class times, date standards, block issue

class times, date standards, block issue

by Doug Moody -
Number of replies: 4

I just installed the new attendance module for my 2.3 moodle site. There are three issues (2 minor and one major) They are:

#1 (minor) Is there a way to display the dates in the mm/dd/yy format? This is the North American standard, and it is difficult for some to adapt. Its really easy to forget and pick the wrong dates.

#2 (minor) Is there a way to change the duration of a class manually? The drop down box for class duration only makes 5 minute increments. But my classes change sometimes at, say, 2:12, and 3:14, etc., and they last 50 minutes. But I think some schools have different durations and class start times that do not fall into neat 5 minute increments. Just allow me to manually enter the exact times for start time and duration and I will be happy!

#3 (major) Although I can access the attendance module in section zero (it is invisible so that students can't see it there) and it works fine if I click on it there, when I try to use the "BLOCK" version of attendance (to take attendance for example), all I get is a white screen and Moodle hangs. If I go back a screen, I can still use Moodle, but accessing the attendance from a block when the module is installed and working (but invisible) in section zero causes the block to crash.

Does anyone have any ideas?

Thanks.

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In reply to Doug Moody

Re: class times, date standards, block issue

by Artem Andreev -

#1 It depends on your language pack. See variables 'strftimedm', etc.

#2 I didn't change it from previous versions. I don't know how other people will want those changes.

#3 Works for me. I need more details to reproduce issue?

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In reply to Artem Andreev

Re: class times, date standards, block issue

by Doug Moody -

Artem,

I don't know which details to give  you. But here's what I know...

Attendance works when I put it as a hidden activity in section zero. But I must acces it from the course page.

I tried to get teh dates and times to default to US English by changing to the US language pack, but no joy. Dates and times still display in the International standard.

I have noticed a new issue, and this simply doesn't work. The Remarks column accepts input, but there is no method to extract out the remarks. This is very important to me, and I need to see that data in a report. It contains remarks that I use to evaluate a student on their tardies, or on whether they brought required materials to class. Not being able to see those remarks is irritating. Is there some workaround?

Now, as far as what is happening to the block. Well, I installed the version andreev-artem-moodle_blocks_attendance-b0c969a

I am running the most current version of moodle (2.3.2) What happens is that I use "Add A Block" to put the attendance block on the same page as the course. I then click on the "Take Attendance" and all I get is a white screen. It goes nowhere and does nothing. I can go back a page to see the moodle page again, so it doesn't lock things up. It just doesn't function.

So tell me, how is it that the Block version of Attendance is "calling" the attendance activity? How does it know? Maybe that linkage is missing? I would love to make it work, but as of now, it doesn't.

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In reply to Doug Moody

Re: class times, date standards, block issue

by Artem Andreev -

#1 Have you edited language pack sources and purged all caches? Or you have done something else?

#3 I have added invisible attendance module and was able to access it using "<Module name>" and "Take attendance" links in block. Which rights do you have in course? Can you increase debugging level as much as possible and report errors which are displayed instead of a blank page?

Remarks are displayed on taking attendance page and on user individual report page.

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In reply to Artem Andreev

Re: class times, date standards, block issue

by Doug Moody -

Artem,

I will turn on debugging and let you know what it says.

I have not purged caches. I will try that.

But as for remarks, well, I REALLY need to be able to see them in a master report. For example, I write down that students do not have their materials ready when I take attendance. There is a penalty I assess after three times of no materials. But unless I can see those three times in a report, I cannot assess my penalty. I looked in the database, and the remarks are recorded, so wouldn't it be a simple matter to include that field in an output, such as an Excel report?

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