Docs for Attendance module

Docs for Attendance module

by Derek Chirnside -
Number of replies: 13

I've just been looking at http://docs.moodle.org/22/en/Attendance_module.  Seems quite out of date.  The links go to the old plug in database, not the GIT repo.

I've made a note, but I've not changed anything as I'm not really sure of the facts.

  1. Are there still two versions of the module?
    I quote from the docs:

    "There are two version of the attendance module: from Dmitry Pupinin and from Human Logic. Both published in the Using Moodle Attendance module forum.

    At this time Dmitry's version is more stable and useful"

  2. Is there a reason they are not in the Plugins directory in Moodle? 
  3. What is this, and hod does it differ http://moodle.org/plugins/view.php?plugin=mod_attendanceregister?
  4. And (as I asked on another post last Thursday) any prognosis for Moodle 2.3?

-Derek

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In reply to Derek Chirnside

Re: Docs for Attendance module

by A. T. Wyatt -

Greetings, Derek!

I agree with you that the docs are out of date. 

I think the reason that the newest (Artem's version) is not in the plugins database is because he did not choose to put it there.  I don't think anyone else would be comfortable adding it, since that is more appropriately the developers choice.  I had some correspondence with him about it last year, but it appears that he prefers to keep up his github site instead of publishing in the modules database.  His github site is commented, and he has more projects on it than attendance. 

With respect to Dmitry's version, it still resides in the old plugins and modules database, but as far as I know, is no longer being kept up.  Of course as we move further and further from Moodle 1.8, the less likely it is that people will want to install that particular version.  In our case, we were using a REALLY old version, not wanting some of the extra features he put in later.

As far as I can see, the release notes for Moodle 2.3 do not include attendance, so it won't be in core any time soon.  Perhaps you might want to direct message Artem and ask?

Perhaps the best way to deal with the docs situation is to find out how to open up a new page that focuses on Moodle 2.x attendance.  In that case, I think the only module would be Artem Andreev's.  Would you be willing to get it started?  We are just now moving to Moodle 2.x, so I haven't had any experience with the new attendance module.  I can ask Helen or Chris Collman about it.

atw

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In reply to A. T. Wyatt

Re: Docs for Attendance module

by Derek Chirnside -

OK, circumstances have conspired against me, I have no time for a few days.

As a stopgap I'll do a quick hack of the docs.

What is the best place for documents on a particular plugin I wonder if it's not in the plugin directory?

Thanks Arteem, all is clear now.  I hadn't got the fact that there were actually three modules, or four if you count the one on the plugins page.

I'm not going to slash and burn the current 22+ pages, I'll leave that to someone more aware.

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In reply to Derek Chirnside

Re: Docs for Attendance module

by A. T. Wyatt -

Greetings, Derek!

I have attempted to ask a few questions about the docs, and it seems to me that there are meant to be sort of separate sets of documentation for each version of moodle.  So I guess you should start on the wiki marked with the version of moodle you are working with!  Helen said they pretty much copied the docs, marked them with the current version number, and then updated.  So if I understood that correctly, then we should lead the 1.9 attendance pages alone (for Dmitry's version was developed to support that version of Moodle), but delete the obsolete references from moodle 2.0+ versions.

As far as the links go, I could put links to the proper sets of docs in the forum description, perhaps.  I am not sure about the best path forward.  Would you care to offer opinions?

Thanks,

atw

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In reply to Derek Chirnside

Re: Docs for Attendance module

by Artem Andreev -

Hi, Derek!

1. I haven't any information about Human logic version. Attendance v2.2, 2.3 and 2.4 is the development of Dmitry version. v2.2 added common and groups sessions and some ui improvements. v2.3 added ability to add multiple attendances in course + some ui additions. v2.4 is module rewriting for Moodle 2.x.

2. New plugins directory has some strictly requirements. I tried to register module in october 2011. I got error with table names. And I don't know how much errors current version of attendance module has. I think it should be a lot of time to meet all the requirements and careful testing in order to avoid regression. Unfortunately, I do not have time and desire to solve all these problems for adding attendance module to the plugins directory.

3. As far as I could understand from the description, this module addresses a slightly different task.

4. I propose to discuss this question in the appropriate forum topic.


About documentation: I haven't any plans to write new wiki articles due my not very good english.

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In reply to Artem Andreev

Re: Docs for Attendance module

by Richard Webb -

Artem wrote:

About documentation: I haven't any plans to write new wiki articles due my not very good english.

Lol.  You write good code, others of us can chip in for the documentation!

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In reply to Richard Webb

Re: Docs for Attendance module

by A. T. Wyatt -

I have just looked at the work you did for the docs, and was very impressed!  Thank you very much!

Anyone else can pile on, should you have additional information/text to contribute!

http://docs.moodle.org/22/en/Attendance_module

atw

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In reply to A. T. Wyatt

Re: Docs for Attendance module

by Derek Chirnside -

AT, thanks for the heads up.  I have tweaked things a little, added aheading and a one paragraph description of what it does.  (Please check this: http://docs.moodle.org/22/en/Attendance_module#What_the_Attendence_Module_does)

I was also interested in this: http://attendance.uservoice.com/forums/16313-general Voting for ideas . . .

I did not add the other developer in that Arteem mentioned.  I'll leave that to Richard.

Richard, well done and thanks.  I need to clarify: I have never used Attendence.  It was just that some teachers said it was their most used tool.  Which I thought coulod have been good or not good.

-Derek

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In reply to Richard Webb

Re: Docs for Attendance module

by Artem Andreev -

Thank you very much!

Some clarifications:

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In reply to Artem Andreev

Re: Docs for Attendance module

by Richard Webb -

Thank you for the clarifications! I have added them in and, hopefully, I'm done with updating the documentation.  Of course, others are encouraged to improve on my efforts!

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In reply to Derek Chirnside

Re: Docs for Attendance module

by Teemu Leisti -

I noticed that the document page for Moodle v2.3 was still referring to an old version, and started to update it. I only now noticed that others have already updated the document page for Moodle v2.2.

I suppose these changes should be merged, and then possibly copied to all the module's documentation pages for the various Moodle v2.x versions. Though this seems to be error-prone -- is there possibly a way to put a redirect from the later versions of the document page to, for instance, the Moodle v2.0 page, in case the module is supposed to work for all of the versions?

I also just started a new thread on issues concerning this latest version of the module, including the documentation.

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In reply to Teemu Leisti

Re: Docs for Attendance module

by Teemu Leisti -

Yesterday (my time), Richard copied the instructions from Moodle v2.2 of the Attendance module over my changes in the v2.3 of the page. I have now merged his changes with mine, with additional changes that hopefully add clarity.

Since there were four different pages for documenting the same code, those for Moodle v2.0, v2.1, v2.2, and v2.3, I replaced the three first pages with a short explanation and a link to the v2.3 page. I did the same for the Attendance block instruction page, after updating v2.3 of that page, too.

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In reply to Teemu Leisti

Re: Docs for Attendance module

by A. T. Wyatt -

Thank you!

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In reply to A. T. Wyatt

Re: Docs for Attendance module

by Teemu Leisti -

You're welcome. Some further edits today. I discovered a couple of problems I'll address in another post.

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