diff --git a/settings.php b/settings.php
index cc3bbda1..312753d4 100755
--- a/settings.php
+++ b/settings.php
@@ -115,11 +115,11 @@
 
     $settings->add(new admin_setting_configtext_int_only('turnitintooltwo/accountid',
                                                     get_string("turnitinaccountid", "turnitintooltwo"),
-                                                    get_string("turnitinaccountid_desc", "turnitintooltwo"), ''));
+                                                    get_string("turnitinaccountid_desc", "turnitintooltwo"), 0));
 
     $settings->add(new admin_setting_config_tii_secret_key('turnitintooltwo/secretkey',
                                                         get_string("turnitinsecretkey", "turnitintooltwo"),
-                                                        get_string("turnitinsecretkey_desc", "turnitintooltwo"), '', 'PARAM_TEXT'));
+                                                        get_string("turnitinsecretkey_desc", "turnitintooltwo"), ''));
 
     $testoptions = array(
         'https://api.turnitin.com' => 'https://api.turnitin.com',
@@ -137,7 +137,7 @@
     $settings->add(new admin_setting_configselect('turnitintooltwo/apiurl',
                                     get_string("turnitinapiurl", "turnitintooltwo"),
                                     get_string("turnitinapiurl_desc", "turnitintooltwo").$offlinecomment.$testconnection,
-                                    0, $testoptions));
+                                    'https://api.turnitin.com', $testoptions));
 
     // Miscellaneous settings.
     $settings->add(new admin_setting_heading('turnitintooltwo_debugginglogs',
diff --git a/settingslib.php b/settingslib.php
index e1d3d011..4cd861d0 100644
--- a/settingslib.php
+++ b/settingslib.php
@@ -78,7 +78,7 @@ public function validate($data) {
         }
 
         $cleaned = clean_param($data, $this->paramtype);
-        if ("$data" === "$cleaned" && strlen($data) > 0) { // Implicit conversion to string is needed to do exact comparison.
+        if ("$data" === "$cleaned") { // Implicit conversion to string is needed to do exact comparison.
             return true;
         } else {
             return get_string('validateerror', 'admin');