feat: Configured subsection prerequisites persist during course olx/xml export/import by haftamuk · Pull Request #37475 · openedx/openedx-platform

haftamuk · 2025-10-12T09:30:02Z

Configured subsection prerequisites persist during course olx/xml export/import

Overview

This PR introduces support for subsection (sequential) prerequisites in the OLX course format. Course authors can define prerequisite relationships between subsections with configurable completion criteria including minimum score and completion percentage requirements. Currently this information is lost during course import/export. This PR ensures configured subsection prerequisites are persisted during course olx/xml export/import. It allows course authors to define prerequisite relationships, have them exported to OLX format, and finally, have them properly imported.

Problem Statement

Currently, Open edX supports to define prerequisite relationships between subsections in Studio. This enables course authors from enforcing learning pathways where students must complete certain subsections before accessing others, which is crucial for structured learning experiences. But when a course is exported (XML/OLX) all configured relationships of subsections are lost and authors has to do it again manually in studio. This is time consuming and error prone!

Proposed Solution

Extend the element in OLX to support prerequisite definitions
Maintain full backward compatibility with existing OLX courses

Key Files

Service Layer (xmodule/seq_block.py)
- Adds prerequisite information to sequential XML for export.
Import Processing Layer (xmodule/modulestore/xml_importer.py)
- Processes prerequisite relationships during course import

OLX Format

Prerequisite information attached to sequential xml element

<sequential 
required_content="91d0290972c4488db10d7ca3694e13ca" 
min_score="100" 
min_completion="100" 
... >
    <vertical url_name="some_vertical"/>
   ...
</sequential>

Subsection prerequisite configuration how-to

Settings -> Advanced -> Enable subsection prerequisites -> true

Note : Even after configuring a complete learning path for a course you can disable the gating feature by simply turning this in to false. Also, if you switch it back to true, all the previous configured learning path will appear with out further work. This means, switching this setting to true/false will not impact persisted learning path configuration, but will impact how the learner will interact with the course.

Note : When you export a course with this flag set to true, the exported XML will contain the information

<course cert_html_view_enabled="true" discussions_settings="{&quot;enable_graded_units&quot;: false, &quot;enable_in_context&quot;: true, &quot;provider_type&quot;: &quot;openedx&quot;, &quot;unit_level_visibility&quot;: true}" display_name="Saturday1"

enable_subsection_gating="true" 
end="null" language="en" start="2030-01-01T00:00:00Z">
  <chapter url_name="ca81aeb19a7f41a49f05a87c95fe299a"/>
  <chapter url_name="4d13584e169241bb890871bd44059d43"/>
  <wiki slug="Saturday1.Saturday1.Saturday1"/>
</course>

Later during import this setting will be applied to the destination course. This is also the case when it is set to false (the destination course will be enable_subsection_gating set to false)

Make a subsection to serve as a prerequisite

Use the subsection as a prerequisite for other subsection

How to test

python -Wd -m pytest -p no:randomly --ds=cms.envs.test ./xmodule/modulestore/tests/test_xml_importer.py::TestSequentialPrerequisitesImport::test_gating_api_calls

python -Wd -m pytest -p no:randomly --ds=cms.envs.test ./xmodule/tests/test_sequence.py::SequenceBlockTestCase::test_export_sequence_with_prerequisites

Linked Issue: #36995

Supporting information

openedx-webhooks · 2025-10-12T09:30:08Z

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tecoholic

@haftamuk Hi, the changes look good on the export side. I was able to verify that the <prerequisite> block is added to the output XML as expected. However, when I tried to reimport it in a new course, I ended up with this:

So, we are clearly missing the "import" part of the solution. Can you kindly add that functionality?

Additionally, I would recommend adding some unit test around the newly created functions. This is a very "core" part of the system and it's best to have unit tests in place.

haftamuk · 2025-10-21T11:08:44Z

So, we are clearly missing the "import" part of the solution. Can you kindly add that functionality?

Kindly see the import functionality is added!

haftamuk · 2025-10-21T11:10:26Z

Additionally, I would recommend adding some unit test around the newly created functions. This is a very "core" part of the system and it's best to have unit tests in place.

@tecoholic I will proceed to ensure existing unit tests pass and introduce new unit tests for the main changes made.
Thank you.

tecoholic · 2025-10-24T05:11:06Z

@haftamuk Thanks for updating the PR with the import implementation. It looks like you have used a Generative AI / LLM for the implementation and hence can't be used as is. Kindly consult the [official policy on use of LLMs for acceptable usage guidelines. In short, you can use it to experiment and create solutions, but the final code should be from the developer.

