When trying to restore a course in Moodle 2.0 that was created in 1.9 I get the message "The backup file was created with Moodle 1.x and can not currently be restored in Moodle 2. This functionality is coming in a future update."
Does anyone know anything about this update?
Since our site is new would it be easier to dump 2.0 and go with 1.9 or is the update coming soon?
If you haven't used Moodle before then you'd be better starting off with 2.0. There are currently problems with trying to restore individual 1.9 courses into 2.0 - although you can restore the whole site. If you want to try to restore individual courses from 1.9 then do a seach for conversion thingie - it's a method someone's fixed to enable you to do what you want pretty much.
... and here's the link to http://www.conversionthingy.net/Default.aspx
Is there any sort of guide on how to use the "thingie"? I seem to be doing something wrong.
I just had a play with it myself today - with pleasing results. Which bit are you not sure of? I made a backup of a 1.9 course and saved it on my harddrive. Then I went to conversion thingie (having downloaded and installed it) I made sure I had clicked Moodle 2.0 output format on the configuration tab and chosen a folder for my Moodle 2.0 backup to get sent to. Then I clicked Giddyup at the top, browsed for my 1.9 backup and let it do its job. The converted file had m2 at the beginning when I went to look for it to restore into my Moodle 2.0 site (and mbz at the end, Moodle 2.0 backup format)
Ms. Mary, I haven't asked you a question in yonks (as my wife likes to say).
We're using 1.9.4 and conversionthingy wants 1.9.8. When we get ready to move to 2.0, we'll have to upgrade first to 1.9.8 to use conversionthingy. So, does 1.9.8 break things that are working in 1.9.4?
I wouldn't have thought 1.9.8 broke anything in 1.94 -but then since I don't do upgrades on major production sites (that's for the Big Boys) only on my own small play areas, don't hold me to it
I read the details and it turns out any 1.9x course can be converted to 1.9.8 or 2.0, so I'm going to stop worrying
I am downloading a course from someone elses server so I am kind of stuck with what they have.
As the ConversionThingy 2 program is my progeny, I'll throw in my responses here, as well. In order to avoid duplication, this comment addresses a couple of the inquiries in this thread.
Larry: It's entirely possible/probable that you're not doing anything wrong. It's unclear from your note at what point of the process something is failing, but I think it's probably fair warning to any prospective user of the program that ConversionThingy 2 isn't an infallible solution--that's a premise I've been working with since I wrote the program, and it's probably worth stressing. When it works, it's a thing of beauty and a welcome solution to a present problem. When it doesn't work, um, sorry. Documentation for the program is on the site itself-- http://www.conversionthingy.net/ --the "Converting Archives" document in particular might answer some questions. As the program's primary functionality is ANGEL-to-Moodle conversions, most of the documentation speaks specifically about ANGEL conversions, but in many instances, the recommendations (and potential issues) are interchangeable. The program's "Feedback/Contact" button (on the license page) lets you contact me directly if problems arise: I don't promise solutions, but I'll offer them if I've got them.
Ben: Moodle 1.98 is specifically mentioned in the ConversionThingy 2 documentation because that's the version from which test files were drawn during the programming. It may work with 1.94: I've not tried. I'd recommend testing the program on a couple of 1.94 backups to see whether it produces intelligible output. Depending on the outcome, choose one of two courses of action: if it works, super; if it doesn't, wait for Moodle 2.1(?) to sort out the routines for contending with 1.9x course backups. I would not, under any circumstances, recommend pushing your site through an interim Moodle upgrade just to get to ConversionThingy--fond of it as I am, the program can't, doesn't, and won't promise unmixed results.
Mary: I'm so glad it worked well for you.
Glenys: For posting the link, here and elsewhere, merci.
Cheers,
Peter Friesen
ConversionThingy 2
Peter - I was very impressed with it - saved me a lot of time - and I tweeted as much
Peter,
Here's what I did....
So, was this an "um, sorry" moment, or user error?
Thanks!
...and BTW, it successfully installed with Chrome in exactly the same way as with IE.
Larry
Hmm.. how big was your mbz file? Just wondered if there was a way you could send a link and I'd try to restore into my Moodle to see if I get same error - to solve problem by process of elimination? Also - this should have nothing at all to do with it - but I restored to a pre-existing course - did you try other options too?
I have been playing with backup restore using 1.9 files that were upgraded to 2.0 and then restoring them to a fresh install of 2.0. I could only get it to restore into an existing class. I would set up the class with the same number of weeks and then it restored just fine. Prior to that, I would get a database error or a creating sections error.
