Moodle 2.5 release notes: Difference between revisions
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===Major new features=== | ===Major new features=== | ||
* MDL-35073 - [https://docs.moodle.org/25/en/Badges | ====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. | |||
====Add-on installer==== | |||
* MDL-38509 - New admin tool for [https://docs.moodle.org/25/en/Installing_add-ons installing add-ons] | * MDL-38509 - New admin tool for [https://docs.moodle.org/25/en/Installing_add-ons installing add-ons] | ||
====Themes==== | |||
* MDL-38016 - New themes ''Bootstrapbase'' and ''[[Clean theme|Clean]]'' with responsive design for all screen sizes | * MDL-38016 - New themes ''Bootstrapbase'' and ''[[Clean theme|Clean]]'' with responsive design for all screen sizes | ||
====Forms improvements==== | |||
* MDL-30637 - Improvements to the usability of big complex Moodle forms in general | * MDL-30637 - Improvements to the usability of big complex Moodle forms in general | ||
* MDL-37417 - Question editing forms improvements | * MDL-37417 - Question editing forms improvements | ||
====Enrolment improvements==== | ====Enrolment improvements==== | ||
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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 | ||
====More==== | |||
* MDL-32652 - Block drag & drop now works throughout the site (not just on course pages)! | |||
* MDL-36804 - New [https://docs.moodle.org/25/en/Assignment_settings assignment settings] for handling resubmissions | |||
* MDL-37009 - Course listings are displayed consistently throughout the site (theme [https://docs.moodle.org/dev/Courses_lists_upgrade_to_2.5 changes] may be required) | |||
* MDL-37284 - Unicode support in MariaDB/MySQL is now configured automatically during installation | |||
* MDL-35611 - [[Behat integration]], the framework for testing of user expectations | |||
===Other highlights=== | ===Other highlights=== | ||
Revision as of 09:00, 14 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.
Many thanks to everyone that worked on the new features in this release.
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.
Add-on installer
- MDL-38509 - New admin tool for installing add-ons
Themes
Forms improvements
- MDL-30637 - Improvements to the usability of big complex Moodle forms in general
- MDL-37417 - Question editing forms improvements
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 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
More
- MDL-32652 - Block drag & drop now works throughout the site (not just on course pages)!
- MDL-36804 - New assignment settings for handling resubmissions
- MDL-37009 - Course listings are displayed consistently throughout the site (theme changes may be required)
- MDL-37284 - Unicode support in MariaDB/MySQL is now configured automatically during installation
- MDL-35611 - Behat integration, the framework for testing of user expectations
Other highlights
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.
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.
For site admins: 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 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.
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
- 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
See also
- User documentation of new features in Moodle 2.5
- Upgrading to Moodle 2.5 - information for admins who are upgrading from earlier versions
- Moodle 2.4 release notes
