what is your solution for allowing students to use certain pdf-material during an exam in Moodle? Is it possible to start acrobat opening a specified file? Or to start SEB with two open tabs, one containing the exam and the other with the allowed material?
Best regards and thank you
seho
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Both is possible. In the Windows version of SEB you could configure Acrobat as a permitted third party application and when running SEB in a virtual desktop (see from page 17 in this presentation or here in German) or on a managed computer you could make sure that there are only those PDF available which you want students to access (and no other documents, as Acrobat Reader of course has an open file chooser). Unfortunately Acrobat also build-in features to access cloud drives etc., so it's not easy to secure it properly (that's why we use complex third party applications together with SEB in exams only when running in secured virtual desktops).
What I would suggest: Put a link (or several) to these PDFs in your Moodle exam, so that these PDF open in a new browser Window (target _blank). Configure the main SEB browser window ("Use browser window") to be for example on the left side of the screen and with a width of 1050 pixels or 50% or whatever makes sense on the exam computers you are using (User Interface Pane). Then configure new browser window size and position (Browser Pane) for example to "Right" and 50%.
Unfortunately SEB for Windows currently cannot display PDFs directly in a browser window, you would need to install the Acrobat Reader browser plugin, and that is also not really secure, because it allows the same features like the standalone Acrobat (or at least some which are unwanted in exams). Better you could use a JavaScript PDF renderer to work without plugin in the browser. SEB 2.1 for Mac OS X can display PDFs in the browser window using the built-in WebKit PDF renderer and as default blocks the insecure Acrobat browser plugin (this can be changed in the Down/Uploads pane).
SEB 2.2 will offer a more comfortable way of allowing external or embedded additional resources directly in SEB (you can define them in a SEB config file and they can be directly opened when SEB starts). We will also solve the problem with SEB for Windows not offering a built-in PDF viewer. SEB 2.2 will likely be released this summer.
Last edit: Daniel Schneider 2016-01-20
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Currently, we have configured Adobe Acrobat for showing PDFs. Unfortunately, this creates everytime new problems as the Adobe Acrobat process starts other processes. Therefore, we would really like to step away from this solution.
I have the latest version of SEB on Windows (2.1.5) installed. From your previous posts, I assume that this version is not able to show PDFs embedded in the browser as this feature is planned for SEB 2.2. When will SEB 2.2 be available for download?
Best regards,
Frank
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Acrobat works perfectly for us if "AcroRD32.exe" is entered in the Applications/Permitted Processes/Window Handling Process field. I'm not sure, maybe also "Acrobat" needs to be entered in the Identifier field.
We are now working intensly on finalizing SEB 2.2, the release should idealy happen before September.
Greetings,
Daniel
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Hello,
what is your solution for allowing students to use certain pdf-material during an exam in Moodle? Is it possible to start acrobat opening a specified file? Or to start SEB with two open tabs, one containing the exam and the other with the allowed material?
Best regards and thank you
seho
Both is possible. In the Windows version of SEB you could configure Acrobat as a permitted third party application and when running SEB in a virtual desktop (see from page 17 in this presentation or here in German) or on a managed computer you could make sure that there are only those PDF available which you want students to access (and no other documents, as Acrobat Reader of course has an open file chooser). Unfortunately Acrobat also build-in features to access cloud drives etc., so it's not easy to secure it properly (that's why we use complex third party applications together with SEB in exams only when running in secured virtual desktops).
What I would suggest: Put a link (or several) to these PDFs in your Moodle exam, so that these PDF open in a new browser Window (target _blank). Configure the main SEB browser window ("Use browser window") to be for example on the left side of the screen and with a width of 1050 pixels or 50% or whatever makes sense on the exam computers you are using (User Interface Pane). Then configure new browser window size and position (Browser Pane) for example to "Right" and 50%.
Unfortunately SEB for Windows currently cannot display PDFs directly in a browser window, you would need to install the Acrobat Reader browser plugin, and that is also not really secure, because it allows the same features like the standalone Acrobat (or at least some which are unwanted in exams). Better you could use a JavaScript PDF renderer to work without plugin in the browser. SEB 2.1 for Mac OS X can display PDFs in the browser window using the built-in WebKit PDF renderer and as default blocks the insecure Acrobat browser plugin (this can be changed in the Down/Uploads pane).
SEB 2.2 will offer a more comfortable way of allowing external or embedded additional resources directly in SEB (you can define them in a SEB config file and they can be directly opened when SEB starts). We will also solve the problem with SEB for Windows not offering a built-in PDF viewer. SEB 2.2 will likely be released this summer.
Last edit: Daniel Schneider 2016-01-20
Hello Daniel,
thanks a lot for your answer. We'll test the second suggestion.
Best regards
seho
Welcome. I checked with our browser developer, in SEB 2.2 the internal Mozilla PDF viewer is already implemented.
Hello Daniel,
Currently, we have configured Adobe Acrobat for showing PDFs. Unfortunately, this creates everytime new problems as the Adobe Acrobat process starts other processes. Therefore, we would really like to step away from this solution.
I have the latest version of SEB on Windows (2.1.5) installed. From your previous posts, I assume that this version is not able to show PDFs embedded in the browser as this feature is planned for SEB 2.2. When will SEB 2.2 be available for download?
Best regards,
Frank
Hi Frank,
Acrobat works perfectly for us if "AcroRD32.exe" is entered in the Applications/Permitted Processes/Window Handling Process field. I'm not sure, maybe also "Acrobat" needs to be entered in the Identifier field.
We are now working intensly on finalizing SEB 2.2, the release should idealy happen before September.
Greetings,
Daniel