Mahara - Will not connect via network!!

Mahara - Will not connect via network!!

by Karl Kennedy -
Number of replies: 33

Hi Everyone,

I'm trying to connect Moodle to Mahara. Moodle is http://......com and Mahara is http://......com/mahara. Networking is set to yes in Mahara and the peer is set up in Moodle along with some of the services ticked, the authentication method Networking is on also.

But this is the error i get when any user clicks on the Mahara link (permissions are all set correctly to roam to networked moodles too):

Mahara: Invalid Parameter

A required parameter is missing or malformed

We don't seem to have any authentication plugin instances configured for the host at http://...........com

What could the problem be???????? Please help!!

Thank you!

Karl

Average of ratings: -
In reply to Karl Kennedy

Re: Mahara - Will not connect via network!!

by Adam Koehn -
I had the same problem, and after going through quite a bit of trouble I found that with a blank Moodle database, it worked, but with a copy of the live database on my test server, it did what you're experiencing. For some reason Moodle had 'localhost' written in the mysql database in the mdl_mnet_host table with the IP 127.0.0.1. All I did was change the wwwroot and left the IP at 127.0.0.1 and it worked. I also ended up with Mahara 1.0.0alpha3dev through git. If you don't have that one already you might want to get it since there appears to be some database changes and the database from the 0.9.2 release doesn't work any more. Hope that helps some.

The page for git is here: http://www.mahara.org/wiki/En/Get_Mahara

It does need to be updated though to be a little more thorough for people who have never used git-clone before.
In reply to Adam Koehn

Re: Mahara - Will not connect via network!!

by Nigel McNie -
What in particular do you find wrong with the docs on that page? smile git-clone is pretty simple, and there's an example on that page. I just subscribed to this forum, so I'll be able to help with Mahara related questions here now.
In reply to Nigel McNie

Re: Mahara - Will not connect via network!!

by Adam Koehn -
Nothing I guess, I just thought it was rather spiffy that Moodle has "Step by Step" instructions for stuff.
In reply to Adam Koehn

Re: Mahara - Will not connect via network!!

by Karl Kennedy -

Hi Adam,

Thanks for replying! big grin I just had a look in the mdl_mnet_host table and the wwwroot is set correctly to the url of my Mahara site. I also am using the 1.0.0alpha3dev version you mention...... sad Any other ideas what it could be??? sad

Thanks,

K

In reply to Adam Koehn

Re: Mahara - Will not connect via network!!

by Jason Bedell -
Please help,

This sounds like what I need to do, but I have no idea to do it. I am logged into phpmyadmin and found mdl_mnet_host table, but don't know how to change anything.

Thank you
In reply to Adam Koehn

Re: Mahara - Will not connect via network!!

by nicola burton -
Hi I want to install mahara to integrate with my moodle site
can anyone let me know where i can download this from and install notes if possible - i am using moodle 1.9


In reply to Karl Kennedy

Re: Mahara - Will not connect via network!!

by Donal McMullan -
Hey Karl

Please check Moodle's mnet_host table one more time - but this time, please check for the wwwroot of your Moodle server. This record normally has '1' in the id field. You might find that the wwwroot value ends in a slash, for example:
http://yourmoodle.com/

Now on your Mahara database, please check the auth_instance_config table for a record where
field = 'wwwroot' AND
value LIKE 'http://yourmoodle.com%'

I suspect you might find that the record in Mahara does not have a trailing slash, and the record in Moodle does. If this is the case, I would expect a simple update of the Moodle record to remove the slash will fix your problem.

If this is not the case, I have a query I'd like you to run against your mahara database. I'll add that in a subsequent post.
In reply to Donal McMullan

Re: Mahara - Will not connect via network!!

by Donal McMullan -
The error message you're receiving is the result of a database query returning no values. This might be because you've made a mistake in configuring Mahara's XMLRPC Auth plugin, or it could be a bug.

The query:
SELECT * FROM auth_instance_config WHERE field = 'wwwroot';

Should return a record for each instance of the XMLRPC Auth plugin that you've configured - probably just one record at this stage. As I mentioned in the previous post, Mahoodle is very picky about this field... it must be character-for-character the same as that in Moodle's mnet_host table.

