Plugin prevents creation of Moodle assignment if having connection issues

[mhughes2k]

We've started to get these errors:

This is upon clicking the "create assignment" option in the Moodle activity chooser, the actual Moodle form has not been displayed yet.

It is unacceptable that the plagiarism plugin interferes with standard Moodle processes in this way. Any connection issues with Turnitin should be logged, and then the plugin disabled for this process, it should not fail the whole thing.

[mhughes2k]

Stack trace: line 494 of /lib/setuplib.php: moodle_exception thrown line 3369 of /plagiarism/turnitin/lib.php: call to print_error() line 151 of /plagiarism/turnitin/classes/turnitin_comms.class.php: call to plagiarism_turnitin_print_error() line 129 of /plagiarism/turnitin/classes/turnitin_assignment.class.php: call to turnitin_comms->handle_exceptions() line 1662 of /plagiarism/turnitin/lib.php: call to turnitin_assignment->create_tii_course() line 625 of /plagiarism/turnitin/lib.php: call to plagiarism_plugin_turnitin->create_tii_course() line 328 of /plagiarism/turnitin/lib.php: call to plagiarism_plugin_turnitin->get_course_data() line 117 of /lib/plagiarismlib.php: call to plagiarism_plugin_turnitin->get_form_elements_module() line 192 of /mod/assign/mod_form.php: call to plagiarism_get_form_elements_module() line 214 of /lib/formslib.php: call to mod_assign_mod_form->definition() line 130 of /course/moodleform_mod.php: call to moodleform->__construct() line 141 of /course/modedit.php: call to moodleform_mod->__construct()

[mhughes2k]

I'm sorry but why is Turnitin doing anything involving a live connection during the construction of a moodle form, without catching exceptions this could raise.

[dwinn]

Hi @mhughes2k ,

Which version of the plugin are you using?

We fixed this in 2021060801 and I just double checked and can no longer reproduce this issue. The release note for that version that mentions this is as follows:

Create or access Moodle assignments, forums, and workshops when Turnitin is disabled If Turnitin is disabled for an assignment, forum, or workshop and Turnitin is unavailable by having the wrong configuration options or being under maintenance, then an error message would be shown. This bug has been fixed, and Turnitin being unreachable will no longer impact your ability to create or access your content.

[mhughes2k]

I'm not sure as we've now done upgrades to the affected service and are now on 2022072501

[dwinn]

Hi @mhughes2k, That's good to hear. Please let us know if you encounter this issue again on the current version you are on and we'll take another look. I'll close the issue for the time being.