ol-openedx-course-outline-api 0.1.0

An Open edX plugin to add API for course outline (modules) for the Learn product page

A django app plugin to add a new API to Open edX that returns a course outline summary (one entry per chapter) for a given course.

Installation

For detailed installation instructions, please refer to the plugin installation guide.

Installation required in:

• LMS

How To Use

The API supports a GET call to:

• <LMS_BASE>/api/ol-course-outline/v0/<course_id>/

The endpoint is protected by the platform API auth and requires an admin user (DRF IsAdminUser).

The successful response for http://local.openedx.io:8000/api/ol-course-outline/v0/course-v1:edX+DemoX+Demo_Course/ would look like:

{
    "course_id": "course-v1:edX+DemoX+Demo_Course",
    "generated_at": "2026-03-17T12:34:56Z",
    "modules": [
        {
            "id": "block-v1:edX+DemoX+Demo_Course+type@chapter+block@1414ffd5143b4b5",
            "title": "Example Week 1: Getting Started",
            "effort_time": 121,
            "effort_activities": 1,
            "counts": {
                "videos": 5,
                "readings": 3,
                "problems": 2,
                "assignments": 1,
                "app_items": 0
            }
        }
    ]
}

Notes

• generated_at is the timestamp when the outline was built (cached responses return the same value).

• effort_time and effort_activities come from the platform Effort Estimation transformer via the Blocks API.

• counts are computed by walking the Blocks API tree under each chapter (staff-only blocks are excluded): - videos: blocks with type video - readings: blocks with type html - problems: blocks with type problem - assignments: sequential blocks that are graded or have a non-empty format (except notgraded) - app_items: leaf blocks that are not video, html, or problem (and not container types)

Caching

This endpoint caches the full JSON response using Django’s configured cache backend.

• TTL: configurable via OL_COURSE_OUTLINE_API_CACHE_TIMEOUT_SECONDS (default: 1 week).

• Cache key: <prefix>s<schema_version>:<course_key>:<content_version>. - prefix is configurable via OL_COURSE_OUTLINE_API_CACHE_KEY_PREFIX (default: ol_course_outline_api:outline:v0:). - schema_version is a plugin constant (bump it when you change the response shape or computation logic). - content_version is course.course_version when present; otherwise the key uses na.

• Invalidation: - Publishing a course that updates course.course_version produces a new cache key, effectively invalidating old entries.

Troubleshooting

• Page not found (404): ensure the plugin is installed in the LMS and the URLs are registered.

• Course ID in the URL: course keys contain +. Use URL-encoded form (%2B) when needed, e.g. /api/ol-course-outline/v0/course-v1:OpenedX%2BDemoX%2BDemoCourse/.