Algebra

Version 1.98 (July 04th, 2025)

Hello fellows Moodlers, Iam now retired since many years but Peter Mayer reported that this qtype plugin has a problem of duplicated questions during restores. Fortunately Tobias Garske made a patch to fix this problem, and even if I can make no promise about the future maintenance of this plugin, I think I must release a new version as a service to users of this plugin.

Version 1.9 (March 27th, 2019)

The algebra question type can now be used as a subquestion of a combined question (see https://moodle.org/plugins/qtype_combined)
There are some limitations when you insert an algebra question in a combined question:

• There is no Answer box prefix because you can write what you want in the combined question text before the algebra subquestion.


• Allowed Functions is always "All" as this feature was never implemented (I must remove it one day or finish it, it is here like that from the beginning when Roger Moore created this question type)


• Each answer is always 100% and there is no answer feedback, only a global feedback for the subquestion when the student response is not correct (All combinable question types seems to have the same limitations so I don't know if this is a limitation of the combined API)

The algebra question now support Moodle mobile (only available with Moodle 3.5 and ulterior versions, will not work with Moodle previous versions). A big thank you to Marcus Green for all his work on adding mobile support to question types.

Version 1.0 (September 30th 2012)

• New setting to select the default comparison method


• MathJax will be used for TeX rendering if MathJax is installed


• Additionnal HTML in HEAD (will not work if Mathjax is installed using a theme)

Version 0.0.4

Improvements

• Export and import to Moodle XML format


• Backup and restore functions added
  Bug fixes


• Fixed parser problem with negative numbers

Version 0.0.3

Improvements

• Added danish localizations based on forum feedback: mltiplication now
  uses 'cdot' and decimal points are rendered as commas when Danish is
  selected as a language
  Bug fixes


• Operator priority, BODMAS, not quite implemented correctly. */ and +- not
  implemented as equal priority - now fixed

Version 0.0.2

Significant changes as a result of the first round of feedback!

• Renamed parser classes to conform to coding guidelines


• Moved all parser strings into a language pack


• Switched a lot of double quoted string to single as per guidelines


• added automatic formatted comments as required by coding guidelines


• changed treatment of variable names to help reduce confusion. Now
  the first letter is treated as the name and the rest are subscripted.
  Greek letter names are treated as a single character i.e. theta1
  becomes \theta_{1} in LaTeX.


• Added option to specify text which goes in front of response box


• Added support for specified variable names in the parser to improve
  parsing in some situations e.g. 'xy' will now get treated as 'x * y' if
  there are two variables 'x' and 'y' defined.
  Bug fixes


• fixed bug when evaluating special constants in the parser


• fixed incorrect rendering of sqrt in LaTeX by the parser


• fixed incorrect sage-server.py file in the ZIP

Version 0.0.1 released

Version 1.95 (July 17th, 2022)

Hello, as you may know I am now retired but some users submitted fixes to my Github repository to improve compatibility of this plugin with Moodle recent versions, so I decided to release this version. No functional change, just minor adjustments in the hope it will be of some use.
NOTE : As I don't have any Moodle instance running and no development environment, be aware I was unable to do any test.

Version 1.9 (March 27th, 2019)

The algebra question type can now be used as a subquestion of a combined question (see https://moodle.org/plugins/qtype_combined)
There are some limitations when you insert an algebra question in a combined question:

• There is no Answer box prefix because you can write what you want in the combined question text before the algebra subquestion.


• Allowed Functions is always "All" as this feature was never implemented (I must remove it one day or finish it, it is here like that from the beginning when Roger Moore created this question type)


• Each answer is always 100% and there is no answer feedback, only a global feedback for the subquestion when the student response is not correct (All combinable question types seems to have the same limitations so I don't know if this is a limitation of the combined API)

The algebra question now support Moodle mobile (only available with Moodle 3.5 and ulterior versions, will not work with Moodle previous versions). A big thank you to Marcus Green for all his work on adding mobile support to question types.

Version 1.0 (September 30th 2012)

• New setting to select the default comparison method


• MathJax will be used for TeX rendering if MathJax is installed


• Additionnal HTML in HEAD (will not work if Mathjax is installed using a theme)

Version 0.0.4

Improvements

• Export and import to Moodle XML format


• Backup and restore functions added
  Bug fixes


• Fixed parser problem with negative numbers

Version 0.0.3

Improvements

• Added danish localizations based on forum feedback: mltiplication now
  uses 'cdot' and decimal points are rendered as commas when Danish is
  selected as a language
  Bug fixes


• Operator priority, BODMAS, not quite implemented correctly. */ and +- not
  implemented as equal priority - now fixed

Version 0.0.2

Significant changes as a result of the first round of feedback!

