1. New versions of Moodle Break existing plugins Sometimes a little Sometimes a lot How can you fix those plugins

2. The Question Practice Activity Uses standard Moodle Question types Teachers set up categories Students practice on their own (a social constructivists holy grail)

3. Breaks with > Moodle 2.5 Incomprehensible error messages Error messages about logging Features that didn’t seem to do anything

4. Biggest crime of all It didn’t work with MY Gapfill question type Or the dragdrop ordering type But I’m a busy person, whatever

5. It's Tim Hunts Fault He posted this at Moodle.org

6. How hard is it? Create a new plugin is Rock Hard Updating a plugin is fairly easy  Depending on how much Moodle has changed  Moodle 1.9 to 3.0 might be a bit tricky  Moodle 2.5 to 3.0 fairly easy

7. Check on Github The maintainer might have already done it They may not have uploaded to Moodle.org Try to contact them

8. Put it into Git Easy for other people to see/advise Tracks changes Nice for backup

9. How long did it take me? I had two weeks leave at Christmas I don't like Downton or Strictly I do have friends :)* *Well I sort of know people on The moodle.org forums which is actually better than having real World friends.

10. Development Stack XAMPP/WAMPP/MAMP/LAMP/CAMP

11. You NEED an IDE

12. My Setup A test install of Moodle  I use Windows 8.1 on a Laptop Turn Debugging to Developer  Look in Admin/Development Install Xdebug Debugger  It’s a fiddle but it is also close to magic

13. Logging add_to_log() has been deprecated, please rewrite your code to the new events API https://docs.moodle.org/dev/Migrating_logging_cal ls_in_plugins https://docs.moodle.org/dev/Migrating_logging_cal ls_in_plugins

14. http://localhost/mdl30/mod/qpractice /startattempt.php

15. This was more tricky Something in core Moodle had changed. I replaced it with my own code A bit of a bodgie job

16. Things you forget Backup and Export  Question Practice generated an error Increment the version number  version.php Sanity check strings  This had been forgotten  $table->caption = 'Hello'; 

17. Non Working Code A feature too far No point in keeping it Deleted it

18. My Enhancements Made my own question type work with it Gave it a “better” icon Add help buttons to documentation

19. Test Other Themes Conflicting CSS can break your plugin Clean is not enough Essential is by far the most downloaded

20. The End http://www.questiontype.co.uk/mdl https://github.com/marcusgreen/moodle-mod_qpractice Marcus Green  marcusavgreen@gmail.com