I've been working with the mrbs block for a while, and have developed various new features/improvements. I have just been assigned as a co-maintainer of the block;,I need to decide which features should become part of the next version, and which should stay as optional extras.
So far in the tracker I have:
CONTRIB-1189: Timetable import script
CONTRIB-1190: Quick go to room form
CONTRIB-1191: Change to allow the display of simultaneous bookings in the same room
CONTRIB-1197: More integration of view_entry.php
CONTRIB-1198: Automatically redirect view_entry to edit_entry if user viewing is creator
CONTRIB-1199: Display reminder to reduce users double booking themselves
CONTRIB-1200: Users' timetable page
CONTRIB-1201: Request booking move form
And to follow shortly:
Ajax empty room search
Ajax refreshing of room list on edit_entry.php such that only rooms which are availible are displayed
'Force book' feature so that selected users can book busy rooms and automatically re-room existing bookings
Inclusion of days of the week into date selectors that match correctly according to the month/year selected
Things I'm thinking about writing if I get the time:
System to allow users to double book rooms through the normal interface
[I'll remember a load of other stuff 31 minutes after I post this, I'll add more in the replies later]
I'd welcome some feedback to help me work out which bits should go where and any ideas for new features/improvements
Thanks a lot,
Mike
Oops, managed to mangle those tracker links.
Here they are:
CONTRIB-1189: Timetable import script
CONTRIB-1190: Quick go to room form
CONTRIB-1191: Change to allow the display of simultaneous bookings in the same room
CONTRIB-1197: More integration of view_entry.php
CONTRIB-1198: Automatically redirect view_entry to edit_entry if user viewing is creator
CONTRIB-1199: Display reminder to reduce users double booking themselves
CONTRIB-1200: Users' timetable page
CONTRIB-1201: Request booking move form
Here they are:
CONTRIB-1189: Timetable import script
CONTRIB-1190: Quick go to room form
CONTRIB-1191: Change to allow the display of simultaneous bookings in the same room
CONTRIB-1197: More integration of view_entry.php
CONTRIB-1198: Automatically redirect view_entry to edit_entry if user viewing is creator
CONTRIB-1199: Display reminder to reduce users double booking themselves
CONTRIB-1200: Users' timetable page
CONTRIB-1201: Request booking move form
I've been looking for how to specify the filename and location for my CSV file to use the Import feature but I'm just going round in circles. I've seen the CONTRIB-1189 that tells me there is something in the bottom of the settings.php but I am really a novice with php and cannot see where, or how, I type "mytimetable.csv"
Dave
I am in the same boat. MRBS works great with one off bookings and actually I only need to do one import of timetabled bookings to get started. The documentation makes it sound like this is a feature of the block but I can't see any files that look useful when I browse through the latest downloadable version and like you I can't find anywhere to specify the location of an import file.
Help, Anyone?
Carol
http://moodle.org/mod/forum/discuss.php?d=38604#p683721
This thread lead me to where it goes:
"In the settings of the block (Administration > Module > Blocks) there is a field at the very bottom, which you have to put the path to the file in, this is imported when cron runs..."
David,
Thanks for your helpful reply. I've read the thread but I'm still struggling.
My MRBS settings page looks like this:
Resource Scheduling
MRBS Installation pathblock_mrbs_serverpath
What is URL to your MRBS Install?
There are no other form fields. I've removed (including manually removing database tables) and re-installed the latest version of the block from moodle.org but no other fields appeared.
I tried putting the full path to the file in the field but of course that just stopped mrbs from working!
Is there a naming convention I'm not aware of?
I have tried putting the file in ...mrbs/import/import.csv and ...mrbs/import.csv and run cron but to no avail.
It's a great block and will be REALLY useful once I get this bit figured out!
Thanks
Carol
So the bottom of the settings page doesn't look like this?
What version of Moodle are you using?
No, indeed it doesn't! I'm using Moodle1.9 and downloaded the block for 1.9 (or so I thought) will double check.
thanks
carol
Aha, I downloaded the 'latest version' and it was different from the '1.9 version'. I can now see all the fields I need. Still failing to import but it must now be a simple file format issue. Thanks very much for your help.
