Installing poodll

Installing poodll

by James Steerpike -
Number of replies: 18

New user here with  a shiny 2.6 version. Keen to have students record their own voices so downloaded Poodll Kabodle. Noticed the version was only up to 2,5 but went ahead anyway because I am that sort of guy.

Uploaded the zip to my site, extracted, copied directories. Noticed there as no overwrite messages as suggested in the Poodll docs  but Moodle upgraded my database and declared the whole thing a success,

Added an assignment and sure enough there is a Poodl voice recorder and whiteboard option and I ticked the mp3 submission. The assignment does not show the recorder widget though- what have I missed? The assignment does not have any sort of recording feature available.

I checked the docs and it mentioned configuring Modules->Filters->Manage Filters under site admin. I can't locate this. Is it my version or just me lost in the menus?

 

 

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In reply to James Steerpike

Re: Installing poodll

by Howard Miller -
Picture of Core developers Picture of Documentation writers Picture of Particularly helpful Moodlers Picture of Peer reviewers Picture of Plugin developers

Sounds like very out of date docs...

Site administration > Plugins > Filters > Manage Filters

...however, I have never seen Poodl (sp?) so that may be nothing to do with your issue. 

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In reply to James Steerpike

Re: Installing poodll

by AL Rachels -
Picture of Core developers Picture of Particularly helpful Moodlers Picture of Plugin developers Picture of Testers

Hi James,

Yes, the PoodLL Filter has to be enabled for any of the other parts of PoodLL to work. It is located at Site Administration >  Plugins > Filters > Manage Filters. The PoodLL Filter Active should be set to On. The Apply to should be set to either Content or Content and Headings. You should also have it higher in the list than the Multimedia plugins filter, or you may see two players in some locations instead of just the PoodLL player.

HTH,

AL

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In reply to James Steerpike

Re: Installing poodll

by Justin Hunt -
Picture of Particularly helpful Moodlers Picture of Plugin developers

Hi James

Just like Al and Howard said, the filter settings are at:

Site Administration >  Plugins > Filters > Manage Filters

And PoodLL in particular (once enabled) at

Site Administration >  Plugins > Filters > PoodLL Filter

It should actually work without the PoodLL filter being enabled , though that is not the usual setup. 

There are two main possibilities for this situation that are really just about learning how to use the Moodel assignment. ( I am assuming this is the new Moodle assignment (new as of Moodle 2.3). If you didn't know that there was an older version of the Moodle assignment, then you are probably ok. Since it should default to the new one.)

i) did you configure PoodLL recording for the assignment submission? Or the assignment feedback? The assignment submission is what the student will do. The assignment feedback is how you respond to them.

ii) Are you testing this by logging in as a student? By default a non student can't actually even do the assignment. So you have to be a student, then you will see a button saying "add submission" and it all starts from there. 

Justin

 

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In reply to Justin Hunt

Re: Installing poodll

by James Steerpike -

Woohoo! I have created a student recording. Thanks everyone for their time and your suggestions ( filters, add a submission) were just what I needed.  Starting to feel like I can achieve something.

 

 

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In reply to James Steerpike

Re: Installing poodll

by James Steerpike -

Step forward, step back. I can see Poodll depends on the student's device to do the recording and the recording widget in the assignment shows up fine on my brand new laptop. However trying to record using  a 2.2 Android Tablet told me Android 4 was necessary.

I think many of my students usually access the net through Android phones rather than from computers and the recording looks well suited to accessing using Android. The recording app looks great but where to from here? I might try a poll of students to see how many use the same sort of outdated technology as me.

 

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In reply to James Steerpike

Re: Installing poodll

by Justin Hunt -
Picture of Particularly helpful Moodlers Picture of Plugin developers

Yes, prior to Android 4 and iOS 6, file upload was not possible using the Mobile Safari and the android default browser. PoodLL handles recordings from mobile devices using the file upload dialog, because it is possible to record at least video, and in most Android cases audio also, directly from there.

Anyway I put the version check there, because it was not clear to students on older OS why it was not working. Sorry about the limit, but it is out of our hands really. 

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In reply to Justin Hunt

Re: Installing poodll

by James Steerpike -

I understand - there must be hundreds of variations of hardware/browser and version numbers for users and an impossibility to support every variation. It does seem though to limit the usefulness of the audio recording to a situation where the user all use the same setup, as in a language lab, as opposed to using their own devices.

 

 

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In reply to James Steerpike

Re: Installing poodll

by James Steerpike -

Had a look today at setup for students in language labs, shared computers and think I spoke too soon - students should be able to access a machine which can submit a recording through Poodll. A standard recording, a common format and time limits are too good to ignore.

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In reply to James Steerpike

Re: Installing poodll

by Justin Hunt -
Picture of Particularly helpful Moodlers Picture of Plugin developers

Wonderful that sounds good. It is also nice to have them all in one room when you first do it, so that you can walk them through it. 

eg When the flash permissions dialog popups ... You can tell them what to do.

If they record audio regularly the nervousness and pressure fade away, but the first few times it helps to take it slowly. 

