Modification dates on shared pages not updating

[Heidi Humphrey]

When a shared page is modified the date and time listed by the shared page is not being updated. The comments date and time when created, updates but does not update when the comment is edited.

The shared page states
'This page lists the most recently modified or commented on pages that have been shared with you.'
This is misleading. I was thinking the lecturers would be able to see all of the recent activity on their students pages, so they have a better way of providing feedback to the students.

The date and time of last modification is correct when the page is first shared with another user, but it does not update when any modifications or edits to a comment are made.

Mahara version 1.4.1
PHP version 5.3.8
psql (PostgreSQL) 8.4.1

I have attached a screenshot of an example in a word document along with the time and date it was meant to update to assist.

[Heidi Humphrey (heidi-humphrey)]

Have you tested this on your system and have the same issue? I am about to upgrade to 1.4.1 and need to advise staff of this new feature. I am hoping there is a way to fix it so I do not have to say it does not work. Is there a possiblity it could be something to do with our database?

Many thanks, Heidi

[François Marier (fmarier)]

No, I haven't yet tested this one on my own machine.

(The screenshot I attached is the one I extracted from your Word document.)

[Heidi Humphrey (heidi-humphrey)]

I have tested this on your demo version and I have encounter the same issue, so it looks like it is a bug and not something just affecting us. Do you have any idea when this maybe fixed?
Thanks :)

[Melissa Draper (melissa)]

This is two separate issues.

The first issue, regarding the view update date, is quite complex. Currently it displays the last time the view's title, description, layout, etc was changed, but not the last time that the most recent block was changed. Essentially what you're asking for is to see the last modified time of the most recently modified block on the view if this was more recent than the last time the view itself was modified.

This has a major caveat which we cannot cover, and that is that views that include external embedded content, such as RSS feeds, External media, and google apps items will update and these updates cannot be reflected in the date. So chances are that this could be much more misleading if it is a collaborative project and relying on services like google docs or glogster.com where the content editing happens somewhere completely out of mahara's control.

Unfortunately, this is not a suitable change for a point-release (as per our point release policy https://wiki.mahara.org/index.php/Developer_Area/Release_Policy#Point_Release ) so if we do change it, it will be in 1.5.0 at the earliest.

I've opened bug #906646 for the separate feedback update date issue.

[Heidi Humphrey (heidi-humphrey)]

Thanks Melissa for the feedback. It is quite distheartening but I understand what you are saying and the potential problems for changing it. Hopefully, another way around this may come in the future.

[Melissa Draper (melissa)]

Hi Heidi,

This is a patch that will show the updated time for the blocks separately alongside the view's last-updated date. It's not quite what you asked for, but I think it will cover the need you described. It will *not* be in the 1.4.2 point-release as it will change the interface, but will most likely be in 1.5.0 (which is anticipated to be out in Q1 next year)

The patch does apply to a clean 1.4.1 codebase, so if you are desperate for the change, and accept the risks involved in changing the codebase, you can apply the patch.

Thanks,
Melissa

[Heidi Humphrey (heidi-humphrey)]

Thank you so much Melissa. I have forwarded the details onto our technical guy and he will apply the patch to 1.4.1 and I will test this further. Have a great xmas!

[Melissa Draper (melissa)]

You're welcome, Heidi.

I also forgot to direct you to the second patch that I put up at https://bugs.launchpad.net/mahara/+bug/906646 for the feedback timestamp.

Thanks again for helping identify issues with Mahara.

[Heidi Humphrey (heidi-humphrey)]

Thanks Melissa,

I have just checked the changes on our system after applying the patch. It is great we can now see when the blocks have been updated. Is there any chance of sorting the pages by the date when the block was updated? Either as an overall sort or as an option to choose. The importance of this is that tutors with hundreds of students will not need to have to go through lots of pages and manually look for the recently updated blocks.

I have tested the changes made for the feedback patch and this is now working perfectly thank you very much!

Help you for all your help, very much appreciated.

[Melissa Draper (melissa)]

Hi Heidi,

The patch has been rejected from mahara because it isn't concise enough and adds too much extra calculation (it would be very slow for hundreds of views, for example). It's going to be rewritten and considered for 1.5.0, but the rewrite will involve database changes to achieve the above plus the sortability and unfortunately *won't* be suitable for adding to your codebase like the above patch was.

