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Moodle 2.5 release notes: Difference between revisions

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[[Releases]] > {{FULLPAGENAME}}
[[Releases]] > {{FULLPAGENAME}}
 
Release date: 14 May 2013
Release date: 14 May 2013
   
   
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See [https://docs.moodle.org/25/en/New_features New features] for a user-friendly tour with screenshots.
See [https://docs.moodle.org/25/en/New_features New features] for a user-friendly tour with screenshots.


Many thanks to [http://moodle.org/dev/contributions.php?version=2.5.x everyone that worked on the new features in this release].
Many thanks to [http://moodle.org/dev/contributions.php?version=2.5.x all the developers that worked on fixes and features in this release].
 
Our release process continues to evolve and improve with more testing (human AND automated) than ever before.  Thanks especially to the Moodle HQ integration team for tirelessly reviewing and improving all new code, David Monllao for our excellent new behat-based interface testing mechanism, as well as all the QA testers, peer reviewers and issue testers who tested every single addition in Moodle 2.5 (3 times!)
 


===Requirements===
===Requirements===
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====Open Badges integration====
====Open Badges integration====


* MDL-35073 - [https://docs.moodle.org/25/en/Badges Badges] may be awarded manually or for course or activity completion. Users can choose to display their badges in their Moodle profile and in their Mozilla backpack.
* MDL-35073 - [https://docs.moodle.org/25/en/Badges Badges] may be awarded manually or for course or activity completion. Users can choose to display their badges in their Moodle profile and in their Mozilla backpack.  Thanks to Yuliya Bozhko from Totara for the bulk of work on this.


====Add-on installer====
====Add-on installer====
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====Themes====
====Themes====


* MDL-38016 - New ''[[Clean theme]]'' with responsive design for all screen sizes and ''Bootstrapbase'' for developers to use as a template
* MDL-38016 - Bootstrap-based themes, with responsive design for all screen sizes (including a new ''[[Clean theme]]'' as an example).  Thanks to Bas Brands, David Scotson, Stuart Lamour and Mary Evans for their volunteer work on getting this done. 
* MDL-23504 - Transparency and RGB support in themes colour picker  
* MDL-23504 - Transparency and RGB support in themes colour picker


====Forms improvements====
====Forms improvements====


* MDL-30637 - Improvements to the usability of big complex Moodle forms in general
* MDL-30637 and MDL-38012 - Improvements to the usability of big complex Moodle forms in general
* MDL-38614 - Reduced size description field with collapsible editor


====Enrolment====
====Enrolment====


* MDL-26956 - You can now search the list of [https://docs.moodle.org/25/en/Enrolled_users users enrolled] in a course
* MDL-26956 - You can now search the list of [https://docs.moodle.org/25/en/Enrolled_users users enrolled] in a course
* MDL-36514 - New option for preventing of new self-enrolments in course
* MDL-36514 - New option for preventing new [https://docs.moodle.org/25/en/Self_enrolment self-enrolments] in the course
* MDL-7537 - Support for more currencies in PayPal
* MDL-7537 - All PayPal-supported currencies are available for use in [https://docs.moodle.org/25/en/Paypal_enrolment Paypal enrolment]
* MDL-32387 - Implemented expiration of PayPal enrolments
* MDL-32387 - New PayPal enrolment setting 'Enrolment expiration action'
* MDL-37291 - Restore support for PayPal enrolments
* MDL-37291 - Restore support for PayPal enrolments
* MDL-37187 - Multiple problems fixed in Flat File enrolment plugin
* MDL-37187 - Various [https://docs.moodle.org/25/en/Flat_file Flat file enrolment] fixes
* MDL-28705 - Configurable mapping between IMS course names and Moodle course names for IMS Enterprise enrolment
* MDL-28705 - Configurable mapping between IMS course names and Moodle course names for [https://docs.moodle.org/25/en/IMS_Enterprise IMS Enterprise enrolment]
* MDL-36504 - Complete list of all enrolment related improvements
 
See MDL-36504 for the full list of all enrolment-related improvements.


====Assignment activity====
====Assignment activity====
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* MDL-35332 - Improved security of hashed passwords
* MDL-35332 - Improved security of hashed passwords
* MDL-21342 - New user account lockout mechanism
* MDL-21342 - New user account lockout mechanism (settings in [https://docs.moodle.org/25/en/Site_policies Site policies])
 
====Automated functional testing====
 
* MDL-35611 - [[Behat integration]], the framework for testing of user expectations, has been incorporated into Moodle.


===Other highlights===
===Other highlights===
* MDL-35611 - [[Behat integration]], the framework for testing of user expectations


====Drag and drop improvements====
====Drag and drop improvements====
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* MDL-36602 - mnethostid available as an [https://docs.moodle.org/25/en/Upload_users upload users] field
* MDL-36602 - mnethostid available as an [https://docs.moodle.org/25/en/Upload_users upload users] field
* MDL-38494 - Upload users accepts date-time format custom profile field
* MDL-38494 - Upload users accepts date-time format custom profile field
====Settings block rename====
* MDL-31983 - The Settings block has been renamed [https://docs.moodle.org/25/en/Administration_block 'Administration'] and [[:en:Reports|reports]] have been moved there.


