Moodle in English: My Block have Problem?

My Block have Problem?

by Patt Emmawat - Thursday, October 28, 2004, 10:30 AM

Moodle 1.5 UNSTABLE DEVELOPMENT (2004101900)

Yesterday I use Cvs to upgrade my moodle.
This show Error.

Block course_menu is an old style block and needs to be updated by a programmer.

Block glossary_random is an old style block and needs to be updated by a programmer.

Block search is an old style block and needs to be updated by a programmer.

and my course show

<><>Warning: Missing argument 1 for courseblock_course_menu() in /var/vc/html/vc5/blocks/course_menu/block_course_menu.php on line 4 />>

Warning: Missing argument 1 for courseblock_course_menu() in /var/vc/html/vc5/blocks/course_menu/block_course_menu.php on line 4

Warning: Missing argument 1 for courseblock_search() in /var/vc/html/vc5/blocks/search/block_search.php on line 10

Warning: Missing argument 1 for courseblock_glossary_random() in /var/vc/html/vc5/blocks/glossary_random/block_glossary_random.php on line 7

Re: My Block have Problem?

by Jan Dierckx - Thursday, October 28, 2004, 12:56 PM

New code for blocks was added to Moodle 1.5. I haven't yet found time to have a look at the changes. I will put up a Moodle 1.5 compatible version of the glossary_random block, once I understand the changes.

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Re: My Block have Problem?

by mike gifford - Sunday, January 2, 2005, 6:24 AM

OK.. Realize this gpl and all, but I'm just wondering if there is an ETA on getting this module running or not?

Either that or quick ways on how to disable it..

Mike

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Re: My Block have Problem?

by Daryl Hawes - Sunday, January 2, 2005, 9:07 AM

Quick way to disable it:
navigate to your moodle 1.5 pre-release installation folder
enter the blocks folder
delete the folder named "course_menu"
delete the folder named "glossary_random"
delete the folder named "search"

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Re: My Block have Problem?

by mike gifford - Monday, January 3, 2005, 4:00 AM

Thanks Daryl,

How easy is it to re-enable the folders in the future? I would have played with that if I could have just disabled them, but I've only got the search block (and that seems like a pretty useful tool to nix):

Activities	3	2004041000		Delete
Administration	4	2004081200		Delete
Calendar	1	2004081200		Delete
Course/Site Description	1	2004052600		Delete
Courses	4	2004111600		Delete	Settings
Latest News	3	2004052600		Delete
Login	0	2004081600		Delete
Main Menu	1	2004052700		Delete
Messages	0	2004122800		Delete
Online Users	0	2004111600		Delete	Settings
People	3	2004052600		Delete
Recent Activity	3	2004042900		Delete
Remote RSS Feeds	0	2004112000	Yes (change)	Delete	Settings
Search	3	2004041000		Delete
Section Links	0	2004052800		Delete
Social Activities	0	2004041800		Delete
Upcoming Events	3	2004052600		Delete

(HTMLAREA3 is pretty neat!!)..

Anyways, I can always nix the Search section if required. I was hoping that there might just be an old copy of
/blocks/glossary_random/block_glossary_random.php

I could toss into the directory.

Mike

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Re: My Block have Problem?

by Jan Dierckx - Monday, January 3, 2005, 4:47 AM

There is an old copy of glossary_random, but it will not be of much use to you because it is not compatible with the new 1.5 code. I am working on a 1.5 compatible version. It's no problem deleting the directory now, you can always decide later on to reinstall the block / remove it again... Sorry to have caused you this problem.

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Re: My Block have Problem?

by mike gifford - Monday, January 3, 2005, 5:38 AM

Only so much time Jan.. I've renamed the folder and it seemed to clean up the error.. I'm not even sure if the glossary is being used in this install..

Hopefully you get the help required to make the 1.5 compatible version of the code.

Mike

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Re: My Block have Problem?

by Daryl Hawes - Monday, January 3, 2005, 4:57 AM

I don't understand what you are asking for here, sorry.

Moodle 1.5 blocks break backward compatibility. In order for a block developed by a third party to work it need to be updated by the author or a programmer.
All default moodle blocks have been updated to work.
The blocks in the following folder of your installation are not part of the main distribution:
moodle/blocks/course_menu
moodle/blocks/glossary_random
moodle/blocks/search

Jan's glossary_random did accidentally get into the core OS dir, but was moved out to cvs:/contrib shortly thereafter. It's possible you are not using the correct commands to cvs in order to ignore empty folders. It's also possible you are copying 3rd party blocks into the 1.5 moodle install.

How are you acquiring these extra blocks?

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Re: My Block have Problem?

by mike gifford - Monday, January 3, 2005, 5:57 AM

I just used:

cvs -z3 -d:pserver:anonymous@cvs.sourceforge.net:/cvsroot/moodle co moodle

Didn't bring anything over from the contrib directory.