If you get a result, take the instance field from that result and try the following query. Let's imagine your instance was 6:
SELECT * FROM auth_instance WHERE id = '6';

If you get a result, that the institution field from the result and try the following query. Let's imagine your institution field was 'Gotham':
SELECT * FROM institution WHERE name = 'Gotham';

If you've made it thus far without error, then I'll be surprised that you're receiving your error message. I hope that we can work out which query is failing, and from that starting point I can do some more digging.
In reply to Donal McMullan

Re: Mahara - Will not connect via network!!

by Karl Kennedy -

Hi Donal!

Ok, I have NO records in my auth_instance_config table for the Mahara database!! Should there be? That could be the problem! The table is empty. surprise

Cheers,

K

In reply to Karl Kennedy

Re: Mahara - Will not connect via network!!

by Donal McMullan -
Yeah - there absolutely should be a record in there that represents the Auth plugin you're trying to configure.

I just uploaded a document titled "Mahoodle" to the old Mahara wiki. If you haven't already seen it, it should prove useful. Have a read through that, and then please let us know if it helped.

Thanks Karl

D
In reply to Donal McMullan

Re: Mahara - Will not connect via network!!

by Karl Kennedy -

Thanks Donal but where is the document you uploaded? I've looked all through the wiki to no avail.... Could you give me a url maybe?? smile

Thank you!

Karl

In reply to Karl Kennedy

Re: Mahara - Will not connect via network!!

by Donal McMullan -
Hey Karl - the word "Mahoodle" in my last post was hyperlinked to a page on the Eduforge site that has the Mahoodle document listed on it. Sorry I was a bit unclear.

You can click on the link below, and the PDF should start downloading:
Mahoodle.pdf
In reply to Donal McMullan

Re: Mahara - Will not connect via network!!

by Karl Kennedy -

Ok, here's the problem! The screen to configure the auth plugin doesn't appear - no wonder i had no clue! It must be a bug in the version i have or something..... when i click on the plus beside the auth plugin (in 'institutions') it just removes the option i have chosen and leaves 'internal' and 'none'. If i click again, it removes those too! So i actually have to go back out of the page and back in to get the list to appear again.....

Which version should i get? i tried 0.9 and now have, i think 1.0.0...

Cheers,

K

In reply to Karl Kennedy

Re: Mahara - Will not connect via network!!

by Donal McMullan -
I'm not aware of a problem with this Javascript, and it works on all versions that I've tried recently. What web browser are you using Karl? Do you have any popoup blockers installed?

Are you getting any javascript error messages?
In reply to Donal McMullan

Re: Mahara - Will not connect via network!!

by Karl Kennedy -

No, no error messages, nothing. I have made sure that pop-ups are not being blocked and have now noticed in the top left corner it now says "loading..." but nothing happens. The xmlrpc option is now not available after clicking the plus sign... strange. And if I click on the plus again, another option is removed, and again until there are no options available!

I will get the versions suggested by Anil below smile ....and I'll keep everyone posted.

K

In reply to Karl Kennedy

Re: Mahara - Will not connect via network!!

by Anil Sharma -
Karl

I was facing the problem with Mahara 0.9.2 trying to link it to Moodle 1.9 beta 3.

I changed the Mahara to 1.0 beta 1 and the networking worked fine - following the Mahoolde document, I was able to configure it. However, this new version of Mahara has its own set of issues, which i hope will get sorted out soon, its being discussed here : http://www.mahara.org/forum/3
In reply to Anil Sharma

Re: Mahara - Will not connect via network!!

by Karl Kennedy -

Thanks Anil but I just tried with the version you suggested and STILL get the same problem. I'm using ie7 if that will help anyone....

Very annoying... at least I know it's not just me!!!

If anyone gets that problem sorted could they post it here so I know!! smile

Thank you!!

K

In reply to Karl Kennedy

Re: Mahara - Will not connect via network!!

by Karl Kennedy -

Just replying to my own post.... smile

I've just tried it on Firfox and everything works!!!!! Can't believe it!!

So it doesn't work on ie7... Can't believe all this time it was a browser problem! aaaghh!

Cheers everyone for your help,

Karl

In reply to Karl Kennedy

Re: Mahara - Will not connect via network!!

by Nigel McNie -
In reply to Nigel McNie

Re: Mahara - Will not connect via network!!

by Karl Kennedy -

Hi,

Found this post in the forums forum, thought i'd move it to get some answers...