Carol
I like the MRBS room reservation system but meet two flaws in the room admission form:
- When I make an area list, I see a phantom choice computer room which is not in the database area list
- I like the area choice menu: if you change the area, you get the romms for that area... but if you change again, tyou only see the first room of the new choosen area
contex: moodle 1.9.10X apachefriends server on a windwos7 laptop,
the bock_mrbs.php says:
$Id: block_mrbs.php,v 1.11 2010/01/16 13:08:16 arborrow Exp $
If I double book a room. I get a depreceated split error, this seems to help, but is it?
line 393 in /blocks/mrbs/web/day.php
//$descrs=split("\n",$descr);
$descrs=preg_split("/\n/",$descr);
//$long_descrs=split(",",$long_descr);
$long_descrs=preg_split("/,/",$long_descr);
//$ids=split(",",$id/);
$ids=preg_split("/,/",$id);
I would really like to turn over the MRBS block to someone else to maintain. I am just unable to focus on it and it needs too much TLC for me to tend to it properly. I would be happy to help out but if anyone is willing or interested in helping out with this let me know. If someone else wants to maintain it, they can start up a repository on Github. Otherwise, I can do that and then we can work on setting up so that others can push into the repository. Peace - Anthony
Now I have mrbs block installed and an import file location set. I am sure it recognises the import file because when I run cron, it outputs:
Processing cron function for mrbs....done.
but no records are imported to the database. I have tried many variations of the file format but to no avail. My current import file looks like this:
"00:03","00:04","2011/01/25","1","Room 6","","10V","Mrs B H Cutler"
I have created it in unix format so I'm sure there are now windows new lines. Any ideas?
thanks
Carol
... or even 'no windows new lines' (sorry about typo)
well, perhaps I was optimistic. I see the same message from cron.php when I there is no import file. Any advice on getting more detailed errors?
thanks
Carol
Are you able to look in the database directly and search to see if any of these details have appeared? (I would create a dummy file that would import something unique that I could look for with an SQL search)
thanks for replying David. Yes, I can look in the database. It's a test site so the mrbs tables are empty apart from some rooms and one booking I made using the interface.
I'm afraid that's just about the limit of my assistance, not sure what moodle does with the file when it finds it.
I did create an Access database that converts our timetable to a csv file that I can then import directly in to the database, it can be found at http://www.irpens.co.uk/moodle/MrbsConversion.mdb but it is not polished at all...
Thanks for that. I will try it!
After a long pause for other priorities, this worked with a few tweaks to the database for our needs. Many thanks.
Carol
UPDATE (9/2012)
Place to set location of CSV file for timetable import (Moodle v.2.3.1), is now in:
Settings>Site administration>Plugins>Blocks>MRBS
At the bottom of that page is a box called 'Location of session import file'
The place chosen, obviously needs to be a place Moodle can 'get' at.
Mike - Thank you so much for your contributions and more importantly your willingness to help out with maintaining this block. I have been pleasantly surprised how many folks from all over the world have made use of the MRBS block and I am happy to see things moving forward to further develop it. As we are a bit of a sub-set of the larger Moodle community, it is even more important that those who are using it help out by sharing idea, reporting bugs, etc. This is critical for improving the quality of all of the contributed code. The more comments, requests, etc. we have the better. Peace - Anthony
Have another couple:
CONTRIB-1249: Days of the week added to date selectors
CONTRIB-1250:List of rooms on edit_entry only shows available rooms (AJAX)
More to follow...
Mike
CONTRIB-1249: Days of the week added to date selectors
CONTRIB-1250:List of rooms on edit_entry only shows available rooms (AJAX)
More to follow...
Mike
And another couple:
CONTRIB-1252:New capability and code to allow superusers to forcibly book rooms and automatically re-room others
CONTRIB-1253:Option to request equipment when booking a room
Mike
CONTRIB-1252:New capability and code to allow superusers to forcibly book rooms and automatically re-room others
CONTRIB-1253:Option to request equipment when booking a room
Mike
Here is the last load of the backlog of changes I've already made:
CONTRIB-1256 Add room descriptions to day.php
CONTRIB-1257 Special 'Computer rooms' area
CONTRIB-1259 Make name and description on edit_entry default to '' for new entries
CONTRIB-1260 CSS highlighting
CONTRIB-1261 Show room name in search results
CONTRIB-1262 Only show weekdays in week view
CONTRIB-1263 Display room description on week view
Mike
CONTRIB-1256 Add room descriptions to day.php
CONTRIB-1257 Special 'Computer rooms' area
CONTRIB-1259 Make name and description on edit_entry default to '' for new entries
CONTRIB-1260 CSS highlighting
CONTRIB-1261 Show room name in search results
CONTRIB-1262 Only show weekdays in week view
CONTRIB-1263 Display room description on week view
Mike
I've gone ahead with putting some of these changes into CVS, what this means is that anyone using the Download latest version link will get these new features.
