backend-plugin-sample

A Django app plugin for edx-platform that adds a small course-archiving feature: learners can mark courses as archived (hidden from their active list) and unarchive them later. It demonstrates three backend extension points working together:

• A model + REST API (CourseArchiveStatus), consumed by frontend-plugin-sample
• An Open edX Events handler that auto-unarchives on verified upgrade
• An Open edX Filters pipeline step that rewrites the course-about URL

How to use it

See the root README for setup instructions. With Tutor, tutor-contrib-sample installs this plugin automatically (or bind-mounts your local checkout if you tutor mounts add it). Without Tutor, pip install -e . into your edx-platform environment and run migrations.

How it works

Plugin registration. apps.py declares the Django app to edx-platform via the plugin_app config (URL routing, settings, signal registration). The entry points in pyproject.toml make the platform discover the app automatically — no INSTALLED_APPS edit needed. See How to create a plugin app.

Model. models.py defines CourseArchiveStatus(user, course_id, is_archived, archive_date), indexed for the lookups the API performs. Registered in Django admin via admin.py.

REST API. views.py exposes the model as a DRF ModelViewSet at /sample-plugin/api/v1/course-archive-status/, with per-user permissions, throttling, and pagination. Serializer in serializers.py; URLs in urls.py. Business logic (e.g. setting archive_date when is_archived becomes true) lives in perform_create/perform_update rather than in the serializer.

Event handler. signals.py listens for COURSE_ENROLLMENT_CHANGED and unarchives a learner's course when they upgrade to the verified track. An event (not a filter) is the right shape here because we want a one-time nudge at the moment of upgrade — if the learner re-archives the course later, we respect that. A filter would re-impose the rule on every render.

Filter. pipeline.py implements ChangeCourseAboutPageUrl, a PipelineStep for org.openedx.learning.course.about.render.started.v1 that rewrites course-about URLs to an external host. Registered via OPEN_EDX_FILTERS_CONFIG in settings/common.py.

Settings. Per-environment settings live in settings/ (common.py, production.py, test.py). The plugin app loads these via its plugin_app config in apps.py.

Testing and quality

cd backend-plugin-sample
make requirements   # install test deps
make test           # pytest
make quality        # lint

Tests live in tests/.