Moodle 2.7 release notes

Releases > Moodle 2.7 release notes

Release date: Expected in May 2014

Server Requirements

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

Moodle upgrade: Moodle 2.2 or later (if upgrading from earlier versions, you must upgrade to 2.2.11 as a first step)
Minimum Database versions:
- PostgreSQL 9.1
- MySQL 5.5.31
- MariaDB 5.5.31
- MSSQL 2008, or
- Oracle 10.2
Minimum PHP version: PHP 5.4.4 (always use latest PHP 5.4.x or 5.5.x on Windows - http://windows.php.net/download/)

Browser requirements

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)

Before you upgrade

In Moodle 2.1 there was a major upgrade to questions. As explained in the upgrade documentation for that version, it was possible to delay parts of the database upgrade to be run later. Before you upgrade to Moodle 2.7, this upgrade must be completed.

You can check for this by going to the en:Environment check page. This check is at the bottom of the page.

Headline core features

Interface

Atto - our new Moodle editor, tightly integrated in Moodle and focussing on usability and accessibility (TinyMCE still available as an option)
Themes clean-up - Moodle now uses Bootstrap by default. Clean is now the default theme and most other old themes have been removed from core (still available from Plugins database).
More - a completely new theme called More that provides easy configuration though the UI while retaining the power of LESS and Bootstrap.

Platform

Logging - a new logging subsystem with plugins allowing Moodle logs to be very detailed and external. Many new events have been added which developers can take advantage of.
Performance - many improvements that improve overall performance in most cases
Tasks - an improved scheduling system (like Unix cron) that allows precise scheduling of tasks even on complex clustered servers

Long-term support (LTS) until June 2017

Most of our releases receive 1 year of backported general bug fixes and 1.5 years of security and dataloss fixes from Moodle HQ.

Due to popular demand, we are committing to giving Moodle 2.7 extended support of '3 years security and dataloss fixes'.

If you are stuck on an old version then this might be the perfect time to upgrade!

Details

Quiz questions

Quiz reports improved. MDL-41727
- Responses from all tries are avaiable for analysis when using or "Adaptive", "Interactive with multiple tries" or similar behaviours.
- Break-down by question variant, for question types like Calculated, STACK and Variable-numeric, which one question can have different random variants.
- Progress bar during long calculations to prevent time-outs.
- Low-level calculation code moved into the question component, where it could potentially be reused by other activities.
- Much more automated testing of this complex area of code.
Some minor improvements to the usability of the question bank - Some of MDL-40987
- To duplicate a question, you now start by clicking the x2 icon, like for activities. MDL-33653
- The various different ways to move questions in the question bank have been rationalised. MDL-33839
- There is now a 'Save changes and continue editing' button when editing questions. Useful when you are working on a complex question with the preview open in another window. MDL-33653
New plugin point, so that plugins can add columns to the question bank, or new search conditions. MDL-40313 & MDL-40457
Essay questions can now require an attachment, with the text optional, rather than the other way around. MDL-39756
Random short-answer matching question type brought back from the dead. (This was in stable branches, but worht mentioning again.) MDL-27414

Documentation