Forum LAMS for Tech-Heads - General Forum: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Notebook error, please wait for the teacher to compelte the contents of this activity.


 
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17: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Notebook error, please wait for the teacher to compelte the contents of this activity.
In response to 15 05/10/09 12:57 AM
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Hi Dave,

I'm very certain that this might have been a user error. You can check how the "define_late" flag gets set in a tool when the monitor clicks on Edit as follows:

1.- Create a sequence with one noticeboard activity. When you open the activity to edit its content put "Unique title" on the title field.
2.- Save and Save the design/sequence
3.- Now, create a lesson for it.

Now if you go to mysql and run:

select uid, title, define_later from tl_lanb11_content where title = 'Unique title';

+-----+----------------------+--------------+
| uid | title | define_later |
+-----+----------------------+--------------+
| 2 | Unique title | 0 |
| 21 | Unique title | 0 |
+-----+----------------------+--------------+
2 rows in set (0.00 sec)

The uid 2 is the original sequence design. The second one (uid 21) is for the running lesson.

4.- No go to monitor, open the noticeboard, go to the Edit tab, and edit the activity... before you save it, check on the db again

select uid, title, define_later from tl_lanb11_content where title = 'Unique title';

+-----+----------------------+--------------+
| uid | title | define_later |
+-----+----------------------+--------------+
| 2 | Unique title | 0 |
| 21 | Unique title | 1 |
+-----+----------------------+--------------+
2 rows in set (0.00 sec)

As you can see now the define_later flag has been set.

If you jump as a learner, you will get the "Sorry, teacher editing activity now"

5.- Click on "Save" and that would release the flag.


Doing this I realized that there's an ugly bug here.. if you cancel the edit, the flag doesn't get release. So it does force you to save though.

For 2.3+, I've been thinking that we need better ways to alert monitors of this situations. Probably by making it very obvious which activities have these flags set in the sequence tab in monitor.

Hope that sheds some light.

Ernie

Posted by Ernie Ghiglione

18: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Notebook error, please wait for the teacher to compelte the contents of this activity.
In response to 17 05/10/09 01:09 AM
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Two tasks to prevent/improve this issue in 2.3+

When editing in monitor if press the "Cancel" button, the define_later flag does not get removed.
http://bugs.lamsfoundation.org/browse/LDEV-2329

When a define later flag is set for an activity, show an obvious alert in Monitor sequence view
http://bugs.lamsfoundation.org/browse/LDEV-2330

Thanks,

Ernie

Posted by Ernie Ghiglione

19: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Notebook error, please wait for the teacher to compelte the contents of this activity.
In response to 17 05/10/09 07:08 PM
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Ernie,

So the define_later flag is set without anyone choosing Define in Monitor?

That sounds like a serious bug all by itself. Why would that flag be set if the author did not choose that option? Or am I totally missing the point here?

Posted by Dave Bauer

20: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Notebook error, please wait for the teacher to compelte the contents of this activity.
In response to 19 05/10/09 07:12 PM
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Aha, apparently now I am awake. So define later is set if someone tries to edit the activity in the monitor, but it is not saved. That seems like a bug all by itself. It looks like that was put in place to stop learners while someone is editing, but anytime you set a lock on something you need a way to release it if there is a problem.

It seems like we need to notify the users in Monitor in two places, first, when you click edit it should tell you the activity is not available until you click cancel or save.

Perhaps we need a timeout of some sort? If you don't save it in X mins it should release the lock. If the teacher later comes back and clicks save, it shouldn't cause a problem. In most cases an abandoned edit should not lock everyone out.

Posted by Dave Bauer

21: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Notebook error, please wait for the teacher to compelte the contents of this activity.
In response to 20 05/10/09 08:05 PM
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Timeouts are evil. I think it'll be a lot better to make it really clear (with a strong visual indication) to all teachers/monitors that there's an activity being edited though.

I have added the two tasks above to prevent this in the future.

There's also a discussion about whether we need to stop the students while the teacher edit the content.

Perhaps we could do this in certain activities but not in others. Not sure. Any comments welcome

Posted by Ernie Ghiglione

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