General plugins

Hello,

   Surprinsingly, Moodle's calendar does not use the events API (http://docs.moodle.org/dev/Events_API ) to notify that a calendar event has been addd, removed, modified ... but an hook mechanism with functions to call described in global $CFG .

see code in calendar/lib.php (Moodle 2.2) given below :

/**
* Attempts to call the hook for the specified action should a calendar type
* by set $CFG->calendar, and the appopriate function defined
*
* @static
* @staticvar bool $extcalendarinc Used to track the inclusion of the calendar lib
* @param string $action One of `update_event`, `add_event`, `delete_event`, `show_event`, `hide_event`
* @param array $args The args to pass to the hook, usually the event is the first element
* @return bool
*/
public static function calendar_event_hook($action, array $args) {
global $CFG;
static $extcalendarinc;
if ($extcalendarinc === null) {
if (!empty($CFG->calendar) && file_exists($CFG->dirroot .'/calendar/'. $CFG->calendar .'/lib.php')) {
include_once($CFG->dirroot .'/calendar/'. $CFG->calendar .'/lib.php');
$extcalendarinc = true;
} else {
$extcalendarinc = false;
}
}
if($extcalendarinc === false) {
return false;
}
$hook = $CFG->calendar .'_'.$action;
if (function_exists($hook)) {
call_user_func_array($hook, $args);
return true;
}
return false;
}

So I guess that if you add the proper functions in a script named lib.php located in a subdirectory of calendar/ directory and declare it in config.php file, you should be able to trap one of the following action :  `update_event`, `add_event`, `delete_event`, `show_event`, `hide_event`... something like

$CFG->calendar = 'mycalendarshooks'; //name of the subdirectory in calendar/

....

Of course you could also write a tracker request to ask for calendar to use standard event APi, but that will likely take more time to be implemented.

Cheers. 

Hi Isuru, sounds great!

I would love if it will be possible to make a calendar event for a group and that all members of that group will recieve reminders for this calendar event via mail (7, 5, 3 and 1 day ahead of the event). (High importance)

Maybe the  admin could recieve an internal log message that an event reminder was sent. (low importance)

A log could be kept in the database regarding sent reminders: to whom (what group / user), at what time and for what calendar date / event. If one needs to present when a certain reminder was sent, that could be a nice to have feature. (low importance)

Some random ideas (translated as "my 2 cents worth")

• would be nice for the student to have a setting to set a "default reminder" for all items in that calendar. It would allow them to set default delivery method and reminder time
• students should be able to click on any event in their calndar (generated by themselves, teacher created or activity created) and set reminders. Muktiple reminders if need be.
• I "personally" doent believe this is a setting that should be set by teachers on behalf of their students. Reminders are a very personal thing.
• Admin will need to be able to restrict delivery methodologies. Obvious thought is permissions, but I think this may be too complex. A new setting in the message outputs perhaps.

Just some points to start discussion. Feel free to disagree or debate

As a start, I would like students to be able to tell Moodle how many hours before a due date of an item in the calendar they should be sent a reminder.  In a way, this is like "upcoming events" except the student configures it.  I think it would be nice for students to be able to give a separate email address for this if they wish.  For example, a student might want to put in their text message email address.  A more flexible text box, such as:

Email addresses:  abc@123.com, yyy@aaa.edu, 1234567890@myphone.com

would be helpful.  I am purposely showing more than one email address.

Hi All,

At writing moment I am very close to create a prototype version of this reminder local plugin. Within next few weeks I would be able to finalize it and release a prototype.

Since I do not have access to a considerably large Moodle server, I would appreciate if anyone is willing to test this local plugin and give feedback about bugs and enhancements.

You can find my progress in CONTRIB-3647 and developer documentation in here.

Also plugin developer repository can be found in https://github.com/isuru89/moodle-reminders-for-calendar-events.

-Regards
Isuru 

Hi All,

I would like to announce that I could release the first version of my reminders plugin to the Moodle plugin repository. I have attached a screenshots about my plugin (sample e-mail reminder).

You can always download it from here http://moodle.org/plugins/view.php?plugin=local_reminders

Also if you want to know any recent changes or like to improve it by yourself you are welcome to fork and use my reminders github project in here https://github.com/isuru89/moodle-reminders-for-calendar-events.

If any bugs/issues have been found by you, report them here http://tracker.moodle.org/browse/CONTRIB-3647.

Good luck!

-Regards
Isuru

Hello,

I am using the Moodle 2.2.3 version. The reminder plugin has been installed and the mails are also getting populated in the participants mail box regarding the test details. But apparently the participants are getting a same mail every 1 hour. I have made the setting for sending the reminders only on 7th, 3rd and 1st day prior to the quiz scheduled date.

How am I going to stop flooding the inbox by repeated sending of the same mails and restrict it to just 3 mails for each quiz.

Thanking in advance.

Regards

Anju Menon

Hi All,

A new version of reminder plugin has been released and you can download it from here.

Change log:

• fixed bug of repeatedly sending reminders for same event.
• removed 'Only hidden events from calendar' option from the settings page.
• removed unused constants from the plugin.
• improved cron trace of the plugin for ignored events.

If you have any ideas/improvements/bugs, feel free to let me know via CONTRIB-3647.

-Regards
Isuru

Hi Isuru,

Thanks for this plugin. It meets an exisiting need and I would like to encourage you to finish it. I can confirm it works in 2.3. We hope it will also work in 2.4.

Please, find attached a Finnish lang file for the plugin.

Rgrds,
Paul.

When the cron job runs I see this error in our logs (and apparently email reminders are not being sent)

----
Warning: Missing argument 6 for get_logs(), called in /var/www/mymoodledir/local/remdiners/lib.php on line 70 and defined in /var/www/mymoodledir/lib/datalib.php on line 1835
(Moodle 2.2+ on Linux)

Has anyone seen this or have any suggestions?

Hello, Isuru,

Thanks for your plugin, which works in 2.3.4 .

I translated its lang to Japanese.  Please, find the attached file.

I think japanese moodlers also expect your plugin.

Regards.

Nakamura.

Hi Isuru,

I was translating (in http://lang.moodle.org/) the local remainder plugin into spanish for Mexico and I found what seems to be a typo in one original English language string:

2.2 [explainsiteheading,local_reminders] "Reminder settings for site events. These events are relavent to all the users in the site."

"relavent" should be "relevant" (I think, but I am not a native English speaker). Can you please check it?

Thanks in advance for your help

Hi All,

Today I could release a plugin version for new Moodle 2.4. And any one interested can download it from here. https://moodle.org/plugins/view.php?plugin=local_reminders.

Change Log for v1.2:

+ now works in Moodle 2.4.*
+ fixed bug when sending reminders based on groups
+ group reminder message content has been made richer by including course and activity details.
+ added a setting to define the prefix for messages being sent, and
added another setting to define to show/hide group name in the group reminder message.
+ cron cycle interval for this plugin has been reduced from 1-hour to 15-minutes.

Really appreciate any issues related with this plugin and report them under CONTRIB-3647. 

I also have few ideas on my mind to develop this plugin into a better one and currently I am working on them. All your ideas are welcome to enhance this plugin.

-Thanks 

Does the latest plugin code not work with moodle 2.8? I migrated to a new server (painful) to see if that would help the spamming of event reminders. It did not. I upgraded to moodle 2.8 and got the latest event reminder code (1.4) and it stopped working altogether.

Does email reminders version 1.4 not work with moodle 2.8? I'll stop trying to debug if that is the case.

Is this work for moodle 2.9..?