Totally Frustrated with Resources

Totally Frustrated with Resources

by Charles Davidson -
Number of replies: 2

I've been trying to get resources up and running for four days now.  Originally I had a problem in 1.6 with resources not being visible.  When I create a PDF or a graphic resources, the file does not appear.  Graphic images display as a missing image symbol (red X) and PDF files don't appear at all.

I thought it was an issue with directory locations, so I moved stuff all over my directory structure and it's still not happening.

Then I thought the problem may have been fixed with a more recent version, so I upgraded to 1.7.  (Had to convince my web host to upgrade me to a different server with MySQL 5.0 installed and then spent two days troubleshooting server issues.)  Same problem.

In the mean time, I've been reading the forums and looking for bug fixes in the tracker.  Nothing made sense.  It appears that people have similar problems but most of them involved PDFs that they could see at one time.  I have never been able to add any resource file other than a text or web page - and that won't work because I need graphics in my course.  PDFs, graphic images, or anything else don't show up.

So I upgraded to 1.8 in search of an answer.  Still not working.

Then I tried 1.9.  Wrestled with CVS and Source Forge to find a beta version that I could try on a test server.  That didn't work at all for me.

I started fresh and wiped everything Moodle from my server.  Erased all my SQL tables and did a fresh install of 1.8.

Nothing.  Still no resources.  I've wasted four days trying to get this to work and nothing makes sense to me.  I've looked at the php code and made some changes in the previous installations but it just doesn't make sense.

Has anyone gotten PDFs to work straight out of the box?  Does anyone have them working now?

I've dedicated my resources to using Moodle to run a small trade school this fall and I need to have students enrolled by the end of the month.  But so far, this has not lived up to the hype or my expecations.

Sorry for the rant.  Can anyone point me to a step-by-step process or FAQ that has solved the problem of using PDF resources?

Thanks,

Charles Davidson

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In reply to Charles Davidson

Picture resources / PDF resources don't work.

by Jan Dierckx -

I wasn't aware of a hype surrounding Moodle, but I know how it feels when something that just ought to work, doesn't. Can you check the following?

  • Does the moodledata directory have the correct permissions? Can you upload / download other files (plain text documents) into the file area of your course? What happens when you add a resource and have it point to this plain text file? (This is not the same as making a text or webpage resource where you type in the text inside a textarea. I understand that you mentioned that these kind of resources work.)

  • Can you reach an uploaded file (try with a text file first, then with a picture, then with a pdf) by directly entering the url in the location bar of your browser. For a picture tryout.jpg stored in the file area of the site's homepage course, this would be:

You can use another course to try it, but then you need to adapt the number 1 to that course number. Tell us if you have problems finding out.

  • Try also to uncheck Use slash arguments setting from Administration -> Server -> HTTP
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In reply to Jan Dierckx

Re: Picture resources / PDF resources don't work.

by Charles Davidson -

Hi Jan.  Sorry about taking so long to get back to you.  My webhost had more problems with my account and it's been down for about 20 hours.  Part of it is working and that helps me troubleshoot the problem.

The problem seems to have corrected itself.  I can view both graphic images and pdf files.

I can only assume that something my webhost did when they originally set up my account did not allow Moodle to read from the moodledocs directory.

Still not sure what they are doing but for now the problem appears to be fixed.

I appreciate your willing to help me - especially after my rant.  smile

Thanks alot!

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