Archiving Subsystem for Moodle

Long-term Archiving of Quizzes, Assignments, and More

Niels Gandraß

Niels.Gandrass@haw-hamburg.de mail
https://gandrass.de globe

Björn Dittmann

mail Bjoern.Dittmann@haw-hamburg.de

Moodle.NRW Community Conference 2026

Ruhr University Bochum

2026-11-12

Imagine it's 2029

A student misses some score for final graduation
and contests the grade of an exam from the winter term 2026/27

Can you prove exactly what was answered
and how it was graded?

Let's have a look into our Moodle!

restart_alt The course was reset for the next semester – twice

delete_sweep Existing attempts were deleted during roll-over

edit_note Three questions were edited

person_off The teacher with their private archives left the university

extension_off That fancy question type plugin is no longer installed

upgrade Moodle had a breaking major update since then

Moodle is a learning platform, not an archive system

How do we archive today?

print "Print to PDF" (by hand) for every single attempt

fax Or actually print it ... on paper ... and put it in a cabinet

gpp_bad Or keep course backups forever and hope Moodle can restore them in 2029

sentiment_stressed Or simply don't, because it's cumbersome

celebration Or maybe already using the Quiz Archiver?

A real archive must be ...

inventory_2 Complete

Everything that was graded: answers, attachments, feedback, metadata

Assignment, Quiz, ...

verified Trustworthy

Identical to exam and provably unaltered since the time of archiving

SHA256 & TSP

visibility Independent

Readable for 10+ years, without requiring an ancient Moodle instance

PDF/A, HTML & ZIP

security Compliant

Kept safe according to legal requirements but deleted once the period is over

Policies & GDPR

… and all of that without constantly having to worry about it!

From Quiz Archiver to the
Archiving Subsystem

Similar but tackling the bigger picture!

The journey so far

How we actually got where we are today ...

2023 Quiz Archiver First public release of the Quiz Archiver plugin – still actively maintained

2024 Stakeholder Workshop Requirements and user stories from 58 people representing 46 universities

2025 Prototype Release Public prototype release of the Archiving Subsystem, presented at MoodleMoot DACH and the Moodle University Conference

2025 v1.0.0 Release First stable release with quiz support, Moodle data and local dir storage, simple triggers

2026 v1.1.0 Release Adds assignment archiving, S3 object storage, Moodle 5.3 support, and various core improvements

Today v1.2.0 Release Event-based archiving, single-user archives, reworked archiving UI, searchable archives ... Submitted to Moodle Marketplace 🎉

What's new

All compatible features we developed in the last year also landed in the Quiz Archiver

picture_as_pdf PDF/A-3b compliant reports

speed Parallel archive job processing

filter_alt Latest attempts only exports

function MathJax 4 & JACK questions

tune More report options

sell Question ID, version, tags, ...

folder_zip Archive structure customization

badge New filename variables

update Live job status updates

cloud_upload Chunked uploads

change_circle Moodle 5.3+ (LTS) support

engineering Moodle Archiving Worker

Everything you love about the Quiz Archiver
is also part of the Archiving Subsystem!

Quiz Archiver vs. Archiving Subsystem

Everything Quiz Archiver can do ... and a lot more

	Quiz Archiver	Archiving Subsystem
description PDF/A report generation	✓	✓ (same worker service)
folder_zip ZIP Archive creation with attachments	✓	✓ (same worker service)
security Checksums, TSP signing, job policies, ...	✓	✓
dashboard Scope	Single quiz	Course-wide overview of all activities
school Activities	Quiz	Quiz, Assignment, ... Extendable
bolt Triggers	Manual	Manual, Scheduled, Event-based, ... Extendable
database Storage	Moodle	Moodle, Local directory, SMB, NFS, S3, ... Extendable
hub Integration	–	Flexible API Extendable

Walkthrough

Archiving an activity with the new Archiving Subsystem

Where to find it

Each course gets its own archiving overview
accessible via More → Archiving

Course archiving overview

widgets Lists all activities in the course

label Archiving status per activity

history Detects changes since last archive

list_alt Lists all created archive jobs

person Shows who / what created a job

touch_app Access files, details, and logs

search Search by activity or file name

filter_alt Filter by trigger or status

article_person Find archives with target user data

Creating an archive

checklist Select what to export

chevron_right Example solutions, attachments, backups, ...

