Assigning Course Members with SOAP

In the dynamic world of e-learning, effective Learning Management Systems (LMS) are critical for educational institutions and organizations. ILIAS, a robust open-source LMS, offers extensive functionality for managing courses, users, and other resources. One powerful feature is its integration capabilities through the SOAP (Simple Object Access Protocol) interface. This blog post will guide you through the process of assigning members to courses in ILIAS using SOAP, ensuring efficient and automated user management.

What is SOAP?

SOAP is a protocol for exchanging structured information in the implementation of web services. It allows different applications to communicate with each other over the internet, regardless of the underlying platform or technology. In the context of ILIAS, SOAP enables administrators to perform various operations programmatically, such as adding users to courses, without manually interacting with the ILIAS interface.

Prerequisites

Before diving into the SOAP-based member assignment, ensure the following:

1. ILIAS Installation: You have an operational ILIAS LMS installation.
2. SOAP Enabled: SOAP is enabled and configured in your ILIAS instance.
3. User Credentials: You have the necessary user credentials with administrative privileges.
4. SOAP Client: A SOAP client (e.g., SoapUI, Postman, or a custom script written in Python, PHP, etc.) is available for sending SOAP requests.

PHP script for assigning course members

To allocate a course member, utilize the suitable SOAP function known as assignCourseMember. This function requires the course ID, user ID, and the designated role within the course. The role can be specified as "Admin" , "Tutor" or "Member" .

Below is a PHP script exemplifying how to assigning a course member within ILIAS LMS.

<?php

// The nusoap.php that is included in ilias installation
require_once('/var/www/html/ilias-installations/working/ilias8/webservice/soap/lib/nusoap.php');

$username = 'soap'; // Admin user for SOAP
$password = '12345Abcde'; // Password for soap user
$clientId = 'ilias8'; // ilias client id
$domain = 'http://localhost';

$soapUserId = 316; // Soap admin user id
$iliasInstallation = 'il_0_';

$client = new nusoap_client($domain . '/webservice/soap/server.php?wsdl&client_id=' . $clientId, true);
$client->soap_defencoding = 'UTF-8';
$error = null;

// Authenticate
$sessionId = $client->call('login', [
    'client' => $clientId,
    'username' => $username,
    'password' => $password
]);

// Check if login was successful
if (!empty($client->getError())) {
    echo $client->getError();
} else {

    if (!empty($client->getError())) {
        echo 'Something went wrong. Member was not assigned in course';
    } else {

        $parameters = [
            $sessionId,
            101, // course id
            319, // user id
            'Tutor' // type of role in course
        ];

        $assignMember = $client->call('assignCourseMember', $parameters);

        echo 'Member was assigned to course';
    }
}

Once the user has been assigned, like John Doe, navigating to Course > Members will display him listed as a Course Tutor.

Conclusion

Using SOAP to assign members to courses in ILIAS LMS is a powerful way to streamline user management. With SOAP, institutions can automate complex workflows, integrate with other systems, and maintain a high level of efficiency and accuracy. Whether you're an administrator looking to save time or a developer seeking to integrate ILIAS with other applications, mastering SOAP in ILIAS is an invaluable skill.