TOPIC:

Hiya

Just had a query from a user who was adding content to their existing project. The user stated that they got some "error" (apparently that is all the message was) now when they try and open or play their project nothing loads

I've taken a look at the USER_FILES/29-rmccha001-Nottingham/ and I'm seeing
-rw-r--r-- 1 wwwrun www 553494 Jun 23 13:17 data.xml.10
-rw-r--r-- 1 wwwrun www 601332 Jun 23 15:01 data.xml.9
-rw-r--r-- 1 wwwrun www 544404 Jun 23 15:01 data.json.10
-rw-r--r-- 1 wwwrun www 603719 Jun 23 15:04 data.xml.8
-rw-r--r-- 1 wwwrun www 546587 Jun 23 15:04 data.json.9
-rw-r--r-- 1 wwwrun www 602859 Jun 23 15:06 data.xml.7
-rw-r--r-- 1 wwwrun www 545711 Jun 23 15:06 data.json.8
-rw-r--r-- 1 wwwrun www 602834 Jun 23 15:07 data.xml.6
-rw-r--r-- 1 wwwrun www 545654 Jun 23 15:07 data.json.7
-rw-r--r-- 1 wwwrun www 602100 Jun 23 15:09 data.xml.5
-rw-r--r-- 1 wwwrun www 545078 Jun 23 15:09 data.json.6
-rw-r--r-- 1 wwwrun www 706962 Jun 23 16:38 data.xml.4
-rw-r--r-- 1 wwwrun www 646630 Jun 23 16:38 data.json.5
-rw-r--r-- 1 wwwrun www 719789 Jun 24 13:56 preview.xml.10
-rw-r--r-- 1 wwwrun www 0 Jun 24 14:29 data.json.4
-rw-r--r-- 1 wwwrun www 0 Jun 24 14:29 data.json.3
-rw-r--r-- 1 wwwrun www 0 Jun 24 14:31 preview.json.10
-rw-r--r-- 1 wwwrun www 0 Jun 24 14:32 preview.json.9
-rw-r--r-- 1 wwwrun www 0 Jun 24 14:32 preview.json.8
-rw-r--r-- 1 wwwrun www 0 Jun 24 14:33 preview.json.7
-rw-r--r-- 1 wwwrun www 0 Jun 24 14:36 preview.json.6
-rw-r--r-- 1 wwwrun www 0 Jun 24 14:37 preview.json.5
-rw-r--r-- 1 wwwrun www 0 Jun 24 14:38 data.json.2
-rw-r--r-- 1 wwwrun www 0 Jun 24 14:38 data.json.1
-rw-r--r-- 1 wwwrun www 0 Jun 24 14:38 preview.json.4
-rw-r--r-- 1 wwwrun www 0 Jun 24 14:39 preview.json.3
-rw-r--r-- 1 wwwrun www 0 Jun 24 14:39 preview.json.2
-rw-r--r-- 1 wwwrun www 0 Jun 24 14:39 preview.json.1

from comparing that to other projects that work I see that the data.xml.1, data.xml.2 preview.json.1 and preview.json.2 are not there and the preview.json files are 0 bytes.

I can't see anything in the logs that would appear to relate to the USER-FILES folder
(grep -ir "29-rmccha001-Nottingham" *)

Anyone seen this before?

If their project isn't opening in the editor or playing it sounds like preview.xml and or data.xml may have become broken. This is rare but we know sometimes happens if there are connectivity problems and/or if code is pasted that breaks the xml. Compare those two files in a code editor both should end with </learningObject>
If data.xml ends with </learningObject> but preview.xml doesn't copy data.xml and replace preview.xml

If both are corrupt work backwards from the other preview.xml.n in most recent order until you find one that isn't broken and then replace data.xml and preview.xml

HTH
Ron

Thanks Ron.

I only see 2 preview.xml files, viz
srvslscet001:/xerte/USER-FILES/29-rmccha001-Nottingham # ls preview.xml*
preview.xml preview.xml.10

preview.xml is an empty file.
preview.xml.10 starts with <learningObject> ending with </learningObject>.

The data.xml.n files that I do have (being 4 - 10) all start with <learningObject> ending with </learningObject>.

So can I just "cp data.xml.n preview.xml.n"?
Do it matter if data.xlm.1 and .2 are missing?

cheers,R

What is actually used is preview.xml and data.xml. preview.xml is the version you're editing. data.xml is the version that you last published.

The preview.xml.n and data.xml.n files are autmoated backups. In this case serach for the most recent (or largest) data.xml.n or preview.xml.n (in this case preview.xml.10) and copy that file to both preview.xml and data.xml

I guess it's worth stepping back a minute and summarising what happens during authoring. I think the following is still correct...

Each time an author clicks Play to preview changes those changes are written to preview.xml and preview.xml.1 and preview.xml.2 etc become earlier revisions for recovery purposes.

Every time an author clicks publish data.xml is also updated and anyone viewing the public link to the LO sees those changes because play uses data.xml

If preview.xml becomes corrupt due to connectivity issues or rogue code sometimes data.xml can be used to replace preview.xml and rescue the LO. However if data.xml became corrupt too then earlier versions may need to be used by checking each in order to find one that isn't broken.

When rescuing from a broken LO it's only preview.xml and data.xml that you need to fix and in fact once preview.xml is fixed then the author should be able to edit again and clicking publish will replace and therefore fix data.xml. The other files are backups and will be managed by the code.

HTH
Ron

Wonderful thanks Ron and Tom

I opened preview.xml.10 in xmlnotepad to check. The "name" string read

"name="<span style="color:#FFFFFF;"><span style="font-size:24px;"><span style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-weight: bold; line-height: 27.3125px;">Global Blindness: Planning and Managing Eye Care Services</span></span></span></span>""

I removed all that, replacing it simply with "recovered"

Saved the modified preview.xml.10 as "data.xml" and "preview.xml". Dropped those 2 files back in the USER_FILES/folder..and via the management>users projects interface I was able to get the project to load.

Checking if original author can now get the project to load.

Guess the recommendation (to users) here is to be careful in cutting and pasting directly from MSword and/or HTML pages.

Thanks for the help.

R