Site Modules and Menu Items
Installing Next Exams does not create any front-end pages. Examinees reach exams through menu items you create, and five modules put exam-related information into your template's module positions.
Menu item types
Six types appear under NextExams when you add a menu item.
| Type | What it shows | Options |
|---|---|---|
| NextExams - Exams | A public listing of available exams | Optionally filter to one subject |
| NextExams - Single Exam | The introduction, access gate and start screen for one exam | The exam — required |
| NextExams - My Attempts | The logged-in user's own attempts and results | None |
| NextExams - My Certificates | The logged-in user's own certificates, with download and verification links | None |
| NextExams - Live Monitor | The live invigilation board | An exam, or all exams with live activity |
| NextExams - Management App | The full management application on the site | None |
A minimal public setup is one Exams item. Add My Attempts and My Certificates so returning examinees can find their history.
My Attempts and My Certificates send a visitor who is not logged in to the login page, and return them afterwards. They, and the result page, are marked so search engines never index them — each shows one person's own results.
Note: the runner, the result page and the certificate verification page have no menu item type of their own. They are reached from an exam, so they need no menu entry — the exam page is the way in.
NextExams - Management App runs the identical administration application on the site, for authors and administrators who would rather not visit the Joomla administrator. It requires Joomla's core.manage permission and a Next Exams role; see Roles and permissions.
NextExams - Live Monitor is the page you give to an invigilator holding a link or PIN grant. Publish it with a Joomla access level that does not exclude guests, since an invited invigilator is a guest as far as Joomla is concerned; the page authorises the grant itself. Pinned to one exam, it hides the exam picker and names the exam instead. See Live monitoring.
Modules
Five site modules, all published through Content → Site Modules in the usual way.
| Module | What it shows |
|---|---|
| NextExams - My Exams | Exams the logged-in user can take, grouped into Available now, Upcoming and Closed |
| NextExams - My Results | The user's past attempts, with scores shown only when released, plus a leaderboard opt-in toggle |
| NextExams - Exam Search | A search box and an access-aware list of published exams the visitor can take |
| NextExams - Leaderboard | Top scorers for an exam, with a configurable privacy mode |
| NextExams - My Certificates | The user's certificates: download for valid ones, an Expired badge for expired ones. Hidden until the exam's results are released; revoked ones are never listed |
Each has its own parameters in the module editor.
Leaderboard privacy
The leaderboard module has three privacy modes, because publishing a ranked list of named people is not always appropriate.
| Mode | Behaviour |
|---|---|
| Opt-in | Only people who have explicitly agreed to appear are listed |
| Anonymised | Scores are shown without identifying anybody |
| Usernames | Full names or usernames are shown |
Opt-in is the safe default for anything involving assessment results, which are often sensitive. The opt-in toggle itself lives in the My Results module, so a learner controls their own participation from the same place they see their scores.
Access awareness
The modules respect the access rules on the exams they list. Exam Search and My Exams show a visitor only what that visitor could actually start, so a restricted exam does not advertise itself to people who cannot sit it.
They also respect the App Manager: with the Site Modules app switched off, the modules stop rendering.
Access control
| Action | Required permission |
|---|---|
| Create menu items and publish modules | Joomla's own permissions — this is standard Joomla administration |
| Use the Management App menu item | Joomla core.manage and a Next Exams role |
| See a module's content | Whatever the underlying exams' access rules allow |
The leaderboard opt-in is posted by a logged-in learner rather than an administrator, so it is exempt from the management permission that guards the rest of the site-served endpoints — otherwise the toggle in My Results could never work.