[Xerte-dev] Re: moodle fix

Pat Lockley patrick.lockley at googlemail.com
Wed Dec 5 16:30:03 GMT 2012


this is the thing though, as "core" XOT now covers moodle integration,
which is a big thing.

Muddling through is fine, but if we are developing new stuff we need to
know what we are developing for / to work with? I'm not really using XOT at
work, so I'm doing this for free

I can have a look tonight at the window_reference thing, suspect it's
simple.




On Wed, Dec 5, 2012 at 3:57 PM, Julian Tenney <
Julian.Tenney at nottingham.ac.uk> wrote:

> Quite. I’d prefer us to be accessing the moodle session data through some
> ‘approved’ means of doing so, because presumably it could change at any
> major / minor version update?****
>
> ** **
>
> Are you able to look at the second create / refresh issue Pat?****
>
> ** **
>
> *From:* xerte-dev-bounces at lists.nottingham.ac.uk [mailto:
> xerte-dev-bounces at lists.nottingham.ac.uk] *On Behalf Of *Pat Lockley
> *Sent:* 05 December 2012 15:54
>
> *To:* For Xerte technical developers
> *Subject:* [Xerte-dev] Re: moodle fix****
>
> ** **
>
> i know the change is almost certainly my fault, as in theory I made the
> last change, which is fine.
>
> The merge is done line by line, so it's not a process by which you'd
> remove a line of code unless it was in conflict (and database_connect isn't
> that kind of code, you can connect to a database a million times and not
> worry about it), and if you look at new_template.php it hasn't had a
> database connect call for quite some time - it wasn't there in March (which
> was the last change). So these changes make it work in moodle 1.9, I didn't
> commit them as I haven't tested them outside moodle. I also worry as to why
> PHP would behave differently (a require once should kill all PHP, not just
> moodle PHP) depending on being inside Moodle.
>
> The code in the SVN works outside of moodle, it works in moodle 2.3. If I
> make a change in future, does it have to work in moodle 1.9? There is no
> reason I can tell you why the old 1.9 wouldn't work in moodle, but I'd be
> loathe to do a completely new install just to test it on the off chance
> moodle is being weird.
>
> ****
>
> ** **
>
> On Wed, Dec 5, 2012 at 3:00 PM, Ron Mitchell <ronm at mitchellmedia.co.uk>
> wrote:****
>
> Hi Pat****
>
> Firstly I'm not saying you broke anything I still have no idea really
> about what changed to cause these problems. All I can say for sure is that
> we've been using the Techdis install for months during the 1.8 development
> and more recently the html 5 development and I've been updating that server
> daily simply by getting and exporting the latest svn code and uploading
> that to the test install. Sometimes hourly let alone daily and weekly. On
> that server/install nothing else had changed. In my local xampp nothing
> else had changed.****
>
>  ****
>
> I haven't had time to investigate but perhaps the svn merge created that
> duplicate require statement in your_templates.php and that seems to have
> been the cause of the workspace refresh issue. Perhaps it's something else
> like that which caused the new project issue I really can't say for sure.*
> ***
>
>  ****
>
> I know what you mean about all the possible external tools and perhaps the
> LTI work Simon started would be the ultimate solution to all that but the
> fact remains there are a lot of organisations using XOT combined with
> Moodle for authentication. That may never had evolved if XOT had its own
> account management etc but again it's just a fact that you never needed
> that at Nottingham and it's never really been fully implemented so it's
> either LDAP or Moodle for most and lot's of organisations can't use the
> LDAP option for all sorts of reasons. Tom may be able to provide some stats
> about that from his work in Europe etc and I think it will definitely be
> worth doing a survey at some point.****
>
>  ****
>
> To my mind we want people to upgrade and provide feedback on the latest
> release so ensuring this works for those with moodle authentication is a
> key ingredient of that.****
>
>  ****
>
> Do you agree that 1 & 2 below shouldn't break anything when moodle
> integration isn't used?****
>
> 1. The change to new_template.php fixes the main issue I was seeing e.g.
