What is Sugarizer ?

Sugarizer is a free/libre learning platform. The Sugarizer UI use ergonomic principles from The Sugar platform, developed for the One Laptop per Child project and used by more than 2 million children around the world.

Sugarizer runs on every device: laptops, desktops, tiny computers, tablets or smartphones.

Sugarizer includes a large set of pedagogic activities thought for children, see here for a full list.

Sugarizer is available as:

• Application: an installable app for every operating system
• Web Application: a web application that runs in modern web browsers

Sugarizer Application

Sugarizer Application is a cross-platform application for installing on any GNU+Linux, Windows, Mac OS X, Android or iOS device.

To run Sugarizer Application on Android, download it on Google Play, Amazon Store or F-Droid.

Sugarizer on Android is also available as a launcher to replace the current launcher of your device so you could launch native Android applications from Sugarizer. You could download this Sugarizer version on Google Play.

You could also build yourself the Sugarizer Application APK using instruction below.

To run Sugarizer Application on iOS, download it on Apple Store or build yourself the Sugarizer Application IPA using instructions below.

To run Sugarizer Application on GNU Linux/Mac OS/Windows, download it here. The Sugarizer desktop application has three possible arguments:

• --window to open Sugarizer in a window (instead of fullscreen)
• --debug to open Sugarizer with the debug console
• --logoff to logoff the previous user if one is connected (unsynchronized content will be lost)
• --init to remove all existing Journal and settings (all will be lost)

If you're a developer you could also launch Sugarizer desktop application using electron. First install Node.js and npm on your computer. See here for more information. Then install electron and specific modules for Sugarizer by running:

npm install

Then launch Sugarizer for GNU Linux with:

npm start > /dev/null

Or, for Mac OS/Windows, just:

npm start

You could use Sugarizer desktop arguments using "--" after start. For example:

npm start -- --window

To run locally Sugarizer Application into the Web Browser (GNU Linux/Mac OS/Windows), you should launch it with a special option to enable access to local files.

For Chrome, close ALL running instances of Chrome and re-launch it using the command line:

chrome --allow-file-access-from-files  index.html

On Windows, you should launch:

"C:\Program Files (x86)\Google\Chrome\Application\chrome.exe" --allow-file-access-from-files

On Mac OS, you should launch:

open -n /Applications/Google\ Chrome.app --args --allow-file-access-from-files

On Linux, you should launch:

google-chrome-stable --allow-file-access-from-files index.html

Note: google-chrome-stable is the name of Chrome in Ubuntu but it could be different on other distribution, you can get the package-name for Chrome by running sudo dpkg -l | grep chrome

For Firefox, type in the address bar:

about:config

Search for the security.fileuri.strict_origin_policy parameter and set it to false.

For Safari go to the Safari/Preferences... menu, under Advanced panel check the Show develop menu in menu bar box. Then from the Develop menu, select Disable local file restrictions.

Sugarizer Web Application

Try it now! (try.sugarizer.org)

Sugarizer Web App is a web application that runs on any device with a recent version of Chrome, Firefox or Safari browser.

As a web application, it does not run offline and requires a permanent network connection to a Sugarizer Server.

Sugarizer Server allow deployment of Sugarizer on a local server, for example on a school server, so expose locally Web Application (without Internet access). Sugarizer Server can also be used to provide collaboration features for Sugarizer Application on the network.

To install your own Sugarizer Server, follow instructions on Sugarizer Server repository

Architecture

If you're a developer and you want to learn more about Sugarizer architecture, see the dedicated page here.

Activities distribution

All activities could be found in the activities directory. Each activity has its own subdirectory. So for example, the Abecedarium activity is located in activities/Abecedarium.activity

You could distribute Sugarizer with whatever activities you want. To do that, you first need to adapt the content of the activities directory to match your wish: removing activities you don't want to distribute and adding in this directory new activities you want to include.

Then you need to update the activities.json file to reflect your choice. Here an example of this file:

