gmail block stopped working suddenly

gmail block stopped working suddenly

by Rob Johnson -
Number of replies: 11

Hi Moodlers,

My school district has been using the Google Apps integration since 2009.  We are currently using the version for Moodle 2.4 developed by Catalyst IT for Moodle in New Zealand Schools (my school district is in the U.S.).  Over the weekend, the Gmail block stopped pulling over the Atom feed for users.  Debugging shows a 401 error.  I have a 2.6.2+ development site that has the same problem.  I found this post on the Moodle in NZ support forum that shows it has stopped working for others too.  The SSO between my Moodle and Google still works, and the diagnostic page in the GSAML auth settings says "Success" when I test the connection.

I am hoping a helpful Moodler might shed some light on how to get the block working again.  It seems like an authentication issue.  My hunch is something changed on the Google side of things, but I don't know what.

Thank you in advance,

Rob

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In reply to Rob Johnson

Re: gmail block stopped working suddenly

by Richard van Dijk -

Hi Rob

Since Oauth was deprecated a few years ago I'm wondering if they just switched it off properly this time. Catalyst are the maintainers of the NZ schools block so just waiting to hear from them. I can confirm that all the SSO stuff still works but since this relies on certificates it is quite separate. I'll follow up here if I find anything today or later this week.

Cheers

Richard

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In reply to Richard van Dijk

Re: gmail block stopped working suddenly

by Rob Johnson -

Hi Richard,

Your hunch about OAuth seems to be on the mark.  It seems that web apps other than Moodle are being affected too.  See this thread on stackoverflow.

I contacted Google support yesterday.  The tech seemed to think it was related to my domain not having SPF records set.  I tried to convince him otherwise, but he wants to wait 48 hours for my new records to propagate before investigating further.

Rob

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In reply to Rob Johnson

Re: gmail block stopped working suddenly

by Richard van Dijk -

Hi Rob

Catalyst (the maintainer) have reported bug as well. And as you pointed out stack overflow seems to confirm it's being fixed by google. So we will just have to wait.

Richard

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In reply to Rob Johnson

Re: gmail block stopped working suddenly

by Conn Warwicker -
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Anyone got any news on this yet? This has come at the worst time for us, with students having used their student gmail accounts for important things like UCAS applications and they can't access them sad

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In reply to Conn Warwicker

Re: gmail block stopped working suddenly

by George Yiannakas -

It looks like it has been resolved. We had the same issue but a few hours ago the Gmail block is working again.

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In reply to George Yiannakas

Re: gmail block stopped working suddenly

by Rob Johnson -

Thank you for reporting this George.  Google must have fixed something overnight.

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In reply to Rob Johnson

Re: gmail block stopped working suddenly

by Alejandro Vega -

Hi everyone, I'm looking for some help with the integration between Moodle 2.6.4 and Google Apps for Edu.

I'm using a Google as idp with OAuth2 for the SSO and everything works well even the blocks for Google Drive. The problem is with the gmail block, I just can't see the list of mails, actually I just see this message "Sorry, could not obtain mail."

Thanks a lot in advance for any suggestion.

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In reply to Alejandro Vega

Re: gmail block stopped working suddenly

by Rob Johnson -

Hi Alejandro,

Where did you get the integration code.  The gmail block I use came from the Moodle in New Zealand schools site and uses gsaml for SSO.  The gmail block works with that setup on 2.6.4.

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In reply to Rob Johnson

Re: gmail block stopped working suddenly

by Alejandro Vega -

Thanks Rob the previous code that I used came from a Google Edu expert, now I'm already using the code from NZSchools and this is the version "moodleinschools-2.6.4-2014-07-28" but the problem is still there.

The process to uninstall the previous code was this:

1.- I clicked the link uninstall on the manage authentication section.

2.- I moved the directory gmail plug-in to trash on the server

3.- Updated the db on moodle

4.- Restart the httpd service (maybe is not necessary)

After that the new code was uploaded and configured by the book and the problem is the same. 

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In reply to Alejandro Vega

Re: gmail block stopped working suddenly

by Rob Johnson -

Did you set up gsaml authentication and upload the certificates to Google?  I think that is how the block gets access.

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In reply to Rob Johnson

Re: gmail block stopped working suddenly

by Alejandro Vega -

Thanks a lot Rob I could realize whats going on. I hadn't enabled the option two-legged OAuth option on my Google's console, after that everything works well.

Thanks a lot for your help.

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