API Example: https://github.com/open-craft/problem-builder/blob/master/doc/Native%20APIs.md

Part of the Course Blocks API

What is in the XBlock API - Student View State

• Student View Data API
  • Provides all the data needed to render the View
  • Example of this in the Video API
• Student View User state API
  • Provides all the data for the user
  • Call right before loading
  • Call the Xblock handler to save/submit the users state

Example - New video xblock

• Implement Student View Data 
  • Returns all the data you need to render the API
  • Render the mobile UX from this
• Implement Student View User State to retrieve the current state

Offline mode is still a challenge

• Answers are not available to API calls are required in both directions to submit answers and grade
• Can we encrypt the answers on the device?
• Could we use JavaScript to render xBlocks rather than the Native languages?

Example / Recommended Xblock: Poll

Braden recommends if someone wants to try implementing a native (iOS or Anroid) XBlock frontend, do it for poll or survey:

Code: https://github.com/open-craft/xblock-poll

Native API docs: https://github.com/open-craft/xblock-poll#api-for-native-mobile-frontends

Current APIs available for xBlocks

Drag and Drop: https://github.com/edx-solutions/xblock-drag-and-drop-v2

What we worked on 

• Setting up 1-click, Regis's: J'aime O, Cliff Dyer, Régis Behmo
• Xblock: poll running against localhost: José Antonio Gonzalez, J'aime O, Albert (AJ) St. Aubin (Deactivated), Cliff Dyer, Régis Behmo
• The process for extracting django template translations for an XBlock and building fake eo translation is still quite manual, and this would be a great thing to fix . Ideally we'd have an "xblock-extract-strings" script or similar, or change the edx-i18n-tools script to work with xblocks as well as edx-platform code
  • See the JS fix to cookiecutter https://github.com/edx/cookiecutter-xblock/pull/4 for inspiratio
  • Bryan Wilson, Jillian Vogel (Deactivated), Julia Eskew (Deactivated)
• Xblock native against poll: José Antonio Gonzalez, J'aime O, Albert (AJ) St. Aubin (Deactivated)
• Xblock web against poll: Amir Tadrisi, Rocio Aramberri
• API demo, follow-up documentation: Braden MacDonald
• Accessibility direction

OpenCraft's repository: demo-courses

• this contains repos with courses for xblock demos

XBlock Internationalization

Now it works!

How:

• If your XBlock renders its UI using Django templates:
  • You need to use xblock-utils 1.1.1 or higher:
    • The code that implements i18n for django templates is https://github.com/edx/xblock-utils/pull/48 and https://github.com/edx/xblock-utils/pull/49
    • If you use master or any release post this PR, you have it already
  • In order for an XBlock's template strings to be translated, the XBlock must:
    • Require the i18n service, see e.g. xblock-drag-and-drop-v2

      @XBlock.needs('i18n')
      class MyXBlock(XBlock):
      ...

    • Render templates using ResourceLoader.render_django_template, passing the i18n service, e.g.:

      def studio_view(self, context):
         fragment = Fragment()
         fragment.add_content(loader.render_django_template('/templates/html/studio_edit.html', 
                                                            i18n_service=self.runtime.service(self, 'i18n'))

    • In the HTML template, load the i18n template tags:

      {% load i18n %}

    • Mark translatable strings using the trans and blocktrans tags, as described in the Django documentation.
    • Extract and generate the translation .po and .mo files in your XBlock's translations directory, as described in the XBlock tutorial.
• If your XBlock renders its UI using strings defined in Javascript:
  • OpenCraft implemented a fix to django-statici18n which you need: https://github.com/zyegfryed/django-statici18n/pull/41
    • It's now included in django-statici18n v1.7.1, but edx-platform master is currently using 1.4.0 so you need to bump that: https://github.com/edx/edx-platform/pull/18302
  • We have a PR waiting for review that adds the code you need to the XBlock cookie cutter repo: https://github.com/edx/cookiecutter-xblock/pull/4
  • Example of using that in an XBlock: https://github.com/edx-solutions/xblock-drag-and-drop-v2/pull/156
• The process for extracting django template translations and building a fake po translation for an XBlock is still quite manual, and this would be a great thing to fix 
  • See the JS fix to cookiecutter https://github.com/edx/cookiecutter-xblock/pull/4 for inspiration