Upgraded to 2.3.1 - flagship course now invisible

Upgraded to 2.3.1 - flagship course now invisible

by David McCarthy -
Number of replies: 21

The upgrade from 2.2 to 2.3 run without an error or hitch.

All courses (tests & minor) with IDs 1-4 and 6 are fine. Our flagship course id5 (due to be launched in August) does not display - just heading & breadcrumb (see pdfs - screen print ... browser source added later).

It shows up everywhere it should (site admin, my course list) but can't get into course.

Decided to backup the course - all components showed in backup dialogue, and backup completed OK.

Restored course (from couse backup prior to upgrade) to new couse (id7) ... this also displays as just the heading & breadcrumb.

Has anyone seen this before? Can anyone suggest what is wrong and what has to be changed to make the course display?

Server details: PHP 5.3, CloudLinux 5.8, MySQL 5.1.61

Local PCs Win7pro, WinXPpro, browsers checked Firefox 3.6.8, 8 IE8, Chrome 15

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In reply to David McCarthy

Re: Upgraded to 2.3.1 - flagship course now invisible

by David McCarthy -

Couldn't add this second file for some reason ... shows browser source code

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Re: Upgraded to 2.3.1 - flagship course now invisible

by Mary Cooch -
Picture of Documentation writers Picture of Moodle HQ Picture of Particularly helpful Moodlers Picture of Testers Picture of Translators

What sort of activities are in this course?

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In reply to Mary Cooch

Re: Upgraded to 2.3.1 - flagship course now invisible

by David McCarthy -

Hi Mary. Thought I was the only one still working!

Assignments & Quizes (there are some of each in the test courses too, and they are OK).

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In reply to David McCarthy

Re: Upgraded to 2.3.1 - flagship course now invisible

by Mary Cooch -
Picture of Documentation writers Picture of Moodle HQ Picture of Particularly helpful Moodlers Picture of Testers Picture of Translators

Oh this isn't my work - this is my hobbybig grin  Two thoughts:

#1:I can't read code but I'd like to think someone who can will spot something in your pdf attachment. Usually when courses go haywire like that it is because you have included/embedded/copied/pasted something Moodle doesn't like - for instance, Microsoft Word gunge or else some script. The assignments and quizzes shouldn't cause the problem. Can you remember anything in that course that might have been added?

#2 You are using the autumn theme in that course. Does the theme work for 2? I presume it must do if you were using it on your 2.2 site but I just thought I would double check.

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In reply to Mary Cooch

Re: Upgraded to 2.3.1 - flagship course now invisible

by Scott Karren -

Just a thought here, but the code stops at a line referencing IE 7 hacks, I assume this is to allow the page to view in IE 7.  If memory serves, Moodle 2.3 and above has a minimuim browser requirement of IE 8.  Is it possible that these hacks are causing viewing issues?

 

EDIT - I have to say Adobe X is wonderful in some ways.  I clicked on the HREF link and it took me to the code for the ie-7hacks.css.  Looking at that I noticed that you are using the Collapsed Topics course format.  Until very recently (July 3rd to be precise) the Collapsed Topics format was not supported by 2.3.  You may want to go here http://moodle.org/plugins/view.php?plugin=format_topcoll and make sure that you are using the most recent version that supports 2.3.

HTH

Scott

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In reply to Scott Karren

Re: Upgraded to 2.3.1 - flagship course now invisible

by David McCarthy -

Good morning Mary & Scott. Thanks for your replies.

Mary: We've been very careful about the 'quality' of text put into the course. At about 70,000 words, we may have missed something! I hadn't thought about the theme, but it does seem to be working otherwise. If Scott's idea about Collapsed Topics doesn't work, maybe we'll have to rebuild the 2.2 system and check the text.

Scott: I wondered about the IE7 hack ... but if it's working with some courses, I don't understand why it would be a problem with our main one. Your idea nabout the Collapsed Topics is potentially brilliant - our main course is the only one using it. I'm about to install the new version to see if it fixes the problem ... I'll report back.

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In reply to David McCarthy

Re: Upgraded to 2.3.1 - flagship course now invisible

by Martin Dougiamas -
Picture of Core developers Picture of Documentation writers Picture of Moodle HQ Picture of Particularly helpful Moodlers Picture of Plugin developers Picture of Testers

You can also just edit the course settings and switch to another course format.  Switching formats will not lose data.

You could try the Topics format with the "one section per page" layout and it might even be enough so that you don't need the Collapsed topics format at all.

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In reply to David McCarthy

Re: Upgraded to 2.3.1 - flagship course now invisible

by David McCarthy -

Installed new version of Collapsed Topics.

Progress of sorts ... now getting "error reading from database".

In debugging mode I get "Table "format_topcoll_settings" does not exist"

... again, only on the main course.