Thought that perhaps it was part of an upgrade, but I found it in another grab of the cvs which I didn't actually get to installing..

Mike

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Re: My Block have Problem?

by Daryl Hawes - Monday, January 3, 2005, 6:26 AM

Your checkout statement does not prune directories.
I believe that may be the issue.

The cvs man page says this about the -P option:
Prune (remove) directories that are empty after being updated,
on checkout, or update. Normally, an empty directory (one that
is void of revision-controlled files) is left alone. Specifying
-P will cause these directories to be silently removed from your
checked-out sources. This does not remove the directory from
the repository, only from your checked out copy. Note that this
option is implied by the -r or -D options of checkout and
export

The cvs instructions on the download page, http://moodle.org/download/, specify the prune option (-P) for update (cvs update -dP) but not for checkout.

To test I just downloaded the blocks directory to a temp directory using different commands. The results:
No pruning:
cvs -z3 -d:pserver:anonymous@cvs.sourceforge.net:/cvsroot/moodle login
cvs -z3 -d:pserver:anonymous@cvs.sourceforge.net:/cvsroot/moodle co moodle/blocks

This donwloaded the blocks folder and left the empty folders

With pruning:
cvs -z3 -d:pserver:anonymous@cvs.sourceforge.net:/cvsroot/moodle login
cvs -z3 -d:pserver:anonymous@cvs.sourceforge.net:/cvsroot/moodle co -P moodle/blocks

This donwloaded the blocks folder and then removed the empty folders leaving me without the problems you have seen

Hope that helps

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Re: My Block have Problem?

by W Page - Monday, January 3, 2005, 7:04 AM

Hello All!

My question is, "Why has Jan's "Random Block" not ben incorporated into mainstream Moodle?"

Would it be possible to have multiple instances of it in the same course? Also, could the same glossary for a "Random Block" be used in "Random Block" on other courses??

It is a really cool block. Good for things like learning science vocabulary. I am sure other folks have other uses for it.

Anyone have any thoughts on this, including Jan??

WP1

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updated glossary_random block

by Jan Dierckx - Wednesday, January 5, 2005, 3:29 PM

To answer your questions:

Multiple instances in the same course are possible (thanks to the new block code for Moodle 1.5)
The glossary and block need to be in the same course. I could change the code to make other glossaries possible. I think the global (sitewide that is) glossary should be included.
About the block incorporated into mainstream Moodle... personally I think there should be a blocks repository. The mainstream moodle already has a lot of modules, blocks, language packs. I think some of these should be made optional downloads.

OTOH this discussion made me think about it in another way. Having a lot of separate downloads could be intimidating to newcomers as well. One year ago I really found the install instructions (for Moodle 1.1.1 that was) intimidating enough without Moodle requiring me to download separate modules. So I am not really sure anymore.In the meantime you can download the new 1.5 compatible version here

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Re: My Block have Problem?

by mike gifford - Monday, January 3, 2005, 11:17 PM

Drat.. Just forgot to prune the directories it appears..

I use cvs update enough for other projects that I skipped that part..

Sorry for the trouble..

Mike

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It _is_ labeled "unstable development" though

by John Papaioannou - Sunday, January 2, 2005, 11:29 PM

Hi Mike,

I 'd like to respectfully point out that Moodle 1.5 does a quite good job of telling you that you 're upgrading to an unstable development version. It's not a matter of being "GPL", Open Source isn't an excuse for sloppy work. It's just that it's not ready for a release yet.

Jon

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Re: It _is_ labeled "unstable development" though

by mike gifford - Monday, January 3, 2005, 3:53 AM

Yeah.. Sorry about my abrupt comment earlier.. Just was kinda shocked that shuch an active project would have left a problem posted in a forum hanging like that for so long.. Was expecting a response (like the ones that have been posted to my note), explaining how to disable the error.

I upgraded the codebase and found this error flashing at me with no known cure..

Mike

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Re: My Block have Problem?

by John Papaioannou - Sunday, January 2, 2005, 11:31 PM

Jan you probably already know this, but I guess it wouldn't hurt to make sure: there's a blocks/HOWTO.html in the 1.5 CVS code which describes everything, and has an appendix specifically on "how to upgrade blocks to work with 1.5".

Cheers!
Jon

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Re: My Block have Problem?

by Jan Dierckx - Monday, January 3, 2005, 4:42 AM

Jon,
Your documentation is great. I also like the way the new block code handles instance configuration.
I still have some problems. If someone more experienced could help me with these...

