Installation and basic setup of the embedded Xataface database application

In the previous two sections, we've seen that there is an enormous amount of data stored in the Moodle database and that some of it can be of value to educational program administrators. The limitation of both of the tools previously introduced is that both require some technical skill to use and can introduce serious vulnerabilities in terms of the types of access that they grant to the database. This is where a tool that allows educational administrators access to the Moodle database on limited terms can be very useful. The tool that we will introduce here and expand upon in Chapter 8, Setting Up a Mini SIS, is a database access tool called Xataface. Xataface is open source, just like Moodle, and has a relatively smooth learning curve.