Upgrading Attendance module problem

Upgrading Attendance module problem

by Elizabeth McGee -
Number of replies: 5

I've recently upgraded my production Moodle site to 3.3.4, and would like to upgrade the attendance module to 3.3.15 from 3.1.0.3, and struggling to do so and could use some new ideas to try.

What I'm seeing is as I start the upgrade (via the Plugins overview page, clicking "install this update" with the Activity Module and the Block) is that the upgrade starts up--the browser shows it is installing (with the activity indicator in the browser tab) and I can see attendance update activity happening in the process list on my database server. Within 5-10 minutes, the activity indicator in the browser stops, the database activity seems to stop, and Moodle shows "site is being upgraded, try back later" though no upgrade activity seems to be happening on the database server.

I was able to back it off and stick with my current 3.1.0.3 version, but this isn't optimal. Has anyone been through this and could give me an idea of where I'm going wrong or where to start looking for answers in a log?

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In reply to Elizabeth McGee

Re: Upgrading Attendance module problem

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

Have you turned debugging on to see if you get some error messages while upgrading?  Do other upgrades go ok?  Have you tried starting with just the module and then adding the block?

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In reply to Emma Richardson

Re: Upgrading Attendance module problem

by Elizabeth McGee -

Thanks Emma. I didn't try turning debugging messages on, unfortunately. If I can get a chance to do that on my production site again before courses start I will.

All other upgrades have gone just fine--I've updated to 3.3.4, updated all plugins we use except attendance, updated the theme (Moove), etc. with no issues. In addition, attendance did update in my non-production environments, but they have much fewer courses and almost no attendance data in them. I have tried module then block, block then module, and both together, and I get the same seeming failure each time.

This wouldn't be such a problem for me, except when I upgraded to 3.3.4, we seem to have lost the ability to hit a single radio button to mark everyone present, absent, etc. in the plugin. This is going to be an issue for us when fall courses start up.

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In reply to Elizabeth McGee

Re: Upgrading Attendance module problem

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

Would it be ok to lose past data?  If so, you could try a full uninstall of the attendance plugin first.  This would remove database references and any past attendance records but might allow you to install the latest version...

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In reply to Emma Richardson

Re: Upgrading Attendance module problem

by Elizabeth McGee -

Right now losing past data and currently set sessions in the attendance module would be a big problem for us. I thought deleting and reinstalling might be my last option, but I won't be able to do that until our semester break now.

What I would like to try is blocking out the line that makes it appear that you can set all rows, but the best I can come up with there is striking out the label for that set of radio buttons.

thanks so much for sharing your thoughts on this with me. It's been quite vexing.

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In reply to Elizabeth McGee

Re: Upgrading Attendance module problem

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

The only time I had that break on me was actually when I was using the Auto Attendance plugin with it.  I am surprised to see that part not working but maybe because of an incompatible version..

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