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In reply to David McCarthy

Re: Upgraded to 2.3.1 - flagship course now invisible

by Martin Dougiamas -
Picture of Core developers Picture of Documentation writers Picture of Moodle HQ Picture of Particularly helpful Moodlers Picture of Plugin developers Picture of Testers
Make sure you run through the admin upgrade for the new module.
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In reply to Martin Dougiamas

Re: Upgraded to 2.3.1 - flagship course now invisible

by Gareth J Barnard -
Picture of Core developers Picture of Particularly helpful Moodlers Picture of Plugin developers

Dear all,

I have taken over CONTRIB-3765 to help David resolve this.

I did bump into an issue with writing the upgrade script for the Moodle 2.3 version as it adds a new field to the table that does not exist in previous versions and removes a table - for which I'm finding the database manager actually does not perform the drop in the database - something that is on my todo list to investiate and see if there is a tracker for.  The complication lies in the versioning whereby I could not create a reliable upgrade script from 2.2 etc. because if that changes in the future then the script will not work and as there are many different entry points to the upgrade I did put in instructions in the readme so that it could be performed manually by a human who could adapt.

Sorry that the format was not out until the 3rd July, but I really wanted to test it and the new 'renderer.php' was a relatively recent addition in the development of 2.3 that caused me to re-write the format, to solve the problems I had been pulling my hair out over the AJAX changes and to make it work of sorts with the MyMobile theme.

But I hope the wait was worth it as I've added in some new features too like 'multi-columns' which works with the "one section per page" setting too and a 'Days' structure whereby each section is a day starting with sectrion 1 being the start date.

Cheers,

Gareth

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In reply to Gareth J Barnard

Re: Upgraded to 2.3.1 - flagship course now invisible

by Gareth J Barnard -
Picture of Core developers Picture of Particularly helpful Moodlers Picture of Plugin developers

Additionally if you need the course urgently before resolving the issue you can change it manually to the standard topics format by editing the 'course' table in the database and changing the value of the 'format' field for the affected course id (seen in the url as '&id=x') to 'topics'.

Cheers,

Gareth

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In reply to Gareth J Barnard

Re: Upgraded to 2.3.1 - flagship course now invisible

by David McCarthy -

Thanks to Mary, Scott and Martin for help here.

Gareth has helped me sort this out. It needed the latest version of the Topcoll (collapsing Topic) plugin. When I upgraded it didn't create a table in the database (so gave an error). Gareth 'talked' me through manual changes to the db so a re-install would work.

Our site is now upgraded to M2.3.1, and eveything works. Thanks everyone (especially Gareth) for the very prompt help. I've Tweeted about you all.

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In reply to David McCarthy

Re: Upgraded to 2.3.1 - flagship course now invisible

by casey keppel-compton -

HI I have the same issue with my flag ship course not being visible in the upgraded version of moodle but all others are fine when you attempt as admin to go to the course nothing happens - I looked in the course table for in the upgraded db for moodle 2.3 and format for the course is topics and this is what it was previously. I really need help as we are trying to go live with this new moodle install,

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In reply to casey keppel-compton

Re: Upgraded to 2.3.1 - flagship course now invisible

by Gareth J Barnard -
Picture of Core developers Picture of Particularly helpful Moodlers Picture of Plugin developers

Dear Casey,

Please could you provide more information?  Such as:

  • Does the 'view source' show that the html has been trucated, i.e. no closing html tag?
  • Is it completely blank?  A screen shot will help.
  • Do you have any custom plugins installed and their versions?  And if so were they course specific blocks before?
  • Were there any errors during the upgrade?
  • Have you tried changing the format to 'weeks' so see if it is a 'topics' specific thing in the database?
  • Does the same happen in other web browsers?
  • Are you using a custom or standard theme?
  • What environment and database engine are you using?

Cheers,

Gareth

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In reply to Gareth J Barnard

Re: Upgraded to 2.3.1 - flagship course now invisible

by casey keppel-compton -

HI Gareth

I have two issues

  1. Course menu block (latest version installed) is not working and causes moodle to die - you just get a black screen. Fixed by deleting from plugins - when your reinstall and try and add block - black screen apprears
  2. Course topic - no longer shows in a format that collapses - you see every topic in a long list

NO errors in upgrade although I had to run a scipt on the db to change all tables properly to ut8 unicode

 

I did upgrade every plugin (mod and block) that was contributed before upgrade and am running all the latest versions

I am using splash theme - uncustomised at the mo - I have not copied over the changes I made to theme in 2.2.1


The environment is as follows:

mysql

  • Server: Localhost via UNIX socket
  • Server version: 5.1.57-log
  • Protocol version: 10
  • User: web85-mad@localhost
  • MySQL charset: UTF-8 Unicode (utf8)

web server

 

  • Apache/2
  • MySQL client version: mysqlnd 5.0.8-dev - 20102224 - $Revision: 321634 $
  • PHP extension: mysqli Documentation

PLugins installed are as follows

  1. configurable-reports
  2. certificate
  3. flashcard
  4. games
  5. course-menu(now removed)

I really appreciate help - I do want to use the course menu block if I can

 

Thank you in advance

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In reply to casey keppel-compton

Re: Upgraded to 2.3.1 - flagship course now invisible

by Gareth J Barnard -
Picture of Core developers Picture of Particularly helpful Moodlers Picture of Plugin developers

Dear Casey,

No worries and thank you for the information, really useful as I can see what is what.  You do appear to have a long list of extras smile.