> not being able to create new projects with a moodle 1.9 integration path
> enabled. I can't see how that change would break non moodle use?****
>
> 2. The change to your_templates.php fixes the other main issue of the
> workspace not refreshing after creating a project. This was just removal of
> a duplicate require line. Not sure if that was always there, or introduced
> recently, or only a problem with moodle integration in place, but again I
> really can't see how this would break non moodle use?****
>
> How do we crack the closing the editor window issue? Can anyone else
> replicate that with the latest svn trunk code?****
>
> Cheers****
>
> Ron****
>
>  ****
>
>  ****
>
> *From:* xerte-dev-bounces at lists.nottingham.ac.uk [mailto:
> xerte-dev-bounces at lists.nottingham.ac.uk] *On Behalf Of *Pat Lockley
> *Sent:* 05 December 2012 14:26****
>
>
> *To:* For Xerte technical developers
> *Subject:* [Xerte-dev] Re: moodle fix****
>
>  ****
>
> it's all of those things though.
>
> We don't know who uses XOT and with what, so we can't guess on who uses
> stuff. I could make an argument the WordPress plugin would be a world
> simpler if Xerte did X and Y, but I wanted to make it work, so I found a
> way round it.
>
> If we aren't going to release changes because it breaks X, then what is X.
> because we upgraded to PHP 5 and told people to change host if they had a
> problem with that
>
> So at present, if we make changes to XOT, we are only going to release
> them in they work with Moodle? Which Moodles? For how long?
>
> I don't see why those changes are required for moodle to work, I didn't
> remove any of those lines of code, or add them in. I didn't change anything
> in modularisation to do with folders (as it doesn't need it). All I changed
> in new template was returning one extra parameter in the query - but the
> code has broken a long time before that change comes into play.****
>
>  ****
>
> On Wed, Dec 5, 2012 at 2:03 PM, Ron Mitchell <ronm at mitchellmedia.co.uk>
> wrote:****
>
> hang on a sec - let's discuss this objectively and practically...****
>
>  ****
>
> We have a very small developer list membership and even fewer of that
> membership testing/developing the latest code on anything but xampp****
>
>  ****
>
> Realistically for organisations to use XOT in earnest they need a public
> facing server install with either ldap or moodle authentication. e.g.
> guest, static or db aren't current/realistic options.****
>
>  ****
>
> I'd wager, but prepared to be proved wrong and perhaps we should do a
> survey, that there are far more xot installations in use that are using
> moodle for authentication than ldap. I certainly know for a fact that there
> are organisations using xot that wouldn't be and wouldn't be able to if
> they weren't able to use moodle for authentication. I know there's no
> internal requirement at Nottingham for Moodle integration but we've had it
> working for years now and it's not a change to moodle code that has stopped
> it working. It's not even a change to the xot moodle integration code that
> has stopped it working. Pat has worked magic in finding a solution to the
> two main issues I've reported but I'm not sure we've really nailed exactly
> what changed to break things in the first place or if it was one thing or
> different things. (see below)****
>
>  ****
>
> These problems with moodle integration didn't exist until last week -
> something has caused a conflict. There's no problem with the previous
> moodle integration in 1.7/1.8 regardless of moodle version.****
>
>  ****
>
> There have been different errors and different issues reported during this
> last week not all of which are down to the same cause/solution. I can only
> reliably report on the issues I've found/tested and it's not always easy or
> efficient to test one thing at a time especially when there are so many
> permutations too. e.g. The blank window and language change issue that Tom
> reported I haven't seen and a fix for Tom re the language setting didn't
> change/fix anything for me. Different problem and  different solution I
> think.****
>
>  ****
>
> Comparing the changes Pat sent through from the current svn code I've
> replaced files individually to test what fixes what:****
>
>  ****
>
> 1. The change to new_template.php fixes the main issue I was seeing e.g.
