Hi all
First, i did not find a thread like my question. In Moodle 1.8.1+, when a teacher has published a assignment, example Type - Upload a single file, now he want to change the Type, example Type - Offline Activity, he has no chance to do this, after he has published the assignment?
I check this out in Moodle 1.6.x, here a teacher can do this. First i was the meaning, that the problem is the moodle 1.6.x when i restore a course with assigments on moodle 1.8.x, this is the reason i open a ticket in the issue tracker (not the only reason).
Every helpfull postings are welcome!
Bye Andy
I´m the only one to tell this question?
Andy
Andy
Andy - I did notice the change in 1.8 from 1.6. The way that an assignment type is chosen did change from being an option to selecting a specific type of assignment. It seems to me that each assignment type is treated almost like its own type of activity so if you want to change the type you will have to create the new type and copy and paste the information over and then delete the old type. For the most part, the teacher knows what type of assignment it is going to be. Is there a reason why this "feature" would be needed? How often are you changing the type of an assignment? Peace - Anthony
Anthony,
thank you for your posting! I beginn to answer your question "how often i did change the type ..." i did not change the type, i would do this, but in the first time i want change, i have no chance to do this.
I will tell you my answer of your second question, "if there a reason i needed ..."
Yes and no Anthony, first yes, because we have a major problem, when a teacher comes with an existing course from a moodle version 1.6 with the type "upload only one file" and we want restore this course on moodle 1.8.1+
You have no chance to restore the course, because (so my thougt) this must be a bug. I made a comment on the issue tracker, another user have exact this problem. I find a solution to handle this problem, so i can delete the failing restore, but it solves not really the problem, please see here Anthony.
Yet no, we don´t needed, thats okay, but then i must inform the teachers that the assignment has changed, and they must install the singles assignments new and can not change the type. I was and bin not sure is this a bug or did we only lost this function.
The problem is Anthony, we host and support many moodle installations on our server, the most installations based on Moodle 1.6x, and i think we must changed now (because there are holidays) and before the gap between the versions are to great to handle such problems.
Thanks Anthony
Andy
thank you for your posting! I beginn to answer your question "how often i did change the type ..." i did not change the type, i would do this, but in the first time i want change, i have no chance to do this.
I will tell you my answer of your second question, "if there a reason i needed ..."
Yes and no Anthony, first yes, because we have a major problem, when a teacher comes with an existing course from a moodle version 1.6 with the type "upload only one file" and we want restore this course on moodle 1.8.1+
You have no chance to restore the course, because (so my thougt) this must be a bug. I made a comment on the issue tracker, another user have exact this problem. I find a solution to handle this problem, so i can delete the failing restore, but it solves not really the problem, please see here Anthony.
Yet no, we don´t needed, thats okay, but then i must inform the teachers that the assignment has changed, and they must install the singles assignments new and can not change the type. I was and bin not sure is this a bug or did we only lost this function.
The problem is Anthony, we host and support many moodle installations on our server, the most installations based on Moodle 1.6x, and i think we must changed now (because there are holidays) and before the gap between the versions are to great to handle such problems.
Thanks Anthony
Andy
Andy - Thank you for further explaining your situation. I was not aware of a problem with restoring assignments. I will give it a try and see what happens. I have done some imports of assignments and did not have any troubles but I did not look all that closely at what was happening. Are you using a backup from 1.6 and restoring to 1.8? I upgraded my 1.6 production server to Moodle 1.8 and I am hoping that I will not have any trouble backing up from 1.8 and restoring to 1.8 (or hopefully 1.9). I'll let you know what I find out about my backup/restore experiences. Peace - Anthony
Anthony,
Are you using a backup from 1.6 and restoring to 1.8?
Yes a course backup file from moodle 1.6.x and restoring on moodle 1.8.1.+. The restore fails only when on moodle 1.6.x the type of the assignment was "uploading one file", so i´m think that the problem must have something to do with this type. Four your information, it was a new 1.8.1+ installation, not a upgrade from 1.6.x to 1.8.1+, we did only restore the course backup files. We must do it that way (not must but we do it to have a clean system), because the students in all courses changed.
I will check next week a course restore from 1.8.1+ to 1.8.1+ and will give a feedback here.
Bye Anthony
Andy
Are you using a backup from 1.6 and restoring to 1.8?
Yes a course backup file from moodle 1.6.x and restoring on moodle 1.8.1.+. The restore fails only when on moodle 1.6.x the type of the assignment was "uploading one file", so i´m think that the problem must have something to do with this type. Four your information, it was a new 1.8.1+ installation, not a upgrade from 1.6.x to 1.8.1+, we did only restore the course backup files. We must do it that way (not must but we do it to have a clean system), because the students in all courses changed.
I will check next week a course restore from 1.8.1+ to 1.8.1+ and will give a feedback here.
Bye Anthony
Andy
Greetings, Andy!
I am not experiencing this problem. I restored several 1.6.3 courses to 1.8.1, and they all seem fine. I had a variety of off line and upload single file assignments.
I will agree with you, though, that the ability to change type of assignment after the assignment has been created is no longer there.
In fact, it is funny, that the off-line assignment has kind of a blank where that dropdown box used to be. (well, I think it is where the dropdown box used to be. . .)
atw
I am not experiencing this problem. I restored several 1.6.3 courses to 1.8.1, and they all seem fine. I had a variety of off line and upload single file assignments.
I will agree with you, though, that the ability to change type of assignment after the assignment has been created is no longer there.