====Miscellaneous====
====Miscellaneous====
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* MDL-37644 - New setting for showing course full names in the navigation block
* MDL-37644 - New setting for showing course full names in the navigation block
* MDL-37728 - Role definition overview improvements
* MDL-37728 - Role definition overview improvements
* MDL-32341 - Configurable calendar export date range
* MDL-32341 - New [https://docs.moodle.org/25/en/Calendar_settings calendar settings] for specifying a custom export date range
* MDL-31983 - Settings block renamed 'Administration' and reports moved there
* MDL-34917 - Jump to section navigation for 'One section per page' setting in [https://docs.moodle.org/25/en/Course_formats course formats]
* MDL-34917 - Jump to section navigation for 'One section per page' setting in course formats
* MDL-36395 - New setting Maximum users per page for specifying the number of users shown in search results
* MDL-36395 - New setting Maximum users per page for specifying the number of users shown in search results
* MDL-37596 - Scheduled maintenance mode
* MDL-37596 - Scheduled maintenance mode
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===Security issues===
===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.
* [https://moodle.org/mod/forum/discuss.php?d=228930 MSA-13-0020] Capability issue in Assignment
 
* [https://moodle.org/mod/forum/discuss.php?d=228931 MSA-13-0021] Potential information leak in Gradebook
Moodle 2.5 also includes fixes to security issues resolved in earlier minor versions released after [[Moodle 2.4 release notes|Moodle 2.4]]. See the release notes for [[Moodle 2.4.1 release notes|Moodle 2.4.1]], [[Moodle 2.4.1 release notes|Moodle 2.4.2]] and [[Moodle 2.4.1 release notes|Moodle 2.4.3]] for more details.
* [https://moodle.org/mod/forum/discuss.php?d=228933 MSA-13-0022] Information leak in hub registration
 
* [https://moodle.org/mod/forum/discuss.php?d=228934 MSA-13-0023] Permission issue in blog comments
===For site admins: Warnings===
* [https://moodle.org/mod/forum/discuss.php?d=228935 MSA-13-0024] Form filtering issue
 
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 settings====
 
Before Moodle 2.5, you could set 'How questions behave' in the Quiz settings to 'Manually graded'. This caused all questions in the quiz, including 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. There should be no circumstances for which you would need to re-enable it, but if necessary, it can be restored by going to ''Administration > Site administration > Plugins > Question behaviour''.
Moodle 2.5 also includes fixes to security issues resolved in earlier minor versions released after [[Moodle 2.4 release notes|Moodle 2.4]]. See the release notes for [[Moodle 2.4.1 release notes|Moodle 2.4.1]], [[Moodle 2.4.2 release notes|Moodle 2.4.2]] and [[Moodle 2.4.3 release notes|Moodle 2.4.3]] for more details.


===For developers: API changes===
===For developers: API changes===

Revision as of 09:23, 24 July 2013

Releases > Moodle 2.5 release notes

Release date: 14 May 2013

Here is the full list of fixed issues in 2.5.

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

Many thanks to all the developers that worked on fixes and features in this release.

Our release process continues to evolve and improve with more testing (human AND automated) than ever before. Thanks especially to the Moodle HQ integration team for tirelessly reviewing and improving all new code, David Monllao for our excellent new behat-based interface testing mechanism, as well as all the QA testers, peer reviewers and issue testers who tested every single addition in Moodle 2.5 (3 times!)


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)

Major new features

Open Badges integration

  • MDL-35073 - Badges may be awarded manually or for course or activity completion. Users can choose to display their badges in their Moodle profile and in their Mozilla backpack. Thanks to Yuliya Bozhko from Totara for the bulk of work on this.

Add-on installer

Themes

  • MDL-38016 - Bootstrap-based themes, with responsive design for all screen sizes (including a new Clean theme as an example). Thanks to Bas Brands, David Scotson, Stuart Lamour and Mary Evans for their volunteer work on getting this done.
  • MDL-23504 - Transparency and RGB support in themes colour picker

Forms improvements

  • MDL-30637 and MDL-38012 - Improvements to the usability of big complex Moodle forms in general
  • MDL-38614 - Reduced size description field with collapsible editor

Enrolment

See MDL-36504 for the full list of all enrolment-related improvements.

Assignment activity

Database activity

Glossary activity

Quiz activity

  • MDL-38538 - Option to auto-save during quiz attempts
  • MDL-37417 - Question editing forms improvements
  • 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

Workshop activity

Resources

Repositories

Course listings

  • MDL-37009 - Course listings are displayed consistently throughout the site (theme changes may be required)
  • MDL-38708 - Course settings option to add images and other files to course summaries, displayed in course listings
  • MDL-37572 - Categories edit page is separated from view and does not depend any more on global editing mode

Performance improvements

  • 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%)
Database writes (0%)
KiloBytes downloaded (+1%)
getstring() calls (+0.4%)

Security related improvements

Automated functional testing

Other highlights

Drag and drop improvements

  • MDL-33688 - Drag and drop file upload progress indicator in filepicker
  • MDL-32652 - Block drag & drop now works throughout the site (not just on course pages)!

Forum activity

Upload users

Settings block rename

Miscellaneous

  • MDL-28585 - Improved LDAP authentication password expiry handling
  • MDL-37644 - New setting for showing course full names in the navigation block
  • MDL-37728 - Role definition overview improvements
  • MDL-32341 - New calendar settings for specifying a custom export date range
  • MDL-34917 - Jump to section navigation for 'One section per page' setting in course formats
  • 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-26649 - Date picker usability improvements
  • Multiple improvements in MS SQL Server and Oracle database drivers
  • MDL-37284 - Unicode support in MariaDB/MySQL is now configured automatically during installation
  • MDL-35819 - Rewrite tooltip help to improve UI consistency, and performance.

Security issues

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.

For developers: 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
Forum
http://git.moodle.org/gw?p=moodle.git;a=blob;f=mod/forum/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

See also