General developer forum

Hi Lloyd -

Because you  built this based on two other plugins' code, and haven't completely modified all of the code to the new plugin, I think you should minimize the plugin you are testing to the code you are working on. So, get rid of all of the code that's not relevant yet, and clean up the notification errors. Turn off everything you don't support yet in the 'simplefeedback_supports' function, so that none of that API code gets called. Then test what you are working on bit by bit. As you are ready to add the other features, add back the code and test.

I have a minimal test plugin I use when I run into strange issues like this. It allows me to rule out any API issues. I started to wonder if there was a strange issue revolving around the fact that you weren't using the passed in 'simplefeedback' object to create the new record, and that you didn't change the 'intro' variable in it. I wondered if the create instance API was somehow writing over your new record with that object.

But, I used my minimal plugin to do a quick test, and there is something odd happening there. Here is what I wrote:

function mystream_add_instance($mystream, $mform) {
    global $DB;

    $mystream->timemodified = time();

    $newdata = new stdClass();
    $newdata->course = $mystream->course;
    $newdata->name = $mystream->name;
    $newdata->intro = '<p>Inserted text</p>';
    $newdata->introformat = $mystream->introformat;
    $newdata->timemodified = $mystream->timemodified;

    $id = $DB->insert_record('mystream', $newdata);

    return $id;
}

The record that was created does not contain the text "Inserted text", but contains the text I entered into the intro box!

So I rewrote the add_instance as follows:

function mystream_add_instance($mystream, $mform) {
    global $DB;

    $mystream->timemodified = time();

    $mystream->intro = '<p>Inserted text</p>';
    $mystream->id = $DB->insert_record('mystream', $mystream);

    return $mystream->id;
}

But, same problem. Something in the API is updating the newly created record with the form data.

I created a new discussion to ask about this issue.

Okay. Well first, you need to use the 'standard_intro_elements' function as I specified previously (remove the 'false' parameter). If you don't use that function, and add the intro elements manually, you need to add more than the single text box. You see this problem when you edit the settings and save from the warning about the missing "introformat". This is causing the "intro" field to not save correctly.

Next, I added a lot of debug statements. At the end of 'simplefeedback_add_instance' I added a get_record call on the newly created record id. The returned record contained the expected intro text. But, after the execution the text was gone. It seems something runs after that that erases that field.

I also noticed that I could not delete any instance of "simplefeedback". So I ran tests with other modules. I likewise could not delete any instances of them. A Javascript error kept popping up on the console.  I completely uninstalled "simplefeedback" and I was able to delete other module instances.

I'm guessing you have some code in there, javascript or other, that is triggered by edit events in the course? I didn't go looking for it, but something must be there. Wherever it is, it is somehow changing the value of the intro field after the record is created and interfering with all module deletion actions.

mike