Moodle 3.6 release notes

Releases > Moodle 3.6 release notes

Release date: Not yet released - scheduled for 03 December 2018

Here is the full list of fixed issues in 3.6.

Note: If you are upgrading from a previous version, please see Upgrading in the user docs. In particular, for sites using a custom theme or login form, from 3.6 onwards, the login form must include a new login token field. See Login token for details.

Server requirements

These are just the minimum supported versions. We recommend keeping all of your software and operating systems up-to-date.

• Moodle upgrade: Moodle 3.1 or later
• PHP version: minimum PHP 7.0.0 Note: minimum PHP version has increased since Moodle 3.3. PHP 7.1.x and 7.2.x are supported too. PHP 7.3.x support is being implemented (@ MDL-63420) and not ready for production with this release.
• PHP extension intl is required since Moodle 3.4 (it was recommended in 2.0 onwards)

Database requirements

Moodle supports the following database servers. Again, version numbers are just the minimum supported version. We recommend running the latest stable version of any software.

Database	Minimum version	Recommended
PostgreSQL	9.4	Latest
MySQL	5.6	Latest
MariaDB	5.5.31	Latest
Microsoft SQL Server	2008	Latest
Oracle Database	11.2	Latest

Client requirements

Browser support

Moodle is compatible with any standards compliant web browser. We regularly test Moodle with the following browsers:

Desktop:

• Chrome
• Firefox
• Safari
• Edge
• Internet Explorer

Mobile:

• MobileSafari
• Google Chrome

For the best experience and optimum security, we recommend that you keep your browser up to date. https://whatbrowser.org

Note: Legacy browsers with known compatibility issues with Moodle 3.6:

• Internet Explorer 10 and below
• Safari 7 and below

 

Major features

Dashboard and Course Overview

• MDL-63044 and MDL-63337 - New Course overview and Timeline blocks
• MDL-63040 - Removed the dashboard page header
• MDL-63062 - New Recently accessed courses block
• MDL-63063 - New 'Recently accessed items' block
• MDL-63058 - Option to star/unstar courses
• MDL-63064 - New 'Starred Courses' Block
• MDL-63457 - Courses can be hidden from the course overview page
• MDL-63352 - Dashboard retains user preferences for view options
• MDL-63793 - Course overview block retains user preferences for the number of courses to show
• MDL-61161 - Grace period when displaying "In progress" courses in course overview block

GDPR and Privacy

Note that some of these GDPR improvements have also been backported to Moodle 3.5.3, 3.4.6 and 3.3.9.

• MDL-63897 - Preprocessing stage removed from GDPR operations
• MDL-62563 - Data deletion of existing deleted users
• MDL-62558 - Provide a data registry configuration summary (read-only)
• MDL-63726 - Option to remove the "Data retention summary" link in the footer
• MDL-62491 - HTML data request export format
• MDL-63401 - User expiry improvements
• MDL-63619 - Data purpose and category inheritance improvements
• MDL-62560 - Different data retention strategies for different roles in a purpose
• MDL-62554 - Ability to configure data registry to use module type defaults
• MDL-63116 - Data requests bulk actions
• MDL-63009 - Site mentioned in email notifications of data requests
• MDL-61652 - Capabilities for controlling who can download SAR data
• MDL-62309 - Option to make site policies required or optional
• MDL-6074 - Option to hide your name in the online users block

Messaging

• MDL-57272 and MDL-63280 - Group messaging
• MDL-63279 - Option to disable site-wide messaging
• MDL-63213 - Ability to set favourite conversations
• MDL-63303 - Introduced base version of new user interface
• MDL-63283 - Disable message outputs for group conversations
• MDL-63214 - Privacy setting for restricting who can message you
• MDL-63281 - Synchronise course group members with conversations members, for those groups having linked conversations

Assignment

• MDL-27520 - Assignment feedback can include media or other files

Nextcloud

• MDL-58943 - Nextcloud integration, with a Nextcloud repository and OAuth 2 Nextcloud service

Open Badges

• MDL-58454 - Support for Open Badges v2.0

Performance

• MDL-54035 - Performance improvements to cache flags
• MDL-47962 - Glossary auto-linking filter performance improvements

Usability improvements

• MDL-51177 - atto_htmlplus implemented to improve Atto editor HTML indenting
• MDL-45170 - Copy and paste of images from one wsyiwyg window to another
• MDL-61388 - Accessibility: Forum actions announced by screen reader when completed
• MDL-62899 - Global search displays a relevant icon next to link in results
• MDL-62610 - Improved quiz statistics report usability for randomized questions
• MDL-46415 - SVG/High resolution emoticons
• MDL-58000 - Larger badge images available

