Moodle 2.6 release notes: Difference between revisions

Revision as of 04:24, 4 November 2013

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Releases > Moodle 2.6 release notes

Release date: 11 November 2013

See New features for a user-friendly tour with screenshots.

Requirements

These are just minimums. We recommend keeping all your software updated.

Recommended minimum browser: recent Google Chrome, recent Mozilla Firefox, Safari 6, Internet Explorer 9 (IE 10 required for drag and drop of files from outside the browser into Moodle)
Moodle upgrade: Moodle 2.2 or later (if upgrading from earlier versions, you must upgrade to 2.2.11 as a first step)
Minimum DB versions: PostgreSQL 8.3, MySQL 5.1.33, MariaDB 5.3.5, MSSQL 2005 or Oracle 10.2
Minimum PHP version: PHP 5.3.3 (always use latest PHP 5.3.x, 5.4.x or 5.5.x on Windows - http://windows.php.net/download/)
New recommended PHP extensions: zlib, OPcache

Known problems

IE8 and Safari 5 are no longer fully supported. They should still work but they are not tested regularly and there might be some problems. Like most of the world's Web sites and browser producers, we encourage you to keep your browsers current to improve security and functionality while saving us valuable time. (For example see what Google is doing.)
IE6 and IE7 are not recommended for Moodle 2.6 at all. You will encounter difficulties trying to use those old browsers in today's Internet.
Support for Oracle database is limited, there are known performance and compatibility problems, many add-ons are not compatible. Most of these problems are caused by the fact that Oracle databases do not implement necessary industry SQL standards and contain several legacy limitations. If you are using Oracle, or planning to, then we highly encourage you to think about using one of the open source databases we support.
IMS Enterprise plugin was not deleting user accounts properly, execute admin/cli/fix_deleted_users.php script to fix deleted users if you use this authentication plugin.
There are known problems with some PHP opcode accelerators, it is recommended to switch to the fully supported, standard OPcache PHP extension if possible.

Major new features

MDL-31776 - Additional name fields
MDL-31830 - Improved category and course management interface
MDL-13114 - Bulk course creation tool
MDL-40121 - New Single Activity Course Format (and removed SCORM course format MDL-40122)
MDL-30740 - Microsoft Skydrive repository
MDL-17081 - Roles import and export
MDL-40493 - Users may select preferred text editor
MDL-37565 - Toolbar switching in TinyMCE editor (one or multiple lines)
MDL-41866, MDL-18375 - Support for multiple calendars
MDL-23692 - Simplified recovery of forgotten username and password reset
MDL-39851 - Popups become full-screen on small screens

Assignment activity

MDL-38359 - New marker allocation and grading workflow settings
MDL-37621 - Admins can set assignment setting defaults
MDL-42023 - Edit PDF plugin
MDL-37148 - Lots more web services
MDL-41131 - Assignment plugins can be on automatically

Forum activity

MDL-29663 - Forum read tracking options now Off, Optional, and Forced.
MDL-41933 - Option to set default read tracking option.
MDL-4908 - Per-forum digest settings

Quiz and question bank

MDL-32188 - Big improvements to how certainty-based marking (CBM) works. There is now much better feedback for students about how they have done, and what they need to do to improve in future.
MDL-9873 - Question text is now a required field when creating and editing questions.
MDL-39155 - Option for what size user picture to show during quiz attempts.

SCORM activity

MDL-28579 / MDL-41580 - Allow use of file aliases and direct linking to imsmanifest.xml inside an extracted zip in the file system repository.
MDL-39910 - Improved SCORM player with responsive design elements and better support for mobile devices.
MDL-39926 - New objectives report
MDL-41290 - Improved user level reporting with ability to export data.
MDL-41434 - When updating a SCORM package we no longer delete and re-create the scorm_scoes table - we now use a sortorder field.

