Upgrading to Moodle 1.9

Moodle1.9

Before upgrading, please...

• Check that your site meets all system requirements for 1.9 in Administration > Server > Environment
• Do a full database backup!
• If you are using a PHP accelerator, you may need to empty its cache. (See the documentation for whichever PHP accelerator you are using.)
• Read Upgrading to Moodle 1.8 if you are upgrading to 1.9 from 1.6 or 1.7
• Read Upgrading to Moodle 1.7 if you are upgrading from 1.6

Notes

• If upgrading from 1.6 or later, you must have converted your site to Unicode
• If upgrading from earlier than 1.6, we recommend upgrading to 1.6 first, then 1.8 -> 1.9
• We recommend PHP 5.x or later, but you must have at least PHP 4.3.0

Now upgrade

Once you have satisfied the requirements for Moodle 1.9, follow the instructions on the upgrading page.

Note, if you get a strange error about 'handling of PHP float numbers', please see this FAQ entry.

Upgrading more than one version

In general, it is recommended to upgrade via each version of Moodle, for example 1.7 -> 1.8 -> 1.9. An exception to this is when upgrading from 1.5 or 1.6, when it is recommended that 1.7 be skipped, in other words upgrade 1.5 -> 1.6 -> 1.8 -> 1.9. (The main reason for this recommendation is that the default roles settings obtained when upgrading to 1.7 are not ideal for 1.8 onwards.)

Front page activities

To enable logged-in users to participate in front page activities, such as viewing the site news, the default front page role should be set to student in Administration > Front Page > Front Page settings.

Gradebook

What improvements in the gradebook justify upgrading from 1.8 to 1.9?

• Faster execution, more noticeable with large sites
• More scalable
• More control over the display of grades, to teachers and students
• More aggregation options
• A simple, public API that can be used by any module to support grading
• Possibility to write custom grade reports
• A "Grade change history" record

Why is the new gradebook so complicated?

Added power and control requires more options. It is mostly the number of options and settings that gives the impression of complexity. Here are some of the main reasons for the changes made in the gradebook for 1.9:

• Previous gradebook did not scale well: it became very slow and unmanageable in large organisations with many students, activities and grades
• Grades were generated and stored by each module without much consistency
• Difficulty in producing new types of reports
• No Outcomes

Is the gradebook in 1.9 faster than in 1.8?

According to one early report, yes. There are other more thorough benchmark tests being conducted, and we will publish the results when they are made public.

See also

• Latest release notes particularly the functional changes in Moodle 1.9.7
• Category:Moodle 1.9
• Question Engine Changes in Moodle 1.9 (includes some important documentation on question engine upgrade for those who make extensive use of the question bank and quiz module)

Using Moodle forum discussions:

• Automatic update of language package while updating in 1.9
• Change in Moodle 1.8 and 1.9 : admin tree icons are now themeable - some themes need to be upgraded
• Migration 1.8 to 1.9