catalyst / moodle-block_carousel

A simple, responsive and touch friendly moodle carousel block

https://moodle.org/plugins/block_carousel

• Branches
• What is this?
• Installation and configuration
• Issues and feedback
• Credits and Thanks

Branches

For Moodle 3.6 Onwards, use the master branch. For Moodle 3.5 and older use the MOODLE_35_STABLE branch.

What is this?

An easy to use carousel block:

• responsive
• touch and mouse friendly
• video support

Installation and Configuration

1. Install the same as any other moodle plugin:

   Using git

   git clone [email protected]:catalyst/moodle-block_carousel.git blocks/carousel

   Or install via the Moodle plugin directory:

   https://moodle.org/plugins/block_carousel

2. Then run the Moodle upgrade

3. For use of videos in the carousel, install the FFprobe tool.

4. Visit Site Administration -> Plugins -> Blocks -> Carousel and configure the path to FFprobe.

5. Now add the block to a page, then configure it and add the slides

Contributing

Pull requests are welcome, please adhere to the Moodle code standards and use travis to check everything is green.

The slick JS library doesn't conform exactly to Moodle's code standards so to rebuild the JS files run:

grunt amd --force

Issues and feedback

If you have issues please log them in github here:

https://github.com/catalyst/moodle-block_carousel/issues

Or if you want paid support please contact Catalyst IT Australia:

https://www.catalyst-au.net/contact-us

Credits and thanks

The core of this plugin is the excellent 'slick' JS library by @kenwheeler:

http://kenwheeler.github.io/slick/

This plugin was sponsored by Central Queesnland University:

https://www.cqu.edu.au/

This plugin was developed by Catalyst IT Australia:

https://www.catalyst-au.net/

moodle-block_carousel's Issues

edit form only show first 3 slides - other slides will not be displayed if updating carousel with more than 3 slides

Current form does not check for existing number of slides:
https://github.com/catalyst/moodle-block_carousel/blob/master/edit_form.php#L73

If carousel has more than 3 slides, those added after slide 3 will not be displayed. (user need to click on "add another slide" button to show next slide).

Version table for README

The docs could be updated to use a format similar to that for the rest of our plugins, by having a version table listing out supported versions and relevant branches that needs to be defined. Currently it's just plaintext which might be missed if skimming the docs (in search for the table)

Add github CI actions

Even if the plugin doesn't have any tests, it's still nice to have CI configured.

Implement ability to archive slides in a carousel

Create ability to retain all slide data another mform section. Feature to move slides to the archive and back.

Add ability to limit visibility of slides to specific cohorts.

Add cohort filtering support to the plugin.

• Slides can have a set of cohorts selected to display that slide only to members of those cohorts.
• The slide table on the block configuration page will have an extra column to list the cohorts selected.
• A slide will be visible if the user is a member of at least one cohort in the list for that slide.
• Selecting no cohorts will default to original behaviour (visible to everyone).
• Admins will always be able to see all slides.

Load the css and js through the moodle file serving api to give it the correct caching headers + version

Adding a slide places the new content at the end of the carousel

When adding a new slide, it would be preferred that as it is new content, the slide is the first to display.

Number of clicks is reset to zero when editing a slide

Currently the number of interactions is reset to zero when editing a slide.

moodle-block_carousel/add_slide.php

Line 140 in 4bbed5d

$record->interactions = 0;

The default database value is also zero. If the line above was removed, the interactions would be saved when editing a slide.

moodle-block_carousel/db/install.xml

Line 15 in 4bbed5d

<FIELD NAME="interactions" TYPE="int" LENGTH="10" NOTNULL="true" DEFAULT="0" SEQUENCE="false"/>

Get block_carousel to work with Totara16

Implement slide metadata

Implement some basic metadata and display this either in the slide table, or when editing a slide.

• Slide author
• Date created
• Date modified

Missing file in sitedata spews debugging messages

File missing from disk should be handled a little more gracefully

Restored carousel contains references to backed up activity

The slide references in the restored activity contain references to the old block id, not the restored block id.

Referencing unset values in add_slide.php

If you submit a carousel add slide form with the No Title checkbox ticked, this error occurs.

Notice: Undefined property: stdClass::$title in
/var/www/.../blocks/carousel/add_slide.php on line 136

The same happens with $text.

