Moodle 2.8 release notes

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Releases > Moodle 2.8 release notes

Release date: 10 November, 2014

Here is the full list of fixed issues in 2.8.

See our New Features page for a more user-friendly introduction to Moodle 2.8 with screenshots.

Server requirements

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

Moodle upgrade: Moodle 2.2 or later (if upgrading from earlier versions, you must upgrade to 2.2.11 as a first step)
PHP version: minimum PHP 5.4.4 (always use latest PHP 5.4.x or 5.5.x on Windows - http://windows.php.net/download/), PHP 7 is NOT supported
Ghostscript should be installed for pdf annotation.

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	9.1	Latest
MySQL	5.5.31	Latest
MariaDB	5.5.31	Latest
Microsoft SQL Server	2008	Latest
Oracle Database	10.2	Latest

Client requirements

Browser support

Browser	Minimum version	Recommended version	Notes
Google Chrome	30.0	Latest
Mozilla Firefox	25.0	Latest
Apple Safari	6	Latest
Microsoft Internet Explorer	9	Latest	Version 10 is required for drag-and-drop upload of content from outside the browser into Moodle

Major Features

Gradebook

Our main focus has been on the Gradebook, with improved UI based on community workshops, surveys and bug reports.

New Grader report (the main interface showing all grades):

Uses the whole window
Smooth, stable scrolling in all directions
Works on all platforms, including phones and tablets
MDL-18229 - A new Single view mode allows editing of any row or column on its own
Allows quick editing of any cell without reloading.

New Natural weighting aggregation method

MDL-43378 - Combines grades simply
Clearer interface for using weights
Supports extra credit, excluded grades, hidden grades
Can remove the need to use any other aggregations

New Grade history report

MDL-46191 - A grade history report lists full details of all grade changes

Improved Grader setup page (for defining items and categories)

New design
Easier terminology and clearer layout
Bugs fixed relating to how grades are added in some scenarios
Prevents loss of data when you leave the window
Note! there are new admin settings that hide parts of the user interface. For example calculated grades are disabled by default (even if you were using them in Moodle 2.7 before you upgraded). If you use 'advanced' gradebook features, then after you upgrade, go to Site administration > Grades > Report settings > Grader report and check that the settings like Show calculations match your needs. (These settings affect the whole gradebook, not just the Grader report.)

Improved User report

New design
Clearer calculations
MDL-47064 - Contributions column explains grade calculations

Improved Grade import/export

Improved interface
MDL-46547 - Copy/paste import direct from spreadsheet programs
Robust handling of null data or bad data
Locked grade items are now protected from imports
Export to multiple display types (Letter, Percentage…)

Forum

MDL-1626 - You can subscribe to get email copies of individual discussions
MDL-3714 - You can now reply to forum posts received by email, and even include attachments
MDL-8501 - You can jump to the next and previous discussions easily
MDL-36929 - New discussions are displayed in full recent activity report
MDL-41708 - Attachments are displayed in the same order as they were uploaded

Assignment

MDL-39929 - Option of adding additional files for use in the assignment, such as answer templates
MDL-45965 - New capability that allows to control which grader receives notifications

Choice

MDL-3034 - More than one choice can now be made

External tool

MDL-45843 - LTI 2.0 support
MDL-44902 - Various additions and bug fixes for the external tool

Quiz

New quiz-building page

MDL-43089 - The page where you assemble your questions to make a quiz has been completely re-build to make it much easier an more efficient to use. For example you can now drag-and drop questions to re-order them or move them between pages.

Other

MDL-37993 - New completion options: Can apply when a passing grade achieved or all attempts are used
MDL-47556 - For new installations, the auto-save setting defaults to on. If you are upgrading an existing installation, you may wish to turn this setting on.

Lesson

MDL-38106 - Now includes Introduction like other modules
MDL-38560 - Better handling of images in questions

Workshop

MDL-31936 - Workshop submissions and/or assessments can be removed during the course reset

Analytics

Event monitor: can look for patterns of events and send you notifications
More detailed logging and events have been added, especially around grades

Usability

MDL-45893 - New user menu in Clean theme: shows your profile on-screen in the header and allows quick access to personal pages.
MDL-47559 - New user menu can be customised by the admin
MDL-18014 - The Atto editor can now automatically save drafts of your texts so you don’t lose anything if any unexpected disasters occur
MDL-45897 - Improved My Home page: better default blocks
MDL-45884 - My Courses are collapsed by default
MDL-46022 - Possible to create dividers in custom menu

Cohorts

MDL-36014 - Teachers are now able to use enrol_cohort without having additional capabilities to view cohorts outside of the course. At the same time managers can define individual cohorts as not visible to prevent using them by teachers in enrolment.
MDL-35618 - Teachers can manually enrol all cohort members without having capability to use cohort synchronisation enrolment method
MDL-41639 - Cohort that do not yet exist will be created if specified in “Upload users” tool
MDL-35468 - Admin or manager can bulk upload cohorts definitions from CSV file
MDL-34189 - Admin or system-wide manager can view all cohorts in the system on the same page even if they are defined in different contexts

