Statistics report shows guest activity although guest login & enrolment is disabled

Statistics report shows guest activity although guest login & enrolment is disabled

by Sven Junker -
Number of replies: 8

Hello everybody,

I'm a little puzzled by the fact that the statistics report graph for our site shows considerable activity by the guest role although we've disabled guest login as well as guest enrolment globally (which had been allowed for a couple of weeks beforehand though).

Additionally, the enrolment plugin overview shows a number of 110/0 enrolments for the (disabled) guest enrolment plugin. I can't seem to figure out what the two numbers mean.

So my question is: where does the guest activity come from?

I have a feeling I might be overlooking something really obvious. Maybe you can point me in the right direction. 

Moodle Version is 3.8.2+

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In reply to Sven Junker

Re: Statistics report shows guest activity although guest login & enrolment is disabled

by Howard Miller -
Picture of Core developers Picture of Documentation writers Picture of Particularly helpful Moodlers Picture of Peer reviewers Picture of Plugin developers
You are confusing the guest role (a role) with the guest login (a "fake" user). Who would blame you, it would have been better if they had different names.

Anybody using the site who is not logged in has the guest role.
Average of ratings: Useful (1)
In reply to Howard Miller

Re: Statistics report shows guest activity although guest login & enrolment is disabled

by Sven Junker -
Actually, we thought we had both disabled, and using our site without login is not possible (even browsing, as it's behind an authentication server) . So I'm wondering, with guest access to courses globally disabled, where do the guest roles come from?
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In reply to Sven Junker

Re: Statistics report shows guest activity although guest login & enrolment is disabled

by Howard Miller -
Picture of Core developers Picture of Documentation writers Picture of Particularly helpful Moodlers Picture of Peer reviewers Picture of Plugin developers
You can't disable the guest role. If somebody is (for example) looking at the front page without being logged in then they do so with the guest role. Guest role merely means "not logged in" (as opposed to the authenticated user role when logged in)
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In reply to Howard Miller

Re: Statistics report shows guest activity although guest login & enrolment is disabled

by Sven Junker -
This is what worries me. The way our system is set up there shouldn't be any opportunity to even see the start page without being logged in; if you try, the server redirects you to the login page. Moreover, in the stats I can see there is not only guest activity but when I select the "posts" statistics, there is also a considerable number of guest posts being made.
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In reply to Sven Junker

Re: Statistics report shows guest activity although guest login & enrolment is disabled

by Howard Miller -
Picture of Core developers Picture of Documentation writers Picture of Particularly helpful Moodlers Picture of Peer reviewers Picture of Plugin developers
If you can see posts being made in the log then you can click the link and see who made them. A bit more investigation perhaps...
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In reply to Howard Miller

Re: Statistics report shows guest activity although guest login & enrolment is disabled

by Sven Junker -

They only appear as the aggregated number in the stats graph, there are no guest activities in the logs.

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In reply to Sven Junker

Re: Statistics report shows guest activity although guest login & enrolment is disabled

by Howard Miller -
Picture of Core developers Picture of Documentation writers Picture of Particularly helpful Moodlers Picture of Peer reviewers Picture of Plugin developers
Right - if there's nothing in the logs nothing happened. The logs are the "truth"
Average of ratings: Useful (1)
In reply to Howard Miller

Re: Statistics report shows guest activity although guest login & enrolment is disabled

by Sven Junker -
Thinking of it that way is actually reassuring, whatever is causing the guest activity to pop up in the graph is most likely not a potential security issue. Thanks, Howard! smile
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