Sorting Forums

Sorting Forums

由mike poitras發表於
Number of replies: 9

I have two broad forum categories (General and Learning). Presently the General category contains only one forum. The learning category contains the remainder and is organized by week. Two problems arise:

  1. I need to move several forums presently from the General category into the Learning category.
  • The forum type is on all is presently "Standard Forum for General use". Which I thought is correct but apparently not...
Within the Learning category I will need to move several forums from one week into another.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Mike

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In reply to mike poitras

Re: Sorting Forums

由John White發表於
Mike,

Well, moving forums from one week to another is a simple task: you turn on editing and use the up/down icon next to the forum title, click that and you get box selectors in every week so you can choose where to move this to (or did I entirely misunderstand point 2?).

You can move forums from one course to another (and hence between categories) using backup and restore, with some care...

Before doing the move check that the forum has a different name from anything in the target course - if only to remove confusion! In the donor course click backup. Untick all resources except the named forum you want to move and its matching 'user data'. Set all the other options to No or None except the Users which stays at 'Course' otherwise the forum is switched to without user data mode, and that will give you an empty forum!.

Once the backup is completed you can restore it from where it is to its new location. Click restore beside the filename.

It should respond with 'Later in this process you will have a choice of adding this backup to an existing course or creating a completely new course' which is what you want. (If not you would be obliged to move the file first) Click Continue.

Check the next panel to see what you are restoring and click Continue.

The following panel has a dropdown box for Restore to... this is most important, choose: 'Existing course, adding data to it' Click Continue and you get the list of courses you can restore to, pick your target. The task will complete and the forum should appear in the Topic box equivalent to the Week box it came from - you can move it between topics as with my initial comment above.

Regards,

John





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In reply to John White

Re: Sorting Forums

由Hellmuth Sole發表於
Hi John, great post, and thanks for this!  Just another question regarding backup/restoring of forums (and actually anything else)...  Is it possible to do the same thing, but instead of moving within the same Moodle install actually moving to a new server?  I'm working on setting up my second moodle platform, and it would have much of the same look and feel the first one I did has, so this would definitely be a time saver.
Also, is it possible to backup and restore the main news forum?
Thanks!
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In reply to Hellmuth Sole

Re: Sorting Forums

由John White發表於
Absolutely.

I expect this is the most appropriate way of moving stuff to a new server.

Obviously, you create the backup (as much as you need or want), then download this to your desktop, and upload it to the new moodle instance. It can go in (Site) Files/backupdata and work from there.

But be careful of the choices you make, you don't want to end up with duplicate courses or duplicate roles etc. There have been a variety of posts on that sort of issue!

Because the front page is course 1 it should behave just the same as others.

Regards,

John
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In reply to John White

Re: Sorting Forums

由Sheree Fortney發表於

John,

I followed your steps to move a forum from one course to another, but when I opened the forum & glossaries they were jumbled and unreadable.  Any clue about what I might have done wrong?

Thanks,

Sheree

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In reply to Sheree Fortney

Re: Sorting Forums

由John White發表於
Sheree,

I don't see how backup and restore of a forum can affect a glossary. So I am puzzled by this.
So...

Did you backup a glossary at the same time as the forum, and hence have merged one glossary with another.
Or is the content definitely the glossary and forum mixed?
Or do you mean that 2 forums were mixed and 2 glossaries were mixed?

You are likely to have to restore the most recent course backup (or at least the forum & glossary from that) before moving on!

Were the 2 forums both the default News forum for their respective courses? This might have an effect.

We may need to rethink the process or at least look at the database before re-attemping the move.

Regards,

John
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In reply to John White

Re: Sorting Forums

由Sheree Fortney發表於

John,

I'm just new enough at moodling that I've mixed my terminology.  Let me see if I can straighten that out:

I attempted the process of moving items from one course to another once with a forum and at a separate time with a glossary.  Let me tell you what I'm trying to do, and perhaps you'll have a better idea for me.

I'm developing a glossary of rhetorical terms that is common to all of the courses I teach, so as I start each new 6 week course, I've tried using the export/import to move the glossary forward.  It hasn't worked, so I tried your technique earlier this week.  It actually let me move the glossary, but it was simply a jumble of code & text when I opened it in the new course.

The same has happened when I attempted to move a forum forward.  We've started a discussion of good novels that I would like to carry forward and allow it to expand over time.  Used your technique to move it with the same result as the glossary.

Is there an easier way to move both a glossary and a forum (not necessarily at the same time) from one course to the next?

Thanks,

Sheree

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In reply to Sheree Fortney

Re: Sorting Forums

由John White發表於
Sheree,

As far as backup and restore are concerned - I can't make it fail (and I have tried!), so are you well behind version 1.9.4?
The reason why it should not fail is that every forum has a unique id number that is independent of the course it resides in, whereas I think you are somehow donating content from one forum into another!

As far as this being an appropriate strategy for addressing your issue anyway - I don't think it is, because it leaves you having to repeatedly move the forums forward instead of looking for a better structure that delivers what you require.

In this case I think you should investigate 'meta courses'...
http://docs.moodle.org/en/Meta_course

Read the article with care, look at all 4 scenarios - I think yours could be scenario 3 ( of which least is said). Also follow the links given to read related posts etc.
Then try out with a simple example.
You may find that your forum or glossary can be part of a central resource course that pertains to a number of other courses or course-semesters. Then by providing links from one course straight to the forum content in another course, you may make it appear that the user continues on the course they started out from.

Hope you get there in the end!
John



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In reply to John White

Re: Sorting Forums

由ben reynolds發表於
I agree with John about meta courses, but I want to add that it has taken my institution almost 2 years to wrap our collective heads around meta courses.

I hope you are quicker and smarter than us. If not, then even simply having two classrooms -- one permanent with the forum, one with your transitory students -- might help.

I'd also like to see the mess that you get from importing a forum. Can you post a graphic?
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