> not being able to create new projects with a moodle 1.9 integration path
> enabled. I can't see how that change would break non moodle use?****
>
>  ****
>
> 2. The change to your_templates.php fixes the other main issue of the
> workspace not refreshing after creating a project. This was just removal of
> a duplicate require line. Not sure if that was always there, or introduced
> recently, or only a problem with moodle integration in place, but again I
> really can't see how this would break non moodle use?****
>
>  ****
>
> The above two changes fix the main issues I was getting when using an
> install with a moodle 1.9 integration path. The other changes to
> folder_library.php, user_library.php and make_new_folder.php don't seem to
> be needed to fix those main issues as far as I can tell. Not sure if they
> fixes other issues that I haven't seen.****
>
>  ****
>
> Remaining issue****
>
> I am still getting the issue that after creating a new project clicking
> create doesn't work again until after a refresh but that's happening
> without a moodle integration path and as far as I can tell is happening
> with the latest svn code so may be a new problem.****
>
>  ****
>
> HTH****
>
> Ron****
>
>  ****
>
>  ****
>
>  ****
>
>  ****
>
>  ****
>
> *From:* xerte-dev-bounces at lists.nottingham.ac.uk [mailto:
> xerte-dev-bounces at lists.nottingham.ac.uk] *On Behalf Of *Pat Lockley
> *Sent:* 05 December 2012 13:05****
>
>
> *To:* For Xerte technical developers
> *Subject:* [Xerte-dev] Re: moodle fix****
>
>  ****
>
> but the PHP works outside of moodle 1.9 fine
>
> the problem is once with a database and once with a path
>
> Also - we are setting a precedent. We have a working code base, but when
> added into another product, it stops.****
>
>  ****
>
> On Wed, Dec 5, 2012 at 12:47 PM, Dave Burnett <d_b_burnett at hotmail.com>
> wrote:****
>
> The pathing on Moodle 2.0 is a wild and crazy thing.****
>
> Maybe 1.9 was a bit of a test bed for some of what became 2.0?****
>
> Wild guessing.****
>
>  ****
> ------------------------------
>
> Date: Wed, 5 Dec 2012 12:32:09 +0000
> From: patrick.lockley at googlemail.com
> To: xerte-dev at lists.nottingham.ac.uk****
>
>
> Subject: [Xerte-dev] Re: moodle fix
>
> it's not really about introducing errors or changes, but why moodle 1.9
> requires the code to be different? That seems a bit worrying.****
>
>  ****
>
> On Wed, Dec 5, 2012 at 12:27 PM, Ron Mitchell <ronm at mitchellmedia.co.uk>
> wrote:****
>
> I've been testing without a moodle integration path as well as with.****
>
>  ****
>
> This particular window_reference error happens with and without a moodle
> integration path. ****
>
> I'm testing via xampp but you can see it on the techdis install although
> that obviously is using moodle authentication.****
>
>  ****
>
> I haven't found any other errors when testing without integration path so
> I'm not sure your changed files have introduced any problems unless this js
> error is a result of those changes.****
>
>  ****
>
> *From:* xerte-dev-bounces at lists.nottingham.ac.uk [mailto:
> xerte-dev-bounces at lists.nottingham.ac.uk] *On Behalf Of *Pat Lockley
> *Sent:* 05 December 2012 12:14****
>
>
> *To:* For Xerte technical developers
> *Subject:* [Xerte-dev] Re: moodle fix****
>
>  ****
>
>  ****
>
> Yeah, my bad - not sure why that would happen. Nothing I've changed
> javascript side.
>
> I wouldn't commit those changes as they just don't make sense to me. I
> don't get why moodle inclusion would cause those problems and I am not sure
> what they do outside of moodle.****
>
>  ****
>
> On Wed, Dec 5, 2012 at 12:13 PM, Ron Mitchell <ronm at mitchellmedia.co.uk>
> wrote:****
>
> I thought that window_reference is undefined is a js error?****
>
>  ****
>
> BTW****
>
> Are you going to commit those changed php files or do you want me to on
> your behalf?****
>
>  ****
>
> *From:* xerte-dev-bounces at lists.nottingham.ac.uk [mailto:
> xerte-dev-bounces at lists.nottingham.ac.uk] *On Behalf Of *Pat Lockley
> *Sent:* 05 December 2012 12:02****
>
>
> *To:* For Xerte technical developers
> *Subject:* [Xerte-dev] Re: moodle fix****
>
>  ****
>
> Not sure then, I assumed it was that (as this was more of a patch than a
> fix)
>
> Do you get a JS error?****
>
>  ****
>
> On Wed, Dec 5, 2012 at 11:52 AM, Ron Mitchell <ronm at mitchellmedia.co.uk>
> wrote:****
>
> Just print_r($_SESSION) or could there be a similar print_r(something)
> causing the same problem?****
>
> Have searched for print_r($_SESSION) in the install I'm using for testing
> and not found.****
>
>  ****
>
> *From:* xerte-dev-bounces at lists.nottingham.ac.uk [mailto:
> xerte-dev-bounces at lists.nottingham.ac.uk] *On Behalf Of *Pat Lockley
> *Sent:* 05 December 2012 11:42****
>
>
> *To:* For Xerte technical developers
> *Subject:* [Xerte-dev] Re: moodle fix****
>
>  ****
>
> I think it's because of the print_r($_SESSION) somewhere - remove that and
> it'll be fine****
>
>  ****
>
> On Wed, Dec 5, 2012 at 11:36 AM, Ron Mitchell <ronm at mitchellmedia.co.uk>
> wrote:****
>
> Hi Pat****
>
> thanks for the update.****
>
> I've been testing on both the techdis server and locally via xampp.
