Moodle

Hi Ann,

if I'm no wrong, the default behaviour is to HIDE courses below hidden categories (no matter if the course is hidden or no). By default, hidden categories prevent courses below it to be showed (but to admins, obviously). And that's what you are reporting here, if I'm not wrong.

Anyway there are TWO possible solutions to change this default (and correct) behaviour:

1) Enable "allowvisiblecoursesinhiddencategories" in Admin->FrontPage->Front Page settings. By having it enabled, you'll allow users (alll) to see visible courses below hidden categories. And editing-teaches will be also able to see invisible courses below hidden categories (because they have the 'course:viewhiddencourses' capability allowed at course level.

2) Keep the "allowvisiblecoursesinhiddencategories" setting disabled but override the 'category:visibility' permission for the role you want to be able to see hidden categories and assign that role to the desired users at category level. That way, you'll have category-users able to see courses if the category is hidden.

Alternative 1) is for all the categories in the site (and simpler) and alternative 2) allows fine-tuning by category, but implies assigning roles at category level (more complex and prone to errors).

But current behaviour (hide ALL courses below hidden categories) is correct IMO.

I guess Martin will read this and clarify everything... ciao

PS: I've been paying with the all settings and capabilities above using different roles and everything seems to work consistently under 1.9.

Hello Eloy,

I think the current solution in Moodle is not really consistent. With the current weekly-moodle 1.9+ (Build: 20080423) you have the following situation:

If you have a hidden category, inside a hidden course, and a teacher assigned to this course, the teacher:

1. cannot see this course in mymoodle
2. cannot see this course in the course list
3. can search for this course
4. can access this course (by searching or by id)

This 4 things happen if you did not touch the default roles and you have "allowvisiblecoursesinhiddencategories" disabled (default).

Me as teacher would prefer to see all courses (also in mymoodle, course list) I am a teacher in, regardless if the category is hidden.

You wrote: "But current behaviour (hide ALL courses below hidden categories) is correct IMO. "
If it should be that way, than these kind of courses should not be accessible nor be visible in any way.

regards, Daniel

Yes, there is definitely an inconsistency as Daniel noted. If course teachers have access to hidden courses, they should also be able to see those courses in their course listings. If it is decided that teachers really shouldn't see hidden courses in hidden categories, then they probably shouldn't be able to search for and access those courses.

We are using hidden categories to hide all the courses in a term from students after the term is over. We do want the instructors assigned to the courses to continue to have access. In 1.8.x, it works as expected. In 1.9, we'd have to go through and hide each course in the category. (About 5000+ courses each term!)

Hi Daniel,

then... inconsistency is in 3 & 4 above correct? i.e. search and access to course need to be prevented (fixed), yup? If so, could we treat them as separated bugs (linked to this as related) ?

and Ann,

you can use old approach in all your site by simply enabling the "allowvisiblecoursesinhiddencategories" setting in Front Page settings. That will allow teachers to access those hidden courses under hidden categories

Or alternatively, you can assign the 'category:visibility' permission to your teachers in the invisible category context to achieve same result but per category (instead of globally).

BTW why do you say that you need to mark all them as hidden manually? Such mark is added to courses automatically when you hide the category... or am I losing anything?

Comments will be welcome.

Raising this to Major. Need to confirm that this in the intended behaviour. Ping!

Hello Eloy,

yes, inconsistency is in 3 & 4. Such courses should not be visible by searching and not be accessible. To make 2 different bugs from that seems to be a good idea.

I also checked your proposal with "allowvisiblecoursesinhiddencategories". In mymoodle the hidden courses in hidden categories do appear. There is only a little problem:
I cannot see hidden courses in hidden categories under the course list (http://mydomain/course/index.php).

regards, Daniel

There is already a separate bug linked to this. See MDL-13900. It looks like it was decided there that the behavior should be the same as in 1.8 - i.e. that hidden courses in hidden categories should be accessible to those those with moodle/course:viewhiddencourses capability in the course context. My assertion here is is that if that decision was the correct one, then those courses should also show up in the user's course listing.

I've done some more testing on this one.

Current behavior:

1. allowvisiblecoursesinhiddencategories = off or on
category = hidden
course = hidden

a. course creator (category context)
does not see the category or the course on front page course listing
can search for and find the course

b. teacher (course context)
does not see the category or the course on front page course listings
course is not listed on user's profile page
does see the course in the my moodle page if allowvisiblecoursesinhiddencategories is on, otherwise does not
can search for the course and view it from the search results page

c. student (course context)
does not see the category or the course on the front page - ok
course not listed on user's profile page - ok
does not see the course on the my moodle page - ok
cannot find the course when searching for it - ok

Things should be consistent here - users should either see the course if they have the viewhiddencourse capability, or they shouldn't be able to search for and view the course at all.

2. allowvisiblecoursesinhiddencategories = on
category = hidden
course = visible

a. course creator (category context)
does not see the category or the course on front page course listing - ** user should see the course **
can search for and find the course - ok

b. teacher (course context)
does not see the category or course on front page course listings - ** user should see the course **
course not listed on user's profile page - ** should be listed **
does see the course on the my moodle page - ok
can search for the course and view it from the search results page - ok

c. student (course context)
does not see the category or course on front page course listings - ** user should see the course **
course not listed on user's profile page - ** should be listed **
does see the course on the my moodle page - ok
can search for the course and view it from the search results page - ok

d. A user who is not logged in does see the course on the front page - ok.

This case is definitely not behaving as it should. With allowvisiblecoursesinhiddencategories set to on, and the course visible, all users should be seeing it on the front page.

3. allowvisiblecoursesinhiddencategories = off or on
category = visible
course = visible

works correctly

4. allowvisiblecoursesinhiddencategories = off or on
category = visible
course = hidden

works correctly.

Clearly case #2 is buggy, and case #1 is inconsistent.

Currently, the only way we can hide a block of courses from students, while allowing teachers to see the courses on the front page, is to leave the category visible and hide each course individually. If we hide the whole category (thus hiding all the courses under it), teachers will no longer see their courses on the front page. Giving all teachers a role in the category context isn't a viable solution - the viewhiddencourses capability in the course context should be enough to allow the user to see the course.

This is still an issue in 1.9.4+. Basically no matter if allow visible courses in hidden categories is enabled or not:

Teachers assigned to hidden courses that are in hidden categories, should be able to see those hidden courses on their profile page and in the course listings page (on the front page, etc).

Currently the above statement is not the case.

My understanding from discussion on this issue previously that the behavior in moving forward needed to be consistent with what was happening in 1.8 and my above statement is what was previously happening.

Just a little bump and my 2 cents for a resolution to this issue since it is hit me with two different clients in recent months and I didn't have a resolution to offer them.

Martin, can you make a call on this one? Jonathan from Remote Learner is reporting it's become a problem for their staff.

We have a few schools that hide the staff category to ensure pupils cannot get to staff courses. Currently the staff cannot access courses which is causing problems.