As it stands the following features are included:
I'd appriciate it if some people could try out these new features and give me some feedback. One particular thing that I'd like some feedback on is I'm not 100% sure that CONTRIB-1250 will work with periods turned off.
Thanks a lot,
Mike
As it stands the following features are included:
- CONTRIB-1197 More integration of view_entry.php
- CONTRIB-1249 Days of the week added to date selectors
- CONTRIB-1250 List of rooms on edit_entry only shows available rooms (AJAX)
- CONTRIB-1252 New capability and code to allow superusers to forcibly book rooms and automatically re-room others
I'd appriciate it if some people could try out these new features and give me some feedback. One particular thing that I'd like some feedback on is I'm not 100% sure that CONTRIB-1250 will work with periods turned off.
Thanks a lot,
Mike
I've now started officially documenting these features here. It includes details of the required csv files, hopefully meaning people can actually make use of the import feature.
Mike
Mike
I've now also added:
- CONTRIB-1251 AJAX free room search
- CONTRIB-1200 Users' timetable page
- CONTRIB-1190 Quick go to room form
Two questions:
1. The MRBS instructions page here:
http://docs.moodle.org/23/en/MRBS_block
...says that on installation of the MRBS plugin, capabilities are created automatically, but system rôles are not. There then follow instructions on how to set up the system rôles.
However, when I go to Site administration>Users>Permissions>Define roles, I see this:
MRBS viewer, MRBS editor and MRBS administrator rôles seem already to have been set up! (They are in the 'Roles' column.) - Do I still need to set up MRBS rôles, and if so, how are those different from the ones visible in the picture above?
2. After installing the MRBS plugin, one is taken to the MRBS configuration page here:
http://www.yourwebsitename.suffix/moodle/admin/upgradesettings.php
Entry types A-J then appear (see picture below). What are these and what should I put in them? Entries E and I are pre-configured as 'Non-class' and 'Class' respectively.
MRBS is so useful as a plug-in that I hope it will be integrated properly with Moodle.
Many thanks for any help
Hi,
Is it possible to limit the entries of users in one week? E.G. my users should not be able to book more than 3 tests (Rooms = Class) in a class in one week. Is this already possible?
Thanks für help!
Hello,
I'm getting a rather odd problem in our MRBS Block in a fresh install of Moodle 2.4.We are using Times rather than Periods, and have set the start time as (07) am and 20 (pm)In our calendar, the times are appearing as reversed to us, with 20 at the top and 07 at the bottom.
There are other odd things appearing as well, but I can't describe them well enough to report. Is anyone else finding the same? Should I uninstall and start over? I have not yet entered much data, we are still testing the system.
Thanks,
Stephen
cinta - that sounds very odd.
Are you able to set up a fresh copy of Moodle on a testing server and install the block again and see if you can reproduce the problem?
If you can, then please open an issue on tracker.moodle.org (projects: add ons, component: MRBS) and I will try to look at it when I can.
Hi Davo,
Thanks for replying so soon, really appreciated. I will re-upload the block files and see if that fixes it. Our school booking system books teachers, not rooms, so I had modified the language for that purpose. On the non-moodle MRBS there was a special file for changing language which is not in the moodle block. It looked like it was working fine at first, so something else may have happened.
This said, perhaps I need to look for a different block.
Thanks,
Stephen (Cinta Bahasa Indonesian Language School, Bali)
You can override any language strings in Moodle locally, without modifying any of the code files - visit 'Site admin > Language > Language customisation'.
The Moodle MRBS plugin diverged from the standalone MRBS many years ago. There was some talk about funding a new version of the plugin, based on the latest MRBS code, but that has not materialised.
Davo
Hi.
Moodle 2.7. Updated plug in.
Big fan of the MRBS block. Use it a LOT.
However we seem to have a problem that I cannot seem to resolve..
After booking a room .. to comes up with an error
No Moodle users found with an email address of: . All MRBS related email(s) must be associated with a Moodle user account.and after clicking continue it comes up with
A required parameter (sesskey) was missing
and then it goes back to the main page.
I was hoping an upgrade to moodle 2.7 may have fixed it .. but, sadly, it has not.
Any suggestions ?
FWIW ... we are using LDAP/Kerberos SSO.... but were using NTLM auth... with the same problem
TIA
Peter
Please turn on Debugging and show the full line details of the error.