Performance

MDL-41811 - Admin settings menu is loaded only when necessary
MDL-38189 - Restoring of large courses possible
MDL-40415 - OPcache extension fully supported and recommended
MDL-31501 - New session drivers supporting files, database and memcached storage
MDL-40545 - New $CFG->localcachedir setting (intended for clustered servers)
MDL-40563 - Improved theme resource caching (local cache compatible)
MDL-40546 - Improved javascript caching (local cache compatible)
MDL-41019 - Language caching improvements (local cache compatible)
MDL-41017 - HTMLPurifier caching improvements (local cache compatible)
MDL-39474 - Developer debug checks improvements
MDL-38570 - Automatic temp directory cleanup
MDL-42206 - Meta enrolments are not synchronised after every course edit
MDL-37761 - File-less backup/restore when importing and duplicating

Other highlights

MDL-40770, MDL-42102 - New TinyMCE editor icons
MDL-39814 - Improved edit icons for usability on all screens
MDL-11270 - Significantly improved MS SQL Server compatibility (warning: upgrade step for MS SQL servers may take very long time)
MDL-39985 - Full MariaDB support
MDL-19390 - Email notification for new users added manually
MDL-33955 - Support for open_basedir restriction
MDL-41245, MDL-41437, MDL-41086 - Multiple installation and upgrade fixes and improvements
MDL-42078 - Standardised plugin uninstallation and management.
MDL-37717 - Teachers are warned before suspending own enrolment in course
MDL-38155 - User enrolment may be suspended via CSV upload
MDL-16073 - New test pages for external database authentication and enrolment plugins
MDL-41838 - Backup and restore .mbz files now supports a new .tar.gz internal format (helps with very large courses)
MDL-41940 - Option to prevent users from adding new files and directories to legacy course files
MDL-40874 - Retire MyMobile as a standard theme
MDL-29069 - Allow database and glossary entries to be unapproved
MDL-41845 - Make default completion tracking selection an admin option
MDL-40871 - Allow for bulk deletion of entries in the database module
MDL-40368 - Improved capability overview tool
MDL-38192 - Backup and restore: Allow selection by activity type
MDL-42110 - Add-on installer is using parent directory permissions for new directories and files
MDL-23646 - Improvement to TinyMCE editor resizing
MDL-36002 - Move action for activities and course sections are keyboard accessible with JavaScript enabled
MDL-39813 - Login page simplified for a mobile devices
MDL-39040 - Database activity description is visible on all tabs
MDL-41305 - Group forms improved
MDL-40550 - It is now clearer if badges will be issued immediately on activation
MDL-40685 - Improvements to the consistency of headings
MDL-12403 - Backups no longer include unnecessary questions from the Question Bank.

Security issues

A number of security related issues were resolved. Details of these issues will be released after a period of approximately one week to allow system administrators to safely update to the latest version.

For developers: API changes

MDL-39854 - Automatic class loader
MDL-39797 - New events infrastructure
MDL-41267 - Support for sub-plugins in admin tool plugins
MDL-26943 - Support for sub-plugins in local plugins
MDL-20045 - Unofficial support for custom context levels
MDL-40359 - 3rd party libraries updated to latest versions
MDL-40305, MDL-40940 - PHPUnit testcase autoloader
MDL-23493 - Support for including a font through theme CSS
MDL-40248 - Better support for subplugins in Activity chooser
MDL-41953 - Plugin name restrictions were relaxed, multiple trailing numbers are allowed
MDL-42040 - New API for registration of shutdown handlers
MDL-42148 - New admin page listing all third party libraries, thirdpartylibs.xml now supported in plugins
MDL-38197, MDL-41402 - New large courses generators for testing and development
MDL-41421 - New JMeter test plan generator
MDL-32188 - As part of this issues, the question behaviour API was changed, and plugins will need to be updated, though this is not hard. As a result Behaviours can display summary information on the quiz review page. See CBM behaviours for an example.
MDL-22236 - Files can be uploaded to web services.
MDL-39152, MDL-39153 - web service functions no longer require context ID.
MDL-42407 - new method of reporting HTML elements with zIndex value for consideration when presenting a Moodle Core Dialogue
MDL-39339 - zip_archive ignores system files.
MDL-40103 - Changes to temp table creation.
MDL-38019 - Filter changes are logged
MDL-41438 - Core renderer methods produce plain headings by default.
MDL-41806 - Accessors added for scheme, host and port to moodle_url class.
MDL-41956 - Attachments accepted in message_send() in email message provider.