Larry:
User error is unlikely: there's little you can do wrong and much it can get wrong.
The issue you're having is a problem with the conversion: somewhere the process didn't see something coming and didn't deal with it well. If you view the HTML file--it's the conversion log--there may be some indication there of where a problem occurred or was anticipated. If there's no problem indicated, then there's a good chance the program is blissfully unaware that it's not making any sense. If I were to guess, I'd speculate that you've got some question types it can't deal with, some resources or activities it's never seen before, some group/groupings assignments to content that it doesn't figure out. If you were to create a series of several backups from the original course--each containing discrete course componentes--and then run each of those through the process, you'd probably be able to identify the point of failure. But that's an awful lot of work if waiting patiently is an option...
Peter
Larry:
It turns out that this isn't actually a ConversionThingy 2 problem, but a timeout issue on the server. I ran into the problem myself four times last night, as files which had restored perfectly on a development server suddenly failed to restore at all on a production server. A quick look at the PHP settings showed that the dev server had a cosy excess in its maximum execution time (set to 300), while the production server had the max execution time set to 30. I'd speculate that all you need to do is increase PHP's max execution time setting on the server.
The long processing time seems to accompany large question banks: a tiny Moodle2 backup file will demand a considerable restoration time if it contains a significant number of question bank categories/questions. (I ran a 1.5MB backup file which had a couple of pages, a couple of quizzes, 47 question bank categories and 2200 questions: it took 3.5 minutes.) And because the restoration of a course site apparently starts with question bank processing, if it times out in that part of the job, the error message that gets triggered (usually something along the lines of sections failing to restore) is valid, as far as it goes, but it doesn't actually address the problem: the sections weren't restored because the process ran out of time.
In the case of the file that was failiing for you, Larry, over 3000 questions in 438 question bank categories pretty much sealed the fate of the restoration timeout if you're running at a default max execution time of 30. Crank that up to 300, and the site should restore. You also, that way, get time to go out an get a cup of coffee while you're waiting...
Peter
Could any one send me the ConversionThingy 2 soft via gmail, cause i cannot access the website to download it.
Anyone know when 2.1 will be released?
I haven't been able to install the conversionthingy. My computer has windows xp. I have net framework 3.5 sp1 and when I tried to install the windows installer 3.1 I got a message that say the service pack version is newer than the update I am applying. Do you know of any reason why I wouldn't be able to install the program?
mmm I could think of a couple of reasons, but it is no longer required. You can now restore course materials into recent releases of v2. (Apparently the next release date is December 1, and I understood that User data restorations from v1.9 courses were to be included, but it does not appear to be the case now.)
I figured out a very effective way to restore a course created in Moodle 1.9 to Moodle 2.0. ConversionThingy didn't work at all for me.
Using VirtualBox I set up Moodle 1.9.4 on an Ubuntu 10.04 virtual machine. The only tricky part was installing older versions of PHP packages, which I got from here. I saved the state of the virtual machine so I could use it again.
I then restored the course. I had to increase upload_max_filesize in /etc/php5/apache2/php.ini because the backup file was quite large.
Next I updated to Moodle 2.0. This only took a few minutes. I ran Update Manager (to get the newest versions of the PHP packages), made a copy of config.php, deleted everything in /var/www, unzipped the latest Moodle package into /var/www, copied config.php back, restarted Apache and then when I went to the Moodle home page on my virtual machine the upgrade happened automatically.
The first time I tried this I was pretty excited because I thought I only had one step to go. I wanted to backup the course from Moodle 2.0 on my virtual machine so I could use it on a live site, but it didn't work. On this forum I found the solution - the maximum execution time was too low. In php.ini I increased max_execution_time to 300, then I could finally backup the course. I ended up with an 'mbz' file which I then restored to a live site.
I can now reuse the virtual machine to do this again and again because I've saved the state of the machine just after installing Moodle 1.9.4 on it - I'm ready to convert more courses!
Total coolness, I might do the same.
Before I do I am setting up a new site with Moodle 2.0 so the 1.x courses I want to import are free ones that I am finding on the Internet. So will any 1.x course easily import into Moodle 1.9? If so then I will just import them all into a 1.9 install and then upgrade to 2.0.
Hi ive tried this converter ConversionThingy 2 and it works quite well was able to restore my courses from 1x to 2.0 for more info.. go to
http://www.conversionthingy.net/Default.aspx
is there anyone who has a full version of conversionthingy since i realised it will need some activation after a a number of conversion limit