Experimental

• MDL-53566 - Context freezing - setting read-only access for categories, courses, activities and their content

Other highlights

Functional changes

• MDL-17943 - 'Resend confirmation email' button on login page
• MDL-14274 - IF conditions in grade calculations
• MDL-37624 - Calendar entries location support
• MDL-63738 - Single questions can be exported from question bank
• MDL-36754 - Images are displayed in forum notification emails
• MDL-59259 - Course format options may be specified in upload courses CSV file
• MDL-41265 - Page resource option to show/hide "Last modified"
• MDL-62708 - Option to add ID numbers to questions and question categories
• MDL-61378 - Forum post HTML structure improvements
• MDL-59454 - Option to download the list of course participants
• MDL-60820 - Teachers can specify workshop submission types
• MDL-60520 - Analytics models can use different machine learning backends
• MDL-61573 - User menu: customusermenuitems map Font Awesome icons for non pix/t folders
• MDL-62320 - JSON added to the default MIME types list
• MDL-63431 - Atto media plugin title global attribute support
• MDL-60435 - Shibboleth authentication identity providers
• MDL-59169 - Grader report saves after edit with multiple tabs
• MDL-62960 - Drag and drop of course events respects the course start date

Security issues

• MSA-18-0020 Login CSRF vulnerability in login form. Note that this fix has previously been disclosed, after the release of Moodle 3.5.3, 3.4.6, 3.3.9 and 3.1.15.

For administrators

• MDL-52953 - Legacy log store deprecation
• MDL-59429 - Log changes to site administrators
• MDL-62651 - adhoc task runner
• MDL-62777 - Site upgrades via CLI display new default settings
• MDL-63603 - Indian Rupee added to PayPal enrolment currencies
• MDL-62334 - 'Add a new course' link in Site administration
• MDL-63253 - Admin search results provide location of the found matching page
• MDL-63772 - Capability to control use of Atto Record RTC
• MDL-63708 - New blocks supported by the mobile app can be disabled

For developers

• MDL-55188 - Old Events API final deprecation
• MDL-54741 - Phase 2 of deprecation of functions in lib/deprecatedlib.php
• MDL-51803 - Reusable element for drag and drop sortable table or list
• MDL-63329 - memcache session handler removal
• MDL-63658 - Favourites subsystem added to core
• MDL-63729 - Badges web services return new fields and data added by the Open Badges v2.0 specification
• MDL-50812 - core_useragent::get_browser_version_classes distinguishes between different browsers

Privacy API update

In addition to existing requirements, any plugin which implements the plugin provider interface must also implement the \core_privacy\local\request\core_userlist_provider interface. Two new methods need to be implemented:

• get_users_in_context()
• delete_data_for_users()

  Note these changes are also required for latest Moodle 3.4.6, 3.5.3 versions.

Behat scenario files

MDL-57281 - The behat step I navigate to "ITEM" node in "MAINNODE > PATH" has been deprecated and throws an exception with details on how to replace it. The recommended replacement steps work in all recent Moodle versions, the updated Behat will pass with Moodle 3.4, too.

Login token

If your plugin provides an alternative login form (e.g. it is a theme replacing the default login form template / renderer), the login form must include a new login token field. For details of required changes, see Login token. Note that this also affects latest stable branches, too.

Component APIs upgrades

Please refer to the upgrade.txt files in the relevant component directory for changes in particular Moodle release.

• admin/tool/log/upgrade.txt
• admin/tool/upgrade.txt
• auth/shibboleth/upgrade.txt
• auth/upgrade.txt
• badges/upgrade.txt
• blocks/upgrade.txt
• cache/upgrade.txt
• calendar/upgrade.txt
• course/format/upgrade.txt
• course/upgrade.txt
• enrol/upgrade.txt
• filter/upgrade.txt
• grade/grading/form/upgrade.txt
• grade/report/upgrade.txt
• grade/upgrade.txt
• lib/upgrade.txt
• media/upgrade.txt
• message/upgrade.txt
• mod/assign/upgrade.txt
• mod/feedback/upgrade.txt
• mod/forum/upgrade.txt
• mod/quiz/upgrade.txt
• mod/scorm/report/basic/upgrade.txt
• mod/scorm/upgrade.txt
• mod/upgrade.txt
• mod/workshop/upgrade.txt
• question/format/upgrade.txt
• report/upgrade.txt
• tag/upgrade.txt
• theme/upgrade.txt
• user/upgrade.txt

See also

• Moodle 3.5 release notes