We have been testing the Recycle Bin plugin on our Moodle 2.7 site. This is something that is really needed, and I'm happy that Moodle has added it to core in Moodle 3.1. During our tests, we came across an issue that may preclude us from installing it (or enabling it when we move to Moodle 3.1). When you delete small items; e.g., labels, simple pages, the deletion occurs quickly. And by "deletion," I mean this workflow:
- Turn editing on
- Delete item
- Turn editing off
But when you delete a larger, complex object, step 3 above -- turning editing off -- can take a long time, and there is no indication (other than what the browser provides) that something is happening. You basically have to wait for it to finish. Something that used to happen immediately -- turning editing off after deleting something (regardless of its complexity) -- can take minutes with the Recycle Bin enabled. An example of a "large, complex object" is a quiz with 95 questions and 155 student responses. Obviously, Moodle is working on backing up the quiz, and since it's rather complex (lots of responses), it takes time. What seems to be missing is some kind of indicator (e.g., progress bar) to let users know that something is happening. The same thing happens on restore. Restoring this kind of quiz can take some time, but there isn't any kind of progress indicator to let the user know that something is happening.
I'm seeing the same thing on a new Moodle 3.1 server. Deleting a quiz like this takes time (i.e, turning editing off after deleting it takes a couple minutes for the system to come back). There isn't any progress indicator. Same on restore. I realize this might be an outlier... most deleted items will be be much smaller, and the time for the deletion to complete will be very short. But users delete all kinds of things.... big items, small items. I think the system should at least provide users with some indication that something is happening.
Does this make sense? Are my concerns reasonable?
Thanks much.... Brian