Upgrade notes for developers

Assignment: http://git.moodle.org/gw?p=moodle.git;a=blob;f=mod/assign/upgrade.txt;hb=master
Backup: http://git.moodle.org/gw?p=moodle.git;a=blob;f=backup/upgrade.txt;hb=master
Cache: http://git.moodle.org/gw?p=moodle.git;a=blob;f=cache/upgrade.txt;hb=master
Calendar: http://git.moodle.org/gw?p=moodle.git;a=blob;f=calendar/upgrade.txt;hb=master
Core: http://git.moodle.org/gw?p=moodle.git;a=blob;f=lib/upgrade.txt;hb=master
Course formats: http://git.moodle.org/gw?p=moodle.git;a=blob;f=course/format/upgrade.txt;hb=master
Enrolment plugins: http://git.moodle.org/gw?p=moodle.git;a=blob;f=enrol/upgrade.txt;hb=master
Forum: http://git.moodle.org/gw?p=moodle.git;a=blob;f=mod/forum/upgrade.txt;hb=master
Question behaviours: http://git.moodle.org/gw?p=moodle.git;a=blob;f=question/behaviour/upgrade.txt;hb=master
Question types: http://git.moodle.org/gw?p=moodle.git;a=blob;f=question/type/upgrade.txt;hb=master
Repositories: http://git.moodle.org/gw?p=moodle.git;a=blob;f=repository/upgrade.txt;hb=master
Themes: http://git.moodle.org/gw?p=moodle.git;a=blob;f=theme/upgrade.txt;hb=master
TinyMCE plugins: http://git.moodle.org/gw?p=moodle.git;a=blob;f=lib/editor/tinymce/upgrade.txt;hb=master

