Hi,
This is a problem we have been suffering from since September 2015. We have files stuck in a queue and they seem to be causing problems for every other submission to the turnitin server from Moodle (2.7). We have logged this as problem but the support hasn't been satisfactory up to this point (helpdesk case #00468946). The latest support message we received suggested that there is no longer a problem. This is clearly not true as our students cannot upload assignments either from the direct integration or from the plagiarism plugin for Moodle assignments (all assignments are stuck as "pending"). All of our turn it in plugins are fully up to date.
Basically, I have been able to identify that there are errors showing up in various tables having run reports from:
events_handlers (7 lines returned all relating to turn it in)
events_queue_handlers (1998 lines returned, 3 specifically display turn it in error messages)
events_queue returns 1998 records
turnitin_events_queue returns 1998 events/records
event_queue_errors returns 3 errors all relating to turn it in each with a different status (537, 450, 60)
CSV files for these reports are too large to upload here but can be accessed from this dropbox link:
https://www.dropbox.com/sh/kjjmjw8gjzluntj/AAA9VzU6L1cK-GeFGuN8E47ba?dl=0
Please can anybody help by outlining the process to delete the "stuck items" and get the queue moving again? Is it a case of deleting the offending records from the relevant moodle tables? I can see that one of the errors relates to a specific Moodle user. I get the feeing though that clearing this error will then just throw up more errors stuck further down the queue. A quick look in the API control panel of files reveals that many files from one particular course were rejected some time ago due to file size restrictions and names that contained too many characters. I get the feeling that there are many more of these to come after current problem which is holding up the cron job. The priority right now is to get Turn it in working again as soon as possible even if that means losing the work/submissions that are currently in the queue. This has been going on since September therefore a college of 2000 students have been unable to use the (paid for) service for a very long time. All work stuck in the queue is backed up elsewhere by students so starting again from scratch would be fine. A lot of deadlines have been missed and a lot of stress has been caused for both staff and students because of this.
To be clear - at this stage we are so frustrated by this issue that we are willing to just delete everything and start again! If we do this, will we be able to sync existing assignments back from the turn it in server? Again to make this point very clear - no user has been able to submit work successfully this academic year via the plagiarism plugin. The direct integration was working up until November when we installed updates to the plugins (via the plugin notifications page). After updates in November it was no longer possible for students to upload work at all from any assignment type.
The API connection to submit.ac.uk is working fine.
Old assignments can still be viewed via moodle by Teachers and it is still possible to create new assignments. It's just not possible for Moodle to pass these submissions on to turnitin because of what seems like events queue problems.
Hopefully somebody can provide some advice. Any help would be very welcome.
Thanks
Mike Grainger
Learning Technology Co-ordinator