The 1.4.x version of my block stored the configuration (possible for each teacher) in a database record. prefs.php just checked whether a record with the course id, already existed. If not it created the record and put in some predefined texts (for title of the block / footer /etc...) and then called prefs.html
How do I achieve the same in version 1.5?
I already changed prefs.html to be more like the config_instance.html in the documentation. How can I make sure that the first time my block is invoked some predefined texts are shown to the teacher when the teachers chooses to configure the block? Do I override instance_config_print? Or add some php statements inside config_instance.html ?
The 1.4.x version of my block cached the random text from the glossary in the database. Can I use something like instance_config_save($this->config) after updating $this->config->cache to achieve the same?
I uploaded my block before the changes in block code were done. I thought I had erased all of the code from CVS. It doesn't show up in my updates of Moodle 1.5 anymore, but I can see it's still there when I use anonymous update. What did I do wrong?

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Re: My Block have Problem?

by Daryl Hawes - Monday, January 3, 2005, 5:17 AM

Jan,
In response to your enumerated questions:

1. I've been using the global configuration for my block to do this. When you create a new text entry field for say "glossary_random_var1" the value saved is available from $CFG->var1. So In global_config.html I would do:

global $CFG;
if (empty($CFG->glossary_random_var1) {
$CFG->glossary_random_var1 = 'some sane hard coded default';
}
< input type="text" name="glossary_random_var1" value="< ?php echo $CFG->glossary_random_var1;?>">

This way later you can use the same technique in your block instance_config.html:

...glossary stuff...
if (empty($CFG->glossary_random_var1) {
$CFG->glossary_random_var1 = 'some sane hard coded default';
}
<input type="text" name="instancevar1" value="<?php echo $CFG->glossary_random_var1;?>">
...other stuff...

2. You can still choose to use the database in the way you had been using it for caching data on the fly. Glancing at that bit of code I see nothing wrong with calling instance_config_save($this->config) with your extended/modified $this->config since load_instance() has no logic to modify the contents of the retrieved config data.

3. Wish I could help here.

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Glossary Random Block for Moodle 1.5

by Jan Dierckx - Tuesday, January 4, 2005, 1:02 AM

Thanks Daryl,

I succeeded in updating the block. I found a way to do the caching without keeping a separate database, so I got rid of the separate database table alltogether.The new block can be found here
Changes:
- will only work on Moodle 1.5
- thanks to the new block code, a teacher can now have "Mot du jour", "famous quotes", "this day in history", "tips & tricks" blocks all at once

- when you clear the title field, the block displays without a title (seems logical, I got the idea from this post)
- some new bugs for you to find out about, so don't use this on a production system (!)

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Re: Glossary Random Block for Moodle 1.5

by Marc Dastous - Thursday, February 17, 2005, 12:51 PM

Jan;

Love the work you have done. I was worried I wouldn't have this block and it was keeping me from upgrading to 1.5dev. big grin

Here is what I have found so far...

For the tabs not to be grey, I have added the following code under Content Styles to the styles_color.css
.generaltab {
color: #000000;
background-image:url('gradient.jpg');
}
In block_glossary_random.php, I believe we need to change Line 103
print_simple_box_start(
'center', '', $THEME->cellheading);

To satisfy the new CSS
Finally, I'm not sure if this is a by-product of the import, but my font sizes on some of the entries are wacko. I can't edit them either.

Thanks again!

Marc

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Re: Glossary Random Block for Moodle 1.5

by Jan Dierckx - Sunday, February 20, 2005, 4:11 AM

Marc, thanks for the detailed report.

I don't know too much about CSS. What do you mean with grey tabs? I don't recall using a class called generaltab. Are you referring to the tabs used in the glossary module itself?
Indeed the new CSS makes use of $THEME unnecessary. I now have used the class parameter discussed here
About the wacko font sizes: were they wacko in the 1.4 version of the block as well? If not, I think I know what change has caused this. If they were wacko in 1.4 as well, er ... could you send me the html of the entry that's causing this behaviour?

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Re: Glossary Random Block for Moodle 1.5

by John Papaioannou - Thursday, February 17, 2005, 10:57 PM

Hi, two things that should be mentioned here:

I think that Daryl's reply above, in point 1, contains typos. He's talking about config_instance.html, but in the sample code the variables mentioned are like $CFG->somevariable. That should probably be $this->config->somevariable.
If you want to update the configdata from within your code, the recommended way to do it now is just call instance_config_commit(). This will replace the block's instance configuration with whatever exists in $this->config. It doesn't take any parameters. (This was only recently added, it didn't exist at the time of your post or Daryl's reply).

Cheers!
Jon

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Re: Glossary Random Block for Moodle 1.5

by Jan Dierckx - Wednesday, March 30, 2005, 4:17 PM

Jon,
About the new instance_config_commit() method.
This oop stuff is very new to me, I wanted to read up on it during the Easter holidays and now I noticed you have already made these changes (among a lot of other improvements to my code).
Thanks, I learned a lot from it...

Jan.

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Installing and upgrading help

My Block have Problem?