Blogs: Debugging moodle blog

Blogs: Debugging moodle blog

by Daryl Hawes -
Number of replies: 28
Use this discussion thread to post your experiences with moodle blog installation and other testing concerns.
Average of ratings: -
In reply to Daryl Hawes

Re: Blogs: Debugging moodle blog

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

good thinking - I was about to suggest a new thread myself. - the other one was getting cluttered!

 Can you edit block_action.php and add a line around line 10 (just after $referrer is created) print "DAN'SDEBUG: referrer = $referrer

I tried adding the code mentioned, but it redirects the browser before I can read anythiing on the block_action.php page - I stopped the redirect in the block_action file, and got the following error after trying to add a block

Notice: Undefined index: HTTP_REFERER in E:\learnmoo\moodledev\blocks\block_action.php on line 9
DAN'SDEBUG: referrer = 

I'm guessing you don't need the html of the admin block to help debug this one...

In reply to Dan Marsden

Re: Blogs: Debugging moodle blog

by Daryl Hawes -
I'll send you a new version of that file to test via email. If it fixes that problem I will upload the change to cvs.
In reply to Daryl Hawes

Re: Blogs: Debugging moodle blog

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 Daryl - It's a cleaner solution, but it doesn't "fix" the problem - once the block is added to the blog page, it returns you to the hompage of the website - better than returning an invalid URL.

Dan

In reply to Dan Marsden

Re: Blogs: Debugging moodle blog

by Daryl Hawes -
I'm not sure of an alternative. The problem is that there is no $_SERVER['HTTP_REFERER'] set. I can't really be safe making a guess as to where you came from. So rather than error out I redirect to the site main page. I'm not sure why you're not getting the referrer variable.
In reply to Daryl Hawes

Re: Blogs: Debugging moodle blog

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

probably some weird setting in my browser! -

smile

Dan

In reply to Dan Marsden

Re: Blogs: Debugging moodle blog

by Daryl Hawes -
probably some weird setting in my browser
That is indeed possible. I loved a comment I saw recently, I believe on www.slashdot.org, about HTTP_REFERER. It was something to the effect of "receiving this info was a priviledge. You abused it. I am no longer providing this information." Apparently some browsers and third party apps suppress HTTP_REFERER info. I suppose it makes sense to foil those server apps that truly abuse it. However, it takes away a component some sites rely on to operate optimally. The moodle code I have on my local machine (mostly 1.3 era stuff) has 59 occurances of HTTP_REFERER. I'd say half of those check to ensure that it's not empty at a quick glance.
Who knows, maybe I'm missing something obvious.
In reply to Daryl Hawes

Re: Blogs: Debugging moodle blog

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

Here is another one I cannot reproduce. I have added and deleted a few comments on my test site with code from yesterday and I do not see the ERROR: string. Could be your error log level of course. Is there any other info printed in the html source than just ERROR: ?

heres the html at the top of each file - after add comment, and then after delete comment.

  ERROR:

<CENTER>
<TABLE WIDTH=100% cellspacing=5 cellpadding=2>
    <TR>
        <TD valign=top colspan=2 align="center">
            <FONT FACE="arial,helvetica,sans-serif"...........

 <B>Comment deleted</B><BR>ERROR:

<CENTER>
<TABLE WIDTH=100% cellspacing=5 cellpadding=2>
    <TR>
        <TD valign=top colspan=2 align="center">..........

In reply to Dan Marsden

Re: Blogs: Debugging moodle blog

by Daryl Hawes -
Regarding the "ERROR:" output that you get. I think I have an idea where the problem is. You are testing this on a windows system correct? Are emails sending properly from the system?
I am going to send you a new file with some debug output in email. Please respond in email with the output. We may have to go back and forth a few times as I narrow down where the specific error is coming from.
In reply to Daryl Hawes

Re: Blogs: Debugging moodle blog

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

good spotting - the e-mail isn't getting sent! - I don't think I've got round to configuring it! - here is the output from the top of the page when a comment is deleted.