So I might ask them to practice their speech/introduction a few times with different partners before they record. Also if you make the thing that they record basically a no brainer, eg say some tongue twisters, sing a nursery rhyme, or read a dialog from the book. That lowers the bar too. 

You will possibly run into technical quicksands the first time you do it. eg The browsers are too old, or half the microphones are broken . So it pays to do the activity yourself on the student machines first, so you know what will happen for them. Not doing this still catches me out sometimes. And making the first activity obviously not important ( some tongue twisters etc) means you won't get students too frustrated if things don't go right.  

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In reply to Justin Hunt

Re: Installing poodll

by Mike Bruns -

Hi, similar follow-up question.  Brand new Moodle 2.6+ install, just installed Poodll for the first time over the weekend. Awsome plugin.

Created an assignment, everything seems fine.  From the Student perspective, it works perfectly.  I'm able to record a video and submit it from grading.

From the Teacher perspective, I can view the submission and I see the "feedback poodll"  However, it doesn't bring up the flash button to access the webcam.  Therefore, nothing is recorded.  It "pretends" to record, and submits, but no video.

I'll upload screenshots and config settings, but is this a known issue to anyone?

Thanks!

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In reply to Mike Bruns

Re: Installing poodll

by Justin Hunt -
Picture of Particularly helpful Moodlers Picture of Plugin developers

HI Mike

So  the students assignment submission for video works, but the teachers feedback doesn't. And that you think it might be the flash permissions for the webcam/microphone.

I have not heard of that specific problem, but there are a few things you might check. Does it work from a different browser? And if you are using Chrome, did you see the little popup permissions dialog that Chrome requires for webcam access?  If you didn't see it, and it is very easy to miss, that might be the problem. It shows just below the address bar of your browser.

Also is the little connection lamp on the lower left of the recorder green? If not you won't be able to record until a connection to the recording server is made.

Do other PoodLL feedback types work, eg mp3 recording or whiteboard?

I made a lot of changes "under the hood" recently. So it is possible I missed something in the PoodLL Feedback mod, so please let me know how you get on.

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In reply to Justin Hunt

Re: Installing poodll

by AL Rachels -
Picture of Core developers Picture of Particularly helpful Moodlers Picture of Plugin developers Picture of Testers

Hi Justin,

Just checked and there were a couple of PoodLL updates released today. PoodLL Recording and Online PoodLL Submission. After upgrade the only type of PoodLL feedback available for submissions is MP3. No others show in the drop down.

By the way, the new delete button for feedback is a nice new feature.

AL

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In reply to Justin Hunt

Re: Installing poodll

by Mike Bruns -

Hi Justin,

That's correct, student looks fine, teachers record audio on feedback, but no video.  Tried different browsers, no difference.  I signed in as the student on Chrome, then signed out. Then teacher on the same session. Audio appears to be fine but no video.  

If you'd like to test:

Moodle = http://www.hv-elearning.org/
Student = spoodll/spoodll
Teacher = tpoodll/tpoodll

I have a POODLL testing course to help us figure this out.

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In reply to Mike Bruns

Re: Installing poodll

by Justin Hunt -
Picture of Particularly helpful Moodlers Picture of Plugin developers

Mike I was able to login and leave a  video as feedback. Even though  I was behind a firewall and on a poor connection, which affects the recording quality. But I am in Japan and so a lot closer to the Red5 server than you.

Sooo, it might just be a problem with your connection to the red5 server. That would not explain why you can record as a student but not as a teacher though.  

If you try lowering the capture size of the video from 480x360 to something lower. Does that make a difference? If so that would indicate your connection couldn't handle as much video as mine. Also I notice a bit of flickering when the players load. You might want to check that the multimedia plugins filter is not also trying to display flv videos. If so uncheck flv on the PoodLL filter settings page, or on the multi media plugins equivalent at site administration - > appearance -> media embedding.

 

Justin

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In reply to Justin Hunt

Re: Installing poodll

by Mike Bruns -

Hi Justin, I saw the feedback in the system, not sure why yours is working and mine isn't.  I'll do some further testing.  I'm in Cincinnati, the server is an Amazon EC2 virtual in Virginia.  

I disabled .flv in the embedded media player, no difference that I see.  In both Chrome and IE11, the "physical webcam light" doesn't turn on, but the record, play and stop/submit buttons work as expected.   It just records a blank screen, then when I hit stop/submit, it says submitted.

