10.2. Discussion Components

You can add inline discussion components to any container in your course.

10.2.1. Create the XML File for a Discussion Component

You create an XML file in the discussion directory for each inline discussion component in your course.

The name of the XML file must match the value of the @url_name attribute of the discussion element in the vertical XML file.

An example of how you create a discussion component in a vertical XML file follows.

 <vertical display_name="Lesson_1_Unit_1">
    <discussion
        discussion_category="Essays"
        discussion_id="peer_grading_component"
        discussion_target="Peer Grading"
        display_name="Peer Grading"
        url_name="peer_grading_discussion"
     />
</vertical>

If you prefer to create the discussion in its own file, you can create it using the following format.

 <vertical display_name="Lesson_1_Unit_1">
    <discussion
        url_name="Introduce_Yourself"
     />
</vertical>

You create the file discussion/Introduce_Yourself.xml to define the inline discussion component.

10.2.2. Discussion Component XML File Elements

The root element of the XML file for the HTML component is file is discussion.

The discussion element contains no children.

10.2.3. discussion Element Attributes

Attribute Meaning
display_name Required. The value that is displayed to students as the name of the discussion component. If you do not supply a display_name value, “discussion” is supplied for you.
discussion_category The name of the category for the inline discussion as shown in the main Discussion tab of the course.
for A string that describes the discussion for students.
id The unique identifier that the discussion forum service uses to refer to this inline discussion component. This value must be unique across all courses in the edX deployment. Therefore it is recommended that you use the standard <course_name>_<course_run>_<descriptor> as in the above example. Do not use a period (.) in the ID value.
discussion_id TBD
discussion_target TBD

10.2.4. Example Discussion Component XML File

The following example shows an XML file for a discussion component.

<discussion
    discussion_category="Essays"
    discussion_id="6e51dd8f181b44ffa6d91303a287ed3f"
    discussion_target="Peer Grading"
    display_name="Peer Grading"
 />