Comment deleted
adding to log
done adding to log
done checking for guest
about to send email to user
ERROR: email send to user

Dan

In reply to Dan Marsden

Re: Blogs: Debugging moodle blog

by Daryl Hawes -
good spotting - the e-mail isn't getting sent! - I don't think I've got round to configuring it!
I do not know of a way to check if email is setup on the site before attempting to send it. The "ERROR:" message is coming from a moodle library, not from my code. I am calling the email function with all of the correct params. When I get more time I can try to debug this a little further and I'll post a moodle bug report when I find the offending function. For the moment it's S.E.P. (someone else's problem) ;).
In reply to Daryl Hawes

Re: Blogs: Debugging moodle blog

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

I think I've found the cause of the javascript bugs, but I don't seem to be able to see where the error is in the code - I'll have a closer look, but here are the details anyway.

when an htmlarea is created on a page the end of the code should look like:
"Wingdings": 'wingdings'};

The blog looks like this:
"Wingdings": 'wingdings',
};

-this occurs on the add new entry page - I haven't checked if it occurs on the others yet.

note the extra comma!

Dan

In reply to Dan Marsden

Re: Blogs: Debugging moodle blog

by Daryl Hawes -
note the extra comma
Aha - Janne is debugging this same issue in another thread. I'll ping him and ask if this is a known thing.
In reply to Daryl Hawes

Re: Blogs: Debugging moodle blog

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 Daryl,

the weird behaviour continues - the comma has disapeared, but the javascript errors remain, and the html editor still doesn't show on the create blog pages.... - I'll do a full re-install tomorrow from the CVS, and see if it fixes itself up.

(the Html editor appears on the forum & other areas of the site, just not the comments, and blog posting areas.)

smile

Dan

In reply to Dan Marsden

Re: Blogs: Debugging moodle blog

by Daryl Hawes -
(the Html editor appears on the forum & other areas of the site, just not the comments, and blog posting areas.)
Janne has supplied me with a test update to the HTMLArea.php file that appears to fixe the problem with the html editor. I'm not sure when it will get in to cvs. Thanks much Janne!
In reply to Daryl Hawes

Re: Blogs: Debugging moodle blog

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 Daryl,

I've just tried again using a full moodle copy from the cvs - I still have trouble on the blog pages, all other pages are fine  - I can't see any new updates in the CVS to the HtmlArea.php file - the version I have is 1.32 - is there a newer one?

thanks,

Dan

In reply to Dan Marsden

Re: Blogs: Debugging moodle blog

by Daryl Hawes -
Janne has not added it in to cvs yet. Sorry I did not make that clear before.
He will add it in to cvs as soon as he can. Please be patient smile
Daryl
In reply to Daryl Hawes

Re: Blogs: Debugging moodle blog

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

If you add the "Blog Categories" block to the homepage and turn editing off, you get the following error:


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Notice: Undefined variable: blogid in E:\moodledev\blocks\blog_categories\block_blog_categories.php on line 170
Blog Categories
General
In reply to Dan Marsden

Re: Blogs: Debugging moodle blog

by Daryl Hawes -
The fix is now in cvs for the block_blog_categories issue reported. Thanks Dan.
In reply to Daryl Hawes

Re: Blogs: Debugging moodle blog

by W Page -
Hello All!

The install from the combined Moodle + Blog went well with no problems.

From a quick glance [I am running about right now] there are a few blocks missing from the HomePage and I think from the Course pages but most are present and work correctly.

I really like the HTML block. It displays my WeatherPixie [http://www.weatherpixie.com] correctly. I do not have to use the Site Description block inorder to display it. Check it out at,
http://s94988317.onlinehome.us/moodleblog14/

I am also going to mess with the
RSS block this weekend.

Would like to see the option of a blog for the center table of the HomePage as well.

Will continue testing. So far whatever is suppose to be working is working.

Thanks Daryl and Dan. Neato!!

WP1
In reply to W Page

Re: Blogs: Debugging moodle blog

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 WP1,

have you seen this error on your blog page?

Warning: Cannot modify header information - headers already sent by (output started at /homepages/30/d94988299/htdocs/moodleblog14/blog/class.BlogFilter.php:286) in /homepages/30/d94988299/htdocs/moodleblog14/blog/header.php on line 8

My Moodle Blog Site v1.4 Beta

Dan

In reply to Dan Marsden

Re: Blogs: Debugging moodle blog

by Daryl Hawes -
headers already sent by [...] class.BlogFilter.php:286) in [...] header.php on line 8
There was a space at the end of the class.BlogFilter.php file. Please test again when you get a chance. Thanks.
In reply to W Page

Re: Blogs: Debugging moodle blog

by Daryl Hawes -
There are a few blocks missing from the HomePage and I think from the Course pages but most are present and work correctly.

