We are using 1.8.2 and have been using LDAP authentication with course enrolment from an external database since the beginning of the academic year.
Earlier this week the external database table fell over. It was fixed pretty quickly. I knew that during this period, no students new to Moodle would have been enrolled to their course. However I am now receiving feedback that when students who were already enrolled to a course had logged in, they did not see their courses neatly listed under My Courses as usual. Instead they had to navigate to them through the larger categories list that did appear.
In other words, Moodle knew they were enrolled on a course, but didn't reflect this in their My Courses listing.
Has this happened to anyone else? Is it just something that will happen in these circumstances - or is it a bug?
Any help or thoughts appreciated.
Anne
NESCOT
Has this happened to anyone else? Is it just something that will happen in these circumstances - or is it a bug?
I have tried to reproduce it here on a 1.8.3+ test install, and even if I remove the database from mysql, I get the list of courses.
Maybe my setup didn't fully reproduce your situation or I just missed something. ??
Saludos. Iñaki.
I guess it depends on the exact nature of "fell over". If the plugin cannot connect to the database table (ie, there is an error of some sort) then it just does nothing - nobody is enrolled, nobody is unenrolled. However, if the connection is successful but no data for the student is received then they will be kicked out of all their courses.
We had the latter problem when the feed that populates our enrollment database broke and the table was valid but empty.
We had the latter problem when the feed that populates our enrollment database broke and the table was valid but empty.
Thanks for giving it a go Inaki - possibly the only other thing that could affect the scenario is that all our courses are set to not be enrollable. But I don't see why that would make a big difference.
And I'm sorry, I should have been more explicit about the problem with the database. Basically it was there, but empty. So from what you are saying Howard, it sounds like we had a narrow escape!
I am working with my technician to change the SQL Server process that is filling out the table in the first place, so that it can't ever end up empty again. We don't want to stop using an enrolment table, because it has saved so much time for the staff here.
Thanks again for your feedback
Anne
NESCOT
And I'm sorry, I should have been more explicit about the problem with the database. Basically it was there, but empty. So from what you are saying Howard, it sounds like we had a narrow escape!
I am working with my technician to change the SQL Server process that is filling out the table in the first place, so that it can't ever end up empty again. We don't want to stop using an enrolment table, because it has saved so much time for the staff here.
Thanks again for your feedback
Anne
NESCOT
Well possibly, when the feed is restored they will get back in again. The only bad thing (that I know about) is that any group memberships will be lost in the process. Stuff like forum posts is unaffected, so as long as you don't use groups it's not a big deal.