home_storage Choose storage location

chevron_right Moodle, local directory, network storage, ...

text_fields Configurable file names

chevron_right attempt-${attemptid}-${username}

dynamic_form Customize your archive

chevron_right Additional files, compression, directory layout, ...

auto_delete Retention time

What's inside: Quizzes

Every attempt as PDF/A – rendered exactly as seen in Moodle

What's inside: Assignments

PDF/A Report, instructions, submissions, feedback, and annotated PDFs per submission

File attachments

assignment Provided intro files

upload_file Submitted student files

inventory Feedback files

picture_as_pdf Annotated PDF files

Archive structure

Example: Hierarchical archive of an assignment


assignment-archive.zip
├── submissions/
│   └── jdoe-17/
│      ├── annotation/
│      │   ├── John Doe_17_0.pdf
│      │   └── John Doe_17_0.pdf.sha256
│      ├── assignment/
│      │   ├── template.zip
│      │   └── template.zip.sha256
│      ├── feedback/
│      │   ├── unit_test_log.txt
│      │   └── unit_test_log.txt.sha256
│      ├── submission/
│      │   ├── solution.zip
│      │   └── solution.zip.sha256
│      ├── submission-17-jdoe.pdf
│      └── submission-17-jdoe.pdf.sha256
├── submissions_metadata.csv
└── submissions_metadata.csv.sha256

picture_as_pdf PDF/A-3b for long-term archiving

attach_file All file attachments

html Optional HTML sources

restore Optional Moodle backups (.mbz)

table CSV metadata for all objects

tag SHA256 checksum for every file

account_tree Hierarchical or flat layout

function File and folder names configurable

Archive job details

Inspect archive job metadata and see what's inside

person_search All users with data inside this archive are searchable

File download & integrity

cloud_download Easy access via Moodle

chevron_right Transparent file retrieval for all storage types

tag SHA256 checksums of every archive

chevron_right Verifies integrity of archived data

chevron_right Re-validated on every retrieval

verified Cryptographic signature (TSP / RFC 3161)

chevron_right Signed by a trusted Time-Stamp Authority

chevron_right Legally proves the archive existed unaltered at that time

Job logs

Every step of every job is logged for full traceability

Automatic deletion

delete Automatic cleanup of old archives is supported out of the box

timer Each archive can have a retention time set

chevron_right Expired archives are deleted automatically by a scheduled task

policy Admins can enforce retention policies via locked job presets

event_repeat Batch deletion is supported

chevron_right Example: Delete all expired archives on the first of January and July

receipt_long Archive files with PII are deleted, job metadata and logs remain for traceability

Automation

Because nobody wants to click the "archive" button a thousand times

Archiving triggers

Archive jobs can be created in one of the following ways ...

touch_app
Manual

On demand by teachers / admins
Creates a single archive job
Full control over settings per job
Can also be disabled

calendar_clock
Scheduled

Periodic, e.g. every night
Archives all activities with new unarchived changes
Dry-run mode for testing

bolt
Event-based

Listens to Moodle events
Archives only the affected attempt / submission
Right when it happens

Scheduled archiving

fingerprint Activity fingerprints detect changes since the last archive

science Dry-run mode allows you to see what would be archived before going live

Event-based archiving

Admins select which Moodle events create archive jobs

Activity	Event	Archives
list_alt Quiz	`\mod_quiz\event\attempt_submitted`	The affected attempt
	`\mod_quiz\event\attempt_graded` (Moodle 5.0+)
	`\mod_quiz\event\attempt_regraded`
	`\mod_quiz\event\attempt_manual_grading_completed`
file_upload Assignment	`\mod_assign\event\assessable_submitted`	The affected submission
	`\mod_assign\event\submission_graded`
	`\mod_assign\event\submission_locked`

Under the hood

filter_center_focus Partial archiving

chevron_right Jobs can be scoped to specific attempts / submissions instead of the whole activity

fingerprint Job fingerprints

chevron_right Identical jobs (same course, activity, settings, objects) are not queued twice

join Combine triggers

chevron_right Archive each attempt individually on submission and full activities on a schedule / manually

manage_search Traceability

chevron_right Trigger, source event, and targeted objects are recorded with each job

