Odd Behavior of glossary auto links

Odd Behavior of glossary auto links

by Scott Karren -
Number of replies: 2

All

I am using V. 2.1.3 (Build: 20111128) and I have noticed some odd behavior in the glossary module.

I have created a master glossary for one course.  The intent here is to hide the glossary so that it is not visible but have the entries in the glossary autolinked so that they will appear throughout the course.  Here is what I have done.

  1. Create glossary and set it to automatically link entries.
  2. Create entries and set them to automatically link.
  3. Add Page resource to course with entries in them and check functionality.  At this point the glossary works as expected and when I click on the word a popup window appears with the entry in it.
  4. Go to glossary and set visibility to hide.
  5. Go to Page resource and check entry.  Now when I click on the word I am taken to a page with the entry text in it instead of having a popup window appear.
  6. Go back to glossary and set visibility to show.
  7. Go to Page resource and check entry.  At this point I have had two different things happen; 
    1. The entry does not work at all (no link).
    2. The entry works as expected and I get a popup window.

The premise for hiding the glossary is that we have created pages with navigation buttons at the bottom of each page to facilitate an orderly flow through the course.  We want the entries to be accessible, but we do not want the glossary itself to be part of the course flow.  Any ideas what might be happening here?

 

Scott Karren

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In reply to Scott Karren

Re: Odd Behavior of glossary auto links

by Joseph Rézeau -
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Hi Scott,

When a glossary is hidden, autolinks to its entries in page resources should not display at all. This is the expected behaviour. Maybe you forgot to empty all caches in your browser when you hid and un-hid your glossary, which led to erratic behaviour.

There is a well-known workaround to solve your problem, though. Suppose your course is set to Topics format, and you are only using 9 topics.

  1. Go to your Course Settings and increase the Number of weeks/topics to 10.
  2. Create your "Master glossary" in Topic 0, at the top of the Topics list.
  3. Move it down to Topic 10.
  4. Go to your Course Settings and decrease the Number of weeks/topics to 9.
  5. Now you see that Topic 10 has been renamed Orphaned activities.
  6. Any activity in that Orphaned activities zone is invisible to the students, but still can be accessed through direct links provided by the teacher. In the case of the Glossary, it achieves exactly what you want. Any links in your course Topics pages to entries in that glossary will work.cool

Joseph

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In reply to Joseph Rézeau

Re: Odd Behavior of glossary auto links

by Scott Karren -

Joseph,

Thank you for the information.  The work around worked perfectly for me. Thanks again.

Scott