Test: Remove Limited Availability Period from Test-Settings

1 Reasons to Abandon Feature

The setting "Limited Availability Period" within the ILIAS Test general settings is a foreign object. The availability period is a setting that is controlled by ILIASObject and linked to the object reference and should not be part of this form showing properties of the object.
It increasingly creates  issues on the T&A side, as the code in the object and the one in the test tend to diverge. We propose to remove this setting.
The standard way to set the "Availability Period" over the Action menu of the test object will not be touched, as this comes from ILIASObject.  Additionally the "correct" way to limit access to the test through the start and the end time is still available.

Mockup:

Standard way, which will be untouched:

2 Additional Information

2.1 Involved Authorities

If this request is related to multiple components, please list both authorities for all related components.

2.2 Technical Aspects

{ Necessary technical information have to be provided here, e.g. dependencies on other ILIAS components and necessary modifications in general services/architecture. }

2.3 Contact

Person to be contacted in case of questions about the request or for funding offers: Strassner, Denis [dstrassner]

2.4 Funding

Funding status and funding parties are listed in the block 'Status of Feature' in the right column of this page.

If you are interested to give funding for abandon this feature, please get into contact with the person mentioned above as 'Contact'.

3 Discussion

Use the following discussion section to express your objections against this request or your consent to get rid of this feature.

Kergomard, Stephan [skergomard], 12 SEP 2025: The sentence above is not completly precise, the availability is a property of the object-reference managed by the object. It is part of the object properties, but I will never provide a form to integrate it into object-forms that should only show properties of the object itself. I adapted it  above. Online/offline is a property of ILIASObjects, so you are actually comparing apples and oranges. The issues are due to the forms necessarily  being handled separately (as again, they are not linked to the same concepts), that lead to inconsistencies in behavior and errors in saving. Additionally the many different ways of limiting access to a test in a manner related to time (there are three: Availability, Start/End, max Duration) are confusing and need a lot of explaining. This thus also helps to clarify the situation.

JourFixe, ILIAS [jourfixe], 15 SEP 2025: We follow Denis' suggestion and abandon the presentation of the availability within the settings screen of a test for trunk. To clarify the impact of this decision: It is still possible to set a test online and offline. And one can make it available for a defined period of time from the parent container in which this reference of the tests is placed (as the setting is a reference-related one – unlike the online/offline setting).

4 Implementation

Setting is removed with PR 10087 from Kergomard, Stephan [skergomard].

Removed Testcases

The following testcases have been removed from Testrail or modified because the feature is no longer part of the ILIAS core.

Approval

Approved at 19.09.2025 by Strassner, Denis [dstrassner].