Sharing Cart/Project Format Errors

What to do if you get fatal errors when using the Sharing Cart or Project Course Format

These errors are likely due to third-party modules or incomplete installation of LMS program files. Here is a sampling error reported by one user of the Project Format when restoring a section of their course.

Fatal error: Uncaught exception 'SharingCart_ModuleException' with message
'Insertion failure' in /home/xxxx/public_html/course/format/project/shared
/SharingCart_Restore.php:302 Stack trace: #0 /home/xxxx/public_html/course/format
/project/shared/SharingCart_Restore.php(246): SharingCart_Restore->restoreSection() 
#1 /home/xxxx/public_html/course/format/project/shared/SharingCart_Restore.php(133):
 SharingCart_Restore->parseXml() #2 /home/xxxx/public_html/course/format/project
/restorelib.php(579): SharingCart_Restore->execute() #3 /home/xxxx/public_html/course
/format/project/restore_execute.php(47): project_restore_execute(Object(stdClass), 
Object(stdClass), Object(stdClass), ) #4 /home/xxxx/public_html/course/format
/project/restore.php(154): include_once('/home/xxxx/publ...') #5 {main} thrown in 
/home/xxxx/public_html/course/format/project/shared/SharingCart_Restore.php on line 302

Our programmer says he has seen this happen before, and it was something occurring outside of the Project Format/Sharing Cart which was breaking backup or restore. The PF/SC both operate with the standard LMS code for backup and restore. In the previous case, we speculated that it occurred due to one of the following reasons:

  • an incomplete installation of the LMS program code
  • a database problem/corruption/incompatibility
  • a third party module that is breaking backup or restores (may have no backup/restore function, or may not be up-to-date).

Most problems we have seen are related to the third one. You might try doing some of the following:

  • turn debugging on to ‘All’ or ‘Developer’ level and see what error messages you find
  • try doing the standard backup and restore of a course and see if the problem repeats itself
  • see what type of database you are using and version number
  • tell us what third-party modules you are using and we can tell you our experience with them
  • set up a new LMS installation with no third party modules and set up PF/SC to see if it works–then add modules one by one, testing backup and restore