Hidden sections without visible modules present can cause confusion.

[lpagitz]

Describe the bug
First of all, thanks for your work! My report is related to the latest commit 81e15d8 which changed the behaviour of sections in a way that they are not shown when there are no visible modules in them. I am not sure why this change was made and I was wondering if it is related to this discussion?
With this change, when you have let's say 4 sections in a course and sections 1-3 are empty, only section 4 is shown. On the left hand side of the section there is a '4' and on the right hand side it says 'Topic 4'.
I fear there might be some confusion for users asking where sections 1-3 are and why it starts with 4.

To Reproduce
Steps to reproduce the behaviour:

1. Create a new course with 4 sections.
2. Leave sections 1-3 empty, put something (a label) into section 4.
3. Turn off edit mode.
4. Be confused.

Expected behaviour
I am not sure how to solve this as the discussion linked in the forum is still ongoing.

Screenshots
All sections visible:

Only section 4 visible:

Versions (please complete the following information):

• Moodle: 4.4
• Format: 81e15d8
• Browser and version: Chrome 124.0.6367.63 Windows 10 64 bit

[gjb2048]

Good point, need to think, not related to https://moodle.org/mod/forum/discuss.php?d=452918 but rather https://moodle.org/mod/forum/discuss.php?d=457863.

[gjb2048]

Also take it that the commits (https://github.com/gjbarnard/moodle-format_topcoll/commits/main/) between formal releases (https://github.com/gjbarnard/moodle-format_topcoll/releases) are 'development' where anything can happen / go wrong.

[lpagitz]

Thank you, Gareth. I understand and am not using the dev release in production. I will read the discussion you linked to gain more insight on this topic.