[LON-CAPA-dev] Re: automatic enrollment

Stuart Peter Raeburn lon-capa-dev@mail.lon-capa.org
Fri, 12 Mar 2004 15:34:14 -0500


Hon-Kie, 

The message: 

"There was a problem retrieving institutional class list data for the course 
sections and crosslisted courses which contribute enrollment to this course. 
No updates have been carried out, and the roster remains unchanged." 

indicates that a total of zero registered students was retrieved from the 
temporary xml files created for all course sections of the LON-CAPA class 
for which you were using Automated Enrollment Manager -> "Update Roster Now" 
. 

/home/httpd/perl/logs/autoenroll.log is where you will find all data that 
are logged when you run /home/httpd/perl/Autoenroll.log (i.e., as a process 
called from the command line, e.g., via an entry in /etc/cron.d/loncapa). 
However, in this case, as you called the enrollment update via the web 
interface (using "Update Roster Now"), all log information is directed to 
your web browser, so /home/httpd/perl/logs/autoenroll.log will not contain 
any pertinent information. 

When using the web-based Automated Enrollment Manager, httpd entries will 
only be added to the /etc/httpd/logs/error_log file if there is problem 
executing the /home/httpd/lib/perl/Apache/lonpopulate script.  In this case 
the script ran normally without generating an Apache error. 

To determine what happened, I recommend proceeding as follows: 

1. Check that the automated enrollment settings are correct for the course.
To do so log-in as Domain Coordinator, and click the MCRS button.  Then 
select the course from the select box and view the automated enrollment 
settings.  Make sure that you have entries for at least the following: 

Default authentication parameter
Default authentication method
Official course code
Course section number(:groupID) 

[You might also need "Username of course owner (@fsu)" depending on whether 
you are enforcing a check for a valid course owner]. 


The format of the course section number entry should be: 001:1,002:2 etc.
For a single section number (with no corresponding groupID) you would see 
001:  for this parameter. 

As domain coordinator you can define the format of the official course code 
and the section number. However you need to make sure that your choice is 
interpreted correctly by the routine you create in 
localenroll::fetchenrollment(), 

i.e., if you chose official course code as spr2004physics, and section 1:
make sure that your localenroll::fetchenrollment() routine can retrieve 
class list data for the course section: spr2004physics1 

2. To check that the temporary xml files are being correctly written in 
/home/httpd/perl/tmp you may want to temporarily comment out line 519 of 
/home/httpd/lib/perl/LONCAPA/Enrollment.pm 

i.e. comment out:
       unlink $xmlfile; 

This line is used to remove the temporary classlist files (with names such 
as: fsu_43551dedcd43febmsul1_spr2004physics1_classlist.xml) after 
processing.  By commenting it out you will be able to see whether 
appropriate records are being retrieved by localenroll::fetchenrollment() 

Note: the parameters <autharg></autharg> and <authtype></authtype> can be 
left blank in each student record in your class roster xml file(s), if the 
default parameters defined for the course ("Default authentication 
parameter" and "Default authentication method" (see above) have been set.  
The default authentication method should be localauth in your case, and the 
default is whatever you use in the authentication argument field in the 
standard enrollment screen (it may be empty). 

Default automated enrollment parameters can be set either when you create 
the course as DC using CCRS, or when you modify the course using MCRS. 

Stuart 

Stuart Raeburn
MSU LON-CAPA support/development 

Guy Albertelli II writes: 

> Hi Hon-Kie 
> 
>> Question1: Where do I look for what happened? I checked the usual logs http 
>> and lonnet.
> 
> /home/httpd/perl/logs/autoenroll.log 
> 
>> Question2+: What should go into the fields <autharg> and <authtype>? How do 
>> they differ? We use local authentication via LDAP.
> 
> <authtype> is then localauth
> <autharg> is whatever you type into the 'argument' box if anything
> when creating a user normally.
> (I.E. is says on the enrollment screen
>  Local Authentication with argument [_________]
>              whatever you put here --^
> It might be nothing. And from taking a look at you localauth.pm file
> it looks like it is nothing.) 
> 
> 
> -- 
> guy@albertelli.com  LON-CAPA Developer  0-7-4-7-
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