To test locally for development

Read the comment at the top of locallib.php to understand how the workflow works.
If necessary, create a deletion staging course category and update the config value to point to this course category id:

update mdl_config_plugins set value = '12' where plugin = 'local_coursedeletion' and name = 'deletion_staging_category_id';

To easily change the status and/or end date of the course to a date in the past, access /local/coursedeletion/force_settings.php . However, you will first need to allow access for your user id with a line like this in config.php:

      // Provide a comma-separated list of user ids:
      $CFG->local_coursedeletion_force_users = '20760';

The course deletion workflow task called by the cron job will only run once a day. You can however use the command line script local/coursedeletion/cli/run_cron.php, which will, by default, force the task to run regardless of when the task was last run. The cli script should be run as the www-data user.

      # To see options:
      php local/coursedeletion/cli/run_cron.php --help

      # To do it:
      php local/coursedeletion/cli/run_cron.php