Custom certificate (plugin)

Custom Certificate date format issue

Thu, 14 May 2026 22:39:41 GMT

由“Stan Klapauszak”.

Hi Mark - any advice on this?

The discrepancy between the Certificate preview (View Certificate) and the actual issued certificates make me think this is a plugin bug, but I'd be happy to be proven wrong.

Thanks,
Stan

Heads-up for Moodle 5.2: Custom Certificate refactor (Element System v2) + upgrade notes (CHANGES.md)

Wed, 13 May 2026 20:33:30 GMT

由“Mark Nelson”.

I have just done my last huge refactor and am going to release this soon, possibly tonight. I apologise for the delay.

https://github.com/mdjnelson/moodle-mod_customcert/pull/793

This refactor is the final part of the wider customcert cleanup work that has been happening on main. The earlier refactors put a lot of the groundwork in place; this PR ties the remaining pieces together and finishes moving the element/template code onto the newer service/interface-based model.

The main reason this was needed is that customcert still had a few important legacy paths that behaved differently depending on whether an element was using the old mod_customcert\element base class or the newer interfaces. That affected areas like rendering, editing, validation, copying, restore, persistence, and import/export.

This PR does not throw away the old behaviour. It keeps backwards compatibility for legacy elements where possible, but makes the internal code more consistent and easier to maintain.

In practical terms, it includes:

better compatibility handling for legacy customcert elements
safer template import/export validation (new feature)
improved restore and migration handling for older element data
fixes for PDF rendering edge cases
more consistent persistence of element data
broader PHPUnit coverage around the risky paths

It is a large internal change, but it is the kind of cleanup needed before a stable release. The aim is to make future customcert changes smaller, safer, and easier to reason about, without breaking existing certificates, restored backups, imported templates, or third-party elements.

Thanks for the patience.

Custom Certificate date format issue

Thu, 07 May 2026 18:15:54 GMT

由“Stan Klapauszak”.

Running Moodle 4.5 with Custom Certificate 4.4.9 (2024042217) - but we had the same issue with the prior version of Custom Certificate.

We've used custom certificates for years, in multiple languages, and generally it works great. We've just identified an issue with date format in some circumstances. The specific circumstances:

Course is in Urdu (or at least, we haven't noticed it in any other languages)
And the course settings FORCE the language to Urdu (this helps our students with minimal Moodle and English capability)
BUT the Certificate is produced in English - for some reason, all our Urdu students want their certificates in English.

In those circumstances, the certificate-issue date format is corrupted for certificates issued for students. Specifically, the month name is replaced with question marks (with one question mark per letter in the English month name). Oddly, the "View Certificate" capability works perfectly - but the actual certificates generated for students have corrupted dates.

I've attached PDFs of both an actual student certificate (showing the problem) and what is displayed via "View Certificates" (which looks perfect) for that same Certificate. Note the difference in the date formats - the order of day/month/year is changed - and the ???s in the actual student certificate.

Any advice?

Course certificate doesn't allow use of templated certificate

Tue, 05 May 2026 17:56:47 GMT

由“Emma Richardson”.

You need to be on the Edit Certificate tab..

Course certificate doesn't allow use of templated certificate

Tue, 05 May 2026 17:36:53 GMT

由“Shirley Gregorczyk”.

Did you check the Moodle documentation link that I provided above? telling me which options you have and that the scheduled task was populated and not by you will not resolve your issue. Is this the first time you are trying to use Custom Certificate? Or have you been successful in the past in setting up the certificate activity?

Course certificate doesn't allow use of templated certificate

Tue, 05 May 2026 17:14:42 GMT

由“Brian Bell”.

The "Scheduled task configuration" tab is untouched by me - I simply left the defaults in place.

Course certificate doesn't allow use of templated certificate

Tue, 05 May 2026 17:12:47 GMT

由“Brian Bell”.

It shows the one certificate that I have created and saved. I have four options: edit/duplicate/delete the certificate I created AND a button to "Create template"

Course certificate doesn't allow use of templated certificate

Mon, 04 May 2026 16:33:26 GMT

由“Shirley Gregorczyk”.

also - your Schedules task configuration general tab should not be populated.

At the site level, you want to populate the generic values that would apply to all courses that use a certificate.

The specific values are loaded at the course level as a combination of loading the desired template (background image) and specific settings/elements.

In my Manage templates - I have multiple templates to choose from.

Perhaps Moodle's documentation will assist you.

Course certificate doesn't allow use of templated certificate

Mon, 04 May 2026 15:51:19 GMT

由“Shirley Gregorczyk”.

When you click on the Manage Templates link - what is populated there?

Course certificate doesn't allow use of templated certificate

Sat, 02 May 2026 17:07:58 GMT

由“Brian Bell”.