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Moodle 2.5 release notes: Difference between revisions

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* MDL-21342 - New user account lockout mechanism
* MDL-21342 - New user account lockout mechanism


==See also==
<noinclude>==See also==
* [https://docs.moodle.org/25/en/Category:New_features User documentation of new features in Moodle 2.5]
* [https://docs.moodle.org/25/en/Upgrading_to_Moodle_2.5 Upgrading to Moodle 2.5] - information for admins who are upgrading from earlier versions
*[[Moodle 2.4 release notes]]
*[[Moodle 2.4 release notes]]
   
   
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[[es:Notas de Moodle 2.5]]
[[es:Notas de Moodle 2.5]]
[[fr:Notes de mise à jour de Moodle 2.5]]
[[fr:Notes de mise à jour de Moodle 2.5]]
</noinclude>

Revision as of 15:20, 13 May 2013

Releases > Moodle 2.5 release notes

Release date: May 13 2013

Here is the full list of fixed issues in 2.5.

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: Google Chrome 11, Firefox 4, Safari 5, Internet Explorer 8 (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 2.2.9 as a first step)
  • Minimum DB versions: PostgreSQL 8.3, MySQL 5.1.33, MariaDB 5.2, MSSQL 2005 or Oracle 10.2 (oci_native_moodle_package.sql needs to be executed before upgrade on Oracle servers)
  • Minimum PHP version: PHP 5.3.3
  • New PHP extension requirements: GD

NOTE: We will drop support for IE8 in Moodle 2.6 (to be released November 2013). This means IE8 will probably still work for 2.6, but developers will not be required to test their new code on that browser. Moodle, like most of the world's web sites and browser producers, encourages you to keep your browsers current to improve security and functionality while saving us valuable time. (For example see what Google is doing)

Warnings

It is very unlikely that any of these issues will cause you problems, unless there is something quite unusual about your Moodle installation. However, we highlight them here just in case:

Multi-server architectures with different PHP versions

Moodle has moved to use a more secure mechanism for securing passwords, from 2.5 new passwords will be generated using bcrypt rather than md5. Because bcrypt is only supported for PHP version 5.3.7 and above, it is important that all servers within a cluster use the same version of PHP (MDL-35332).

Restoring Moodle 2.5 backups to sites with old PHP versions

Because bcrypt is not supported in PHP versions below 5.3.7, course backups made using the $CFG->includeuserpasswordsinbackup setting on a site using PHP version 5.3.7+ that are subsequently restored to a site with PHP version < 5.3.7 will require a password reset.

The same issue would occur if you downgraded the PHP version on the server running your site from 5.3.7+ to less than 5.3.7. (MDL-35332)

Manual grading option in the quiz UI

Before Moodle 2.5, you could set 'How questions behave' in the Quiz settings to 'Manually graded'. That option was almost entirely useless. It would cause all questions in the quiz (e.g. multiple choice questions) to require manual grading. This option was not necessary because Essay questions, the only ones that need to be graded manually, will always work that way whatever behaviour is selected.

Since the only effect of that setting was that people somehow choose it by mistake, we have hidden it. I cannot think of any circumstances when you would need to re-enable it, but if necessary, you can bring it back by going to Admin -> Plugins -> Question behaviour. I repeat, you do not need to do that for Essay questions to work.

Highlights

Enrolment improvements

  • MDL-26956 - You can now search the list of users enrolled in a course
  • MDL-36514 - New option for preventing of new self-enrolments in course
  • MDL-7537 - Support for more currencies in PayPal
  • MDL-32387 - Implemented expiration of PayPal enrolments
  • MDL-37291 - Restore support for PayPal enrolments
  • MDL-37187 - Multiple problems fixed in Flat File enrolment plugin
  • MDL-28705 - Configurable mapping between IMS course names and Moodle course names for IMS Enterprise enrolment
  • MDL-36504 - Complete list of all enrolment related improvements

Performance

  • MDL-35716 - New performance overview report
  • MDL-35685 - Improved login performance
  • MDL-36809 - Support for persistent connections to MariaDB/MySQL servers
  • MDL-34344 - CFG caching in MUC
  • MDL-34346 - New repository caching
  • MDL-34401 - New caching of plugin information
  • MDL-37718 - Improved database recordset memory use
  • MDL-38212 - Workaround for some memory issues in cron
  • MDL-38391 - Improved YUI module loading performance
  • MDL-37127 - Use of minified YUI modules to reduce content size