• Renamed parser classes to conform to coding guidelines


• Moved all parser strings into a language pack


• Switched a lot of double quoted string to single as per guidelines


• added automatic formatted comments as required by coding guidelines


• changed treatment of variable names to help reduce confusion. Now
  the first letter is treated as the name and the rest are subscripted.
  Greek letter names are treated as a single character i.e. theta1
  becomes \theta_{1} in LaTeX.


• Added option to specify text which goes in front of response box


• Added support for specified variable names in the parser to improve
  parsing in some situations e.g. 'xy' will now get treated as 'x * y' if
  there are two variables 'x' and 'y' defined.
  Bug fixes


• fixed bug when evaluating special constants in the parser


• fixed incorrect rendering of sqrt in LaTeX by the parser


• fixed incorrect sage-server.py file in the ZIP

Version 0.0.1 released

This is a maintenance release to fix a bug when algebra questions were used a subquestions of a combined question: it was not possible to include several algebra questions in one combined questions. I think I have fixed the bug and I have added an automated test to verify that.

This is a maintenance release to fix a bug in version 1.91.

This is just a maintenance release only a few hours after the release of 1.9 version.

The only change is that now algebra subquestion included in combinable question can have several variables.
Warning: shortly after release a bug was found in the upgrade procedure of this version, don't use it, use version 1.92.

This release add 2 new features:

• 
  

  The algebra question type can now be included as a subquestion of a combined question (https://moodle.org/plugins/qtype_combined)

  
  


• 
  

  The algebra question is now compatible with Moodle mobile for Moodle versions 3.5 and ulterior (will not work with previous Moodle versions).

  
  

This new release just add support for Moodle privacy API as GDPR takes effect on May 25th 2018.
There is no other change.

NEW IN THIS RELEASE

• 
  

  More choice for the TeX expressions delimiters to match your website TeX filters settings.

  
  


• 
  

  And a new way to display the TeX formatted answer during attempts.

  
  

There is now a new setting "Method to diplay answer formula".

If You choose "Using an iframe element" (default) nothing changes. There is a "Display" button and the formatted answer is displayed in an iframe.

But you can try the new method "Using dynamic AJAX request" and there is no button , the formatted formula is updated dynamically when an answer is typed (copy/paste is also supported). For this to works you must have the MathJax filter enabled (MathJax enabled by script in page head doesn't work with this method).

I think this is really better than the old iframe method.

The only drawback is that a request is made by the browser to the server each time something is typed and that could be a problem with a great number of students attempting algebra questions at the same time.
I will try to improve this method to limit the number of requests in a given amount of time in a future version.

Currently when the server is not able to interpret the answer, nothing is displayed.

For instance if the student type "x^2" an "x" is displayed at the beginning, then nothing is displayed when he type "x^" as this is invalid, then when he type "x^2" the formatted answer is displayed.

If you think it would be better to display something (for instance a small warning sign) when the answer is invalid, post a comment.

This is a maintenance release. Small bugs reported in the tracker and on the Quiz forum are now fixed.

This is just a maintenance release that fix reported bugs. No new feature.
MOODLE ALGEBRA QUESTION TYPE
Created by Roger Moore

ORIGINAL README BY ROGER MOORE:

These files implement a algebra based question type for Moodle.
Installation instructions are found in the file INSTALL.

The code has been tested and used for a large, introductory physics
course (~120 students) at the University of Alberta for several
terms now and is stable and suitable for use in a production
environment.

The code is all released under the GPL V3.

Please send any bugs, comments, suggestions for new features etc.
to me.

Enjoy,

Roger Moore rwmoore@ualberta.ca

ADDITIONAL README

Updated to Moodle 2.0 by Stefan Raffeiner stefan.raffeiner@gmail.com
Updated to Moodle 2.1 by Jean-Michel Védrine vedrine@univ-st-etienne.fr

This plugin is now maintained by Jean-Michel Védrine. This version is upgraded to
work with Moodle 2.8 and ulteriors versions.
For support use the Moodle quiz forum at https://moodle.org/mod/forum/view.php?id=737

Enjoy.

