URGENT: cmi.suspend_data not being saved

URGENT: cmi.suspend_data not being saved

by Gaius Coffey -
Number of replies: 7

Hi,

I have installed a SCORM module into Moodle. It loaded correctly and functioned perfectly while testing on numerous machines / browsers and set cmi.suspend_data, cmi.total_time, cmi.core.lesson_status and cmi.core.exit.

However, when we released this course to our customers, we found that cmi.suspend_data was not set at all and cmi.core.total_time was set to 00:00:00.00.

I should note that the issue is not the course itself as, when we login using our own accounts, the data is still saved correctly as expected. So it is only when customers login that data is lost. I should also point out that all courses are accessed over the Internet - there is not local / hosted thing going on here.

Needless to say, this is a _BIG_ issue and although I know you will need more data than this, I need time to find it and hope there is a simple answer before then!

Does anybody have any ideas what is going on?

What information would help you to help me?

Gaius

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In reply to Gaius Coffey

Re: URGENT: cmi.suspend_data not being saved

by Dan Marsden -
Picture of Core developers Picture of Particularly helpful Moodlers Picture of Peer reviewers Picture of Plugin developers Picture of Plugins guardians Picture of Testers Picture of Translators
What version of Moodle are you using? - a lot of work has gone into the Scorm module over the past 2-4 weeks, can you please update to the latest 1.9stable or 1.8stable and try again.

if this doesn't solve your problem, please e-mail myself or Piers with a Scorm object that allows us to reproduce your issue.

thanks.

smile

Dan
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In reply to Dan Marsden

Re: URGENT: cmi.suspend_data not being saved

by Gaius Coffey -

Hi,

I am reluctant to run an upgrade before I know what the problem is! However, I only installed Moodle a coupla weeks ago and am on:

1.9.2 (Build: 20080716)

2007101520

I will discuss with my customer about releasing the SCORM object to yourself, but I suspect you (like me) will be unable to replicate the problem until I can find out more information about what is actually happening.

FYI, I have tested on FireFox and IE from my PC and all tracking data is stored as expected. My customer has tested on IE from their computers and all tracking data is stored as expected. So it is only my customer's customers who are having problems. sad

Are there any required local browser settings that would affect Moodle SCORM functioning and that could have been changed for security reasons on a network-wide basis?

Have you come across any proxy server issues that would cause tracking calls (for example) to be cached? Or not passed on correctly?

Are there any browser specific javascript issues that could come into play? (EG: Is there a browser-specific maximum size string that can be used as an argument in JavaScript that causes the tracking call to fail?)

Gaius

PS: My best guess is that the suspend data call is crashing and so prevents the time value from being updated as this fits with the database entries I am seeing. But I don't know enough about what is going on to know why this might be the case.

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In reply to Gaius Coffey

Re: URGENT: cmi.suspend_data not being saved

by Dan Marsden -
Picture of Core developers Picture of Particularly helpful Moodlers Picture of Peer reviewers Picture of Plugin developers Picture of Plugins guardians Picture of Testers Picture of Translators
Hi Gaius,

as you suspect, you and your customers customers haven't provided enough information for us to be able to help much.

there are a range of Javascript related issues in the tracker that we are slowly working through. -see here:
http://tracker.moodle.org/browse/MDL/component/10080

The biggest reason to upgrade to a newer version would be the new visualisation patches that recently went in to greatly improve the way SCORM objects are displayed in Moodle. But a lot of other bugs have been recently fixed, and a lot more will be fixed in the next couple of months.

Make sure the users don't have pop-up blockers enabled or have disabled Javascript from running.

If you can't provide us a scorm object that allows us to reproduce the issue, there's not much more that we can do, but point you to the bugs in the tracker that have recently been fixed, and those that are still outstanding.

thanks,

smile

Dan

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In reply to Dan Marsden

Re: URGENT: cmi.suspend_data not being saved

by Gaius Coffey -

Thanks Dan, I have managed to get a direct contact in the customer's customer site so I can find out a bit more. Will let you know if I can find out anything useful.

FYI, I have chosen to launch in the same window, so pop-up blocking shouldn't be a factor. And if JavaScript was entirely blocked then I don' t think _any_ content would be displayed as we have a JS launch routine that does such nice things as ensuring we have Flash plugin before trying to display any training.

As a quick q, am I correct in thinking that cmi.suspend_data record will be created as needed and doesn't need to be pre-created when the student first enters the course? 

G

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In reply to Gaius Coffey

Re: URGENT: cmi.suspend_data not being saved

by Christian Bokhove -

Whilst using our SCORM packages several things have caused suspend data not to bes stored.

  • The SCORM packages themselves, in particular home made ones. It often is the Javascript.
  • SCORM 1.2 has a data limit of 4096. I modified the SCORM module to allow bigger suspendstates. In the newest SCORM this is 64000 bytes so this should be enough.
  • One error that should have been corrected in the SCORM module is a Firefox error and has indeed to do with the way Javascript is used. Let's say that IE has a way of "guessing" datatypes and Firefox is more strict. 
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In reply to Christian Bokhove

Re: URGENT: cmi.suspend_data not being saved

by Gaius Coffey -

Hi Christian,

I suspected the data size thing myself, but found we are storing less than 2000 bytes, so that was OK. smile

Since posting, I have found out a bit more about the problem:

Firstly, ALL computers are now storing data!

It looks like the majority of the reports were simply odd user behaviour where they simply logged on to check their accounts worked, then logged out before the first save point. sad

However one user (the originator of the report) _did_ lose data. In her case, what happened was as follows:

1. She submitted a report she couldn't get in

2. While we were investigating, she got in and started the course

3. Not realising she had got in, we reset her password as she was viewing the course and notified her that her account had changed

4. When she exited the course, the data save failed...

5. When she tried to log in using the new password, there was no record of her previous attempt

So, all in all, just a very unfortunate mis-handling of a support request.

Ho hum,

Gaius

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In reply to Gaius Coffey

Re: URGENT: cmi.suspend_data not being saved

by Gaius Coffey -

Oh dear.

It's a bit more serious than that actually.

I've had another report as follows:

1. User logged on and completed about half of the course

2. User distracted by other work and went away for a while

3. User came back and continued to view, but the training hung as couldn't access a media file (file is present and correct, has been seen by all other students)

4. User exited using the links and logged out

5. User forgot password and so used password reset functionality to login again

6. No data found for user.

I suspect the missing file could be a session time-out or something, but there should still have been data for the user as there are numerous data-save points in the training before the point where the course crashed.

FYI, I have done a few experiments with password changing and found nothing that could explain the apparent wiping of cmi.suspend_data.

Gaius

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