Increasing CHECKNET SCORM alerts

Increasing CHECKNET SCORM alerts

by Vaishak Kallore -
Number of replies: 9

I'm trying to implement increasing 'checknet' scorm alert time from 2 seconds to 10 seconds and 5 seconds to 30 seconds by replacing the values in the below lines.

https://github.com/andrewnicols/moodle/compare/9b8555f...MDL-28261-master#diff-36c25f107c03eedc54bad515788e3bffR150
https://github.com/andrewnicols/moodle/compare/9b8555f...MDL-28261-master#diff-36c25f107c03eedc54bad515788e3bffR163


I have tested it in my local machine both in debug and live environments. While on debug environment I've tested it by updating the values in 'moodle-core-checknet-debug.js' file and on live environment 'moodle-core-checknet-min.js' (timeout:{value:10e3},frequency:{value:30e3}).

I'm aware that, it is not recommended to update any of the core files as it will get overwritten in the system update. I also understand from the documents/discussions that it may affect the usage tracking.

Request your valuable inputs on this:

  1. Any safety measure which I could take, to avoid and issues
  2. Any suggestions you may have

I think earlier, I had posted under a wrong category, https://moodle.org/mod/forum/discuss.php?d=331583

Thank you in advance.

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In reply to Vaishak Kallore

Re: Increasing CHECKNET SCORM alerts

by Mathew Gancarz -
Picture of Core developers

Hi Valshak, I've had these tweaked in our installation to actually be a 10 second timeout and checked every 90 seconds. With the default values we had lots of students reporting these messages even when tracking was working fine. We also had one issue where an organization that uses our system had bandwidth limitation issues, which is why we ended up at a 10 second timeout.


I think this is basically a test and see case, where you have to tweak things to suit your specific audience/system.



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In reply to Mathew Gancarz

Re: Increasing CHECKNET SCORM alerts

by Vaishak Kallore -

Dear Mathew,

Thank you for your reply. From different user's experience increasing the time delay has not affected the usage tracking unless they have a 'REAL' network access.

Let me try it out and experiment.

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In reply to Vaishak Kallore

Re: Increasing CHECKNET SCORM alerts

by Dan Marsden -
Picture of Core developers Picture of Particularly helpful Moodlers Picture of Peer reviewers Picture of Plugin developers Picture of Plugins guardians Picture of Testers Picture of Translators

I'm surprised to see you saying it is currently set to 2 seconds in your installation - we increased it a while ago:

https://git.moodle.org/gw?p=moodle.git;a=commitdiff;h=552281e461e440a1df59c7ecae313d46fe35f3c3;hp=06122e46fd16891787a08e9e3125465bea83eaf5

you probably want to upgrade your site to a more recent stable supported version of Moodle.


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In reply to Dan Marsden

Re: Increasing CHECKNET SCORM alerts

by Shyam S -

Hi,

Has anyone tried it for 10 sec and >100 sec respectively?

Just to add to my knowledge base, I would like to hear your view points on this.

Thanks.


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In reply to Dan Marsden

Re: Increasing CHECKNET SCORM alerts

by Vaishak Kallore -

Thank you Dan, sorry for the late reply.

I just want to confirm, what are the precautions I should take before making these change live?

Updating the file and purging cache are the steps involved, I suppose. Do I have to take the moodledata directory? If something goes wrong during the purge cache, can I restore the moodledata directory to function it well as expected?

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In reply to Vaishak Kallore

Re: Increasing CHECKNET SCORM alerts

by Dan Marsden -
Picture of Core developers Picture of Particularly helpful Moodlers Picture of Peer reviewers Picture of Plugin developers Picture of Plugins guardians Picture of Testers Picture of Translators

I'm surprised to see so much effort put into this... upgrading your site would increase the timeout values (and we haven't had the same number of false-positives with the higher values) - If you have upgraded and are still getting these pop-up warnings you should really focus on what is causing the problem at your server (rather than hiding the problem by increasing the values.) SCORM requires a stable/reliable internet connection. If your server doesn't provide this you should fix it or find another hosting solution. If your users need offline-access to SCORM packages or in areas where internet connectivity is not good you should look at using the Moodle mobile app which provides offline support for SCORM.

Whenever you change Moodle code files you should perform appropriate testing to ensure it works as expected - yes you should clear the cache. Yes you should implement some form of backup procedure.. If these things are difficult you should probably not be changing the code.

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In reply to Dan Marsden

Re: Increasing CHECKNET SCORM alerts

by Vaishak Kallore -

Thank you. I understand the risk of increasing the time, and as of now we are not looking for offline access.

In terms of backup procedure, what are the files/directories we should be taking the backup of? Ones I think are,

  1. The files changed (checknet files changed here)
  2. Moodle data directory (Does replacing this directory post purging cache help?)

Any other file/directory should I backup? Please let me know.

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In reply to Vaishak Kallore

Re: Increasing CHECKNET SCORM alerts

by Dan Marsden -
Picture of Core developers Picture of Particularly helpful Moodlers Picture of Peer reviewers Picture of Plugin developers Picture of Plugins guardians Picture of Testers Picture of Translators

If you are only changing the files related to checknet timings the changed files are probably the only ones you really need to backup but you should really be running some form of regular off-site backup of your database and moodledata.

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In reply to Vaishak Kallore

Re: Increasing CHECKNET SCORM alerts

by Mathew Gancarz -
Picture of Core developers

Hi Vaishak, purging the cache only effects the caching part of the moodledata directory, which is meant to be disposable anyways. 

When I was doing this, I can confirm all I did was update the files as you mention in part 1, and purge the cache via the Moodle admin interface.

In terms of restoring from this, you would only need to restore the changed files you mention in part 1, and re-purge the cache.


Seperately as Dan said, you should be backing up moodledata regularly, 3,2,1 backup methodology recommended. Veeam has a good post about this, you don't need to be using their software to do it though: https://www.veeam.com/blog/how-to-follow-the-3-2-1-backup-rule-with-veeam-backup-replication.html 

We rsync to a secondary server daily, and then do a tape backup of that periodically. So we have 3 locations (tape backup, backup server and live), two media (server hdd and tape) and one copy stored offsite (tape).

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