Itamar Tzadok

I'm not familiar with the roadmap for the database activity module or even if there is such a map.

I'm pretty sure there's much to optimize both in the module and in the DB before splitting up tables. For instance, the database module fills up the content table with empty records (see edit.php around 230:   /// Insert a whole lot of empty records to make sure we have them) and I'm not sure that there are good enough reasons for that (I don't do that in the dataform). This means that if you have, say, a 100 fields, there will be a 100 records added to data_content for each entry, whether or not they hold content for the entry.

James, the sql error seems to be a known issue with MSSQL. You should probably convert all ntext columns in your moodle database to nvarchar(max) to prevent it. See this post for details.

This may be a compatibility issue with MS SQL but it still seems that the view did not register the field. Before I investigate possible MS SQL issues I need to be sure that the setup procedure was followed correctly. The view should be created after the field has been added. If the view already exists, you need to "refresh" it. If it's a default view you can simply reset it from the views list by clicking the  icon. If it's a customized view you need to edit it and save. Could you confirm that you do the setup in this order?

As for the package related warnings, could you confirm that the dataform/package dir exists and has proper permissions?

Btw, the package dir is meant for including samples with dataform distributions. You don't need it if you only want to store packages in the course or publish packages across the site. For the latter you just package the dataform which creates a course level package in the file system, and then you can share the package across the site which creates a copy of the package in the file system as a site level package.

The dataform_view block is a separate component. It is available from git but I've attached it here too. You need to extract the zip into the blocks dir and change the extracted dir name to dataform_view. Then go to notifications to install. (See also Block installation) After that you should be able to add a dataform view block and configure it to display a view from one of the course's dataforms.

Since when memorising became cheating?

At any rate, I think that any programming instructor who expects students to come up with solutions to problems without consulting manuals and examples, as if at exam time students should remember (without memorising) all the language syntax and techniques, should spend some time reflecting on his/her own practices.