In fact, it is funny, that the off-line assignment has kind of a blank where that dropdown box used to be. (well, I think it is where the dropdown box used to be. . .)
atw
Dear A.T.,
thank you very much for your comment!
We check this problem (with the restore of courses from 1.6x on 1.8.1+ with assignments) not only on one moodle 1.6.x installation. Did you see the screenshots in the issue tracker? I hear about that problem from other moodlers they contact me, before i check this on the installations we support and had follow the exactly same problems.
Again, the problem comes only when a teacher choose the assignment type "upload one file" on moodle 1.6.x and we want restore the backup file on moodle 1.8.1+. I´m not sure if the problem in moodle 1.6.x or 1.8.1+, when we restore a backup file from moodle 1.6.x on another moodle 1.6.x that works without any problem.
My first idea was, yet where in moodle 1.8.1.+ the assignment has one more type "advanced uploading of files", that this type colleded with the type "upload only one file" from moodle 1.6.x.
Sure we can handle it in that way, we tell the teacher, first delete the assignment in moodle 1.6.x or switch the type in 1.6.x to ex. "online activity", but the problem is, on moodle 1.8.1+ they can´t switch back to another type.
Some teachers follow a concept, they have a lot of assignments in their courses, because the work flow in the course is in front of one or more years. When they delete in moodle 1.6.x they have again a lot of work. This is/was one of the reason i search for a solution.
The second reason is, some installations we support only with our server management, the admins of these installations stands in front of a major problem, when the restore in from moodle 1.6.x to 1.8.1+ fails. When the restore fail, see the issue tracker, they have no chance to delete the not completely course. Okay i find a solution they can delete, but this is a real quick and dirty solution.
Thanks for reading my problem!
Andy
thank you very much for your comment!
We check this problem (with the restore of courses from 1.6x on 1.8.1+ with assignments) not only on one moodle 1.6.x installation. Did you see the screenshots in the issue tracker? I hear about that problem from other moodlers they contact me, before i check this on the installations we support and had follow the exactly same problems.
Again, the problem comes only when a teacher choose the assignment type "upload one file" on moodle 1.6.x and we want restore the backup file on moodle 1.8.1+. I´m not sure if the problem in moodle 1.6.x or 1.8.1+, when we restore a backup file from moodle 1.6.x on another moodle 1.6.x that works without any problem.
My first idea was, yet where in moodle 1.8.1.+ the assignment has one more type "advanced uploading of files", that this type colleded with the type "upload only one file" from moodle 1.6.x.
Sure we can handle it in that way, we tell the teacher, first delete the assignment in moodle 1.6.x or switch the type in 1.6.x to ex. "online activity", but the problem is, on moodle 1.8.1+ they can´t switch back to another type.
Some teachers follow a concept, they have a lot of assignments in their courses, because the work flow in the course is in front of one or more years. When they delete in moodle 1.6.x they have again a lot of work. This is/was one of the reason i search for a solution.
The second reason is, some installations we support only with our server management, the admins of these installations stands in front of a major problem, when the restore in from moodle 1.6.x to 1.8.1+ fails. When the restore fail, see the issue tracker, they have no chance to delete the not completely course. Okay i find a solution they can delete, but this is a real quick and dirty solution.
Thanks for reading my problem!
Andy
Hi all
The problems with the restore a course from moodle 1.6 and delete a restore from moodle 1.6 with assignments seems to be gone with moodle 1.8.2. Only the (its only my meaning) handling that a type cannot be change after saving is still exist. Anyway, my biggest problem is gone ...
Andy
The problems with the restore a course from moodle 1.6 and delete a restore from moodle 1.6 with assignments seems to be gone with moodle 1.8.2. Only the (its only my meaning) handling that a type cannot be change after saving is still exist. Anyway, my biggest problem is gone ...
Andy
In my situation, we have a few teachers who previously used offline activities to put a placeholder in the grading system, then entered grades by hand. They now want to have their students submit papers online, more fully using the capabilities of moodle, but are unable to make this change. So the answer to the question 'how often' is 'very often!' In the words of one teacher, "This is the most annoying thing I have encountered with moodle."
I hope there is a solution. At this point, I have told her she will have to re-create each assignment individually.
John
I hope there is a solution. At this point, I have told her she will have to re-create each assignment individually.
John
Our teachers, too, have requested to have this feature returned. Looking at the code, it appears that the type is simply a text value saved into the "assignmenttype" field in mdl_assigment. By changing this value (on a remote test copy, of course), I was able to influence the assignment type. However, there are additional options which seem to be confusing, labeled "var1" thru "var5" in the table. However, assuming you edit the assignment twice, once to first change the type, then the second to verify the options are as you desire, everything seems to work fine.
Can someone verify that my "fix" will not break something elsewhere?
Can someone verify that my "fix" will not break something elsewhere?
For any who are interested, here is a diff file for my attempt to replace this feature. Let me know how it works for you!
Nick, Andy, and others - Thanks for the patch above. I do not see it causing any problems but I did not test it and gave it a quick look. The issue of being able to change assignment types seems to me to be a good one. I just made a post where I raised the question as to whether we might be able to consolidate some of the assignment code. Would it make sense to you to consolidate the online, single file, and advanced upload assignments into 1 assignment type? My thinking is that what really differentiates them is the number of files uploaded. There is no difference between the advanced and single except that you would want to limit the user to a single file. Online assignment type would have 0 files and if that is the case then give the user a text box. I would think that by making these a single assignment type that it would be fairly easy to then change between the assignment types. What are your thoughts on the matter? Did you ever create a report in the tracker for the loss of the ability to change assignment types? Peace - Anthony