Real-Life Use Cases for Open edX Events#
Overview#
As mentioned in the Hooks Extension Framework docs, Open edX Events can be used to integrate application components with each other or with external services, allowing them to communicate, synchronize, and perform additional actions when specific triggers occur.
To illustrate the different solutions that can be implemented with this approach, we have compiled a list of use cases built using Open edX Events to address various challenges. The goal of this list is to serve as a reference for extension developers to implement their own solutions in their own plugins or IDAs based on the community’s experience.
Use Cases#
The following list of real-life use cases showcases the different ways Open edX Events can be used to facilitate communication between IDAs and application components, allowing them to interact, synchronize, and perform additional actions when specific triggers occur.
Cross-services communication#
As mentioned in Open edX Event Bus, the suggested strategy for cross-service communication in the Open edX ecosystem is through an event-based architecture implemented via the Open edX Event Bus. This functionality used for asynchronous communication between services is built on top of sending Open edX Events (Open edX-specific Django signals) within a service. For more details on the Event Bus, please see Use the Open edX Event Bus to Broadcast and Consume Events.
Here are some examples of how the Event Bus can be used to facilitate communication between IDAs:
Exam Downstream Effects#
The edx-exams service adopts an event-driven architecture, using the event bus to allow communication with edx-platform to downstream effects. Unlike the legacy exams system (edx-proctoring), which relied on direct function calls to edx-platform services, the event bus sends exam-specific events received by the LMS, triggering responses like grade overrides without creating dependencies between the two.
This approach implements a modular and scalable system by enabling edx-exams to function independently from edx-platform while still interacting through asynchronous communication.
More details on: ADR Implementation of Event Driven Architecture for Exam Downstream Effects.
Course Metadata Synchronization#
An event is emitted each time a course is published by the CMS, which is sent to the event bus and received by the Course Discovery service. This process allows Course Discovery to automatically update course metadata, ensuring that any changes in the CMS are reflected. By communicating through the event bus, this setup decreases the need for manual data syncs, keeping course metadata consistently up-to-date across services.
More details on: Use Event Bus to Replace Refresh Course Metadata.
Credentials Management#
When the LMS emits certificate-related events, they are sent to the event bus and received by the Credentials service. Credentials can automatically award or revoke learner credentials based on the event type. This integration simplifies credential management by enabling real-time updates from the LMS, ensuring the appropriate generation of learner credentials without requiring manual synchronization.
More details on: Credentials - Event Bus.
Credly Integration#
The LMS sends events about learner progress, like course and section completions, through the event bus. The Credentials service then receives these events, adds extra information, and forwards them to external credential providers such as Credly. These providers create and display digital credentials for learners based on the completion data.
More details on: Credly Integration.
Real-Time Event Tracking#
To make event tracking faster and more efficient, tracking logs are optionally sent through the event bus instead of the traditional method, which relied on asynchronous tasks to process logs. A receiver listens for each tracking event and sends it to the event bus, allowing real-time updates. This new approach improves performance by reducing delays, as logs now reach the Aspects stack in a near real-time manner.
More details on: Real-Time Event Tracking.
External Services Integration#
The Open edX Event Bus can be used not only for communication within the Open edX ecosystem but also to integrate with external systems. Using Kafka, third-party services like Student Information Systems (SIS) or Customer Relationship Management (CRM) platforms can receive event data. These systems can track events like enrollments, course completions, or certificate generation to update records, trigger workflows, or improve reporting.
For example, an SIS can subscribe to enrollment events to keep student records updated, while a CRM can track learner engagement using completion events. This setup enables easy data exchange without direct API integrations, simplifying system maintenance.
Communication between Application Components#
Open edX Events can also be used to facilitate communication between different application components running in the same process, allowing them to interact and synchronize their actions. Here are some examples of how Open edX Events can be used to coordinate between application components:
Automatic Content Tagging#
When new content is created or existing content is edited, these events trigger updates to automatically apply relevant tags based on system-defined categories. This ensures that content is consistently tagged, reducing the need for manual tagging and keeping content classification up-to-date.
More details on: Automatic Content Tagging.
Keep Search Indexes Up-To-Date#
Each time content is updated or created, an event is emitted that triggers the indexing of the new content, automatically updating the search index with the latest content metadata. This ensure that all content changes are accurately reflected in search results.
More details on: Update Search Indexes
External Certificate Generation#
Events are sent after the certificate generation for a user when they complete a course, these events trigger the generation of corresponding certificates in an external system if the proper conditions are met, allowing for seamless integrations with external certification services.
More details on: External Certificate Generation.
Automatic Group Association#
Enrollment events trigger the association of the user into a pre-defined cohort based on the user’s preference language. This way, instructors don’t need to add a student into a cohort manually, but it’s automatically done, reducing logistic efforts and creating more seamless integrations with language-based restricted content.
More details on: Automatic Group Association.
Forum Emails Notifier#
When new threads, responses or comments are created in the discussion forum, events are sent with relevant information about what occurred, triggering email notifications with relevant information about the update based on the user’s preferences. This allows users stay up-to-date with discussions threads.
More details on: Forum Emails Notifier.
Webhooks Integration#
Webhooks trigger an HTTP POST request to a configurable URL when certain events happen in the Open edX platform, including information relevant to the event. When these events are sent, then the data is sent to services like Zapier or any other configured, allowing the sharing of data between different external services.
More details on:
Send ORA Submissions to Third-Party Plagiarism Services#
Each time a student submits an Open Response Assessment (ORA), an event is emitted triggering a request to external services to review the student response for plagiarism. This allows a seamless integration of tools to help instructors while grading.
More details on: Send ORA Submissions to Third-Party Plagiarism Services.
Other Use Cases#
Here are some additional use cases that can be implemented using Open edX Events:
Note
If you have implemented a solution using Open edX Events and would like to share it with the community, please submit a pull request to add it to this list!
Maintenance chart
Review Date |
Reviewer |
Release |
Test situation |
2025-02-05 |
Maria Grimaldi |
Sumac |
Pass. |