Hello,
I just installed Moodle 2.7.5+ (Build: 20150205), and I can't get the equation editor to work.
I am using the TeX filter, which does work with STACK and also when I edit TeX equations "by hand".
But within the ATTO editor, the equation editor is just not doing anything. I'm attaching a screen shot.
Any ideas?
Thanks,
Peter Halverson
No ideas why - but have you tried to enable site debugging (to ALL) and checked your browser javascript debugging / error console (for example in FF and IE press F12 or use mouse right click - Inspect element... )
Might be some javascript conflict there.
I have looked at the "inspect element" window as the ATTO equation editor runs and see no errors. (But I'm really sure what I would be looking for.
I also turned on site debugging and I see no errors.
I have noticed that occasionally, perhaps once in ten tries, the equation editor actually functions a little bit.
I once got it to do "2+2=". But it was with a long time lag. So maybe there is something tremendously slowing down the rendering of the equation, and as a result it looking like its just not working.
When you inspect elements check that your inspector has errors enabled and warnings disabled (there may be lots of css warnings anyway)
If rendering equations (in preview etc) is very slow your browser might have some extra plugins, some program (for exaple performance testing tools) might cause that delay or for example some malware might cause that trouble. In your screenshot all buttons look ok (from cache?) and if Tex filter renders new equations ok on your site it's not probably caused by problems on your site.
Have you tried MathJax (instead of Tex filter or with Tex filter) ?
Hello Peter,
I have not been able to figure out how to reproduce the problem. Does it depend on the browser used? Does it happen everywhere or just in essay questions for example?
Yes, this site has the same problem and it is running MathJax and not TeX filter. There does not seem to be any js error reported in the console. I also tried to looked at the javascript source but it appears to have all the comments stripped and be partially compressed. It is not normally. You might try updating your site again when you get the chance.
Apparently it is the time out problem. Mauno, you may have been the only one on moodle.org early on a Sunday morning. I have had a similar experience as Peter. It works on demo.moodle.net, but not moodle.org. I checked the Network access in Firefox and ajax.php is loading much slower on moodle.org. There is a 500 ms timeout in the program which is suppose to retry if the server is busy, but apparently has a logic problem.
I suppose that it is not coincidental that Peter found the problem during a grading period. The timeout is supposed to be a feature to prevent the editor preview from hanging the server or browser with a race condition when the server is loaded.
Yes....
I can see that a 1/2 second timeout would cause the problem.
I just checked and now that it is Sunday evening, and I am the only user, the equation editor is functioning on my Moodle site.
Thank you Daniel for homing in on this bug!
Peter Halverson
Umm...
Is there an easy way to fix the timeout problem? Can I go into the moodle code and change 500 milliseconds to something longer?
Thanks,
Peter H.
Yes, you can change the value of the delay or delete it to fix your problem. The file src/button/js/button.js file is the source file for shifter from which the build file are generate by running shifter. If you do not want to run shifter, you can edit the build files directly until there is a fix distributed.
The file moodle-atto-equation-button/moodle-atto-equation-button-debug.js is used by moodle when debugging is enabled so you can make changes here when you have debbugging on to test it. The file moodle-atto-equation-button/moodle-atto-equation-button-min.js is used with debugging off. It is the same as the debug file with comments and spaces stripped, variable names shortend etc. Once you have fixed the debug file, you can copy it over the -min.js file and disable debugging in Moodle. The minification is just a nicity that speeds loading.
Rather that accepting the credit for identifying the the bug, I perhaps the deserve the blame for creating it. Thank you Peter and Mauno for acting on it.
Well...
I changed the timeouts from 500 to 5000 ms and it helped, but it didn't completely solve the problem.
Now that I made the change, the equation editor works with with Safari 6.2.2 and 6.0.5.
It works with Firefox 32.0.3
But not in Firefox 35.01, unless Firefox is in "safe mode".
All of these tests were done with my server under no-load conditions.
With Firefox 35.01, I tried it with all extensions and add-on deactivated, and the equation editor still doesn't work. Perhaps I will "downgrade" to an earlier version of Firefox.
Fortunately my students' computers are frozen into older versions of Firefox and Safari so I'm hoping it will OK for them.
So altogether, I think that the timeout was part of the problem but that there are other problems too, some in Firefox and maybe some in other places.
By the way, I noticed that there is a difference in the equation editor's performance depending on where it it being used. For example when I'm editing the front page of my Moodle site, the equation editor seems more robust than when I'm previewing a quiz essay question.
Thanks for the help...
Peter Halverson
PS: I did switch to MathJax, and it didn't make any difference.
Hello Daniel,
I just upgraded to from Moodle 2.9 to Moodle 3.1. Actually I installed 3.1 from scratch so that all the little mods to code were gone.
So, to get the Atto equation editor working again, I again had to change the timeouts. I changed the 500 ms timouts to 5000 in these files:
In /moodle/lib/editor/atto/plugins/equation/yui/src/button/js/
button.js
In /moodle/lib/editor/atto/plugins/equation/yui/build/moodle-atto_equation-button
moodle-atto_equation-button-debug.js
moodle-atto_equation-button.js
moodle-atto_equation-button-min.js
It did fix the problem (again). But I mention this because I feel an increased timeout should be incorporated into the standard Moodle distribution. 5000 ms might be tooo long, but 500 will be too short for many users.
Sincerely,
Peter Halverson
Use Mathjax filter not Tex notation.