When could be use the Scheduler activity module for Moodle 2.0?.
In reply to Alejandro Michavila Pallarés
Re: Will Scheduler be updated to Moodle 2.0?
by Howard Miller -
We use it a lot, so if nobody else updates it then we will need to. Unfortunately my main Scheduler user will not be updating to Moodle 2.0 until (I would imagine) 2.1 is released so it's just a job on the list at the moment.
I just added this http://tracker.moodle.org/browse/CONTRIB-2636
Hi Howard. We use the Scheduler a fair bit too, and while it's not as big a priority as some plugins, it's definately on our to-do list of Moodle 2 developments.
I would either be interested in your developments, or if necessity dictates, will start on it ourselves. Am also happy to collaborate too, we have a github account for just such a purpose.
Paul.
Hi Howard, all.
After a few meetings here we have assessed our priorities for moving to Moodle 2.x this summer (August) and the Scheduler module is a 'desirable' rather than 'essential', so we will not be developing this ourselves at this time.
Paul.
Just to add..... I am currently in the middle of "improving" the Scheduler for 1.9 (as we will be using it for some time to come). When that's done I will convert it for 2.0. Hopefully this will be complete in the next few weeks.
Hi Howard,
Any update on the improved scheduler? No one has replied here in a while so I thought I'd ask. Thanks!
As ever.... everything takes much longer than expected but we will *definitely* be producing a 2.0 version of Scheduler. I'll try to get to it this week. It will only be the "minimum" to get it working in 2.0 - no new features at this time.
We also have a department that is very dependent on the scheduler.
Add me to the 'interested party' list.
In reply to Alejandro Michavila Pallarés
Re: Will Scheduler be updated to Moodle 2.0?
by vivek arora -
I have just created scheduler module supporting moodle2.0.
please let me know where i can upload that code.
i am almost done with the face to face module supporting moodle2.0.
You should be able to attach it here if you zip it small enough. PM it to me (howardsmiller AT gmail DOT com) if you get stuck.
I have uploaded the code to git
https://github.com/vivekarora/Scheduler/blob/15cdc95a8277a31055f5ee563cb350918ccc22e2/scheduler.zip
Cool.... at a quick glance it seems to use a lot of deprecated calls for output. It would be nice if it was more "native" Moodle 2. I'll try installing it later!
Any luck with scheduler in v2? We have run into problems with groups... No error messages, it just will not allow a change away from "Individual appointments only". Did you come across this? Bob
Like everything else... I'm getting to it. I won't have any time to look at scheduler for a couple of weeks though but I'll move it up the post-it notes.
Well, i was in a similar situation, having to come up with a working 2.x scheduler for a go-live in the beginning of September. I basically have it ready now, with API adapted to 2.1 (in most places). Can share it if you like, give me another couple of days. Not all functionality is tested yet, though.
We are also hoping to use it in the upcoming Fall semester - willing to do some additional testing... particularly with groups.
OK, I will put it on github later this week. Any help with testing is much appreciated.
Groups seem to be one of the "gray areas" of the scheduler, where the expected behaviour is not always clear (at least to me ). Can you tell me in which way you're using groups? Just several people signing up individually to the same time slot? Or groups as defined in the underlying Moodle course? What's the main use case?
Groups as defined in the underlying moodle course (i.e. "Separate groups"). Have never had it functioning in any moodle version (as we decided to upgrade to moodle v2 before incorporating scheduler), but relying on the "Behavior with groups" description at the bottom of:
http://docs.moodle.org/20/en/Scheduler_module
For us, we need to use schedular to book lab appointments where students already have lab partners, project groupings, and other groupings. I would say this would be more typical than multiple "random" students in the same time slot (particularly with the same "Attendant").
The most recent DIY version of scheduler will not allow a change in "Force group appointments only" to anything other than "Individual appointments only". No error messages provided.
Thanks for clarifying. As for the "Force group appointments only" option: This was apparently in addition in the 2.0 version of scheduler that was posted by Vivek Arora earlier. It doesn't exist in the latest 1.9 version on CVS (for all I'm aware) nor in my version.
By the way, all versions of scheduler are "DIY" in a sense - the module has never been part of Moodle core.
Appreciate the work on this. I'll see if we can get it installed soon and see how it goes.
Interesting about the version. According to the docs, the group scheduling was there back to (I thought) v1.8.
Look forward to doing some testing.
New Scheduler installed. Some very preliminairy functionality testing (to see what it does) indicates that "group appointments" actually does work! And I think quite well....
- All slots are provided to the student user for choosing. Under "Group Session" it indicates "Yes". (there is no indication of group size, or number of students allowed into the time slot). When time slots become unavailable they drop out of the availability list altogether. An indication of "booked" might be better, but not a significant issue.
- Student chooses a single time slot from the list of slots and indicates the group (within the grouping) from a single dropdown box at the bottom. All good.
- If the student immediately drops the appointment, the other members of the group drop as well. I think this is ok.
- If the students logs out/in, the other members of the group are not dropped if appointment is cancelled. This is good.
- If the student books an alternate session (after booking/log out/log in), the other group members are moved to the new session as well. This might be problematic, will see how it goes. In this case, it might be better to disallow the alternate booking. Or provide a message... "Currrently, you cannot book this session for your group as members of your group are already scheduled in an alternate time slot". The way it is necessites the function of a "team captain", where I would prefer that any student in the group can book the group (convenience), but where they must cancel individually.
