Hiding blocks on dashboard not working

Hiding blocks on dashboard not working

by Franky Just -
Number of replies: 3

I want for a specific site to hide some standard blocks (e.g. loggedin users because of privacy) on the dashboard for the role of student. But hiding blocks on the dashboard seems not working at all. Other roles seems to have the same problem.

I've used the documentation on this point, but this didn't solve the problem. And I've searched and tried several suggestions placed on the forums. It seems that many Moodle administrators are facing the same problem. And also didn't find a proper solution. It also seems that there's no definite clearness if this is a bug (I suppose it is if you look at the documentation) or a matter of design. I'm using MDL 3.6 + and Boost theme. In other themes the same problem appears. Has anyone on this point a solution that works? And could be giving clearness about the bug or design question?

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In reply to Franky Just

Re: Hiding blocks on dashboard not working

by Mary Cooch -
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So what have you tried so far? For example have you tried removing the capability Capabilities/block/myprofile:myaddinstance from the student role? See the documentation on block capabilities in Managing blocks
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In reply to Franky Just

Re: Hiding blocks on dashboard not working

by Joost Elshoff -
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Hi Franky,
I'm unaware of any bugs in that direction, but the following may be happening:
For site admins, there are two places where you can change what is being displayed on the user's dashboard:
- your own personal dashboard (../my)
- the dashboard configuration page (../my/indexsys.php)

If you're hiding blocks on your own dashboard page, this will only affect your own dashboard. If instead you wish to rearrange the dashboard for all users, go to Site administration > Appearance > Default dashboard page. Here, you can rearrange blocks, set them to (in)visible etc.

Once you're done, be sure to hit the Reset Dashboard for all users, so your changes can be deployed for all users.

If you don't want certain blocks to be available to users, when they in turn edit their dashboard, be sure to go to Site administration > Plugins > Blocks > Manage blocks and use the 'eye' icon to disable blocks. Here, you can also use the 'lock' icon to lock certain blocks, so they can't be changed by individual users.

Hope this helps,


Joost
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In reply to Joost Elshoff

Re: Re: Hiding blocks on dashboard not working

by Franky Just -
Hi Joost (and Mary),

Thx for reply. I've reread the documentation more carefully, and tested different settings. So far I can judge now there are no bugs really. But here is where the misunderstanding is coming in:

to avoid that students can place e.g. the block Online users on their Startpage, an admin has to uncheck the capability 'block/online_users(my)addinstance' under the role of Authenticated user. This is also stated in the MDL-documentation. When you do this under the role of Student, there seems no effect at all. So it seems that this capability under the Student role is 'superfluous'. I've checked this also for the role of a Teacher, the same happens. Checking here the capability 'block/online_users(my)addinstance' gives the teacher no option to place this block on his/her Startpage. Only an admin has a remaining right to place it on his/her Startpage.

It seems that in Moodle under every role all capabilities are listed with an option to check/uncheck, regardless of it does have any effect. Because the ACL within Moodle is IMO difficult to set up comparing with many CMS's, it would be handy if it would be totally clear what the effect will be of (un)checking ACL-settings.

Franky
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