Administration & Policies

Ensure archives meet your institutional requirements

Job presets and archiving scope

settings Global configuration of all job parameters

tune Configurable defaults for all jobs

lock Lock settings to enforce institution-wide policies

school Activity-specific presets per activity type

smart_toy Automatic triggers always use presets

category Archiving can be limited to some course categories

Storage

Various storage solutions are supported out of the box

Driver	Tier	Use case
Moodle filestore	hard_drive Local	Default, zero configuration
Local directory	database Hybrid	Specific folder, NFS / SMB mounts, ...
S3-compatible	cloud Remote	DMS, Ceph, RustFS, AWS, …

file_download Local files are directly accessible

cloud_download Remote files are fetched asynchronously and cached

shield_locked Allows connection of WORM storage

Permissions

Custom capabilities let you control who can work with archives and how

Capability	Allows you to …	Default roles
`local/archiving:view`	View and download archives	Teacher, Editing teacher, Manager
`local/archiving:create`	Create archive jobs	Editing teacher, Manager
`local/archiving:delete`	Delete archives	Nobody (Admins only)
`local/archiving:bypasscourserestrictions`	Archive outside of allowed categories	Nobody (Admins only)

shield Archives must not disappear accidentally – deletion is denied by default

Archiving Subsystem
Architecture

One core, many pluggable components

The Archiving Subsystem

Sub-plugin types

Every component is a sub-plugin, allowing for easy extension!

Type	Purpose	Shipped implementations
school `archivingmod`	Activity archiving drivers: Extract and render activity data	Quiz, Assignment
database `archivingstore`	Storage drivers: Store, retrieve, and delete archives	Moodle, Local directory, S3 object store
bolt `archivingtrigger`	Archiving triggers: Decide when to create archive jobs	Manual, Scheduled, Event-based
hub `archivingevent`	External event connectors: Notify third-party systems	Flexible API

External services

A variety of external systems can interact with the Archiving Subsystem

The Moodle Archiving Worker

Handles the heavy lifting for both quizzes and assignments

screenshot_monitor Archived exactly as seen in the browser

chevron_right Headless browser renders exactly what users saw (MathJax, STACK, GeoGebra, JSXGraph, …)

deployed_code Rendering happens outside of Moodle

chevron_right No stress on Moodle, no blocked web requests, no PHP timeouts

speed Asynchronous and parallel

chevron_right Archives are created in parallel and in the background

key Security by design / Least privilege

chevron_right Short-lived web service tokens, scoped to a single task

package_2 Ready-to-use Docker image

chevron_right Docker Hub: ngandrass/moodle-archiving-worker

Back to 2029 ...

... but now with the Archiving Subsystem

restart_altCourse reset twice?

Archives live in an independent storage, not inside the course

edit_noteQuestions edited?

Questions and grades were snapshotted at archiving time

person_offTeacher left?

Archives are kept by the institution, not by a single person

extension_offPlugin uninstalled?

Everything was rendered to PDF/A exactly as seen

upgradeMoodle upgraded?

The archive opens without Moodle or custom plugins at all

gavelLawsuit ongoing?

SHA256 & TSP signature prove the data is unaltered

task_alt Yes, you can prove exactly what was answered and how it was graded

Getting Started

Interested? Here's how to try it yourself!

Quickstart

counter_1 Install the plugin local_archiving

chevron_right Supports Moodle 4.5 – 5.3, PHP 8.1 – 8.4

chevron_right All sub-plugins are bundled

counter_2 Spin up an archive worker

chevron_right docker run ngandrass/moodle-archiving-worker

chevron_right Or use the public demo worker for testing

counter_3 Archive!

Full documentation:
https://archiving.gandrass.de

Open source & community driven

bug_report

Test and give feedback

Found a bug or have an idea? Let us know!

extension

Build sub-plugins

New activities, storage systems, triggers, ...

forum

Join the discussion

Matrix: #archiving:gandrass.de

download ngandrass/moodle-local_archiving

GPLv3 – free and open source

What's next?

rocket_launch Final release in the Moodle Marketplace

school Gathering your requirements and wishes

widgets Support for more activities?

database Additional storage systems?

hub Standardized event connectors for CMS?

handshake Ensuring long-term maintenance

Q&A Session

Now it's time for your questions!

You can find all slides of this talk at
globe https://gandrass.de