All in all, this is very good news for us, and I hope this functionality is found to be useful for others. Thanks Henning / Vivek !
Note: I will try and do some more thorough testing for bugs, etc, but its going to have to be lower priority at this time.
UPDATE to previous post...
I have just been informed that the code for this most recent Scheduler was tweaked slightly at our end... i.e. minor change to allow grouping feature to appear. So technically, not identical code to Henning's. Sorry if any confusion caused by my last post....
@Bob, If your code works better, could you share the changes via a patch or a pull request on github so that others may benefit? It would benefit a lot of people interested in this module, I am sure.
I have just cloned and will install shortly to our test server.
Paul.
EDIT: Have just noticed that the clone contains a zip file, not the code, so my comment about the pull request can't easily be actioned. I'd like to applaud the uploader for sharing, but this isn't the best way to use github.
While my code is not the same as Vivek's (which you have probably tried), note that the code that I announced here is available in the "proper way" on github, at https://github.com/bostelm/moodle-mod_scheduler .
Excellent, good to see.
I've just unzipped Vivek's archive, gitted it and pushed it to github so I at least have a working 'proper' git repo, but here's the burning question: how does your code differ from Vivek's? I'm prepared to try both (in fact, Vivek's is already on our testing server) but Vivek's version is dated 2010-10-13, getting on for a year ago and pre-dates the release of Moodle 2.0, so if yours has had more, regular development (and has at least been tested with 2.1) then I'm prepared to try it.
Cheers,
P.
For all I understand, Vivek mainly replaced all database calls with the new-style database API. That makes the module work in Moodle 2.0.
I went a bit further and migrated all other deprecated API calls (as of Moodle 2.1), and added support for the new-style gradebook (which Scheduler 1.9 didn't have). I ran my tests with Moodle 2.1 mainly.
I'm intending to maintain the module further, but I can't say at the moment with which intensity. (The code would need a good bit of refactoring, but I can't do that on the short term.)
As to which version works best for you, you need to decide.
Thanks Henning. I have now cloned and deployed your fork of Scheduler and will feed back any issues.
Paul.
Henning -
We noticed something that is differet from the last scheduler plugin which you may want to fix in this version. The maximum number of students who can sign up for one slot (if you have this enabled in the settings) is 10. I made the max slots 50 by doing this quick change within addslotsform.php (line 127-131) and oneslotform.php (line 97- 103):
<?php
$exclusivemenu['0'] = get_string('unlimited', 'scheduler');
for($i = 1 ; $i < 51 ; $i++){
$exclusivemenu[(string)$i] = $i;
}
It might be cool if this was auto generated based on the number of students in the course if anyone thinks they can do that.
-Tony
Just checking to see if Scheduler will be available to use in Moodle. 2.3?
Also, when students schedule an appointment, is there a way for the email notication to let the student know the location? Many faculty work from different offices on different days so it would be beneficial for students to know the location where they are to meet the faculty member. Has this been addressed already?
Thanks in advance.
There will be a 2.3 version of Scheduler, but it's unlikely to be finished by the release date of 2.3.
That said, the current verson (intended for 2.0-2.2) does seem to work on 2.3dev as of this time, although it produces a few warning messages.
Currently, no notifications are sent to students when they make an appointment. There are, however, reminder e-mails that can optionally be sent to students at a specified date before the appointment, and these can (and do) include the location information.
Just chiming in to say I'm cheering you on! We need an updated scheduler badly but don't have the resources ourselves to update it. Thanks for working on this!
In reply to Alejandro Michavila Pallarés
Re: Will Scheduler be updated to Moodle 2.0?
by Duane Henning -
I'm not sure if this is the place to post error messages, and also not sure if I'm posting a boneheaded thing, but I just tried installing and I got:
Plugin "mod_bostelm-moodle-mod_scheduler-e7112e3" is defective or outdated, can not continue, sorry.
Debug info: Invalid plugin directory name.
Stack trace:
- line 426 of /lib/upgradelib.php: plugin_defective_exception thrown
- line 265 of /lib/upgradelib.php: call to upgrade_plugins_modules()
- line 1426 of /lib/upgradelib.php: call to upgrade_plugins()
- line 290 of /admin/index.php: call to upgrade_noncore()
The plugin needs to be installed into the directory "mod/scheduler" in your Moodle directory root. You need to rename your directory "bostelm-moodle-mod_scheduler-e7112e3" to "scheduler".
Hi Henning,
May I suggest that you write that information in the README.txt file of your github site, something like:
1.- Unzip the zip archive you downloaded from github to your local computer.
2.- This will give you a folder named something like "bostelm-moodle-mod_scheduler-e7112e3". The end of the name may vary.
3.- ***Rename*** that folder to "scheduler".
4.- Upload the "scheduler" folder to your moodle/mod/ folder.
ATB
Joseph
Well, I expanded the readme a little bit today; but downloading the ZIP file from github is by far not the only way of installing this or other modules. And once (if and when) I will enter scheduler 2.x into the Plugins DB, the procedures will be different again.
In any case, it seems that http://docs.moodle.org/20/en/Installing_contributed_modules_or_plugins is in need of an update; maybe your suggestion makes a good addition there!
I am new to this so can someone please point me to the scheduler plugin for 2.0? Can't seem to find a useable version anywhere.