[
	{"id": "org.sugarlabs.GearsActivity", "name": "Gears", "version": 6, "directory": "activities/Gears.activity", "icon": "activity/activity-icon.svg", "favorite": true, "activityId": null},
	{"id": "org.sugarlabs.MazeWebActivity", "name": "Maze Web", "version": 2, "directory": "activities/MazeWeb.activity", "icon": "activity/activity-icon.svg", "favorite": true, "activityId": null},
	{"id": "org.olpcfrance.PaintActivity", "name": "Paint", "version": 1, "directory": "activities/Paint.activity", "icon": "activity/activity-icon.svg", "favorite": true, "activityId": null},
	{"id": "org.olpcfrance.TamTamMicro", "name": "TamTam Micro", "version": 1, "directory": "activities/TamTamMicro.activity", "icon": "activity/activity-icon.svg", "favorite": true, "activityId": null},
	{"id": "org.olpcfrance.MemorizeActivity", "name": "Memorize", "version": 1, "directory": "activities/Memorize.activity", "icon": "activity/activity-icon.svg", "favorite": true, "activityId": null},
	{"id": "org.olpg-france.physicsjs", "name": "Physics JS", "version": 1, "directory": "activities/PhysicsJS.activity", "icon": "activity/activity-icon.svg", "favorite": true, "activityId": null},
	{"id": "org.sugarlabs.CalculateActivity", "name": "Calculate", "version": 1, "directory": "activities/Calculate.activity", "icon": "activity/activity-icon.svg", "favorite": true, "activityId": null},
	{"id": "org.sugarlabs.TurtleBlocksJS", "name": "Turtle Blocks JS", "version": 1, "directory": "activities/TurtleBlocksJS.activity", "icon": "activity/activity-icon.svg", "favorite": true, "activityId": null},
	{"id": "org.sugarlabs.Clock", "name": "Clock Web", "version": 1, "directory": "activities/Clock.activity", "icon": "activity/activity-clock.svg", "favorite": true, "activityId": null},
	{"id": "org.olpcfrance.RecordActivity", "name": "Record", "version": 1, "directory": "activities/Record.activity", "icon": "activity/activity-icon.svg", "favorite": true, "activityId": null},
	{"id": "org.olpcfrance.Abecedarium", "name": "Abecedarium", "version": 5, "directory": "activities/Abecedarium.activity", "icon": "activity/activity-icon.svg", "favorite": true, "activityId": null},
	{"id": "org.olpcfrance.KAView", "name": "KA View", "version": 1, "directory": "activities/KAView.activity", "icon": "activity/activity-icon.svg", "favorite": true, "activityId": null},
	{"id": "org.olpcfrance.FoodChain", "name": "FoodChain", "version": 4, "directory": "activities/FoodChain.activity", "icon": "activity/activity-icon.svg", "favorite": true, "activityId": null},
	{"id": "org.olpc-france.labyrinthjs", "name": "Labyrinth JS", "version": 1, "directory": "activities/LabyrinthJS.activity", "icon": "activity/activity-icon.svg", "favorite": true, "activityId": null},
	{"id": "org.olpcfrance.TankOp", "name": "Tank Operation", "version": 1, "directory": "activities/TankOp.activity", "icon": "activity/activity-icon.svg", "favorite": true, "activityId": null},
	{"id": "org.sugarlabs.ChatPrototype", "name": "ChatPrototype", "version": 1, "directory": "activities/ChatPrototype.activity", "icon": "activity/activity-icon.svg", "favorite": true, "activityId": null},
	{"id": "org.olpcfrance.Gridpaint", "name": "Grid Paint", "version": 2, "directory": "activities/Gridpaint.activity", "icon": "activity/activity-icon.svg", "favorite": true, "activityId": null},
	{"id": "org.olpc-france.LOLActivity", "name": "Last One Loses Activity", "version": 1, "directory": "activities/LastOneLoses.activity", "icon": "activity/activity-icon.svg", "favorite": true, "activityId": null},
	{"id": "org.sugarlabs.StopwatchActivity", "name": "Stopwatch", "version": 1, "directory": "activities/Stopwatch.activity", "icon": "activity/activity-icon.svg", "favorite": true, "activityId": null},
	{"id": "org.sugarlabs.Markdown", "name": "Markdown", "version": 3, "directory": "activities/Markdown.activity", "icon": "activity/activity-icon.svg", "favorite": true, "activityId": null},
	{"id": "org.sugarlabs.GTDActivity", "name": "Get Things Done", "version": 1, "directory": "activities/GetThingsDone.activity", "icon": "activity/activity-icon.svg", "favorite": true, "activityId": null},
	{"id": "org.laptop.WelcomeWebActivity", "name": "WelcomeWeb", "version": 1, "directory": "activities/WelcomeWeb.activity", "icon": "activity/welcome-activity.svg", "favorite": true, "activityId": null},
	{"id": "org.vpri.EtoysActivity", "name": "Etoys", "version": 1, "directory": "activities/Etoys.activity", "icon": "activity/activity-etoys.svg", "favorite": false, "activityId": null},
	{"id": "io.cordova.all_in_one_plugin_sample", "name": "Cordova", "version": 1, "directory": "activities/Cordova.activity", "icon": "activity/activity-icon.svg", "favorite": false, "activityId": null},
	{"id": "org.olpcfrance.MediaViewerActivity", "name": "MediaViewer", "version": 1, "directory": "activities/MediaViewer.activity", "icon": "activity/activity-icon.svg", "favorite": false, "activityId": null}
]

Each line in this file is one activity. Here is the description of each field:

• id: Activity unique ID
• name: Display name of the activity
• version: Activity version number
• directory: Location directory of the activity in Sugarizer
• icon: Location of the icon in the activity directory
• favorite: true means that the activity is in the favorite view
• activityId Reserved for internal use

Remove in this file rows for activities that you want to remove. Add in this file a line for each activity you want to add.

Note than:

1. The activities/ActivityTemplate directory does not contain a real activity. It's just a template that you could use to create your own activity.
2. The activities.json is used only by Sugarizer Application, the Web Application relies on the /api/activities API that dynamically browse the activities directory. By the way, it's a good practice to match the content of the activities.json file and the content of the activities directory.