The DB changes would not have caused the issue rather that the underlying core code changes that the plugin's rely on.  I think the next step for you if things are not working is to remove all of the add-ons and switch to a standard theme temporarily then put them back one by one.  In that way you can test and discover which plugin is causing the issue.  Just like the 'course-menu' as you discovered.  Unfortunately I've found that PHP can be more work / no work with not so much middle ground upon which to recover.

Indeed I could not find a course-menu version for 2.3 or in fact 'games'.

When you say 'Course topic - no longer shows in a format that collapses' what do you mean as the standard topics format does not collapse?

Cheers,

Gareth

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In reply to Gareth J Barnard

Re: Upgraded to 2.3.1 - flagship course now invisible

by casey keppel-compton -

HI Gareth


Please note main issue now is with course menu block causing the main course to be totally unavail. If I delete the block and the main course is  avail (it is a topic view course) it works as expected but you are not able to collapse the course to show a topic per page.


If I put course menu block back (install the plugin) I get the following

Server error

The website encountered an error while retrieving http://talkmedicalonline.co.uk/moodle/. It may be down for maintenance or configured incorrectly.

Here are some suggestions:

HTTP Error 500 (Internal Server Error): An unexpected condition was encountered while the server was attempting to fulfill the request.
My contributed plugins are as the screen shot
I then have to go into admin/login and remove the course menu plugin (delete and there is an update of the database (moodle states).Then it asks about the contributed plugins (check for latest versiosn see secrrenshot). It then seems to add course menu again to the db despite my main action to remove it.
Then I can access my main course again. There seems to be an issue with course menu block definaltley and it just isnt working.
No errors during upgrade but I had to address the database not being utf-8 unicode by running a script to update all tables - no errors were reported and the upgrade was seemless
I changed the main course to weekly

Switched from firefix (latest) to chrome and then tried to add course menu
 
Then got this error

Server error

The website encountered an error while retrieving http://talkmedicalonline.co.uk/moodle/course/view.php?id=2. It may be down for maintenance or configured incorrectly.

Here are some suggestions:

Only way to resume normal use of the course is to delete the couse menu block from plugins

 

Theme is splash totally standard

Environement and database as follows

moodle   version 2.2 is required and you are running 2.3.1+ (Build: 20120712)version 2.2 is required and you are running 2.3.1+ (Build: 20120712) OK
unicode   must be installed and enabledmust be installed and enabled OK
database mysql version 5.1.33 is required and you are running 5.1.57version 5.1.33 is required and you are running 5.1.57 OK
php   version 5.3.2 is required and you are running 5.3.10version 5.3.2 is required and you are running 5.3.10 OK
pcreunicode   should be installed and enabled for best resultsshould be installed and enabled for best results OK
php_extension iconv must be installed and enabledmust be installed and enabled OK
php_extension mbstring should be installed and enabled for best resultsshould be installed and enabled for best results OK

Dartabase =

MySQL

  • Server: Localhost via UNIX socket
  • Server version: 5.1.57-log
  • Protocol version: 10
  • User: web85-mad@localhost
  • MySQL charset: UTF-8 Unicode (utf8)

Web server

  • Apache/2
  • MySQL client version: mysqlnd 5.0.8-dev - 20102224 - $Revision: 321634 $
  • PHP extension: mysqli Documentation

 

Attachment Untitled-1.jpg
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In reply to casey keppel-compton

Re: Upgraded to 2.3.1 - flagship course now invisible

by Gareth J Barnard -
Picture of Core developers Picture of Particularly helpful Moodlers Picture of Plugin developers

Dear Casey,

To remove the course menu block and prevent it from reinstalling you need to remove its entry in the 'block' table in the database and its entire folder in the 'blocks' folder, i.e. its folder in 'moodle/blocks'.  This should stop the 500 error which is because of bad code and possibly the collapsing issue.

Cheers,

Gareth

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In reply to Gareth J Barnard

Re: Upgraded to 2.3.1 - flagship course now invisible

by casey keppel-compton -

Removing course menu block and removing table entries in db has fixed the issues - thank you. I will keep my eye out for the revised course menu block - clearly current version does not work with 2.3 - thank you for your time and mega quick response - you are appreciated

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In reply to casey keppel-compton

Re: Upgraded to 2.3.1 - flagship course now invisible

by casey keppel-compton -

I have fixed the issue about the course not showing - it appears to be an isue with course-menu block - when you go to plugins and remove the course is accessible. I cannot get course-menu block to install and work anymore - I wonder if the db changes on the upgrade have caused the issue - starting a new post for the course menu issue

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