Database reads (-4.6%) Time used (-7.3%) Files included (-2.7%)
25release database reads.png 25release time used.png 25release files included.png
Database writes (0%) KiloBytes downloaded (+1%) Session size (+8.3%) getstring() calls (+0.4%)
25release database writes.png 25release kilobytes downloaded.png +0.31KB per user

(+8.3%)

25release getstring calls.png

Miscellaneous

  • MDL-38166 - Database activity URL field has option to open link in new window
  • MDL-37455 - New folder resource setting to display folder contents on the course page
  • MDL-30790 - New folder resource setting to display sub-folders expanded or collapsed
  • MDL-37602 - Overall assessment feedback support in the Workshop module
  • MDL-28585 - LDAP authentication password expiry handling
  • MDL-20131 - Global glossary entries can be displayed in the random glossary entry block
  • MDL-35842 - New option for displaying entries in alphabetical order in the random glossary entry block
  • MDL-37337 - Assignment settings page improvements
  • MDL-37644 - New setting for showing course full names in the navigation block
  • MDL-5875 - Option to show the word count of forum posts
  • MDL-23504 - Transparency and RGB support in themes colour picker
  • MDL-37806 - New 'Save and show next' button for workshop submissions
  • MDL-37728 - Role definition overview improvements
  • MDL-37641 - Prettier names when a file already exists
  • MDL-38538 - Option to auto-save during quiz attempts
  • MDL-36955 - Better grading for partially correct Cloze questions with Interactive behaviour
  • MDL-35793 - Defaults for when a question is previewed
  • MDL-10516 - Essay questions can have a template, so the student starts answering from the template, not a blank editor
  • MDL-36602 - mnethostid available as an upload users field
  • MDL-34137 - Option to drag and drop a media file onto the course page to create a label
  • MDL-33946 - Option to drag and drop text onto the course page to create a label
  • MDL-33688 - Drag and drop file upload progress indicator in filepicker
  • MDL-33669 - Option to access Equella site when using Equella repository
  • MDL-32341 - Configurable calendar export date range
  • MDL-33206 - Book resource type print dialogue link
  • MDL-31983 - Settings block renamed 'Administration' and reports moved there
  • MDL-34917 - Jump to section navigation for 'One section per page' setting in course formats
  • MDL-38708 - Option to add images and other files to the course list
  • MDL-36395 - New setting Maximum users per page for specifying the number of users shown in search results
  • MDL-37596 - Scheduled maintenance mode
  • MDL-35775 - Group import allows new groups to be assigned to groupings
  • MDL-38494 - Upload users accepts date-time format custom profile field
  • MDL-26649 - Date picker usability improvements
  • MDL-37572 - Categories edit page is separated from view and does not depend any more on global editing mode
  • MDL-37217 - Folders are now displayed in the Google Drive repository (renamed from Google Docs repository). An administrator must enable the Drive API in the Google APIs Console, as described in Google OAuth 2.0 setup.
  • Multiple improvements in MS SQL Server and Oracle database drivers
  • MDL-35819 - Rewrite tooltip help to improve UI consistency, and performance.

API changes

  • MDL-34640 - Improvements to how the question engine handles uploaded files. This should make it possible to write question types that automatically grade uploaded files.
  • MDL-37287 - 3rd party libraries updated, ex.: YUI 3.9.1, TinyMCE 3.5.8, latest tcpdf and others
  • MDL-15727 - jQuery and jQuery UI supported in add-ons
  • MDL-29996 - Legacy filters are not supported any more, developers need to migrate filters from modules to standard filter location
  • MDL-35356 - Excel and ODS export improvements
  • MDL-35434 - Theme developers may use new admin setting type for user uploaded logo images
  • MDL-37726 - PREVIOUS and NEXT attributes are not required in install.xml files
  • MDL-38558 - It is now possible to run local pre-upgrade script
  • MDL-38391 - Convert YUI_config to class in lib/outputrequirements.php.
  • MDL-35819 - JS M.util.help_icon deprecated in favour of moodle-core-popuphelp

Upgrade notes for developers

Activity modules
http://git.moodle.org/gw?p=moodle.git;a=blob;f=mod/upgrade.txt;hb=master
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
Filters
http://git.moodle.org/gw?p=moodle.git;a=blob;f=filter/upgrade.txt;hb=master
Question types
http://git.moodle.org/gw?p=moodle.git;a=blob;f=question/type/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

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.

Moodle 2.5 also includes fixes to security issues resolved in earlier minor versions released after Moodle 2.4. See the release notes for Moodle 2.4.1, Moodle 2.4.2 and Moodle 2.4.3 for more details.

Security related improvements

  • MDL-35332 - Improved security of hashed passwords
  • MDL-21342 - New user account lockout mechanism

See also