I followed that pdf document on integrating moodle and mahara.
When I clicked add hosts in moodle and input the running url of mahara(http://localhost/mahara/htdocs), it said that the public key could not be retrieved.
In another line, it said that the expiration date of that key was in 1970. But in Mahara, it said that the key was valid until 18 March 2008. What's this issue?
So I copied the key manually from Mahara and pasted in moodle. then I folowed the rest of the tutorial and when I finally clicked the link on moodle to go to Mahara, it said,

The requested URL /mahara/htdocs/auth/mnet/land.php was not found on this server.

I followed the procedure few times and I'm sure I got the other parts configured correctly.
please help!

Isuru.

In reply to Karl Kennedy

Re: Mahara - Will not connect via network!!

by theo leenders -
Hai Karl,

If you follow the pdf document mohara it should be allright. BUT!!!!
I did the same with the 1.0.x beta version of mahara. I use moodle 1.9.x
I also got the 1970 key. In Mahara the key was alright?!!
I got back to mahara 0.9.x That didnot go well so I had to delete the mahara database to change to mahara 0.9.x and bingo!
I think the beta is not ready to go yet. The menu of the pdf is also based on 0.9.x i think.
successsss

theo




In reply to theo leenders

Re: Mahara - Will not connect via network!!

by Nigel McNie -
Hi Theo,

If you do keyswap and it doesn't work, then that is immediately a symptom of a configuration problem. It's best to stop there and see if you can work out why the keyswap might not have worked. It might be like what Karl has done - you might not have chosen 'Mahara' from the dropdown when adding the new peer.

The 1.0 code is actually better than the 0.9 code for SSO, by the way - although the beta is not ready for public use for other reasons smile
In reply to Karl Kennedy

Re: Mahara - Will not connect via network!!

by Nigel McNie -
Hi Karl,

That error means that you configured SSO to think that it was trying to SSO to a remote Moodle, not a remote Mahara. You can tell this because it has tried to hit auth/mnet/land.php, which is not a file in Mahara, but is in Moodle.

Go to Networking -> Peers, and remove the record for the Mahara you have set up. Then add the Mahara again using 'Add a new host', but this time choose 'Mahara' from the dropdown before you submit it. Hopefully, that should make the keyswapping work, and from there the SSO.
In reply to Nigel McNie

Re: Mahara - Will not connect via network!!

by Randy Bale -
But this dropdown menu is not in Moodle 1.8.4+. What's the version it is available?
Moodle 1.8.4+ is the latest in the moodle site.
In reply to Randy Bale

Re: Mahara - Will not connect via network!!

by Donal McMullan -
Moodle/Mahara networking is a feature of Moodle 1.9+
In reply to Donal McMullan

Re: Mahara - Will not connect via network!!

by Randy Bale -
Thank you very much. Problem solved.
Although The name, city, country appear in Mahara, the picture I uploaded in moodle does not appear in Mahara. What could be the cause of that?
Thanks in advance.
Isuru.
In reply to Randy Bale

Re: Mahara - Will not connect via network!!

by Nigel McNie -
Some other people have reported this too, I suspect there might be a bug in Moodle or Mahara. I will be looking into it at some point over the next few days.
In reply to Donal McMullan

Re: Mahara - Will not connect via network!!

by Randy Bale -
When I log out of Mahara after SSOing from moodle, the moodle login is still active. It shouldn't be so, should it?(Seeing as it's single sign on).
But I may be wrong about that. Could you please clarify.
Thanks.
Isuru.
In reply to Randy Bale

Re: Mahara - Will not connect via network!!

by Nigel McNie -
What should actually happen is that you should be logged out of Mahara and taken back to Moodle, probably still logged in there. Single sign out from Mahara hasn't been implemented yet.
In reply to Donal McMullan

Re: Mahara - Will not connect via network!!

by Tony Hursh -
I just uploaded a document titled "Mahoodle" to the old Mahara wiki.

I set up networking between our Moodle 1.9 test server and our Mahara test server yesterday using this doc. Very clear and easy to follow. Nice job!

I know others are still having problems, so I wanted to mention that it does work for some of us. smile




In reply to Tony Hursh

Re: Mahara - Will not connect via network!!

by Donal McMullan -
Thanks Tony - I hope you guys find it useful. We'll be keen to hear your feedback.