MathView

Its been a while since my last post, so I wanted to fill the space by writing something about a side project I've been working on.  Its an upgrade to the existing mathview equation editor.  The main features are bootstrap integration, real time equation rendering, and autocompletion of common functions.  Hit the jump to see more.

The main change from the existing mathview program is the integration with bootstrap and with mathjax.  The mathview feature will only work with bootstrap enabled themes (math3 and math4) and mathjax has to be installed on the server.  Under these conditions you will be presented with a Use Mathview? option in the Display Options sidebar.  When enabled, inputs for problems will have an button attached to them as shown below.

If you click on the icon the Equation Editor (i.e. mathview) will pop up.  At this point you have several options.

• You can type your answer directly into the answer box.  The result will be rendered in real time in the Equation Editor preview area. (See image below)..  
• You can click one of the functions and have it inserted into the answer box.  You can also browse the available function categories using the Operations drop down.  
• You can drag the equation editor out of the way to a more suitable location.

Put together, all of this basically replicates the older mathview functionality.  There are a couple of new features, however.  The most obvious is the autocompletion of functions.  Now when you are typing an answer and you write, say, "co", you will be presented with a list of standard functions which start with "co", as shown below.

You can then select which function you want with the arrow keys and hit enter to complete the function in the input bar.  This is nice because it helps remind people what functions are available and also keeps the browser from populating the list with previous answers like it usually does.

The second new feature is behind the scenes.  Since there are a lot of different standards for mathematical notation ( e.g. arcsin vs sin^(-1) ), the new mathview is locale ready.  By setting the option ${pg}{options}{mathViewLocale} you can use a different locale js file.  I won't describe the contents of this file here, but it allows the administrator to change which functions are displayed, what the categories are, what the names are, what functions can be autocompleted, what the notation is, and so on.  This can be set on a per class basis using the course config files, although the system administrator will have to make sure the appropriate locale js files actually exist.