Journal feedback stripslash inserts causing problems

As many of you may know, journal feedback in Moodle is via a text box and not a WYSIWYG editor.  So when a tutor leaves feedback containing an apostrophe, a stripslash (backslash) is inserted into the text.  This is fine and I understand the (MySQL) reasons why, however… my tutors do not!  Each time a tutor saves new feedback, an extra stripslash is added. After many edits the feedback is littered with stripslashes.

So as a temporary fix I have removed the stripslashes by modifying /mod/journal/report.php.

By replacing the line:

Moodle Bar almost ready for public release

My Moodle bar is almost ready for public release.  I have cleaned the code up (a lot), the bar now installs with just one simple PHP include tag in the footer of your Moodle theme.  The buttons now have a CSS based tooltip rollover (like Facebook).  I just have a few Internet Explorer 7 glitches to take care of.

I am also planning a notifications module for the bar which will alert users of messages, deadlines and calendar events.

Moodle Twitter Post Block

Twitter PostI have just finished an early release of my Moodle Twitter Block.  The block simply allows you to post a tweet to a Twitter account.  At present it asks you to enter your Twitter username and password but I will be customising this to pull the data from user profile fields already in Moodle.  A lot of work has already been done on a similar block by M3 (http://m3.jiscemerge.org.uk/) but I wanted to create my

Speed up Moodle using indexes

Creating an index on the mdl_log table against info speeds up a standard Moodle installation.  Some users have reported huge performance increases, so much so that people have suggested that this be in the standard Moodle build by default. 

So far I have noticed some improvements but nothing quite as fantastic as other users are reporting, having said that, maybe you may notice a speed increase to your site, try it leave me a comment here.
 

Book Review: Moodle 1.9 Teaching Techniques

This has quickly become of my favourite Moodle books as it offers something completely different.  The book focuses on using Moodle as a teaching tool and mixes both the technical know-how and the pedagogical theory to great effect.

This book is ideal for any teacher/tutor who wants to use Moodle interactively.  The book teaches the reader how to build an effective online course by promoting the use of the book module, forums, workshops, wikis and other core activities. The use of groups and groupings are not only explained but also put into practice.