of a course
participant's first course attendance.
getRecentCourseLaunchDate(0) Generates the date of a course participant's
last course attendance.
getPassedWithCourseId(" [integer-1] "," [integer-2] ") Generates the
Boolean TRUE (=Passed) or FALSE (=Failed) from the course element
ID=[integer-2] of the course ID=[integer-1]
getScoreWithCourseId(" [integer-1] "," [integer-2] ") Generates the
score from the course element ID=[integer-2] of the course ID=[integer-1]

hasUserProperty("[ userPropertyname]", "[string]")

hasUserProperty("[userPropertyname]", "[string]" , " , ")

|

Generates TRUE, if [string] corresponds to the relevant user's value of the userproperty [ userPropertyname ] .

Generates TRUE, if [string] matches a value in the multi-value field of the userproperty [ userPropertyname ] of the respective user.

userPropertyStartswith("[ userPropertyname]", "[substring]")| Generates TRUE, if the userproperty [ userPropertyname ] starts with [substring] .
userPropertyEndswith("[ userPropertyname]", "[substring]")| Generates TRUE, if the userproperty [ userPropertyname ] ends with [substring] .
isInUserProperty("[ userPropertyname]", "[substring]")| Generates TRUE, if [substring] corresponds to part of the relevant user's value of the userproperty [ userPropertyname ].
isNotInUserProperty("[ userPropertyname]", "[substring]")| Generates TRUE, if [substring] does not show up in the value of the userproperty [ userPropertyname ].
hasNotUserProperty("[ userPropertyname]", "[string]")| Generates TRUE, if [string] does not corresponds to the relevant user's value of the userproperty [ userPropertyname ].
hasLanguage("de")| Generates TRUE if the respective user has set German as the system language. For English, replace "de" with "en".
Units| min| Minutes
h| Hours
d| Days
w| Weeks
m| Months
Operators| =| equal

| greater than
<| less than
=| greater/equal
<=| less/equal
| Multiplication
/| Division
+| Addition
-| Subtraction
Booleans*| &| Logical AND
|| Logical OR

User attributes

Various expert rules require the use of user attributes in order to filter eligible users for access content. Those rules enable authors to limit access rights depending on name, gender, address, field of studies and so on. Those user attributes are usually visible in the user profile.

OpenOlat provides standardized terms for those attributes. The following expert rules require the use of user attributes:

  • getUserProperty (" [userPropertyname ]")
  • hasUserProperty("[ userPropertyname]", " [string]")
  • userPropertyStartswith(" [ userPropertyname ]", "[substring]")
  • userPropertyEndswith(" [ userPropertyname ]", "[substring]")
  • isInUserProperty(" [ userPropertyname ]", "[substring]")
  • isNotInUserProperty("[ userPropertyname ]", "[substring]")
  • hasNotUserProperty("[ userPropertyname ]", "[string]")


For the following expert rules, a delimiter can be specified in the third parameter if it is a multi-value field :

  • hasUserProperty("[ userPropertyname]", "[string]", " , ")
  • hasNotUserProperty("[ userPropertyname]", "[string]", " , ")

The following user attributes are available in OpenOlat. Please note that access restrictions using user attributes can only be successful if those user attributes are used and generally filled in throughout your system. Simply check your user profile in the the personal menu in Configuration/Profile for available user attributes. For questions, please contact your system administrator.

Benutzerdaten Kontaktdaten Adressdaten
userName User name telPrivate
firstName First name telMobile
address line
lastName Last name telOffice
email E-mail address skype
creationDateDisplayProperty User creation date xing
Canton
lastloginDateDisplayProperty User last login homepage
birthDay Date of birth
country Country
gender Gender
countryCode Country code

Organisation| Berufliche Kontaktdaten| Verschiedenes
institutionalName| Institution| department|

Department / Company

| typeOfUser|

Type of user

institutionalUserIdentifier| Institution identifier
(registration number)| officeStreet|

Address / P.O. box

| rank|

Service grade / employment title

institutionalEmail|

Institutional e-mail

| extendedOfficeAddress|

Extended office address

| socialSecurityNumber|

Social security number

orgUnit|

Organizational unit /
study group

| officeZipCode|

Office ZIP

| degree|

Academic degree

studySubject|

Field of studies

| officeCity|

Office city

| position|

Role / position

graduation| Graduation year| officeCountry|

Office country

| userInterests| Expertise

|
| officeMobilePhone|

Office mobile phone

Examples on how to apply "getUserProperty":

  • Only course participants of a specific field of study should be granted access:
    getUserProperty("studySubject") = "Mechanical Engineering"

Now anybody who needs access must first complete the field "field of study" in their profile and state it as "Mechanical Engineering".