That doesn't mean we will have to discard this work. Let's use this as a base for the final solution.

I have an important request - for future work on this PR, please do not force-push changes. This will allow us to work ahead incrementally and rollback things if we end up doing something we don't want in the final solution. Kindly see my inline comments in the diff for specific details.

tecoholic · 2025-10-24T07:37:09Z

@haftamuk I realized, there is lot of things I have noted in comments. So, let's go step by step in addressing them

Just do a pass on cleaning up the single line changes like empty lines, comments..etc.,
Next, let's focus on the export XML format - this comment

Ping me for a review after that. Let's move on to the import part of the changes after that.

tecoholic · 2025-11-28T07:17:20Z

@Agrendalath Hi, a gentle reminder on taking a look at this PR.

Agrendalath · 2025-12-02T19:47:51Z

Sorry for the delay, @haftamuk, @tecoholic. I will review this later this week.

haftamuk · 2025-12-05T14:05:27Z

Hello @Agrendalath ,
i did rebased the PR branch on top of the recent changes. Also bringing this to top as a reminder.

Thank you.

Agrendalath

Hi @haftamuk, sorry for the delay. I reviewed non-test code and left some comments.

Agrendalath · 2025-12-10T16:27:28Z

+            prereq_id is None
+            or not isinstance(prereq_id, str)


Nit: the second condition already covers the first one.

Agrendalath · 2025-12-10T16:38:07Z

+        self.add_prerequisite_to_xml(xml_object)
        return xml_object

+    def add_prerequisite_to_xml(self, xml_object):


The exports do not contain the information whether a subsection is available as a prerequisite: https://github.com/openedx/edx-platform/blob/d6633243a8397bb56eb21e38cc43efada4f05931/cms/templates/js/access-editor.underscore#L43-L55

@haftamuk, a reminder about this one. It should be reflected here and in the importer.

Agrendalath · 2025-12-11T19:21:35Z

+
+    prerequisite_usage_key = course_key.make_usage_key('sequential', required_content)
+
+    gating_api.add_prerequisite(course_key, prerequisite_usage_key)


Let's consider the opposite scenario: the existing sequential in the course has prerequisites, but its equivalent in the course export does not. Should we delete the prerequisites in such a case?

Agrendalath · 2025-12-11T19:27:38Z

+    gating_api.set_required_content(
+        course_key,
+        block.location,
+        prerequisite_usage_key,
+        min_score,
+        min_completion
+    )


This will raise an exception if the subsection does not exist. It should be okay to mark the import as failed in this scenario (instead of silently ignoring the errors), but we should ensure that the error message is clear to the course author.

haftamuk · 2025-12-15T06:57:13Z

@Agrendalath
I have gone through the review comments. Kindly let me know if the solutions/approaches make sense.

Thank you.

tecoholic · 2026-01-17T09:11:17Z

@Agrendalath A gentle reminder for a review here.

Agrendalath

@tecoholic, I did another pass. The redundant checks are gone, but the crucial edge cases from my previous review remain unaddressed.

cc: @haftamuk

Agrendalath · 2026-01-19T19:09:06Z

+        min_score = int(min_score)
+        min_completion = int(min_completion)


This (+catching the exceptions) is redundant. set_required_content already validates casting these variables to integers with _validate_min_score and raises GatingValidationError.

Agrendalath · 2026-01-19T19:10:19Z

+        self.add_prerequisite_to_xml(xml_object)
        return xml_object

+    def add_prerequisite_to_xml(self, xml_object):


@haftamuk, a reminder about this one. It should be reflected here and in the importer.

Agrendalath · 2026-01-19T19:20:02Z

+        prereq_usage_key_str, min_score, min_completion = prereq_info
+        if not isinstance(prereq_usage_key_str, str):
+            return
+        prereq_usage_key = UsageKey.from_string(prereq_usage_key_str)


@haftamuk, I did not test this one, but wouldn't it be sufficient to add prereq_usage_key_str to XML (without building the UsageKey?

Agrendalath · 2026-01-19T19:26:26Z

+            min_completion
+        )
+    except (GatingValidationError) as e:
+        logging.debug('Gating validation error : %s', {e})


@haftamuk, a reminder about this comment. Importing the course would still fail silently.