Jean-Michel Védrine

WARNING :
I am now retired and I stopped all Moodle related activities.
This repository is here just for history and this work is not maintained any more.
Feel free to fork it and modify it to suit your needs or improve compatibility with recent Moodle versions.
Additionaly you can consider contacting the Moodle team and become the new maintainer of this lugin. Thanks

TeX display of the response entered by the student was broken since the introduction of the MathJax filter into Moodle.
This version is an attempt to fix the problem with a rough solution.
As the formula is displayed in an iframe it was somewhat difficult to use the standard Moodle mechanism to display TeX formulas using the MathJax filter, so I choose to directly call MathJax for that frame.
This makes some sense as this TeX formula is build by the parser so there should be no need to customize the MathJax configuration. But the amin reason is that it was easier to do :-)
For people having configured their Moodle website to call MathJax in head additional HTML, the plugin should work with no modification.

MOODLE ALGEBRA QUESTION TYPE

Created by Roger Moore rwmoore@ualberta.ca
Updated to Moodle 2.0 by Stefan Raffeiner stefan.raffeiner@gmail.com
Updated to Moodle 2.1 by Jean-Michel Védrine vedrine@univ-st-etienne.fr

This plugin is now maintained by Jean-Michel Védrine. This version is upgraded to
work with Moodle 2.5, 2.6, 2.7, 2.8.

For support use the Moodle quiz forum at https://moodle.org/mod/forum/view.php?id=737

This version is a maintenance release that fix a problem displaying multiply sign in the TeX display of student's answer.

This release is a maintenance release. Only small bugfixes as they are reported in the tracker. Also an untranslatable string was fixed so language packs must be updated.

MOODLE ALGEBRA QUESTION TYPE
Created by Roger Moore

ORIGINAL README BY ROGER MOORE:

These files implement a algebra based question type for Moodle.
Installation instructions are found in the file INSTALL.

The code has been tested and used for a large, introductory physics
course (~120 students) at the University of Alberta for several
terms now and is stable and suitable for use in a production
environment.

The code is all released under the GPL V3.

Please send any bugs, comments, suggestions for new features etc.
to me.

Enjoy,

Roger Moore rwmoore@ualberta.ca

ADDITIONAL README

Updated to Moodle 2.0 by Stefan Raffeiner stefan.raffeiner@gmail.com
Updated to Moodle 2.1 by Jean-Michel Védrine vedrine@univ-st-etienne.fr

This plugin is now maintained by Jean-Michel Védrine. This version is upgraded to
work with Moodle 2.5.
For support use the Moodle quiz forum at https://moodle.org/mod/forum/view.php?id=737

Enjoy.

Jean-Michel Védrine vedrine@univ-st-etienne.fr

This version has been upgraded to work with Moodle 2.5. Main changes are in the question edit page soi that it is compatible with short forms and collapsed editors.

MOODLE ALGEBRA QUESTION TYPE
Created by Roger Moore

ORIGINAL README BY ROGER MOORE:

These files implement a algebra based question type for Moodle.
Installation instructions are found in the file INSTALL.

The code has been tested and used for a large, introductory physics
course (~120 students) at the University of Alberta for several
terms now and is stable and suitable for use in a production
environment.

The code is all released under the GPL V3.

Please send any bugs, comments, suggestions for new features etc.
to me.

Enjoy,

Roger Moore rwmoore@ualberta.ca

ADDITIONAL README

Updated to Moodle 2.0 by Stefan Raffeiner stefan.raffeiner@gmail.com
Updated to Moodle 2.1 by Jean-Michel Védrine vedrine@univ-st-etienne.fr

This plugin is now maintained by Jean-Michel Védrine. It was verified to work with Moodle
2.3 and 2.4. For support use the Moodle quiz forum at https://moodle.org/mod/forum/view.php?id=737

Enjoy.

Jean-Michel Védrine vedrine@univ-st-etienne.fr

MOODLE ALGEBRA QUESTION TYPE
Created by Roger Moore

ORIGINAL README BY ROGER MOORE:

These files implement a algebra based question type for Moodle.
Installation instructions are found in the file INSTALL.

The code has been tested and used for a large, introductory physics
course (~120 students) at the University of Alberta for several
terms now and is stable and suitable for use in a production
environment.

The code is all released under the GPL V3.

Please send any bugs, comments, suggestions for new features etc.
to me.

Enjoy,

Roger Moore rwmoore@ualberta.ca

ADDITIONAL README

Updated to Moodle 2.0 by Stefan Raffeiner stefan.raffeiner@gmail.com
Updated to Moodle 2.1 by Jean-Michel Védrine vedrine@univ-st-etienne.fr

This plugin is now maintained by Jean-Michel Védrine. It was verified to work with Moodle
2.3 and 2.4. For support use the Moodle quiz forum at https://moodle.org/mod/forum/view.php?id=737

Enjoy.

Jean-Michel Védrine