  • The other way round, should you intend to grant access only to those who have not stated their field of study in their profile, you can express the corresponding rule as follows:

    getUserProperty("studySubject") = ""

  • Should you want to grant access only course participants who have completed the field of study in their profile (no matter what the study subjects are), the rule can be defined as follows:

    getUserProperty("studySubject") = "" = false

or

    getUserProperty("studySubject") = "" = 0

There are various options to interrelate single rules to each other. The two most important operators to combine attributes are:

  • AND conjunction: &
  • OR conjunction: |

Please note that an OR conjunction precedes an AND conjunction. In order to handle an AND conjunction first you have to use brackets.

Example: The expert rule (inGroup("Participants IntensiveCourse") | isCourseCoach(0)) means that either participants of an intensive course or all coaches of groups will have access to a course element.

Some examples are listed below in order to show you how to use the expert syntax.

Examples of expert rules in the tabs «Visibility», «Access» and «Score» (structural elements)

inLearningGroup("Amateur") = 0
With the exception of the group «Amateur» this course element is visible for all participants.

(now >= date("22.03.2018 12:00")) & (now <= date("23.08.2018 18:00")) | inLearningGroup("Tutor")
This course element is visible for all participants between 22-3-2018 and 23-8-2018. For members of the learning group «Tutor» it is always visible.

(now >= date("03.09.2018 00:00")) & (now <= date("13.10.2018 00:00")) & inRightGroup("Assessors")| isUser("Author")
This course element is visible for all participants of the right group «Assessors» between 3-9-2018 and 13-10-2018. For the person with the user name «Author» it is always visible.

hasAttribute("swissEduPersonStudyBranch3","6200")
Only students of human medicine have access to this course element.
See also:
AAI attributes
__ Specification of AAI attributes (pdf file)

hasAttribute("swissEduPersonHomeOrganization","uzh.ch")
Only students of the University of Zurich have access to this course element.
See also:
AAI attributes
__ Specification of AAI attributes (pdf file)

isInAttribute("surname","Mue")
Generates TRUE for all persons whose attribute surname contains the letter sequence "Mue". E.g. gives TRUE for the value "Mueller" or "Muehlebacher"
See also:
AAI attributes
__ Specification of AAI attributes (pdf file)

isInAttribute("eduPersonEntitlement","http://vam.uzh.ch")
Generates TRUE for all persons whose attribute eduPersonEntitlement contains the value "http://vam.uzh.ch". E.g. gives TRUE for the value "http://vam.uzh.ch/surgery"
See also:
AAI attributes
__ Specification of AAI attributes (pdf file)

(getUserProperty("orgUnit") = "Sales")
Checks if a person is part of the organizational unit 'Sales.' This can be useful if e.g. data are automatedly transferred from LDAP.

(getPassed("69742969114730") | getPassed("69742969115733") | getPassed("69742969118009")) * 10
This rule is set in the tab «Score» -> «Processing score» of the course element Structure . The course element Structure shows 10 points if one of the tests (course element IDs "69742969114730", "69742969115733" or "69742969118009") was passed. Otherwise 0 points.

(getScore("69742969114730") + getScore("69742969115733") + getScore("69742969118009")) >= 140 | getPassed("69978845384688")
This rule is set in the tab «Score» -> «Passed if» of the course element Structure . The course element Structure shows «Passed» , if a minimum of 140 points in all tests is achieved or if «Passed» is entered manually. (Element Assessment with ID "69978845384688").

getAttempts("70323786958847") > 0
Generates TRUE, as soon as the relevant course participant has completed the test with specified ID for the first time.

getAttempts("70323524635734") <= 3
Generates FALSE, as soon as the relevant course participant has put more than 3 files into the storage folder of the course element ~~Task (deprecated)~~ .

getLastAttemptDate("70323524635734") + 24h < now
Generates TRUE when the last test attempt is older than 24 hours

getInitialEnrollmentDate("70323786958847") <= date("26.5.2005 18:00")
Generates TRUE for those participants who enrolled in an available group before 6 p.m. on May 26th, 2005, by means of the course element Enrolment with specified ID.

getInitialEnrollmentDate("70323786958847") + 2h > now
Generates TRUE within two hours starting at the moment of registration for those participants who have enrolled in an available group by means of the course element Enrolment with specified ID. This way it is clear that every participant can only work on e.g. a script within a particular time frame.

(getInitialCourseLaunchDate(0) >= never) | (getInitialCourseLaunchDate(0) + 2h > now)
Generates TRUE if a course participant has not yet taken any courses or during the first two hours after taking a course. This way it is possible represent that each course participant can only see courses for a certain period of time.

(getRecentCourseLaunchDate(0) + 10min < now)
Generates TRUE if a user is active for more than 10 min within a course.

