README

A Moodle local plugin that augments mod_forum so that selected forums accept only RecordRTC-recorded audio or video as the body of a post. Typing and every other editor tool are removed from the message box — the only way to add content is to record it.

The post subject can still be typed as normal; it is the message that must be a recording.

Features

Per-forum setting to make a forum textless (RecordRTC only).
Per-forum setting to restrict recordings to audio only, video only, or either.
The message editor (TinyMCE) is replaced with a recorder: text input, toolbars, menus and all other editor functions are disabled.
Recordings are captured in the browser with getUserMedia + MediaRecorder and stored against the post exactly like any other forum editor attachment.
When recording video, the camera preview opens first and recording only begins once the user clicks Start recording — nobody is captured before they're ready.
The in-page Reply button on a discussion is rerouted to the same RecordRTC-only editor, so replying to another person's post obeys the same restriction.
Site-wide admin settings control the requested recording bitrates and can automatically transcode recordings in the background to more widely compatible formats (MP3 for audio, MP4 for video) using ffmpeg.

Requirements

Moodle 5.0 (2025041400) or later; 5.0 to 5.3 are supported.
A browser that supports the RecordRTC MediaRecorder API (current Chrome, Firefox, Edge and Safari).
The site must be served over HTTPS (or localhost); browsers only grant microphone/camera access in a secure context.
Optional: an ffmpeg binary on the server if you want recordings transcoded to other formats (see Site-wide settings).

Installation

Copy the plugin into your Moodle install so it lives at <wwwroot>/local/textless_forum.

On Moodle 5.1+ (which uses the public/ webroot) the path is <moodle>/public/local/textless_forum.
Log in as an administrator and visit Site administration → Notifications to complete the database installation.

Usage

Make a forum textless

Add or edit a Forum activity.
Open the Textless forum (RecordRTC only) section of the settings form.
Tick Make this forum textless.
Choose the Allowed recording type: Audio or video, Audio only or Video only.
Save the activity.

Posting in a textless forum

When adding a discussion, replying, or editing a post in a textless forum, the message editor is replaced with recorder controls:

Click Record audio or Record video (only the buttons permitted by the forum's setting are shown).
Allow the browser to use your microphone/camera when prompted.
For video, the camera preview appears first so you can check framing — recording does not start yet. Click Start recording when ready, or Cancel to back out. (Audio recording starts immediately, since there is nothing to preview.)
Click Stop recording when finished. The clip is uploaded and attached to the post automatically.
Use Record again to discard the clip and start over.

Clicking Reply on someone else's post takes the user to the same recorder rather than the plain-text quick reply, so the restriction is enforced everywhere a post can be created.

The server enforces the same rules, so they also hold for posts made without the recorder (a hand-made request, web services or the mobile app): when a post in a textless forum is saved, everything in its message except the recordings the forum's mode allows is removed. The upload endpoint accepts only a real audio or video recording (WebM, MP4 or Ogg, checked from the file's content) of an allowed type, within the site, course and forum upload size limits. The maximum recording length is enforced in the browser; the server bounds it through the file size, allowing twice the recorder's bitrate for the maximum length. Because a file can also be put into a post without the recorder (through Moodle's own file upload), the content and length checks are applied again when the post is saved: a recording whose file is not a real recording of the embedded type, or is too large for the maximum length, is removed from the message. If the forum's maximum length is lowered later, editing an older post re-checks its recordings against the new limit.

Site-wide settings

Visit Site administration → Plugins → Local plugins → Textless forum to configure:

Recording quality

Audio bitrate / Video bitrate — requested from the browser's MediaRecorder (via audioBitsPerSecond/videoBitsPerSecond). Higher values mean better quality and larger files. The video bitrate only applies to video recordings; the audio bitrate applies to both.

Recording transcoding

When enabled, every recording posted to a textless forum is additionally converted in the background (via an adhoc task) to a more widely compatible format, while the original is kept too:

Path to ffmpeg — the full path to the ffmpeg executable on the server. This is treated as a system executable path: when $CFG->preventexecpath is set in config.php, the field is locked read-only, matching core settings such as pathtogs.
Transcode recordings — the master switch. Whether ffmpeg can actually be run at the configured path is checked in the background (by cron), when these settings are saved and before a recording is first transcoded — never while an admin page is being displayed. If the check fails, transcoding is switched off and the page says why; enabling it again re-runs the check. On a server that cannot start processes at all (for example PHP-WASM sandboxes), the plugin works normally and transcoding is simply unavailable.
Audio format / Video format — choose Don't convert, or convert audio to MP3 and/or video to MP4 (H.264/AAC), mirroring the simple "convert or don't" choice offered by tiny_recordrtc's "Audio format" setting.

Once a transcoded copy is ready, it is added to the post as an additional <source> so the browser can use whichever format it supports.

How it works

Area	Implementation
Settings on the forum form	`lib.php` implements the `coursemodule_standard_elements` and `coursemodule_edit_post_actions` callbacks, filtered to `forum` activities.
Stored configuration	The `local_textless_forum` table (one row per forum), accessed through `\local_textless_forum\manager`.
Front-end enforcement	`\local_textless_forum\hook_callbacks` listens on `before_footer_html_generation` and loads the `local_textless_forum/textless` AMD module on textless-forum pages.
Recorder	`amd/src/textless.js` + `templates/recorder.mustache`: removes the editor, captures audio/video, and writes a `<video>`/`<audio>` embed into the message.
Server-side enforcement	`\local_textless_forum\observer` strips anything but allowed recordings from a textless forum's posts when they are created or edited (`\local_textless_forum\manager::enforce_recording_only`).
Upload endpoint	`upload.php` hands the upload to `\local_textless_forum\recording::store`, which checks the forum, the capability, the mode, the file's content type, size and length budget, stores it in the editor's draft area and returns it for a draftfile URL.
Reply rerouting	The AMD module intercepts the in-page reply buttons and sends users to the advanced (RecordRTC) editor.
Site-wide settings	`settings.php` adds a settings page under Local plugins for recording bitrates and transcoding, backed by `\local_textless_forum\manager` and `\local_textless_forum\transcoder`.
Transcoding	`\local_textless_forum\observer` queues a `\local_textless_forum\task\transcode_recording` adhoc task (via `\local_textless_forum\transcoder::queue_for_post`) whenever a post is created or edited in a textless forum; the task runs `ffmpeg` (with the input format pinned to the recording's container and local files only) and adds the converted file to the post as an extra `<source>`.
Cleanup	`\local_textless_forum\observer` removes a forum's configuration when the activity is deleted, and sweeps orphaned rows when a course is deleted.

Privacy

This plugin stores only per-forum configuration and holds no personal data. Recorded media is stored against the forum post by mod_forum itself, which manages its own privacy. See \local_textless_forum\privacy\provider.

Building the JavaScript

The compiled module in amd/build/ is committed so the plugin works without a build step. If you change amd/src/textless.js, rebuild it from your Moodle root with:

grunt amd --root=local/textless_forum

License

GNU GPL v3 or later — see https://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl-3.0.html.

adamjenkins / moodle-local_textless_forum

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