Session keepalive

General plugins (Local) ::: local_session_keepalive
Maintained by Logo "Moodle an Hochschulen e.V."Moodle an Hochschulen e.V., Alexander Bias
Moodle plugin which checks for unsent user input in the browser and keeps the user session alive as long as needed to prevent that user input which is sent to the server after the user session has expired will be lost
Latest release:
367 sites
447 downloads
26 fans
Current versions available: 14

Moodle has a built-in session timeout which is described on https://docs.moodle.org/en/Session_handling#Timeout. The documentation tells you about the timeout:

If users don't load a new page during the amount of time set here, Moodle will end their session and log them out. Be sure this time frame is long enough to cover the longest test your teachers may offer. If a student is logged out while they are taking a test, their responses to the test questions may be lost.

Having read that, as an admin, you are in the difficult situation of, on the one hand, setting the timeout long enough to cover all cases when users input content into a Moodle page without reloading the page for a long time (for example taking a huge quiz or writing a long forum post) and, on the other hand, of setting the timeout short enough to prevent account abuse if a user forgets to log out of Moodle on a public computer.

To solve this dilemma, this plugin adds a keepalive check to the Moodle page which checks for unsent user input in the browser and keeps the user session alive as long as needed even if there is no full page load.

Please see README file for details about the usage and features of this plugin.

No support in the comments section on this page

Please note that we don't provide any support for this plugin in the comments section on this page.

We appreciate your commendation and reviews for this plugin in the comments. For bug reports and support requests, please read the extensive information in the plugin's README file first and create, if needed, a ticket in the bug tracker which is linked below.

Thanks for your cooperation.

Screenshots

Screenshot #0

Contributors

Logo "Moodle an Hochschulen e.V."
Moodle an Hochschulen e.V. (Lead maintainer): Maintainer
Alexander Bias: Maintainer
Ulm University: Initial Maintainer
Kathrin Osswald: Former Developer
Please login to view contributors details and/or to contact them

Comments RSS

Show comments
  • Plugins bot
    Tue, 16 May 2017, 6:00 PM
    Approval issue created: CONTRIB-6898
  • Al
    Sat, 18 Sep 2021, 9:59 PM
    Please can you update the version this plugin supports to 3.11, this will mean that moodle will automatically install it during an update?
  • Al
    Sun, 24 Oct 2021, 12:42 AM
    Session Keep Alive

    Hi, sorry to bother you again. Is there any chance you can change the version number that is supported to include 3.11 I have just updated moodle again and it has not installed your plugin during the upgrade as moodle thinks it will only work on versions up to 3.10. If you can change the version it supports to 3.11, the next time we update it, which we do most weeks, it will install automatically. Thank you.
  • P H
    Sat, 24 Feb 2024, 12:39 AM
    Hello,

    I really appreciate the many plugins plugins you have created and I also appreciate the intentions behind this particular plugin.

    However, I wonder if this could create a significant security risk. Imagine a user starting a quiz or post and forgetting or not bothering to finish it and possibly even closing the browser tab altogether?

    Will the session be kept alive indefinitely? Or is there some sort of failsafe in place?

Please login to post comments