(getCourseBeginDate(0) <= today) & (getCourseEndDate(0) >= today)
Returns the value TRUE if today's date lies in between the start and end date of the execution period.

isAssessmentMode(0)
Returns the value TRUE if the course is within an assessment.

hasUserProperty("email","john.doe@openolat.org")
 Generates TRUE, if the course participant is registered in OpenOlat with the listed e-mail address.

hasUserProperty("typeOfUser","staff", " , ")
Generates TRUE, if the student also has the value "staff" in the "Type of user" field, e.g. "staff, student".

userPropertyEndswith("email","@openolat.org")
Generates TRUE, if the e-mail address of the course participant ends with @openolat.org.

isInUserProperty("email","doe@openo")
Generates TRUE, if the term doe@openo is a part of the e-mail address of the course participant.

isNotInUserProperty("email","doe@openo")
Generates FALSE, if the term doe@openo s a part of the e-mail address of the course participant.

Please note that the IDs of the course elements mentioned above are only examples. To create your course, you have to make reference to the relevant numbers available on the first tab «Title and description» of the favored course element.

Use of AAI Attributes

If you are enrolled at swiss academia or any other institution with access to an AAI infrastructure, by means of AAI attributes you can set access rules within a course to make sure that only course participants with specific user attributes (e.g. members of a certain organization) will have access to your course material. AAI means "Authentication and Authorization Infrastructure" and allows university members to use systems of other participating institutions with only one user name and password. For further information on AAI please go to e.g. Switch or to Deutsches Forschungsnetz .

Available attributes and possible values are described in the AAI Attribute Specification on the Switch and the DFN-AAI site (in german). The two most common attributes at swiss universities can be found in the following table along with examples of their corresponding expert rules:

Attribute Description Example Expert rule and Explication
swissEduPerson-HomeOrganization University or home organization hasAttribute
("swissEduPersonHomeOrganization", "uzh.ch"): only members of
the Zurich University will get access.
swissEduStudyBranch3 Field of study, 3rd classification hasAttribute
("swissEduPersonStudyBranch3","6400"): only veterinary medicine students will
have access.

Utilization

You can retrieve AAI attributes by using the syntax
hasAttribute(" [AttrName] "," [string] ") or
isInAttribute(" [AttrName] "," [substring] ").

Where:

[AttrName]| is the attribute name you can find in the following table and also in the Specification of AAI attributes (pdf file) (column LDAP names ) on page 5.
---|---
[string]| is the value of the AAI attribute with the name [AttrName].
[substring]| is any part of [string] .

AAI retrievals for example: John Doe

Values for John Doe

Variable
You can retrieve AAI attributes by using the syntax
hasAttribute(" [AttrName] "," [string] ") or
isInAttribute(" [AttrName] "," [substring] ").| Example value
[string]| Description
---|---|---
swissEduPersonUniqueID| 845938727494@uzh.ch| Unambiguous personal identification number
surname| Doe| Last name
givenName| John| First name
mail| john.doe@uzh.ch| Preferred e-mail address
swissEduPersonHomeOrganization| uzh.ch| Home organisation/university
swissEduPersonHomeOrganizationType| university| Type of home organisation
eduPersonAffiliation| student| Position within this organisation
__ swissEduPersonStudyBranch1| 4| Field of study 1st classification
__ swissEduPersonStudyBranch2| 42 (=Natural sciences)| Field of study 2nd classification
__ swissEduPersonStudyBranch3| 4600 (=Chemistry)| Field of study 3rd classification
swissEduPersonStudyLevel| 15| Description of study level
eduPersonEntitlement| http://vam.uzh.ch/surgery| Access right to resource
employeeNumber| 01-234-567| Registration number (only for students at Zurich university)
organizationalUnit| 1| Unity of home organisation e.g. faculty (only for employees)

For the example "John Doe" mentioned above the following retrievals would respectively produce:

isInAttribute("surname","ust") true
hasAttribute("swissEduPersonStudyBranch3","4600") true
hasAttribute("swissEduPersonStudyBranch3","1200") false
isInAttribute("eduPersonEntitlement","http://vam.uzh.ch") true
isInAttribute("eduPersonEntitlement","http://vam.uzh.ch/ophthalmology")
false
hasAttribute("employeeNumber","01-234-567") true

You will find the link to a list of possible attribute values in the Specification of AAI attributes (pdf file) appendix, as of page 20. Specification of AAI attributes (pdf file)

For further information on attribute values or the application of AAI attributes in Switzerland please go to Switch, and for Germany go to Deutsches Forschungsnetz.

Only use the AAI attributes if you are sure that all participants of your course are dialing in via an AAI structure. Otherwise the parameters do not apply!

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