Open Forum

@Tim - Advanced Forums does not have a built-in grading interface. Its grading is supported through an Advanced Grading Interface, which we are trying to contribute to Moodle (details are here: https://docs.moodle.org/dev/Activity_Grading_Interface_Specification). Thus, only manual grades are supported since you can modify them in the gradebook.

We downloaded and installed the Advanced Forum plugin (2.6), but don't see the option for Grading Method: Advanced Grading in the Edit Settings page for the activity. How do we access that?

@Matthew - we are just now beginning our upgrade of plugins to Moodle 2.7. In order to get a community version out faster, our plan is to release an alpha version first. The downside is that will not have gone through QA, but will be available for the community to use and test much earlier than the stable version. We will likely be able to provide more information by the end of July.
@Jo - I highly recommend an updated version of Moodle 2.6 for security and critical bug fixes. Regardless, AvF should work just fine with Moodle 2.6.2. The reason we require 2.6.3 is because that is the version our QA testing is performed against. I don't anticipate any problems specific to 2.6.2, and if you'd like to use that version you simply need to change the requirement in mod/hsuforum/version.php

can you confirm whether the latest version of this plugin (2014021900) will work with moodle 2.6.2 please? I notice it requires 2013111803 which is moodle 2.6.3.

Hi Kris
Is there a time frame for releasing a 2.7 version?

@Floyd - these comments are not the correct place to report a bug in Advanced Forums. Please post the bug in tracker.moodle.org, use "Module: Advanced forum" as the component, and provide clear steps to reproduce.
Regarding the rest of your comment, please realize that we maintain Advanced Forums within our Joule development cycles, which is tied to the corresponding Moodle 2.X.3 release for stability reasons and is roughly 6 months behind the latest-and-greatest version of Core Moodle. When issues arise with a new version of Moodle it can take longer for the plug-in to go through our internal QA cycles. We have no plans to stop maintaining Advanced Forums unless Core decides to fully integrate the features within Moodle (see https://tracker.moodle.org/browse/MDL-39707).

A new version of this plugin for Moodle 2.6 has been uploaded to the plugins repository. There are no known issues with the new version at this time, but if you do experience a problem please ensure that you submit any issues to tracker.moodle.org.
In addition, we have updated the Moodle 2.5 version of Advanced Forums, which fixes a bug that can allow instructors to see the identity of an anonymous poster in certain cases.

I just noticed another problem with the Advanced Forum in Moodle 2.6 - you cannot insert pictures. When you try to insert a picture you get the following message: "Sorry, none of your current repositories can return files in the required format."
Moodle 2.7 has been released, so I'm very surprised Moodlerooms has not maintained this plugin. That is not a good reflection on the company.

@Fritz - thanks for the suggestion!
@Marc - the module hasn't been upgraded to support Moodle 2.6 yet, so it's not surprising that there are some problems. If you're not able to wait for us to upgrade the module and are feeling adventurous, you could port the changes made to mod/forum in between Moodle 2.5.3 and 2.6.1 into mod/hsuforum.

I am testing this module with Moodle 2.6.1, everything seems to work except the one crucial feature I am looking for, which is the ability to export a forum's contents. When I click on the "Export" option under the module's administration block, then on the Export button, nothing happens. Any ideas on what could be going on?

Hi Kris,
I would like to base the activity completion to the number of posts that are flagged as "substantive".
The Activity completion API (http://docs.moodle.org/dev/Activity_completion_API) is really helpful for this little customization. The only thing I really stumble over is how to call the update_state() function each time a flag is toggled.
Do you have any idea, where to put this:
// Update completion state
$completion=new completion_info($course);
if($completion->is_enabled($cm) && $forum->completionposts) {
$completion->update_state($cm,COMPLETION_COMPLETE);
}
Many thanks,
Fritz

The 2.5 version work fine with Moodle 2.6.1

when 2.6 version will release?

Hi Fritz, the new version for 2.5 has a new "Accessible" forum view that is focused on improved support and usability by screenreaders.

Version 2.5 of Advanced Forum has been uploaded to the plugins repository. In addition, we've posted the plugin code in Github, which we will be updating in the future prior to availability in the Plugins Repository. Please check there first for updates to new Core versions.