How to get xBlock deployed to edx.org? And how to do this fairly quickly to allow for development

[Robert M]

I am working on developing an xBlock for a course we have on edx.org. 

I got access to an edge account, but I assume I still need a system admin to install the xBlock?

I believe we are an edx.org partner and I sent a request to partner support asking about this.  It has been 3 days without a reply yet.

I am wondering is there a faster way to get xBlock installed?  Otherwise seems like trying to test an xBlock on edx.org is going to be a very slow process.

I figure I can test most of the xBlock locally on my laptop, but it is not possible to test how it interacts with the edx.org platform unless I want to try to setup the whole platform some where, which seems like a lot of work.

[Ned Batchelder]

You did the right thing by working through your partner support rep.  I'm not sure what kind of turn-around time they aim for.

--Ned.

--
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "General Open edX discussion" group.
To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/edx-code/39825b40-3717-45b9-8fc0-3d9936da3ddb%40googlegroups.com.

[Colin Fredericks]

If you've e-mailed partner...@edx.org, they usually get back to me within a day. You might want to give a second e-mail or contact your partner rep directly. Sometimes things fall between the cracks, and I'm guessing they're busy responding to questions about the new page layout that started rolling out today.

As far as getting an xBlock installed on edX.org, I would not expect a turnaround time of less than a month. There's a lot of code review, accessibility review, and performance review that needs to happen before new components can be made available. Have you been testing your xBlock on fullstack, or have you just been using the workbench runtime in the xBlock SDK?

[Robert M]

I did a little work with the runtime SDK. The full xBlock development process was not clear to me, so I wanted to figure this out before doing much development. Based on the response from edx partner support, sounds like no one outside of edx develops xBlocks. I really appreciate your message, which gives some hope and more importantly idea about dev cycle schedule/time. It was not clear what the fullstack and devstack referred. Based on your link, I am guessing they are some instance of the open-edX platform that I can run? Does running the platform take a lot of admin work or resources? Is there info on performance, accessibility, ... requirements?

[Robert M]

One more question, what is a reasonable amount of time it might take to get an edx xBlock accepted? 2 months? 6 months?

[Colin Fredericks]

I haven't gone through getting an xBlock in, but my partial credit code took about 2 months. There are people outside of edX who build xBlocks, but relatively few of them end up in edX.org - most are deployed in local OpenEdX instances. You might want to ask OpenCraft or Extension Engine what their timelines are usually like; they might have a better idea.

I don't have info on performance requirements. For accessibility, I would suggest aiming for WCAG 2.0 level AA, definitely in the learner interface and preferably in Studio as well. 

Running your own local copy of edX isn't too bad. It can be a pain the first time, but once you have everything set up it's fairly easy to start and stop your own instance so you can test out code. Check out the OpenEdX installation docs (link below). I recommend starting with Devstack.

https://edx.readthedocs.io/projects/edx-installing-configuring-and-running/en/latest/installation/installation_options.html 

On Thu, Apr 27, 2017 at 10:03 PM, Robert M <rmund...@gmail.com> wrote:

One more question, what is a reasonable amount of time it might take to get an edx xBlock accepted?  2 months? 6 months?

--
You received this message because you are subscribed to a topic in the Google Groups "General Open edX discussion" group.
To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/edx-code/6a698138-d1e4-427b-8137-87b4d411fedc%40googlegroups.com.

[Robert M]

Thanks again. I am planning trying the devstack for development and I'll reach to the different parties about the schedule.