Non-core contributed modules

Turnitin adds BOM character into Gradebook export - this seems to cause corruption

Details

  • Type: Bug Bug
  • Status: Resolved Resolved
  • Priority: Critical Critical
  • Resolution: Fixed
  • Affects Version/s: 1.9.16
  • Fix Version/s: None
  • Component/s: Module: Turnitintool
  • Labels:
    None
  • Affected Branches:
    MOODLE_19_STABLE

Description

To reproduce...

1. Choose or create a course and add a gradeable activity (e.g. Assignment). Also add a few users.
2. Go to the Gradebook and export in text format - default values are fine.
3. Open in a good text editor. I used command line 'vim'. Note that the export is fine
4. Add a turnitin activity to the course.
5. Repeat the export
6. This time - note the BOM has appeared in the header item immediately before the turnitin activity.

The appearance in Vim is thus:

First name,Surname,ID number,Institution,Department,Email address,Assignment: Dummy activity<feff>,Turnitin Assignment: Test turnitin

The '<feff>' is the character for a Byte Order Mark.

When exporting Excel files the file is completely corrupted as a result. I have not (yet) checked this with Moodle 2

Issue Links

This issue has been marked as being related by:
MDL-10637 BOM markers in some Moodle files Trivial Closed

Activity

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Howard Miller added a comment -

I did a search for any files containing BOMs using this Grep command...

grep -rl $'\xEF\xBB\xBF' *

It seems too much of a coincidence that ALL the Turnitintool language files came back as containing BOMs.

Show
Howard Miller added a comment - I did a search for any files containing BOMs using this Grep command... grep -rl $'\xEF\xBB\xBF' * It seems too much of a coincidence that ALL the Turnitintool language files came back as containing BOMs.
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Howard Miller added a comment -

...and using the shell file in the following report:

http://tracker.moodle.org/browse/MDL-10637

...the problem is fixed completely.

Show
Howard Miller added a comment - ...and using the shell file in the following report: http://tracker.moodle.org/browse/MDL-10637 ...the problem is fixed completely.
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Paul Dawson added a comment -

Thanks Howard,

I appreciate the time and effort you put into this report. I will work on a fix for this in the next release which I am currently working on.

Cheers
Paul

Show
Paul Dawson added a comment - Thanks Howard, I appreciate the time and effort you put into this report. I will work on a fix for this in the next release which I am currently working on. Cheers Paul
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Howard Miller added a comment -

Hi Paul,

I haven't had a chance to try it yet but this could be what was causing the corrupt Excel downloads from the plugin.

Howard

Show
Howard Miller added a comment - Hi Paul, I haven't had a chance to try it yet but this could be what was causing the corrupt Excel downloads from the plugin. Howard
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Paul Dawson added a comment -

Thanks Howard, please let me know what you find. I have a ticket from Glasgow at the moment reporting corrupted Grade Reports, I have not been able to reproduce on my test installs. I would really appreciate if you could let me know if this fixes the Grader Report issue too.

Show
Paul Dawson added a comment - Thanks Howard, please let me know what you find. I have a ticket from Glasgow at the moment reporting corrupted Grade Reports, I have not been able to reproduce on my test installs. I would really appreciate if you could let me know if this fixes the Grader Report issue too.
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Howard Miller added a comment -

Paul,
Due to complex politics it is difficult to test on the Glasgow production sites. However, it worked on our test server (which exhibited the problem). In a different capacity I also have connections with the Wine & Spirit Education trust who I believe also had a ticket in for the same problem. I ran the shell script over the language files on their install and the problem was completely fixed.

HTH

Howard

Show
Howard Miller added a comment - Paul, Due to complex politics it is difficult to test on the Glasgow production sites. However, it worked on our test server (which exhibited the problem). In a different capacity I also have connections with the Wine & Spirit Education trust who I believe also had a ticket in for the same problem. I ran the shell script over the language files on their install and the problem was completely fixed. HTH Howard
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Paul Dawson added a comment -

This has been fixed in the latest language packs from Turnitin and the new language packs have been bundled with the latest version of the plug in.

The version with the fix is 2012020201

Show
Paul Dawson added a comment - This has been fixed in the latest language packs from Turnitin and the new language packs have been bundled with the latest version of the plug in. The version with the fix is 2012020201

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Dates

  • Created:
    Updated:
    Resolved:
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