Error when installing a fresh 4.1 site with MySQL and block_carousel

Exception - mysqli::real_escape_string(): Argument #1 ($string) must be of type string, array given

More information about this error

It is usually not possible to recover from errors triggered during installation, you may need to create a new database or use a different database prefix if you want to retry the installation.
Debug info:
Error code: generalexceptionmessage
Stack trace:

line 1145 of /lib/dml/mysqli_native_moodle_database.php: TypeError thrown
line 1145 of /lib/dml/mysqli_native_moodle_database.php: call to mysqli->real_escape_string()
line 1357 of /lib/dml/mysqli_native_moodle_database.php: call to mysqli_native_moodle_database->emulate_bound_params()
line 1408 of /lib/dml/mysqli_native_moodle_database.php: call to mysqli_native_moodle_database->insert_record_raw()
line 1318 of /lib/upgradelib.php: call to mysqli_native_moodle_database->insert_record()
line 648 of /lib/upgradelib.php: call to external_update_descriptions()
line 1108 of /lib/upgradelib.php: call to upgrade_component_updated()
line 684 of /lib/upgradelib.php: call to upgrade_plugins_blocks()
line 1967 of /lib/upgradelib.php: call to upgrade_plugins()
line 726 of /admin/index.php: call to upgrade_noncore()

Resubmit to plugin directory

https://moodle.org/plugins/block_carousel

Dragging on a slide which also has a click popup triggers the popup and should not

Test is pathtoffprobe binary exists not just if the setting is set

https://github.com/catalyst/moodle-block_carousel/blob/master/classes/cache/slide_cache.php#L146

Clean up code to get workflows reporting green

SVGs not well supported even though listed in "accepted file types"

Uploading an SVG causes errors to appear as below. We've tried updating web_image to a fixed list of supported types, but this didn't work in Totara 16 and broke image uploads.

Example test using PNG

: Undefined property: stdClass::$heightres in
/var/www/site/server/blocks/carousel/block_carousel.php
on line
147

Notice
: Undefined property: stdClass::$widthres in
/var/www/site/server/blocks/carousel/block_carousel.php
on line
147

Notice
: Undefined property: stdClass::$heightres in
/var/www/site/server/blocks/carousel/block_carousel.php
on line
172

Notice
: Undefined property: stdClass::$widthres in
/var/www/site/server/blocks/carousel/block_carousel.php
on line
175

Notice
: Undefined property: stdClass::$heightres in
/var/www/site/server/blocks/carousel/block_carousel.php
on line
175

Warning
: Division by zero in
/var/www/site/server/blocks/carousel/block_carousel.php
on line
175

Notice
: Undefined property: stdClass::$heightres in
/var/www/site/server/blocks/carousel/block_carousel.php
on line
147

Notice
: Undefined property: stdClass::$widthres in
/var/www/site/server/blocks/carousel/block_carousel.php
on line
147

Notice
: Undefined property: stdClass::$heightres in
/var/www/site/server/blocks/carousel/block_carousel.php
on line
172

Notice
: Undefined property: stdClass::$widthres in
/var/www/site/server/blocks/carousel/block_carousel.php
on line
175

Notice
: Undefined property: stdClass::$heightres in
/var/www/site/server/blocks/carousel/block_carousel.php
on line
175

Warning
: Division by zero in
/var/www/site/server/blocks/carousel/block_carousel.php
on line
175

Notice
: Undefined property: stdClass::$heightres in
/var/www/site/server/blocks/carousel/block_carousel.php
on line
147

Notice
: Undefined property: stdClass::$widthres in
/var/www/site/server/blocks/carousel/block_carousel.php
on line
147

Notice
: Undefined property: stdClass::$heightres in
/var/www/site/server/blocks/carousel/block_carousel.php
on line
172

Notice
: Undefined property: stdClass::$widthres in
/var/www/site/server/blocks/carousel/block_carousel.php
on line
175

Notice
: Undefined property: stdClass::$heightres in
/var/www/site/server/blocks/carousel/block_carousel.php
on line
175

Warning
: Division by zero in
/var/www/site/server/blocks/carousel/block_carousel.php
on line
175

Restore fails when there is a carousel block instance backed up against a course with no config data set

This happens when the user adds a block but never configures it.

Which causes a similar error to this to happen.

PHP Warning:  Attempt to read property "order" on bool in /var/www/site/blocks/carousel/backup/moodle2/restore_carousel_stepslib.php on line 90
PHP Deprecated:  explode(): Passing null to parameter #2 ($string) of type string is deprecated in /var/www/site/blocks/carousel/backup/moodle2/restore_carousel_stepslib.php on line 90
PHP Warning:  Undefined array key "" in /var/www/site/blocks/carousel/backup/moodle2/restore_carousel_stepslib.php on line 93

paddingbottom undefined error when files not available

I'm having issues on a dev environment with the paddingbottom variable being undefined at this line:

https://github.com/catalyst/moodle-block_carousel/blob/master/block_carousel.php#L163

This may just be an issue when using a database snapshot when the underlying files haven't been copied over. However, it could probably be resolved by giving the variable a default value before the foreach ($files as $file) loop.