From a quick glance, it looks like you have turned on admin notifications of room bookings, without entering a valid email address for the user to send these to.
Hi.
Tx for the prompt reply.
Checked and changed the area admin and room admin email address to mine (not the bosses ).
Sadly .. it did not make any difference.
Debug trace
Coding problem: $PAGE->context was not set. You may have forgotten to call require_login() or $PAGE->set_context(). The page may not display correctly as a result
- line 453 of /lib/pagelib.php: call to debugging()
- line 768 of /lib/pagelib.php: call to moodle_page->magic_get_context()
- line 1313 of /lib/weblib.php: call to moodle_page->__get()
- line 1135 of /lib/pagelib.php: call to format_string()
- line 2454 of /lib/weblib.php: call to moodle_page->set_title()
- line 982 of /blocks/mrbs/web/functions.php: call to notice()
- line 405 of /blocks/mrbs/web/edit_entry_handler.php: call to notifyAdminOnBooking()
What bothers me is that the email address in not printed out in this error message.
Clicking continue .. I get
A required parameter (sesskey) was missing
Debug info:
Error code: missingparam
Error code: missingparam
Stack trace:
- line 463 of /lib/setuplib.php: moodle_exception thrown
- line 545 of /lib/moodlelib.php: call to print_error()
- line 73 of /lib/sessionlib.php: call to required_param()
- line 122 of /blocks/mrbs/web/edit_entry_handler.php: call to confirm_sesskey()
Still looking darkly at the the SSO ....
Cheers
Peter
Checking the line of code that is giving the error, it looks like the 'mail_from' value is blank in your settings, hence the error when it tries to locate the user to send the notification emails from.
Again ... tx for the reply.
Interesting ... checking the settings .. the from was set to blank. My understanding was that in this case it would default to site admin user.
FWIW.... my moodle account is also set as a site admin ...
Anyway .. I created a new local user (as distinct from a ldap one) with an email address. Punched that in .. and all was good to go.
Fortunately our mail server is fairly "relaxed" about the from email address So I was able to set the from email address to something that the user may read... cause they certainly do not read emails from me
Mmmm ... perhaps some work in this area for the to-do list ;-D
Regardless.. All good... and I very much appreciate your help.
Cheers ... .. Peter
Glad it is now working for you.
Im getting a problem when I try to add a block and the MRBS block is not showing. I've installed the block successfully but it won't show in the dropdown list.
Help!!
Have you switched debugging on? http://docs.moodle.org/en/Debugging
If so, are any error messages displaying?
What version of Moodle are you using?
Have you got the latest version of the block?
Have you visited the home page (or notifications in Moodle 1.9) to do the database install for the block?
Have you checked the site 'admin > plugins > blocks > manage blocks' page to check that the plugin is enabled?
I've enabled debugging - nothing unusual showing I don't think.
I'm running v2.4 (Build: 20121208) and downloaded the latest version of the block this morning. I've done the db install from the notifications page and it completed without errors and also checked to ensure the block is enabled.
At some previous time, I had uninstalled the block - could this be a factor?
It sounds like the block is installed correctly - does 'Resource scheduling' not show up in the dropdown list when you try to add the block?
Can you double-check that you have not added it somewhere on the page already (as it can only appear once on each page)?
Hi,
I have just a question.... Can I force MRBS webpage to a differente moodle theme?
I mean I have Essential theme as main theme but I use clean theme for courses and I would like to force MRBS to use always clean theme. As Moodle suggets I tried changing url to:
/?theme=clean or &theme= clean (or more)
but it doesn't work.
Any solution?
Thanks in advance
You have to enable the URL theme calling in your admin theme settings? Have you done that? It could be that it has to be set at the course level but not sure..
I've installed the latest MRBS (1.4.11) onto one of our servers, and got the current version of the block installed onto a test m2.5.
When I set the URL to our installation of it, it's remembering the setting on the Plugin Settings page, but the link to schedule a resource isn't pointing to it (and instead points to the one built in to the block/mrbs/web folder).
What am I missing? I was hoping that this block would act as an SSO from our moodle into the MRBS site I've setup.
Also only the admin user can see the block when it's on the homepage.
I tried logging in as a student, and going straight to the blocks/mrbs/web/ site, and it said I don't have permission. But the 'View bookings' in the system-level Student role is set to Allow - so where does the code look for the capability if the link staff and students are meant to follow is on the homepage?
Hi David,
I've already replied in the comments on the plugin (no need to cross post!).