Moodle

To find all possible uses of "answers" field I launch search on entire moodle codebase with regex: (?<!options)>answers (options>answer filled now from question_answers table) and see all files with occurences. There was several results of interest:

....shortanswer\questiontype.php - obvious, only filling (save_question_options), backuping and restoring it.
.....quiz\restorelibpre15.php - restoring it
And there was two files, where I really can't understand, have they anything with question_shortanswer table or not: format.php for hotpot and webct formats.

There was also some occurences in mysql.php and postgres7.php, but they are related with quite old versions, so there is probably safe to ignore them.

Did you consider such testing enough?

That is the sort of test that needs to be done before messing around with the code. Then, after changing the code, you need to test all of the things that might be broken as a result.

If you do it only in HEAD, you can rely on additional testing just naturally happening between you writing the code and it being used for real. However, that is not an excuse for not testing properly yourself, it just reduces the risk.

"That is the sort of test that needs to be done before messing around with the code. Then, after changing the code, you need to test all of the things that might be broken as a result. " I do know this, but I'm unsure is whether I know Moodle well enought to identify and test all part which can use this field - there are many and I can omit something.

Anyway, this is low priority for me too now, because getting rid of the loop in backup/restore we made much easy to support recoding this field during restore. Mayble later I still do this, but not right now.

As an experiment I backup DB and delete answers field from it, commenting out all relevant code in shortanswer/questiontype.php.

I try creating/editing/previewing/using shortanswer/numerical/close(with shortanswer) questions; also backup/restore and Moodle XML import/export - all this seems to work OK.

Things I can't test were: hotpot and webct import, and pre-15 restore, 'cause I can't get relevant input files. Can continue testing if you suggests another areas of testing.

I don't think import is a problem, since it goes through the standard save_question method.

pre-15 restore. Yuck. Again, I don't think this would break.

So it seems likely that this coudl safely be done, HEAD only, but, as you say, not a priority.

Just a note what can be dropped in the code after deleting this field (so we don't forget it later):

type/shortanswer/questiontype.php
1) answers field from extra_question_field function no line deletion but this should be done
2) save_question_options(): $answers var (3 lines deleted)
3) restore() function entirely (45 lines - with comments)

format/xml/format.php
1)import_shortanswer() function entirely (28 lines - with comments)
2) shortanswer part from readquestions() (3 lines)
3) shortanswer part from writequestion() (11 lines)

Total: about 90 lines of code deleted.

I tested addition of new questions and editing of exist ones. But i can't test import/export and backup/restore because it is broken

Tim, let me introduce you Alex Shkarupa. He is my student, who will be working on MDL-20251 later. This is his first attempt to contribute to a Moodle.

I reviewed the patch and find it in good condition. This may be not a priority task, but then the earlier it get in Moodle the more testing will it gets before release. Also, thought it is currently impossible to test import/export and backup/restore on 2.0, my 1.9 site working without "answers" from February 2009 confirm that it should work, I tested import/export and backup/restore there. The only non-1.9 part of this patch is database upgrade, all other parts were tested on 1.9 version ...

Hi Alex. This is a busy week for me (http://www.open.ac.uk/wikis/ouocmc/OU_Orchestra as well as a full week of work) so I may not find time to review this patch until next week. If I seem to have forgotten about this, please remind me. Thank you for contributing to the quiz.

If you can do a new patch very soon that is
1. based on the git master branch.
2. does both affected qtypes (shortanswer and multichoice) - oh, and possibly calculatedmulti too
3. deals with all the affected code (qtype, editing form, import/export, backup/restore, ...)

Then we may be able to get this in before the Moodle 2.2 release, otherwise it will have to wait until 2.3.

How much exactly is "very soon"?

Well, the feature freeze for Moodle 2.2 was 1st November. The release is going to be on 1st December. QA testing is about to start today. Will will have to plead a special case to get this in. I am happy to do the necessary pleading, but the sooner the better.