@@ Line 1: / Line 1: @@
+{{Work_in_progress}}
 [[Releases]] > {{FULLPAGENAME}}
-=UNDER CONSTRUCTION=
+Release date: 11 November 2013
-Release date: November 2013 (Not yet released)
 See [https://docs.moodle.org/26/en/New_features New features] for a user-friendly tour with screenshots.
@@ Line 19: / Line 19: @@
 ===Known problems===
-* IE8 and Safari 5 are not fully supported any more, they should still work but they are not tested regularly and there might be some known problems. Like most of the world's web sites and browser producers, we encourage you to keep your browsers current to improve security and functionality while saving us valuable time.  ([http://googleappsupdates.blogspot.ca/2012/09/supporting-modern-browsers-internet.html For example see what Google is doing])
+* IE8 and Safari 5 are no longer fully supported. They should still work but they are not tested regularly and there might be some problems. Like most of the world's Web sites and browser producers, we encourage you to keep your browsers current to improve security and functionality while saving us valuable time. (For example [http://googleappsupdates.blogspot.ca/2012/09/supporting-modern-browsers-internet.html see what Google is doing.])
-* IE6 and IE7 are not recommended for Moodle 2.6 at all.  You would have big problems trying to use those old browsers in today's internet.
+* IE6 and IE7 are not recommended for Moodle 2.6 at all.  You will encounter difficulties trying to use those old browsers in today's Internet.
-* Support for Oracle database is limited, there are known performance and compatibility problems, many add-ons are not compatible. Most of these problems are caused by the fact that Oracle databases do not implement necessary industry SQL standards and contain several legacy limitations.  If you are using Oracle or planning to then we highly encourage you to think about using one of the open source databases we support.
+* Support for Oracle database is limited, there are known performance and compatibility problems, many add-ons are not compatible. Most of these problems are caused by the fact that Oracle databases do not implement necessary industry SQL standards and contain several legacy limitations.  If you are using Oracle, or planning to, then we highly encourage you to think about using one of the open source databases we support.
 * IMS Enterprise plugin was not deleting user accounts properly, execute admin/cli/fix_deleted_users.php script to fix deleted users if you use this authentication plugin.
-* There are known problems with some PHP opcode accelerators, it is recommended to switch to fully supported standard OPcache PHP extension if possible.
+* There are known problems with some PHP opcode accelerators, it is recommended to switch to the fully supported, standard OPcache PHP extension if possible.
 ===Major new features===
@@ Line 37: / Line 37: @@
 * MDL-41866, MDL-18375 - Support for multiple calendars
 * MDL-23692 - Simplified recovery of forgotten username and password reset
+* MDL-39851 - Popups become full-screen on small screens
 ====Assignment activity====
@@ Line 44: / Line 45: @@
 * MDL-42023 - Edit PDF plugin
 * MDL-37148 - Lots more web services
+* MDL-41131 - Assignment plugins can be on automatically
 ====Forum activity====
@@ Line 49: / Line 51: @@
 * MDL-29663 - Forum read tracking options now Off, Optional, and Forced.
 * MDL-41933 - Option to set default read tracking option.
-* MDL-4908  - Per-forum digest settings
+* MDL-4908 - Per-forum digest settings
 ====Quiz and question bank====
@@ Line 67: / Line 69: @@
 ===Performance===
-* MDL-41811 - Admin settings are loaded only when necessary
+* MDL-41811 - Admin settings menu is loaded only when necessary
 * MDL-38189 - Restoring of large courses possible
 * MDL-40415 - OPcache extension fully supported and recommended
@@ Line 79: / Line 81: @@
 * MDL-38570 - Automatic temp directory cleanup
 * MDL-42206 - Meta enrolments are not synchronised after every course edit
+* MDL-37761 - File-less backup/restore when importing and duplicating
 ===Other highlights===
-* MDL-40770 - New TinyMCE editor icons
+* MDL-40770, MDL-42102 - New TinyMCE editor icons
 * MDL-39814 - Improved edit icons for usability on all screens
 * MDL-11270 - Significantly improved MS SQL Server compatibility (warning: upgrade step for MS SQL servers may take very long time)
@@ Line 102: / Line 105: @@
 * MDL-38192 - Backup and restore: Allow selection by activity type
 * MDL-42110 - Add-on installer is using parent directory permissions for new directories and files
+* MDL-23646 - Improvement to TinyMCE editor resizing
+* MDL-36002 - Move action for activities and course sections are keyboard accessible with JavaScript enabled
+* MDL-39813 - Login page simplified for a mobile devices
+* MDL-39040 - Database activity description is visible on all tabs
+* MDL-41305 - Group forms improved
+* MDL-40550 - It is now clearer if badges will be issued immediately on activation
+* MDL-40685 - Improvements to the consistency of headings
+* MDL-12403 - Backups no longer include unnecessary questions from the Question Bank.
 ===Security issues===
-* To be published after release.
+A number of security related issues were resolved. Details of these issues will be released after a period of approximately one week to allow system administrators to safely update to the latest version.
 ===For developers: API changes===
@@ Line 124: / Line 135: @@
 * MDL-41421 - New JMeter test plan generator
 * MDL-32188 - As part of this issues, the question behaviour API was changed, and plugins will need to be updated, though this is not hard. As a result Behaviours can display summary information on the quiz review page. See CBM behaviours for an example.
+* MDL-22236 - Files can be uploaded to web services.
+* MDL-39152, MDL-39153 - web service functions no longer require context ID.
+* MDL-42407 - new method of reporting HTML elements with zIndex value for consideration when presenting a Moodle Core Dialogue
+* MDL-39339 - zip_archive ignores system files.
+* MDL-40103 - Changes to temp table creation.
+* MDL-38019 - Filter changes are logged
+* MDL-41438 - Core renderer methods produce plain headings by default.
+* MDL-41806 - Accessors added for scheme, host and port to moodle_url class.
+* MDL-41956 - Attachments accepted in message_send() in email message provider.
 ====Upgrade notes for developers====

Documentation