Question- upgrading 0365 3.9.0 plugin to 3.9.9 and Moodle 3.11 compatibility

[geobuc1]

Hi,

Thanks for your previous help. Currently on Moodle V3.9 and 0365 version 3.9.0 (which was heavily customized by previous admin). I am looking to update o365 v3.9.0 to v3.9.9 as gradual process. My questions is, if I moved to Moodle v3.11 in the near future would, o365 v3.9.9 still be compatible with Moodle 3.11 (I know that you cannot say a generic yes, for every particular instance of Moodle) but is this a only 'v20220411_m311' etc. will work with Moodle 3.11 i.e. you have to upgrade to v because of fundamental changes in Moodle.

Sorry if these are too general questions. just trying to plan upgrading Moodle and Plugin.

Many thanks in advance for any advice.

[weilai-irl]

Hi @geobuc1,

I can confirm that before the April 2022 releases of the plugins, there has been very few differences between the plugins for 3.9 and 3.11 released on the same day (i.e. between 3.9.8 v20211207_m39 and 3.11.2 v20211207_m311 ). However, the April 2022 release for 3.10 and 3.11 (v20220411_m310 and v20220411_m311 contain a major change in the plugins that v20220411_m39 release for Moodle 3.9 made published on the same day doesn't have, so the version for 3.9 and 3.11 diverge largely from there.

If you had some customisation done on the 3.9.0 release, it should be relatively easier to upgrade it to 3.9.9 release (note this can still be a complex job, depending on what the customisations are); it will be much harder to port the changes to the plugins for 3.10/3.11.

Technically you can use the plugin versions for 3.9 on Moodle 3.11 - installing the plugins will not cause any error, and I know that all the core functions used by the 3.9 version of the plugins are still available in Moodle 3.11 - they are not depreciated. But do be in mind this is not officially supported, so if any compatibility issue arises, it will not be supported by default. Also the official feature and bug fix support for the plugins for Moodle 3.9 has stopped (security related bug fix is still active), therefore there's no guarantee that bug fixes and new features are going to be added for the 3.9 version in the future.

I hope this answers you questions.

Regards, Lai

[geobuc1]

Hi Lai,

Thanks you once again for the response and invaluable help in clarifying the above.

Firstly, could I just clarify if the 3.9.9 plugin:

https://github.com/microsoft/o365-moodle/releases/tag/v20220411_m39 (https://moodle.org/plugins/local_o365/3.9.9/26406)

version of the plugin has dropped the system API user and requires application access instead? Or this just in the April release of (v20220411_m310 and v20220411_m311) for Moodle v3.10 and 3.11 that have dropped system API user? Or whether v20220411_m39 just required extra permissions?

Ok, so in theory 3.9.9 should work with Moodle V3.11 (notwithstanding any modifications\customizations we have made) I am just wondering if upgrading Moodle from v3.9 to v3.11 maybe better to update to v20220411_m39 from 3.9.0 plugin, port changes, then later less of jump to v20220411_m311 (which has significant changes).

One of the main modifications that have been made is prefixing full course name of Moodle course\teams site with 2 letter code and year (e.g. AB-21/22-FULLCOURSENAME), for certain categories, but that looks like baked in option for v20220411_m39 and later versions?

The other one, which is claimed, is that sync doesn't remove Teacher or Students from Teams, just adds to Teams. However, I cannot see where this would (or could) have been modified. In any case, I am not sure if this is a separate question, and I appreciate how busy you are.

Thanks for you help so far.

Regards

[geobuc1]

Hi Lai,

Just an update regarding last paragraph above :

"The other one, which is claimed, is that sync doesn't remove Teacher or Students from Teams, just adds to Teams. However, I cannot see where this would (or could) have been modified. In any case, I am not sure if this is a separate question, and I appreciate how busy you are"

I have located it in v3.9.0 plugin in o365\classes\feature\usergroups\coursegroups.php @ line 568 the following has been commented out: //$result = $this->graphclient->remove_member_from_group($groupobjectid, $userobjectid); which I suspect will stop member from being removed from group.

Kind regards

[weilai-irl]

Hi @geobuc1,

1. I can confirm that the "system API user" connection option is not removed from release 3.9.9. Currently the option is only removed from latest releases for 3.10 and 3.11.
2. It's absolutely up to you to decide in which order you upgrade your Moodle site and plugins. All existing features in 3.9.9 release of the plugins for Moodle 3.9.x should still work in Moodle 3.11.x. (Although this is an unsupported use case so will not be supported in this forum).
3. Prefixing Team/group names is a build-in feature in latest version of the plugins for 3.9/3.10/3.11/4.0. It's a universal setting though, meaning you can define to only prefix for courses in a certain category.
4. Regarding your last question about "sync doesn't remove Teacher or Students from Teams", this should be working in the latest version for 3.9/3.10/3.11/4.0. Release 3.9.0 is a bit old and there might be issues with the feature in that version - I can't confirm now. Basically these are not happening in scheduled tasks, rather, they are triggered in observers when certain Moodle events are triggered (e.g. user unenrolled, user role unassigned etc). There is also a tool to resync group ownership/membership in all groups in the "Advanced" tab.

Regards, Lai