> Obviously I won't have tested every single permutation yet but from tests
> so far all seems fine apart from this issue of not being able to create a
> new project after creating one already until refresh. However this happens
> without a moodle integration path added too.****
>
>  ****
>
> Here's the steps to reproduce with current svn code plus your changed
> files.****
>
> Click create to create a new project based on Xerte Online Toolkits
> template****
>
> Close the editor and try to create another project - nothing happens upon
> clicking create****
>
> Refresh the browser and click create works but the cycle repeats e.g.
> can't create a second project****
>
>  ****
>
> Using debugger in IE9 I get the following error when closing the editor
> window:****
>
>  ****
>
> SCRIPT5009: 'window_reference' is undefined ****
>
> edit.php?template_id=17, line 32 character 1****
>
>  ****
>
> Not really sure where to look for the cause/solution to this one but is
> there perhaps an include/require missing somewhere?****
>
>  ****
>
> Cheers****
>
> Ron****
>
>  ****
>
>  ****
>
> *From:* xerte-dev-bounces at lists.nottingham.ac.uk [mailto:
> xerte-dev-bounces at lists.nottingham.ac.uk] *On Behalf Of *Pat Lockley
> *Sent:* 05 December 2012 09:38****
>
>
> *To:* For Xerte technical developers****
>
> *Subject:* [Xerte-dev] Re: moodle fix****
>
>  ****
>
> the problem in new template was that for some reason moodle is leaving or
> creating another database link so when toolkits sends the request to the
> database it fails as the code is now pointing at the wrong database.
>
> Added in another database_connect call to fix this
>
> the problem in new folder creation was two require_once("config.php")
> being used. Removed one and it works.
>
> Why these would only affect moodle 1.9? No idea.****
>
>  ****
>
> On Wed, Dec 5, 2012 at 7:49 AM, Ron Mitchell <ronm at mitchellmedia.co.uk>
> wrote:****
>
> Hi Pat****
>
> thanks - from tests so far those files have certainly improved things!****
>
>  ****
>
> What did you find/change? What was the main cause of the problem?****
>
>  ****
>
> I've tested creating new projects and folders, moving and deleting
> projects all of which were a problem previously so looking hopeful.****
>
>  ****
>
> One problem/difference at the moment which I don't think was there before
> is that with a moodle 1.9 integration path I can now create a new project
> without the workspace refreshing and it appears etc but if I then try to
> create a second project clicking create to create another Xerte Online
> Toolkit project doesn't do anything. I have to refresh the browser before I
> can create another project. Clicking to create an RSS project does work
> without refresh and with moodle 2 configured I can create a second and
> third template etc without problem.****
>
>  ****
>
> I've only tested this locally so far will test on the techdis server
> next...****
>
>  ****
>
> Cheers****
>
> Ron****
>
>  ****
>
> *From:* xerte-dev-bounces at lists.nottingham.ac.uk [mailto:
> xerte-dev-bounces at lists.nottingham.ac.uk] *On Behalf Of *Pat Lockley
> *Sent:* 05 December 2012 00:29
> *To:* For Xerte technical developers
> *Subject:* [Xerte-dev] moodle fix****
>
>  ****
>
> try swapping these files ****
>
>  ****
>
>
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