# Learning, Technology and Collaboration

## Posts Tagged ‘Math’

### How to add Mathematical Notation to Mahara 1.3.3

Posted on: March 6, 2011

I have tried other mathematical plugins for TinyMCE but none of them worked. Today I tried MathJax and it was so easy to integrate it to Mahara.

MathJax is an open source JavaScript display engine for mathematics that works in all modern browsers. You can use TeX, LaTeX, MathML and other formats.

I am going to show you how to add MathJax to Mahara.

First download MathJax from here. As of today, version is MathJax-v1.0.1a.zip.
Download MathJax-Font-Update.zip as well. You may not need this in future. This fonts are for Firefox 3.6.13.

You need to unzip it and transfer following directories to mahara/js directory.
– config
– extensions
– fonts
– jax
– MathJax.js

Open mahara/lib/web.php and around line 219 add $javascript_array[] =$jsroot . ‘MathJax.js’; as following.

 else { $javascript_array[] =$jsroot . 'MochiKit/Packed.js'; $javascript_array[] =$jsroot . 'MathJax.js'; } 

That’s it.
In Mahara, create a view and drag a textbox and enter the following.

When $$a \ne 0$$, there are two solutions to $$ax^2 + bx + c = 0$$ and they are$$x = {-b \pm \sqrt{b^2-4ac} \over 2a}.$$

You should be able to see mathematical notation!

Sample 1

### Conclusion

MathJax is easy to install. Only drawback I can think of is that MathJax does not use flash nor graphical input, so you have to learn these formats to input. I am not so familiar with these notations and I have to learn them.

Tags:

• macdrew: Hi, the question has now been answered on mahara.org The solution was to edit lib/web.php by adding: \$javascript_array[] = 'http://cdn.mathjax.org/
• macdrew: Unfortunately, I was premature. It's ended up being the same result as when I tried the themeconfig.php file. With the script in place, I get a 'somet
• macdrew: Yes, that worked like a charm! Thanks, I really appreciate it. I just put it between a couple functions, and it works all through my mahara installati