Pioneer and Fordson: Can't install new plugins after installing the theme

Pioneer and Fordson: Can't install new plugins after installing the theme

by Alan Haywood -
Number of replies: 4

I'm a huge fan of Pioneer, having used it with Moodle 3.0 for over a year. But after updating last November I ran into a huge problem. I became unable to install any plugins; my site stuck on plugin check after trying to update then database. I believe the most likely problem to be these themes. This is a pity as I love both themes.

I had the same problem with Pioneer on 3.1 and Fordson on 3.2. Both clean installs with new database and no other plugins.


My old 3.0 site had many plugins, worked with no problems for over a year until November 2016

I've tried all three ways of installing new plugins but always get the following error message when I try to update the database

Coding error detected, it must be fixed by a programmer: The data source class does not exist.

More information about this error

×Debug info: 

Error code: codingerror


×Stack trace:

line 513 of /cache/classes/definition.php: coding_exception thrown

line 515 of /cache/classes/helper.php: call to cache_definition::load()

line 480 of /cache/classes/helper.php: call to cache_helper::purge_store()

line 1737 of /lib/upgradelib.php: call to cache_helper::purge_all()

line 683 of /admin/index.php: call to upgrade_noncore()


Can anybody help?

Thank you in advance
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In reply to Alan Haywood

Re: Pioneer and Fordson: Can't install new plugins after installing the theme

by Emma Richardson -
Picture of Documentation writers Picture of Particularly helpful Moodlers Picture of Plugin developers

I kind of doubt this is a theme issue.  Can you install plugins when you use the Clean theme for example?  More likely something went wrong with the upgrade.  Are you installing the themes through the plugin system?  Are you using the latest versions?  

The error is referencing your cache - have you checked your permissions on your moodledata folder?

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In reply to Emma Richardson

Re: Pioneer and Fordson: Can't install new plugins after installing the theme

by Alan Haywood -

Hi Emma,

Thanks for such a quick reply. It's good to know that the problem may not be related to the theme.

In answer to your question. 

Latest versions of 3.1 and 3.2: I have reinstalled a few times. Both 3.1 and 3.2 were clean installs.

Clean theme: I installed the pioneer theme and the board format using Clean and had no problems. After experiencing problems with Pioneer I reverted to Clean but as you thought I continued to have problems. Tjhsi is why my first 

Moodledata folder: Your thinking makes sense as I use the same moodledata folder for all my installs.
If the problem is permissions on Moodledata, can you give me more information for checking these. I have whm root access if that helps.

More information: I run my Moodles in subfolders of my wordpress site.


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In reply to Alan Haywood

Re: Pioneer and Fordson: Can't install new plugins after installing the theme

by Emma Richardson -
Picture of Documentation writers Picture of Particularly helpful Moodlers Picture of Plugin developers

You can't share a moodledata folder between two sites - there is your issue.  The cache is getting confused.  Create separate moodledata folders for each site and reinstall.  Then see if you issue still persists.

Average of ratings: Useful (1)
In reply to Alan Haywood

Re: Pioneer and Fordson: Can't install new plugins after installing the theme

by Chris Kenniburg -
Picture of Particularly helpful Moodlers Picture of Plugin developers

Alan, I'm thinking Emma is right.  Each install of Moodle should have its own data directory.  The easy installs from cpanel can sometimes point to the same data directory as it is a scripted install.   

Thank you for your interest in Pioneer and Fordson.  I don't believe the themes are the root of the issues your experiencing.  

Create a new folder next to the current Moodlesite folder.  Edit one of the Moodle config.php file to utilize the new data folder.  Make sure www can read and write to your folders.

That should fix the issue of shared data folders.

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