Random Password not displayed Moodle 4.1

Random Password not displayed Moodle 4.1

by Eric Katchan -
Number of replies: 10

Hi, 

The behavior of the random QR code in moodle 3.9 displays the random password along with the QR code.  On moodle 4.1, running the most recent Attendance plugin does not seem to show the random password.  Is that by design?

Installed Plugin Version: 2023012601

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In reply to Eric Katchan

Re: Random Password not displayed Moodle 4.1

by Dan Marsden -
Picture of Core developers Picture of Particularly helpful Moodlers Picture of Peer reviewers Picture of Plugin developers Picture of Plugins guardians Picture of Testers Picture of Translators
yes - it was intentional.... but do you want it back for some reason?
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In reply to Dan Marsden

Re: Random Password not displayed Moodle 4.1

by Eric Katchan -

Hi Dan, actually for testing purposes our test server is not accessible outside our institution local network.  As a result, using your phone to read the QR code will not resolve.  So, in 3.9 we were able to use the desktop browser and input the password.  Is there something else we can do?

Thanks

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In reply to Eric Katchan

Re: Random Password not displayed Moodle 4.1

by Dan Marsden -
Picture of Core developers Picture of Particularly helpful Moodlers Picture of Peer reviewers Picture of Plugin developers Picture of Plugins guardians Picture of Testers Picture of Translators
For testing - you should be able to use a QR Code reader to get the url that is embedded in the QR code - or take a look at the "title" rollover on the image (the rollover includes the qrcode url with password too.)
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In reply to Dan Marsden

Re: Random Password not displayed Moodle 4.1

by kyke blasco -
Morning, it's any reason for that? I work at University of Barcelona and some professors (with huge classes) claims that it's was more useful to show the password AND the QR code even if this one rotates.
Thanks
Best regards
Kyke
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In reply to kyke blasco

Re: Random Password not displayed Moodle 4.1

by Dan Marsden -
Picture of Core developers Picture of Particularly helpful Moodlers Picture of Peer reviewers Picture of Plugin developers Picture of Plugins guardians Picture of Testers Picture of Translators
it was ugly/messy UI and as the code rotated, it wasn't usually easy for the users to use in time before it changed - happy for someone to send through a pull request with a patch, but we'd need to make the code look a lot nicer on the pop-up page than it used to.
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In reply to Dan Marsden

Ri: Re: Random Password not displayed Moodle 4.1

by Franky Vallori -
Hi Dan,
We had solved the Code rotation problem by increasing the rotation time to 20 seconds and setting the maximum password length to 4 sec (file /locallib.php, random_string()-> random_string(4) in attendance_generate_passwords function).

Leaving it like this creates a problem.
But when you set "Random password" and "Include QR code", the Student is asked to enter a password that he does not see and it is not the "Student password" that the Teacher sees.

It would be really useful to put the password display back in future patches.

Thank you.

Greetings,
Frankie
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In reply to Dan Marsden

Re: Random Password not displayed Moodle 4.1

by sara al-sawafi -
Some classes and lecture halls are too big and wide for some students to scan the code (students' device compatibility). Hence, the password effectively substitutes code scanning when their cameras fail to capture the code. In our context, the rotated passwords and QR codes are needed.
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In reply to Dan Marsden

Re: Random Password not displayed Moodle 4.1

by catalina moodle -
Hello,

We've been having multiple issues with the attendance plugin since moving to 4.1 summer of 2023. Never heard anything when this had the numerical random password as well. The issues are hard to replicate (we tried), they seem to mostly be related to students' devices/skill to scan and login fast enough.

Is it possible to bring back the numerical password and let it be random as well (changes same interval as QR code rotates), please? It could be a separate option, so teachers can choose what their class should use: random pass (changing or static) or QR code (changing or static).

Thank you,
Catalina
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In reply to catalina moodle

Re: Random Password not displayed Moodle 4.1

by Dan Marsden -
Picture of Core developers Picture of Particularly helpful Moodlers Picture of Peer reviewers Picture of Plugin developers Picture of Plugins guardians Picture of Testers Picture of Translators
Hi Catalina,

Sorry to hear of your issues! - the plugin is open source and if you have internal development capabilities, pull requests are always very welcome. You can also engage your local Moodle Partner to help submit a pull request or reach out to me privately if you would like to fund improvements (I work for the Moodle Partner Catalyst IT)

I do note there are some improvements to the timing checks incoming which could potentially be related to some of the issues you are experiencing too - but simply returning a "bad UX" to fix an intermittent issue isn't ideal - it would be better to track down the conditions where it is failing and improve them.

thanks!
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