Create your own activity

With Sugarizer, it's easy to create an activity with a bunch of HTML and JavaScript.

If you're interested to create your own activity, a full tutorial will guide you between all development steps:

• Step 1: create the activity from a template
• Step 2: customize icon and content
• Step 3: add a toolbar icon
• Step 4: handle journal and datastore
• Step 5: localize the activity
• Step 6: handle multi-user with presence
• Step 7: use journal chooser dialog
• Step 8: create your own palette
• Step 9: integrate a tutorial

Let's start here.

Unit testing

To run unit tests for Sugarizer Application, run "file:///PathToYourSugarizerRepo/test/index.html" in your browser.

Build Application for Android and iOS

Sugarizer Application could be packaged as an Android or iOS application using Cordova.

A dedicated tool named Sugarizer APK Builder allow you to create the Android packaging without any Android knowledge.

If you want to build it yourself, you could adapt the source code of this tool.

Reduce package size

The current size of Sugarizer is more than 350 Mb. This huge size is related to media content and resources include in three activities:

• Abecedarium activity: about 150 Mb
• Etoys activity: about 100 Mb
• Scratch activity: about 50 Mb

By the way, these activities are able to retrieve the content remotely if its not deployed locally. So, if you want to reduce the Sugarizer package size (specifically for deployment on mobile) you could either remove completely those three activities or just remove the media content of these activities.

To remove activities, just remove these activities directory and update activities.json file as explain above.

To remove media content for Abecedarium, remove directories:

• activities/Abecedarium.activity/audio/en
• activities/Abecedarium.activity/audio/fr
• activities/Abecedarium.activity/audio/es
• activities/Abecedarium.activity/images/database

The activity will look for media content on the server referenced in activities/Abecedarium.activity/database/db_url.json, by default http://server.sugarizer.org/activities/Abecedarium.activity/.

To remove resources for Etoys, remove directory activities/Etoys.activity/resources and replace the value resources/etoys.image in activities/Etoys.activity/index.html by the remote location of the resources, for example http://server.sugarizer.org/activities/Etoys.activity/resources/etoys.image.

To remove resources for Scratch, remove directory activities/Scratch.activity/static/internal-assets and remove the value class="offlinemode" in activities/Scratch.activity/index.html.

Optimize performance

If you want to optimize JavaScript performance, you could generate an optimized version of Sugarizer with Grunt. This optimized version will minimize and reduce size of all JavaScript files.

First ensure than Node.js and npm is installed on your machine. See here for more information.

The Gruntfile.js contains tasks settings to build an optimized version of Sugarizer. To do that, ensure first that grunt is installed:

npm install -g grunt-cli

Then install specific component for Sugarizer by running:

npm install --only=dev

Finally launch:

grunt -v

At the end of the process, all JavaScript files in all directories have been replaced by an optimized version.

Localization

If you're not a developer and you want to translate Sugarizer into your own language, please go to the Sugarizer translation platform where you will be able to do that. If you're a developer, the following paragraphs will explain to you how the Sugarizer localization system works.

Sugarizer use webL10n localization system by Fabien Cazenave.

Here how to add a new translation. See a video tutorial here.

All strings are localized in the locale.ini file at the root of the repository. If you want to add a new translation, copy the whole [en] section at the end of the file and:

• Replace "en" by the ISO 639-1 code of your language. For example, "fr" for French,

• Substitute the right side of the "=" character on each line by the string localized in your language. For example:

    [fr]
    StartNew=Commencer un nouveau
    NameActivity=Activité {{name}}
    RemoveFavorite=Retirer le favori
  

Warning: Note that text inside {{}} must not be localized. So here, {{name}} is not translated.

Sugarizer automatically detects the navigator language. To enable this detection, you need to update the settings.init function in the lib/settings.js file. Add a test on your language code. For example in French:

else if (navigatorLanguage.indexOf("fr") != -1)
	this.language = "fr";

Sugarizer settings display a list of all available languages. You need to add your language in this dialog. For this you have to:

• Add a new string in locale.ini with the name of your language in English. For example:

    French=French
  

• Add the same line for all languages/sections in the file. If you're able to do that, translate the right side of the "=" character with the localized string for the name of your language. If you don't know how to translate it, just let the English word. For example:

    French=Français
  

• Add your string in the js/dialog.js file in the create function of the Enyo class Sugar.DialogLanguage. You should give the ISO 639-1 language code and the new string for your language name. For example:

    {code: "fr", icon: null, name: l10n.get("French")},
  

That's all. Test the result in your browser.

Note that this translation is for Sugarizer only. Each activity could provide its own localization feature.

How to contribute

As all Open Source software, contributions to this software are welcome.

See here the current list of Sugarizer contributors.

Read CONTRIBUTING to learn more about how to contribute to Sugarizer.

License

Sugarizer is licensed under the Apache-2.0 license. See LICENSE for full license text. Most Sugarizer activities use this license too but some use a different license, see here for details.