Automated backup detection of course modification does not detect all possible modifications

The test for whether a course has been modified since the last automated backup relies on a query of the log table looking for an entry where the module is 'course' and the action is 'view'. In other words, it relies on a user visiting the course page.

There are many activities, which could be considered as modifications to the course, that do not lead to a course page view. For example, you can:

• navigate to and modify/undertake an activity,
• enrol users,
• grade students in the gradebook,
• modify the question bank,
• complete some action through Web services,
• etc...

The query for modifications should include as many detectable actions as possible. Broadening the query could be done by including any log entry for a course (not just course page views), although not all actions seem to be logged at present (for example enrolling students, adding questions to the questionbank and grading students).

An alternative could be to query tables other than the log table, looking for recent changes.