[This reply is being copied to the WebPA mailing list with the 
permission of the other parties as I thought it would be of general 
interest to the community.]

In answer to each of the questions raised:

1.  Assessment deletion - WebPA 2 makes very few changes to the 
operation of the system itself from WebPA 1; it is essentially a change 
to the underlying structure and ownership permissions.  Hence the old 
deletion rules continue to apply.  I do, however, see that an option (at 
least for administrators) to delete assessments would be useful.  I 
would also like to see an option to backup and restore the data for a 
particular module (or assessment) so that there was some way of 
recovering from an incorrect deletion.  At present, the only option you 
have is to delete the entire module.

2.  The "DID NOT SUBMIT" issue sounds like a bug but would require more 
details to trace - I have not encountered it myself.  Is the system 
still mis-reporting this, or could it possibly be related to timezone 
issues (this has happened in other areas)?

3.  Installation - WebPA 2 is designed to allow multiple instances to be 
run on the same server.  The changes to be made between instances are: 
database table name prefix (to keep the data separated), the web and 
document root paths (to keep the source files separate), and the session 
name and cookie path (to keep the sessions separate).  This is working 
fine for me.

4.  Integration - I would recommend that you take a look at the LTI 
integration code (available from 
http://www.spvsoftwareproducts.com/php/webpa-lti/).  The doConnect 
function (in the lti/index.php file) shows the code being used to 
process a launch request - creating/updating the module, the user and 
the user's role in the module.  In fact you may well be able to just 
re-use this function with few changes.  The code also shows you how to 
add/remove/change items in the WebPA menu.

The updating of the user_tracking table is entirely optional, but I 
would recommend it, just to be consistent with normal access to the 
system (and only takes one line containing "logEvent('Login');").  I 
would also recommend updating the last_module_id field, though if users 
are automatically placed in a module when launching WebPA, this is not 
likely to be ever needed/used.

If you use the existing Authenticator class to actually log users in 
(see the LTI code for how it can be used) then the date_last_login will 
be updated for you; this would be my recommendation and would insulate 
your code from any changes made to this process within WebPA.

The source_id fields are used to keep the data coming from different 
systems (e.g. VLEs) separate.  An empty field represents data which is 
not integrated with another system but accessed by logging in directly 
to WebPA.  A non-empty field should hold the ID for the other system. 
This field cannot be null.  Some rules are different between 
non-integrated and integrated access, for example, users cannot change 
modules if they have entered via an integration (they must return to 
their VLE and follow a link from the other course to change - this 
prevents access within WebPA from being continued when the user has been 
unenrolled in the VLE - automatic synchronisation of enrolments would 
allow this restriction to be lifted).  Hence, for integrated solutions I 
would recommend populating the source_id fields, even if you are only 
integrating with a single system.

Hope this helps, good luck.

Stephen

On 30/08/2012 15:56, Paul Newman wrote:
> Hi René,
>
> I’ll do my best to answer your questions, but I’ve also CC-ed this email
> to Stephen Vickers, who is responsible for the LTI plugin, and the
> changes to how WebPA works in version 2 – he may have some useful
> information to add.
>
> Assessment deletion – historically, WebPA doesn’t allow users to delete
> assessments that were actually used.  This is purely to keep an audit
> trail of actual assessments that students took.  We only allow staff to
> delete assessments that no students have submitted to.
>
> The non-submission problem sounds very odd.  When a student accesses the
> system, WebPA should check the user_mark table for submissions to each
> assessment, and reports a non-submission where there are none found for
> a particular assessment.  I’ve never heard of this mechanism not
> working, which makes me wonder if a change in version 2 has caused the
> problem.  If you track down the cause, do let me know.  When I get the
> chance I’ll do some testing myself too.
>
> I’ve not had a problem using multiple prefixed versions of the tables in
> the same MySQL schema/database.  It’s not entirely clear from your
> email, but if you’re running the two WebPA instances on two separate web
> sites (e.g. instance1.ugent.be and instance2.ugent.be) then you should
> be fine.  Running both instances on the same website (e.g.
> webpa.ugent.be/instance1 and /instance2) could be problematic as the PHP
> sessions can get confused – log in to one site, then the other, and the
> second login will override the first.  It’s dependent on the details of
> your setup though.
>
> Your alternative approach to the LTI stuff sounds about right to me.
> You might want to consider the security of the process though – for
> example, what steps you’ve taken to encrypt or restrict access to the
> individual steps of the login-and-transfer-data process.
>
> For your follow up questions…
>
> -Yes, I would log the user’s access for auditing purposes, and set the
> login date.
>
> -Yes, if the user has “logged in” from a particular course/module in
> Minerva, then you probably want to set the user to use that module in
> WebPA automatically.
>
> -Yes, you can leave the source_id fields empty, or use those fields to
> link back to your VLE records.
>
> --
>
> Paul Newman
>
> ----------------------------------------
>
> IT Services Specialist (E-Learning Systems)
>
> IT Services : E-Learning Systems Team
>
> Loughborough University
>
> Tel: 01509 225974
>
> ----------------------------------------
>
> *From:*René Haentjens [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
> *Subject:* UGent WebPA2 questions
>
> Hello Paul,
>
> We've started with WebPA2 and with the Minerva-integration. Minerva is
> not LTI-compliant, so I'm writing some tailor-made PHP code.
>
> Can you or somebody of the V2 team help me a little? Below I shortly
> describe my integration approach and a few accompanying questions.
>
> In parallel our little group is doing tests with a V2 system that I set
> up for that purpose. They also run into a couple of issues that I cannot
> solve for them.
>
> One of their questions is about cleaning up assessments. There is a
> "delete assessment" button for open assessments, but not for closed and
> marked ones. How can we get rid of them?
>
> One of us (Fanny) noticed in a recent test that students had "DID NOT
> SUBMIT" although they filled the form and submitted their marks. I
> checked the database tables and the data seems to be there all right.
> Earlier tests by Fanny seemed correct.
>
> Which brings me to my first integration-technical question: to develop
> the Minerva-integration, I have set up, on the same server, a second
> WebPA2 system, in a different directory of course, and with a different
> DB table prefix and a different session ID.
>
> Is there a possibility nevertheless that the two V2 systems are annoying
> one another? Should I find myself a different webserver for the second
> WebPA2?
>
> My integration approach: In a Minerva course, a link points to a
> PHP-script on the WebPA-server, which mainly does the following:
>
> - call the Minerva-API to find out who was logged in (in Minerva) and in
> which Minerva-course he/she was working;
>
> - look in the WebPA-tables to find out whether the Minerva-user and
> -course are known to WebPA (the course as a module);
>
> - transfer, if needed, user and course data into WebPA's user, module
> and user_module tables;
>
> - in the case of a tutor, also transfer the other Minerva-course users,
> as module students;
>
> - store the correct id's in $_SESSION['_user_id'] and
> $_SESSION['_module_id'];
>
> - header('Location: ' . APP__WWW . '/index.php').
>
> All of this seems to work as expected. The user finds himself logged in
> in WebPA.
>
> What did I forget? What should I do differently?
>
> And a couple of detail questions:
>
> - should I also store a login-record in user_tracking?
>
> - if several modules exist, should I then also fill the
> user.last_module_id field?
>
> - should I also put something in user.date_last_login?
>
> - can I leave user.source_id and module.source_id empty?
>
> I'll be grateful with whatever help the V2 team can provide me.
>
> Vriendelijke groet, René Haentjens, 09 331 00 44
> _____________________________________________
> Universiteit Gent - Directie Onderwijsaangelegenheden
> Sint-Pietersnieuwstraat 33, 9000 Gent
>