Conflict with new Plugin mod_opencast

[wolfstettler]

There is a new plugin in Moodle with the name mod_opencast https://moodle.org/plugins/mod_opencast. Moodle wants to update mod_opencast and installs the new one (that also requires an additional plugin) when the update is made. This overwrites this plugin.

[ndunand]

Hi @wolfstettler Indeed that's going to be a problem ... That comes from the fact that I was never able to make my plugin fully ready for the official Moodle plugin database (because it relies a bit too much on SWITCH-specific stuff), so there is no other way to "reserve" the mod_opencast plugin name. Now that this new "official" plugin is published (and obviously with a version number > this plugin's), each Moodle using this plugin will advertise the new "official" plugin as an update.

I can see a couple ways out of this :

1. Somehow block you Moodle to never try to update mod_opencast automatically.
2. I always push a version of this plugin, which is > the official plugin's version

Or, more reliably, rename this plugin as mod_switchcast eventually. This is easy but the less easy part is to make this cleanly, i.e. to have a clean upgrade path offering to rename DB tables etc.

What is your take on this?

[wolfstettler]

Hi @ndunand, sorry for my late reply, I was on holidays. The best was to solve this problem would be to rename the plugin and, if possible, include it into the Moodle plugin repository to prevent future name problems.
At the moment, we do not update mod_opencast, but I do not know, if it is possible to block an update. Probably the plugin could be set up in a way that updates always fail, but this would be a very unelegant solution.
Always keeping the version higher than the official one would be possible, but seems a lot of work.

[ndunand]

Hi @wolfstettler , yes it would be easier in the long run to rename the plugin to mod_switchcast which is less likely to be taken by someone else afterwards. However, having the plugin in the official Moodle.org repository is another story. I don't currently have the ressources to do any of this.

In any case, I've just pushed a new version (release https://github.com/ndunand/moodle-mod_opencast/releases/tag/2021051600), which will temporarily delay the issue.

Edit: this release if for Moodle 3.11 support.