Agrendalath · 2026-01-19T19:26:46Z

+
+    prerequisite_usage_key = course_key.make_usage_key('sequential', required_content)
+    try:
+        gating_api.add_prerequisite(course_key, prerequisite_usage_key)


@haftamuk, a reminder about this comment.

Linked PR: openedx/openedx-platform#37475 (comment) Co-authored-by: Sarina Canelake <sarina@axim.org>

mphilbrick211 · 2026-02-25T21:04:52Z

Hi @haftamuk! Is this still in progress?

mphilbrick211 · 2026-06-01T20:06:09Z

Friendly ping on this, @haftamuk!

haftamuk · 2026-06-24T11:22:13Z

@mphilbrick211, kindly facilitate CC review of the recent changes.
Thank you for your patience.

mphilbrick211 · 2026-06-24T13:51:04Z

@Agrendalath would you be able to take another look at this?

Agrendalath · 2026-06-24T15:40:48Z

@haftamuk, thanks for the updates. I will review this within the next 3 weeks.

cc: @mphilbrick211

Agrendalath · 2026-06-30T17:16:29Z

@haftamuk, would you mind rebasing this on the master branch in the meantime? It's been a while, so I will need to review this from scratch anyway.

…rt/import * feat: adds prerequisite information attributes to exported OLX. e.g. <sequential required_content="91d0290972c4488db10d7ca3694e13ca" min_score="100" min_completion="100" ... > <vertical url_name="some_vertical"/> ... </sequential> * feat: parse prerequisite information attributes during import and create gating relationship. Issue Link: openedx#36995

This commit contans fixes as per review recomendations. This commit changes will be merged later after review approval

haftamuk · 2026-07-01T05:40:05Z

@Agrendalath I rebased it.

The import implementation collects the gating_information initially and persists at the end: - This ensures all blocks in the course are imported before dealing with gating_information - This prevents import order failures (e.g., when the prerequisite block appears after the block that references it). - Missing prerequisite blocks are logged as errors and skipped, rather than failing the entire import. This implementation avoids ordering dependencies(during imprt order of course components is unpredictable/not sequantial). In this implementation, invalid relationships are gracefully skipped with an error log instead of crashing the import.

openedx-webhooks added the open-source-contribution PR author is not from Axim or 2U label Oct 12, 2025

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github-project-automation Bot moved this to Needs Triage in Contributions Oct 12, 2025

haftamuk force-pushed the ESHE branch 4 times, most recently from c847977 to d43f4b4 Compare October 13, 2025 08:41

haftamuk changed the title ~~feat: Unit Prerequisites Lost During Course Export/Import~~ feat: Subsection(sequential) prerequisites lost during course export/import Oct 13, 2025

haftamuk force-pushed the ESHE branch 4 times, most recently from 8a6be77 to f675094 Compare October 13, 2025 09:28

haftamuk marked this pull request as ready for review October 13, 2025 09:53

haftamuk mentioned this pull request Oct 14, 2025

[DRAFT] Unit Prerequisites Lost During Course Export/Import #37095

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haftamuk force-pushed the ESHE branch from f675094 to ef83462 Compare October 21, 2025 11:06

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haftamuk requested review from farhan, irtazaakram and salman2013 as code owners October 25, 2025 09:10

haftamuk force-pushed the ESHE branch from 03279db to 11bf61f Compare October 25, 2025 09:19

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Comment thread openedx/core/lib/gating/services.py Outdated

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haftamuk force-pushed the ESHE branch 2 times, most recently from 053784a to d663324 Compare December 5, 2025 13:56

Agrendalath linked an issue Dec 10, 2025 that may be closed by this pull request

Unit Prerequisites Lost During Course Export/Import #36995

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sarina added a commit to openedx/docs.openedx.org that referenced this pull request Feb 3, 2026

Documentation updated to reflect changes in PR 37475 (#1324)

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Linked PR: openedx/openedx-platform#37475 (comment) Co-authored-by: Sarina Canelake <sarina@axim.org>

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fix: withdrawn by author #38327

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feat: Applyig code review recomendations

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This commit contans fixes as per review recomendations. This commit changes will be merged later after review approval


		prerequisite_usage_key = course_key.make_usage_key('sequential', required_content)

		gating_api.add_prerequisite(course_key, prerequisite_usage_key)

		min_score = int(min_score)
		min_completion = int(min_completion)

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Configured subsection prerequisites persist during course olx/xml export/import

Overview

Problem Statement

Key Files

OLX Format

Prerequisite information attached to sequential xml element

Subsection prerequisite configuration how-to

How to test

Linked Issue: #36995

Supporting information

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