I think you would be much better off waiting until version 1.5.0 is released in Q1 next year for the sorting functionality.

Thanks,
Melissa.

[Heidi Humphrey (heidi-humphrey)]

Hi Melissa,

Do you mean the patch I already have or one to sort the dates? Will the above patch cause delays with viewing long lists of views? If not I will keep that patch and wait for 1.5.0 in Q1.

Thanks

[Melissa Draper (melissa)]

Heidi,

The patch you have already adds a whole extra database query for each view in the table and the loading of the sharedviews page takes approximately an extra 1 second for each 100 views.

Thanks,
Melissa.

[François Marier (fmarier)]

https://reviews.mahara.org/#change,950

[Jawyei Wong (jawyei-wong)]

Hi Melissa

Sorry to bring you back to this patch but we have upgraded to 1.5.1 and
found this to be missing. We thought it was a good feature. I have read
that the initial description of this was rejected as it requires too big
of a change however it would be good if we could get the label that
indicates when the page was modified.

I have tried inserted (and removing as required) the code in this patch
into the code manually but it does not show last modified. I was wondering
if we can get something like this again and if possible include in future
releases of Mahara.

I have noticed https://bugs.launchpad.net/mahara/+bug/906646 has been
included into 1.5.1.

Thanks,
Jawyei Wong - AUTonline, AUT University

On 21/12/11 1:34 PM, "Melissa Draper" <email address hidden> wrote:

>Hi Heidi,
>
>This is a patch that will show the updated time for the blocks
>separately alongside the view's last-updated date. It's not quite what
>you asked for, but I think it will cover the need you described. It will
>*not* be in the 1.4.2 point-release as it will change the interface, but
>will most likely be in 1.5.0 (which is anticipated to be out in Q1 next
>year)
>
>The patch does apply to a clean 1.4.1 codebase, so if you are desperate
>for the change, and accept the risks involved in changing the codebase,
>you can apply the patch.
>
>Thanks,
>Melissa
>
>** Patch added: "blocks_saved_timestamp.patch"
>
>https://bugs.launchpad.net/mahara/+bug/898914/+attachment/2642050/+files/b
>locks_saved_timestamp.patch
>
>--
>You received this bug notification because you are subscribed to the bug
>report.
>https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/898914
>
>Title:
> Modification dates on shared pages not updating
>
>Status in Mahara ePortfolio:
> Triaged
>
>Bug description:
> When a shared page is modified the date and time listed by the shared
> page is not being updated. The comments date and time when created,
> updates but does not update when the comment is edited.
>
> The shared page states
> 'This page lists the most recently modified or commented on pages that
>have been shared with you.'
> This is misleading. I was thinking the lecturers would be able to see
>all of the recent activity on their students pages, so they have a better
>way of providing feedback to the students.
>
> The date and time of last modification is correct when the page is
> first shared with another user, but it does not update when any
> modifications or edits to a comment are made.
>
> Mahara version 1.4.1
> PHP version 5.3.8
> psql (PostgreSQL) 8.4.1
>
> I have attached a screenshot of an example in a word document along
> with the time and date it was meant to update to assist.
>
>To manage notifications about this bug go to:
>https://bugs.launchpad.net/mahara/+bug/898914/+subscriptions

[Robert Lyon (robertl-9)]

Would it be worth having it so that when a block is updated (excluding external blocktype ones) it updates the modified date of all the views it is in as well? That way the last modified age of a view relates to the age of either the newest modified block or when view info was last saved.

At first glance it would be a matter of checking the view_artefact table to see what views the block is associated with and then set those views modified date.

[Son Nguyen (ngson2000)]

Hi Robert;

Yes, this is what Melissa implemented in her last patch https://reviews.mahara.org/#/c/950/3.
However, instead of adding new column (blocksmtime) to the 'view' table, Richard recommended of using the existing column 'mtime'. I agreed with his idea.

[Aaron Wells (u-aaronw)]

I second that. Just update the view's mtime.

[Aaron Wells (u-aaronw)]

I think this one was solved by the fix for https://bugs.launchpad.net/mahara/+bug/1411090