I have a homework set that I've used for two semesters, and I recently reassigned it with no errors. Several days later, the second half of the problem set disappeared! All problems (1-31) are still listed, however, problems 15-31 suddenly say "No source file specified".
I know at some point they were all there, as some students had already completed the whole set. And I'm fairly sure I couldn't have just "accidentally" deleted the other problems.
Any ideas how this might have happened??
Thanks,
Debbie
at the moment -- no clue. We need more information. What server is your course on? what is the name of your course and the problem set (if it is on the MAA server).
What are the path addresses of the missing problems (these are the paths listed in the homework set editor page for the homework set.)
It's possible that some link to a library was reset or deleted.
-- Mike
What are the path addresses of the missing problems (these are the paths listed in the homework set editor page for the homework set.)
It's possible that some link to a library was reset or deleted.
-- Mike
Hi Mike,
We have our own local server that's been in use since the fall, working fine. At this point none of the missing paths are listed at all - they just disappeared. So I can't tell you exactly what they were (and it appears we have no backup), but I do know that they were all NPL problems. I could try to get my hands on a student hardcopy printed before the disappearance, but I'm not sure it would help. Initially (in the fall), I formed an unassigned homework set, for my own use, of 51 problems, and then through the library browser I selected 31 of those, which went into the set in question, which I assigned. I still have the original set of 51 and just confirmed that none of those problems (or paths) went missing. These 2 sets are located in the same course on the same server. So the actual problem files still exist, just the path information is missing on the one set.
Problems 1-14 are fine, problem 15 says "No source file specified" in the homework sets editor, and all subsequent problems say "No source file specified. This problem uses the same source file as number 15."
I'm not sure if this helps, please let me know if there's any other info I can provide.
Thanks,
Debbie
We have our own local server that's been in use since the fall, working fine. At this point none of the missing paths are listed at all - they just disappeared. So I can't tell you exactly what they were (and it appears we have no backup), but I do know that they were all NPL problems. I could try to get my hands on a student hardcopy printed before the disappearance, but I'm not sure it would help. Initially (in the fall), I formed an unassigned homework set, for my own use, of 51 problems, and then through the library browser I selected 31 of those, which went into the set in question, which I assigned. I still have the original set of 51 and just confirmed that none of those problems (or paths) went missing. These 2 sets are located in the same course on the same server. So the actual problem files still exist, just the path information is missing on the one set.
Problems 1-14 are fine, problem 15 says "No source file specified" in the homework sets editor, and all subsequent problems say "No source file specified. This problem uses the same source file as number 15."
I'm not sure if this helps, please let me know if there's any other info I can provide.
Thanks,
Debbie
Dear Debbie,
I've seen something similar, though possibly different, happen a couple times when moving a homework assignment to a new course, and it has been easy to fix in our case.
It looks to me as though links to subdirectories of the National Problem Library are created by the library browser as you browse. (No doubt I have this wrong, but someone can probably explain what is really happening with us.)
So when this has happened with us, we were able to recreate the paths by (in the course where the paths weren't working) by browsing to the appropriate sub-library.
E.g., if a problem called "unionLibrary/setLimitConcepts/ur_lr_1-5_1.pg" was returning a "no source file specified" error, I would simply browse to the Union Library, and then the link would be in place.
We don't have this problem very much because it doesn't occur when you create the homework set in the course, and it also doesn't occur if you use the course where the homework set was created as the template for your new course.
It only occurs if you import a homework .def file to a new course, and even then, I don't know if it is consistent.
Hal
Hi Hal,
Thanks for the idea, your experiences do sound similar. I'm not sure it's the same problem because I did create this set within this course, and everything was working fine, and then all of the sudden the problem happened. But in any case I tried browsing the libraries where some of the problems came from, but unfortunately it didn't help :-(. Also, it sounds like in the errors you experienced, the path was listed but the problem file was not found. In my case, the Source Path field is blank, and there is no record of what the path had been. Seems the path is missing rather than the problem itself. Back to the drawing board...
Thanks,
Debbie
Thanks for the idea, your experiences do sound similar. I'm not sure it's the same problem because I did create this set within this course, and everything was working fine, and then all of the sudden the problem happened. But in any case I tried browsing the libraries where some of the problems came from, but unfortunately it didn't help :-(. Also, it sounds like in the errors you experienced, the path was listed but the problem file was not found. In my case, the Source Path field is blank, and there is no record of what the path had been. Seems the path is missing rather than the problem itself. Back to the drawing board...
Thanks,
Debbie
If by some lucky chance you "exported" your homeworksets then the original paths to the files will be in a file called setN.def or setN.bak where N is the name of your set. (these are in the templates directory which you can reach through the File Manager link.)
Otherwise the path name was in a field in the mysql database. On the one hand you don't expect anything to go wrong with a simple reference to the database, but faced with the fact that something did go wrong it's hard to narrow down the possible causes -- it could be from the WeBWorK perl code, it could be some glitch in the mysql database -- I think until you can get this error to repeat it will be hard to track down.
-- Mike
Otherwise the path name was in a field in the mysql database. On the one hand you don't expect anything to go wrong with a simple reference to the database, but faced with the fact that something did go wrong it's hard to narrow down the possible causes -- it could be from the WeBWorK perl code, it could be some glitch in the mysql database -- I think until you can get this error to repeat it will be hard to track down.
-- Mike