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Roadmap

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Revision as of 13:41, 9 December 2009 by Helen Foster (talk | contribs) (→‎Version 2.0: release date target update)

This roadmap collects the best information about upcoming features in Moodle. It is not 100% certain - features may change according to available funding and developers.


Version 2.0

We're aiming to release Moodle 2.0 beta in February 2010, followed by a testing period of several months before releasing 2.0 stable. You can track our current progress on the Moodle 2.0 Planning document. Please remember that this document is frequently updated and details can change a lot!

Draft release notes at Moodle 2.0 release notes. Please add notable items while they are fresh in your mind. The notes will be edited before the final release.

Major features

System requirements

Since Moodle 2.0 is such a major release, we are allowing ourselves some increases in the requirements. This allows developers to write cleaner code using the more recent features of PHP, and will also improve user experience.

  • PHP 5.2.8 is now the minimum version supported. (We are aware that several important linux distros are only shipping earlier versions like 5.2.6, but we need at least version 5.2.x for the new File API, and there are bugs in 5.2.7 and earlier that we could not work around.)
  • Databases should be one of the following:
    • MySQL 5.0.25 or later (InnoDB storage engine recommended)
    • PostgreSQL 8.3 or later
    • Oracle 10.2 or later
    • MS SQL 2005 or later

File handling improvements

maintains an internal repository of files and governs access to them
allows users to browse external repositories and select files to bring into Moodle
allows Moodle content to be captured and pushed out to external repositories.
These three are separate but complementary so will be developed together.

Improvements to the organisation of courses

Improve blocks and pages, themes, tabbed interfaces and menus to make it easier configure page layout and build consistent navigation schemes. Use this to improve the default navigation.
Allowing dependencies and forced paths through activities. That is, "You can't do this activity until that activity is completed".
Let teachers to specify conditions that define when a student has completed a course. Keep a record of which users have completed each course.
Let users have learning plans listing which outcomes or courses should attempt next, based on which courses they have already completed.

Changes to activity modules

To be cleaned up and included as a core module.
Polished and included as a core module.

Improvements to other parts of Moodle

Implement a number of usability improvements for the Gradebook (and port back to 1.9 as well)
Replaces our ageing HTMLarea with a new one that works on more browsers, enforces XHTML strict and better integrates with the new File API
Add commenting to blogs (MDL-8776), as well as support for external blogs
Refactor messaging to use plugins for input and output, controlled by users
Obscure RSS feed URLs using private keys, controlled by users.
New backup that actually works on large courses etc and is faster. Old backup will be retained as a separate directory to import old backups.
IMS CC import and hopefully export.
Site wide groups are a number one request
  • More tagging
Tagging of courses, activities and other things
  • AJAX for gradebook User Interfaces - Moodle.com (REQUIRES FUNDING!)
A host of UI improvements to enhance usability and speed
  • General usability review - Moodle.com
We'll be attacking many of the most popular issues from the Moodle Tracker

Administrative improvements

Makes it easy for users to find and navigate other systems and external Moodle repositories, leveraging the Moodle Network in various ways.
Standard set of core API functions made available via SOAP and XML-RPC
Several major improvements related guest access, course enrolments, metacourses and groups synchronisations (aka global groups)

Internal clean-ups

MDL-14679 Database access is to be refactored so that: we can use prepared statements everywhere for increased security and some performance, we put datalib functions in a class to allow better unit tests (mock db), and remove the need for slashes in userspace. This will cause breakage for 3rd party modules (but fixing them won't be too hard).
  • Ancient (pre 1.7) DB install/upgrade system removed - Moodle.com
The deprecated system for installing or upgrading database entries used in Moodle < 1.7 will be completely removed, while supporting only the new XML based database scheme introduced in 1.7.

Hopefully

API for integrating external systems for managing student information
Moodle Voice is a project for embedding VoiceXML support into Moodle Core.

See also