Moodle 2.6 release notes

Releases > Moodle 2.6 release notes

UNDER CONSTRUCTION

Release date: November 2013 (Not yet released)

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

Requirements

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

• Recommended minimum browser: 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)
• Moodle upgrade: Moodle 2.2 or later (if upgrading from earlier versions, you must upgrade to 2.2.11 as a first step)
• Minimum DB versions: PostgreSQL 8.3, MySQL 5.1.33, MariaDB 5.3.5, MSSQL 2005 or Oracle 10.2
• Minimum PHP version: PHP 5.3.3 (always use latest PHP 5.3.x, 5.4.x or 5.5.x on Windows - http://windows.php.net/download/)
• New recommended PHP extensions: zlib, OPcache

Known problems

• IE8 and Safari 5 are not fully supported any more, they should still work but they are not tested regularly and there might be some known problems. Like most of the world's web sites and browser producers, we encourage you to keep your browsers current to improve security and functionality while saving us valuable time. (For example see what Google is doing)
• IE6 and IE7 are not recommended for Moodle 2.6 at all. You would have big problems trying to use those old browsers in today's internet.
• Support for Oracle database is limited, there are known performance and compatibility problems, many add-ons are not compatible. Most of these problems are caused by the fact that Oracle databases do not implement necessary industry SQL standards and contain several legacy limitations. If you are using Oracle or planning to then we highly encourage you to think about using one of the open source databases we support.
• IMS Enterprise plugin was not deleting user accounts properly, execute admin/cli/fix_deleted_users.php script to fix deleted users if you use this authentication plugin.
• There are known problems with some PHP opcode accelerators, it is recommended to switch to fully supported standard OPcache PHP extension if possible.

Major new features

• MDL-31776 - Additional name fields
• MDL-31830 - Improved category and course management interface
• MDL-13114 - Bulk course creation tool
• MDL-40121 - New Single Activity Course Format (and removed SCORM course format MDL-40122)
• MDL-30740 - Microsoft Skydrive repository
• MDL-17081 - Roles import and export
• MDL-40493 - Users may select preferred text editor
• MDL-37565 - Toolbar switching in TinyMCE editor (one or multiple lines)
• MDL-41866, MDL-18375 - Support for multiple calendars
• MDL-23692 - Simplified recovery of forgotten username and password reset

Assignment activity

• MDL-38359 - New marker allocation and grading workflow settings
• MDL-37621 - Admins can set assignment setting defaults
• MDL-42023 - Edit PDF plugin
• MDL-37148 - Lots more web services

Forum activity

• MDL-29663 - Forum read tracking options now Off, Optional, and Forced.
• MDL-41933 - Option to set default read tracking option.
• MDL-4908 - Per-forum digest settings

Quiz and question bank

• MDL-32188 - Big improvements to how certainty-based marking (CBM) works. There is now much better feedback for students about how they have done, and what they need to do to improve in future.
• MDL-9873 - Question text is now a required field when creating and editing questions.
• MDL-39155 - Option for what size user picture to show during quiz attempts.

SCORM activity

• MDL-28579 / MDL-41580 - Allow use of file aliases and direct linking to imsmanifest.xml inside an extracted zip in the file system repository.
• MDL-39910 - Improved SCORM player with responsive design elements and better support for mobile devices.
• MDL-39926 - New objectives report
• MDL-41290 - Improved user level reporting with ability to export data.
• MDL-41434 - When updating a SCORM package we no longer delete and re-create the scorm_scoes table - we now use a sortorder field.

Performance

• MDL-38189 - Restoring of large courses possible
• MDL-40415 - OPcache extension fully supported and recommended
• MDL-31501 - New session drivers supporting files, database and memcached storage
• MDL-40545 - New $CFG->localcachedir setting (intended for clustered servers)
• MDL-40563 - Improved theme resource caching (local cache compatible)
• MDL-40546 - Improved javascript caching (local cache compatible)
• MDL-41019 - Language caching improvements (local cache compatible)
• MDL-41017 - HTMLPurifier caching improvements (local cache compatible)
• MDL-39474 - Developer debug checks improvements
• MDL-38570 - Automatic temp directory cleanup

Other highlights

• MDL-40770 - New TinyMCE editor icons
• MDL-39814 - Improved edit icons for usability on all screens
• MDL-11270 - Significantly improved MS SQL Server compatibility (warning: upgrade step for MS SQL servers may take very long time)
• MDL-39985 - Full MariaDB support
• MDL-19390 - Email notification for new users added manually
• MDL-33955 - Support for open_basedir restriction
• MDL-41245, MDL-41437, MDL-41086 - Multiple installation and upgrade fixes and improvements
• MDL-42078 - Standardised plugin uninstallation and management.
• MDL-37717 - Teachers are warned before suspending own enrolment in course
• MDL-38155 - User enrolment may be suspended via CSV upload
• MDL-16073 - New test pages for external database authentication and enrolment plugins
• MDL-41838 - Backup and restore .mbz files now supports a new .tar.gz internal format (helps with very large courses)
• MDL-41940 - Option to prevent users from adding new files and directories to legacy course files
• MDL-40874 - Retire MyMobile as a standard theme
• MDL-29069 - Allow database and glossary entries to be unapproved
• MDL-41845 - Make default completion tracking selection an admin option
• MDL-40871 - Allow for bulk deletion of entries in the database module
• MDL-40368 - Improved capability overview tool
• MDL-38192 - Backup and restore: Allow selection by activity type

Security issues

• To be published after release.

For developers: API changes

• MDL-39854 - Automatic class loader
• MDL-39797 - New events infrastructure
• MDL-41267 - Support for sub-plugins in admin tool plugins
• MDL-26943 - Support for sub-plugins in local plugins
• MDL-20045 - Unofficial support for custom context levels
• MDL-40359 - 3rd party libraries updated to latest versions
• MDL-40305, MDL-40940 - PHPUnit testcase autoloader
• MDL-23493 - Support for including a font through theme CSS
• MDL-40248 - Better support for subplugins in Activity chooser
• MDL-41953 - Plugin name restrictions were relaxed, multiple trailing numbers are allowed
• MDL-42040 - New API for registration of shutdown handlers
• MDL-42148 - New admin page listing all third party libraries, thirdpartylibs.xml now supported in plugins
• MDL-38197, MDL-41402 - New large courses generators for testing and development
• MDL-41421 - New JMeter test plan generator

Upgrade notes for developers

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

Forum

http://git.moodle.org/gw?p=moodle.git;a=blob;f=mod/forum/upgrade.txt;hb=master

Question behaviours

http://git.moodle.org/gw?p=moodle.git;a=blob;f=question/behaviour/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

• User documentation of new features in Moodle 2.6
• Upgrading to Moodle 2.6 - information for admins who are upgrading from earlier versions