Local Moodle Environment Setup for LTI Development

This guide will help developers quickly establish a consistent and reliable Moodle environment for development purposes.

Caution

The setup uses a docker-compose file based on configurations that Bitnami provided under the Apache License, Version 2.0. You can find the original configuration in the Bitnami GitHub repository. Usage of the Moodle™ trademark within this guide does not imply affiliation with or endorsement by Moodle HQ, which maintains the Moodle LMS independently.

Prerequisites

Ensure your system meets the minimum Docker and Docker Compose requirements. Refer to the official Docker documentation for system requirements.
If you don’t have Docker installed on your system, follow the installation instructions for your specific platform on the Docker website.
Docker Compose is a separate tool bundled with Docker on some platforms, but you might need to install it separately on others. Refer to the Docker Compose installation guide for details.

Setup Instructions

The setup leverages Bitnami’s Docker images for Moodle, which are included in this repository’s docker-compose file, to ensure a streamlined and reliable deployment.

Moodle requires access to a MySQL or MariaDB database to store information. Bitnami uses the Bitnami Docker Image for MariaDB for the database requirements.

To initialize your Moodle environment, navigate to the docker/moodle/ directory containing the moodle.yml docker-compose file in this repository and execute the following command:

docker-compose -f moodle.yml up

This command will download the necessary Docker images and initialize the Moodle instance with the specified environment and configurations.

Configuration

When you start the Moodle image, you can adjust the instance’s configuration by passing one or more environment variables on the docker-compose file.

Available environment variables:

MOODLE_USERNAME: Moodle application username. Default: user
MOODLE_PASSWORD: Moodle application password. Default: bitnami
MOODLE_EMAIL: Moodle application email. Default: user@example.com
MOODLE_SITE_NAME: Moodle site name. Default: New Site
MOODLE_SKIP_BOOTSTRAP: Do not initialize the Moodle database for a new deployment. This setting is necessary if you use a database with Moodle data. Default: no
MOODLE_HOST: Allows you to configure Moodle’s wwwroot feature. Ex: example.com. By default, it is a PHP superglobal variable. Default: $_SERVER[‘HTTP_HOST’]
MOODLE_REVERSEPROXY: Allows you to activate the reverse proxy feature of Moodle. Default: no
MOODLE_SSLPROXY: Allows you to activate the sslproxy feature of Moodle. Default: no
MOODLE_LANG: Allows you to set the default site language. Default: en

Customization

You can customize the Moodle port number over the docker-compose.yml file.

moodle:
    image: bitnami/moodle:latest
    ports:
      - '8085:8080'
      - '443:8443'

Accessing Moodle

You can access your local Moodle instance over localhost:port in the browser. The default configuration sets it to http://localhost:8085/.

Troubleshooting

Configuring Time Zone

For LTI 1.3 integration, accurate timing for tokens is crucial. Set the time zone in the moodle.yml file to ensure the correct local time.

For example, to align the Docker container’s operations with Berlin’s local time, which follows Central European Time (CET) in winter and Central European Summer Time (CEST) in summer:

environment:
    - TZ=Europe/Berlin

This setting ensures that all operations within the Docker container, including token generation and expiration, adhere to the Central European Time zone.