Here is a message from the php_error.log that looks related.  I'm not using any of the portfolio functionality (just installed it for test).  I'll remove it 

==========================

[21-Jan-2014 14:10:04 UTC] PHP Notice: The third parameter sent to the function set_callback_options should be the component name, not a file path, please update this.<ul style="text-align: left" dat
a-rel="backtrace"><li>line 1319 of /lib/portfoliolib.php: call to debugging()</li><li>line 153 of /lib/portfoliolib.php: call to portfolio_include_callback_file()</li><li>line 665 of /mod/assign/submi
ssion/onlinepoodll/locallib.php: call to portfolio_add_button->set_callback_options()</li><li>line 578 of /mod/assign/submission/onlinepoodll/locallib.php: call to assign_submission_onlinepoodll->get_
p_links()</li><li>line 893 of /mod/assign/renderer.php: call to assign_submission_onlinepoodll->view_summary()</li><li>line 221 of /lib/outputrenderers.php: call to mod_assign_renderer->render_assign_
submission_plugin_submission()</li><li>line 664 of /mod/assign/renderer.php: call to plugin_renderer_base->render()</li><li>line 221 of /lib/outputrenderers.php: call to mod_assign_renderer->render_as
sign_submission_status()</li><li>line 2803 of /mod/assign/locall in /var/www/html/moodle/lib/weblib.php on line 2947
[root@ip-172-31-32-100 tmp]#

============================

Also, trying to display the "blank" feedback gives this online:

Unknown exception related to local files (Can not fetch file form URL)

More information about this error

Debug info: 
Error code: storedfileproblem
Stack trace:
  • line 1123 of /lib/filestorage/file_storage.php: file_exception thrown
  • line 1092 of /filter/poodll/poodllfilelib.php: call to file_storage->create_file_from_url()
  • line 3851 of /filter/poodll/poodllresourcelib.php: call to instance_remotedownload()
  • line 3574 of /filter/poodll/poodllresourcelib.php: call to fetchVideoSplash()
  • line 2770 of /filter/poodll/poodllresourcelib.php: call to fetchFlowPlayerCode()
  • line 591 of /filter/poodll/filter.php: call to fetchSimpleVideoPlayer()
  • line ? of unknownfile: call to filter_poodll_mp4flv_callback()
  • line 83 of /filter/poodll/filter.php: call to preg_replace_callback()
  • line 167 of /lib/filterlib.php: call to filter_poodll->filter()
  • line 205 of /lib/filterlib.php: call to filter_manager->apply_filter_chain()
  • line 337 of /lib/filterlib.php: call to filter_manager->filter_text()
  • line 1205 of /lib/weblib.php: call to performance_measuring_filter_manager->filter_text()
  • line 493 of /mod/assign/feedback/poodll/locallib.php: call to format_text()
  • line 411 of /mod/assign/feedback/poodll/locallib.php: call to assign_feedback_poodll->fetch_responses()
  • line 1094 of /mod/assign/gradingtable.php: call to assign_feedback_poodll->view_summary()
  • line 1203 of /mod/assign/gradingtable.php: call to assign_grading_table->format_plugin_summary_with_link()
  • line 729 of /lib/tablelib.php: call to assign_grading_table->other_cols()
  • line 433 of /mod/assign/gradingtable.php: call to flexible_table->format_row()
  • line 1330 of /lib/tablelib.php: call to assign_grading_table->format_row()
  • line 1442 of /lib/tablelib.php: call to table_sql->build_table()
  • line 1185 of /mod/assign/renderer.php: call to table_sql->out()
  • line 981 of /mod/assign/renderer.php: call to mod_assign_renderer->flexible_table()
  • line 221 of /lib/outputrenderers.php: call to mod_assign_renderer->render_assign_grading_table()
  • line 3082 of /mod/assign/locallib.php: call to plugin_renderer_base->render()
  • line 3114 of /mod/assign/locallib.php: call to assign->view_grading_table()
  • line 505 of /mod/assign/locallib.php: call to assign->view_grading_page()
  • line 53 of /mod/assign/view.php: call to assign->view()

 

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In reply to Mike Bruns

Re: Installing poodll

by Justin Hunt -
Picture of Particularly helpful Moodlers Picture of Plugin developers

Mike, 

The first error relates to the portfolio export function, and looks like something I should fix. But I think it is not the problem you are having. The second error is occurring because there is no file to display. I think that is caused because your camera is not being picked up and the recorder is recording, but recording nothing. That still doesn't explain why only "feedback" is giving the problem. 

Before you commence recording, try checking both the device settings on the recorders settings tab, and the webcam settings on the flash properties page (right click the recorder). Can you select the webcam on either of those locations and cause the webcam light to light up?

Justin

 

 

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In reply to Justin Hunt

Re: Installing poodll

by Mike Bruns -

Hi Justin,

I'm going to give you the best and worst news of all of IT.  It's working perfectly, I can't break it, I can't reproduce the problem, and I'm not sure what changed.

Sorry about that. I have auto-update turned on in Moodle, I powered off&on my Laptop.  Not sure what else changed. But in any event, it's working just fine now.

I can say it woks in the current version of Moodle, PooDLL, Windows 8,1 Chrome, and IE 11. So whatever the problem was, the answer is to update.

======================================

Again, thanks!  At some point, I'll configure FFMPEG and test further.  I'd like to take some of the workload off of your server.

Thanks again for all you do!

 

 

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In reply to Mike Bruns

Re: Installing poodll

by Justin Hunt -
Picture of Particularly helpful Moodlers Picture of Plugin developers

The 'ol reboot did the trick perhaps. Or caching was somehow getting you. Anyway thats good news. 

 

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