Other things

MDL-16474 - Single-item scales: now you can implement “Like” buttons with no downside!
MDL-47197 - Users can add files to their private files area by emailing them as attachments
MDL-37812 - Admin can set defaults for user preferences such as Email display, Forum tracking, etc. They are also displayed now in a separate field-set on edit user profile page
MDL-44725 - The experimental setting 'Group members only' has been removed, with the group and grouping restrictions in conditional activities now providing this functionality
MDL-46481 - New faster backup method that just uses defaults
MDL-42071 - Added support for split memcache/memcached stores
MDL-46210 - Installed language packs can be updated as a scheduled task
MDL-46921 - Sorting by additional name fields
MDL-40356 - A new setting 'Alternative full name format' relating to additional name fields
MDL-20367 - Decimal numbers may be used to define boundaries for grade letters
MDL-43472 - It is possible for manager to move courses on the Search courses result screen
MDL-40351 - Course categories can be displayed for courses on My home page
MDL-46450 - Activity names in the availability description now have links
MDL-45991 - Ability to ignore users that are already in groups when auto-creating groups
MDL-46524 - Auto-create groups from existing group or grouping membership
MDL-42609 - Added button to quickly add a course in course management interface
MDL-45985 - New CLI tool to validate database structure admin/cli/check_database_schema.php
MDL-32450 - DragMath is no longer distributed in Moodle

Security issues

MSA-14-0035 Headers not added to some AJAX scripts
MSA-14-0036 XSS in mapcourse script in Feedback module
MSA-14-0037 Weak temporary password generation
MSA-14-0038 Hidden grade information exposed by web services
MSA-14-0039 Insufficient access check in LTI module
MSA-14-0040 Information leak in Database activity module
MSA-14-0041 Lack of capability check in tags list access
MSA-14-0042 Lack of access check in IP lookup functionality
MSA-14-0043 Lack of group check in web service for Forum
MSA-14-0044 Hardware path disclosed in the error message
MSA-14-0045 XSS file upload possible through web service
MSA-14-0046 CSRF in LTI module
MSA-14-0047 Possible data loss in Wiki activity
MSA-14-0048 CSRF in forum tracking toggle
MSA-14-0049 Possible to print arbitrary message to user by modifying URL

For Developers

MDL-47194 - Inbound email (such as already implemented for forums and files) can now easily be implemented by any plugin
MDL-43835 - Unit tests on posgres and mysql use random sequence values
MDL-46585 - Strings can now be deprecated to help translators
MDL-39840 - Plugins can have their personal environment checks
MDL-41663 - Plugins renderers and renderables can be located in namespaces and autoloaded
MDL-46207 - Scheduled tasks can control if they should run when plugin is disabled
MDL-45513 - Unit tests can be executed against custom cache stores

API changes

There are new convenience functions to obtain $cm objects that belong to the cm_info class. get_course_and_cm_from_cmid($cmorid, $modulename) and get_course_and_cm_from_instance($instanceorid, $modulename) will efficiently obtain $course and $cm at the start of a module script in one line. Also, the new function cm_info::create($cm) can be used when you need a cm_info object, but only have a standard database record.
Choice event definitions have changed in MDL-3034 [placeholder for this to be expanded]
MDL-47496 - The unused lib/pear/XML/ library was removed.
MDL-36014 - Changes to functions retrieving list of available cohorts
MDL-28484 - New function is_https() that detects if page is served on https

Upgrade notes for developers

Activity modules: http://git.moodle.org/gw?p=moodle.git;a=blob;f=mod/upgrade.txt;hb=master
Assignment module: http://git.moodle.org/gw?p=moodle.git;a=blob;f=mod/assign/upgrade.txt;hb=master
Authentication plugins: http://git.moodle.org/gw?p=moodle.git;a=blob;f=auth/upgrade.txt;hb=master
Blocks: http://git.moodle.org/gw?p=moodle.git;a=blob;f=blocks/upgrade.txt;hb=master
Conditional availability system: http://git.moodle.org/gw?p=moodle.git;a=blob;f=availability/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 module: http://git.moodle.org/gw?p=moodle.git;a=blob;f=mod/forum/upgrade.txt;hb=master
Glossary module: http://git.moodle.org/gw?p=moodle.git;a=blob;f=mod/glossary/upgrade.txt;hb=master
Grade export plugins: http://git.moodle.org/gw?p=moodle.git;a=blob;f=grade/export/upgrade.txt;hb=master
Grade reports: http://git.moodle.org/gw?p=moodle.git;a=blob;f=grade/report/upgrade.txt;hb=master
LTI module: http://git.moodle.org/gw?p=moodle.git;a=blob;f=mod/lti/upgrade.txt;hb=master
Modules: http://git.moodle.org/gw?p=moodle.git;a=blob;f=mod/upgrade.txt;hb=master
Question system: http://git.moodle.org/gw?p=moodle.git;a=blob;f=question/upgrade.txt;hb=master
Quiz module: http://git.moodle.org/gw?p=moodle.git;a=blob;f=mod/quiz/upgrade.txt;hb=master
Quiz access rules: http://git.moodle.org/gw?p=moodle.git;a=blob;f=mod/quiz/accessrule/upgrade.txt;hb=master
Repositories: http://git.moodle.org/gw?p=moodle.git;a=blob;f=repository/upgrade.txt;hb=master
SCORM module: http://git.moodle.org/gw?p=moodle.git;a=blob;f=mod/scorm/upgrade.txt;hb=master
Themes: http://git.moodle.org/gw?p=moodle.git;a=blob;f=theme/upgrade.txt;hb=master
TinyMCE: http://git.moodle.org/gw?p=moodle.git;a=blob;f=lib/editor/tinymce/upgrade.txt;hb=master

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