When you say blocks are missing do you mean

a) Blocks are not present on the page by default? If this is the case then it's a known issue. I had not added default blocks capability back in to the new version. I have started working on this and I'll continue working on it this weekend.

or

b) There are blocks you are used to being able to select in 1.4b that are not available to you in the drop down menu. If so, which ones specifically as I'll need to update them and add them to the project.

I am also going to mess with the RSS block this weekend.
Please do. I cannot remember the status of it. I know it needs to be moodl-ified a bit more. It may be in need of some TLC.

Would like to see the option of a blog for the center table of the HomePage as well.
This request has been heard and noted. I'm hoping to freeze new features and fully debug what we have so far first.
Testers please take note of the file in cvs at contrib/blog/blog/simplogTodo.txt and on your install at moodle/blog/simplogTodo.txt. I've asked Martin to rename it to TODO.txt. Thanks.

Will continue testing.
Thanks smile
In reply to Daryl Hawes

Re: Blogs: Debugging moodle blog

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

I get the following errors during the configuration of the install of Moodle on a server with PHP 5.0.1

Block activity_modules: class does not have a constructor

Block admin: class does not have a constructor

Block blog_archives: class does not have a constructor

Block blog_categories: class does not have a constructor

Block blog_menu: class does not have a constructor

Block blog_news_feeds: class does not have a constructor

Block blog_recent_entries: class does not have a constructor

Block blog_rss: class does not have a constructor

Block blog_site_blogs: class does not have a constructor

Block blog_site_entries: class does not have a constructor

Block bug_report_link: class does not have a constructor

Block calendar_month: class does not have a constructor

Block calendar_upcoming: class does not have a constructor

Block course_list: class does not have a constructor

Block course_summary: class does not have a constructor

Block html: class does not have a constructor

Block moodle_login: class does not have a constructor

Block news_items: class does not have a constructor

Block online_users: class does not have a constructor

Block participants: class does not have a constructor

Block recent_activity: class does not have a constructor

Block search_forums: class does not have a constructor

Block section_links: class does not have a constructor

Block social_activities: class does not have a constructor

In reply to Dan Marsden

Re: Blogs: Debugging moodle blog

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
Moodle 1.3.x might give this on PHP5.  Moodle 1.3.x doesn't work with PHP5, but Moodle 1.4 does.
In reply to Martin Dougiamas

Re: Blogs: Debugging moodle blog

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 Martin,

The error refers to a CVS version of 1.4Beta with the Blogging code - Daryl has used his own constructors in the blog code - he's in the process of reviewing them & adjusting them to work with PHP 5

thanks!

Dan

In reply to Daryl Hawes

Re: Blogs: Debugging moodle blog

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

HTML Editor again! smile

when posting a blog, the html editor doesn't show anywhere to enter the text - it shows the different buttons etc & if you click on the "html" button, it gives you a very small textbox to enter text into, or you can also click on the "enlarge editor" button to get a bigger view.

also after pressing submit to submit your blog an error occurs & I get a blank page - the following popup error appears:

"cannot find 'file://e:moodlemoodledev\course\view.php'. Make sure the path or internet address is correct.

Note: my moodle install is in e:\moodle\moodledev\.... (note the extra "\")

The blog created does appear on the page if you browse back to the blog page.

smile

Dan

In reply to Dan Marsden

Re: Blogs: Debugging moodle blog

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

the above html editor error may be browser related - I just tried from a different machine & it seems fine - The browser that seems to cause the error is IE 6.0.28  - I'll have a look see if I can replicate the error on a different browser.

heres another bug, when posting a comment on a blog, the following is shown in the HTML source near the bottom of the page :

<TR>
    <TD ALIGN=center COLSPAN=2>
         <INPUT TYPE="hidden" NAME=userid VALUE="<br />
<b>Notice</b>:  Undefined variable:  post in <b>E:\learnmoo\moodledev\blog\comments.html</b> on line <b>87</b><br />
">
        <INPUT TYPE="hidden" NAME=blogid VALUE="1">
        <INPUT CLASS=search TYPE=submit VALUE="Post Comment">
                    <INPUT CLASS=search TYPE=submit VALUE="Preview" onClick="document.comment.op.value='prev';">
            </TD>
</TR>

In reply to Dan Marsden

Re: Blogs: Debugging moodle blog

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
yup, the html editor bug was due to some weird issue with the JVM - I was running the MS JVM that comes with IE 6, but somehow it confused itself a bit, & the sun JVM works fine.