Hi all,
We have discovered that the edit protection in the wiki of Moodle 2 is not watertight. Normally, if a (student) user tries to edit a (collaborative) wiki page that is being edited by another user, they would see an error message: "Someone is editing this page right now. Try to edit it in a few minutes." However, experience has shown that nonetheless it is sometime possible for users to edit a wiki page simultaneously with as a result that the data of the user who saves first is overwritten by the one who saves last. Our tests have so far identified three possible scenarios:
- An interruption in the Internet connection.
If a user, for instance using an unstable wireless connection, suffers a short interruption in his connection, another user can open the editing mode of the same page, provided they click at the right moment. - A mix up with open browser windows or tabs
If a user leaves the wiki in editing mode in one browser tab then opens another with which he/she also surfs to the wiki and then gets the view mode, another user can open editing mode for the same page even though the first user still has it open. - Using the back button
If a user edits and saves a wiki page, the pages becomes editable by another user, but the first user can use the back button of his/her browser to reurn to editing mode without encountering the error message.
We wonder if anyone else has noticed these and other cases where the edit protection fails? And also if anyone has suggestions for improvements, apart from instructions to students for proper use of the tool.
We use Moodle 2.3.2+
Rgrds,
Paul.