ConversionThingy: Stats and Logs

At the end of every conversion, an XML log file named ConversionStats.xml gets updated.  (The file is built in the conversion output folder.)  This file counts the various items that were generated,  and provides a snapshot of your conversion activities.

Viewing the Conversion Totals for Your Installation

To view the totals and averages, click on the Totals tab and click the Gather Stats button. (You can select whether you'd like to see a count of all issues raised during the conversions or a count of just the serious issues. To change the Issue Reporting Option, select the one you want and click the Gather Stats button.

After the Gather Stats button has been clicked, the ConversionStats.xml file is read and figures are calculated as illustrated below.

Conversions - this row indicates the total number of logged conversions recorded in the ConversionStats file.  This figure will not always represent the total number of files that you've processed, since empty course archives, non-ANGEL zip files, or completely corrupted archive files are not counted.

Pages, Files, Links, Dropboxes, etc.  The figure in the Totals column is a total count; the figure in the averages column give a rough estimate of what the processed course files look like, on average.

Running Time. This provides, in the Totals column, the total processing time elapsed.  In the averages column, the figure represents a count of the average number of seconds it has taken to process any given file.

All Issues/Serious Issues. This totals (and averages) the recorded Issues that were logged during the conversion process.

What Issues Could there Possibly Be?

An issue is recorded in the log whenever something unexpected happens. This can range from the relatively trivial--such as when the program is directed to convert Assessments and there aren't any Assessments in the source file to begin with--to the relatively serious--such as when question point values are set to zero or existing items cannot be parsed.  Generally, issues are denoted as minor when they are predictable (such as the omission of "Game" objects, which never get processed, or the complete absence in the source archive of an item that was identified for inclusion), and are denoted as major when, in the processing of the source archive, information isn't found where (or as) it should be (such as when question pools do not return the specified number of questions or point values don't exist, or gradebooks point to non-existent objects). 

If you're looking for more than just aggregates and averages, you'll want to click on the Logs tab. There you'll get an overview of all conversions--sortable by any of the columns--allowing you to quickly isolate those conversions for a given instructor or a given course id.  You can also sort by issue count or, if you really really want to, by the name of the ConversionReport file. The instructor id fields will, in the absence of better information, be named IMS Instructor and Moodle Instructor when ANGEL IMS files or Moodle 1.9 files serve as the source files for the conversion.

Once you've found a record you'd like to get a closer look at, a click on the row selects it and a subsequent click on the View Full Report for Selected Entry button takes you to the log browser. There you get an overview of the full conversion, and also a point-by-point account of what was converted and where issues arose.

Here's the view of the top of one report:

...and here's the view of the middle of another..

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You'll note that there's a print button at the top of the browser window--useful if you need to review a conversion report with someone else. (I figured it'd be useful, in workshop situations, to go armed with a full set of conversion reports for the faculty in attendance...)

You'll also note that the report is arranged by content type, and that conversion issues are spelled out to identify not only the nature of the problem, but which part of the converted file will need special attention.