Hi,
I'm running Moodle on a commercial host which uses shared hosting.
The host does not have or plan to allow installation of ghostscript or unoconv.
I am very interested in being able to have teachers annotate pdfs of students' work.
Is there anything I can do such as use a remotely hosted ghostscript or shouldI just accept that annotation is not going to be an option for us?
I would set up a server myself but I'm not sure our technicians are keen at this point.
Many thanks,
David
Move hosts
Even on shared mine allows all that stuff and more.
Cheers
Thanks for that - will shop around!
Hi David,
We are also hosted on a shared server using Moodle 3.3. Like you I would have liked teachers to annotate PDFs in the assignment module but our host will not install this feature on a shared server. I don't miss this feature nor did I hear any complains from other teachers. As we have a very tight budget for our DE site, I am glad that we are still hosted on a shared server with a timely and competent technical support. So you are not alone on a shared server without the annotation feature. But if you really want it, your host may have a plan that includes the installation of this feature.
With kind regards,
Hartmut
Thanks - you're probably right. I suspect very few teachers would be interested.
Cheers,
David
Hi David,
If you happen to have access to a G Suite for Education (or Business) environment, there is another way to facilitate the annotate PDF functionality in Assignment grading. You'd have to set up an OAuth2 connection with this G Suite environment and connect a system account, and then set up the Google Document converter instead of the unoconv/gs one. This latter one is notoriously prone to crashing, as it may well do in a shared host type of setup.
Hi Joost,
Many thanks for that - I think it might be the option I pursue.
Kind regards,
David
OK, I have set up OAuth2 via Google and it seems to be working (passes the test).
I still have no joy when I open the grading window for uploaded assignments which are either in docx or pdf format.
I have disabled unoconv as a document converter as I don't think LibreOffice is on the server.
Ghostscript is installed but when I test its path, I get the attached error.
When I try grading an uploaded assignment, I get an alert which says:
Cannot open the PDF. The file may be corrupt, or in an unsupported format.
Any ideas what may be wrong? My host thinks that ghostscript is on the server (v 9.07).
I know that a while back I tested the annotation tool on uploaded pdfs and it was fine (an older version of Moodle on a different web host).
David
Is that a png that you are trying to convert? That is not in the list of compatible formats..
What happens when you test the converter from the plugin settings...is that error from there?
That's the error that I get when I use Moodle's built-in 'Test Ghostscript Path' link in Admin, Plugins, Activity Modules, Assignment, Feedback Plugins, Annotate PDF.
My host has told me that Ghostscript has been installed and I get the green tick when I set its path.
When I test the Google OAuth2 converter, everything is fine and I can see the lorem ipsum document. I would have thought that OAuth2 would pick up the grading task but something seems wrong.
I have set OAuth2 to be the only document converter (I don't think I have LibreOffice or unoconv on the server).
Update - All seems to be OK now. My web host installed ghostscript and it looks as though PHP exec was disabled on the server. Having that (or possibly another function) enabled seems to have solved it.
Thanks to all for help & advice.
David
