diff --git a/admin/roles/manage.html b/admin/roles/manage.html
index cb6d3cc92be..41efee245e6 100755
--- a/admin/roles/manage.html
+++ b/admin/roles/manage.html
@@ -3,6 +3,8 @@
 <input type="hidden" name="sesskey" value="<?php print (sesskey()); ?>">
 <input type="hidden" name="action" value="<?php echo $action; ?>">
 <br/>Role Name: <input type="text" name="name" value="<?php echo $role->name; ?>">
+&nbsp;
+Role short name (ASCII): <input type="text" name="shortname" value="<?php echo $role->shortname; ?>" />
 <br/>Role Description: 
 
 <?php print_textarea($CFG->htmleditor, 10, 50, 50, 10, 'description', "$role->description"); ?>
diff --git a/admin/roles/manage.php b/admin/roles/manage.php
index 8d6e1132b9d..6679ee6f0bf 100755
--- a/admin/roles/manage.php
+++ b/admin/roles/manage.php
@@ -7,10 +7,11 @@
 
     admin_externalpage_setup('defineroles', $adminroot);
 
-    $roleid      = optional_param('roleid', 0, PARAM_INT); // if set, we are editing a role
+    $roleid      = optional_param('roleid', 0, PARAM_INT);             // if set, we are editing a role
+    $name        = optional_param('name', '', PARAM_MULTILANG);        // new role name
+    $shortname   = optional_param('shortname', '', PARAM_SAFEDIR);     // new role shortname
+    $description = optional_param('description', '', PARAM_MULTILANG); // new role desc
     $action      = optional_param('action', '', PARAM_ALPHA);
-    $name        = optional_param('name', '', PARAM_ALPHA); // new role name
-    $description = optional_param('description', '', PARAM_NOTAGS); // new role desc
     $confirm     = optional_param('confirm', 0, PARAM_BOOL);
 
     $sitecontext = get_context_instance(CONTEXT_SYSTEM, SITEID);
@@ -37,7 +38,7 @@
         switch ($action) {
             case 'add':
 
-                $newrole = create_role($name, $description);        
+                $newrole = create_role($name, $shortname, $description);        
 
                 $ignore = array('roleid', 'sesskey', 'action', 'name', 'description', 'contextid');
 
@@ -142,6 +143,7 @@
         } else {    
             $action='add';              
             $role->name='';
+            $role->shortname='';
             $role->description='';
         }
 
diff --git a/lib/accesslib.php b/lib/accesslib.php
index d7de7c54494..2860e872663 100755
--- a/lib/accesslib.php
+++ b/lib/accesslib.php
@@ -887,15 +887,15 @@ function moodle_install_roles() {
 
     // Create default/legacy roles and capabilities.
     // (1 legacy capability per legacy role at system level).
-    $adminrole = create_role(get_string('administrator'), get_string('administratordescription'), 'moodle/legacy:admin');   
+    $adminrole = create_role(get_string('administrator'), 'admin', get_string('administratordescription'), 'moodle/legacy:admin');   
     if (!assign_capability('moodle/site:doanything', CAP_ALLOW, $adminrole, $systemcontext->id)) {
         error('Could not assign moodle/site:doanything to the admin role');
     }
-    $coursecreatorrole = create_role(get_string('coursecreators'), get_string('coursecreatorsdescription'), 'moodle/legacy:coursecreator');   
-    $noneditteacherrole = create_role(get_string('noneditingteacher'), get_string('noneditingteacherdescription'), 'moodle/legacy:teacher');    
-    $editteacherrole = create_role(get_string('defaultcourseteacher'), get_string('defaultcourseteacherdescription'), 'moodle/legacy:editingteacher');    
-    $studentrole = create_role(get_string('defaultcoursestudent'), get_string('defaultcoursestudentdescription'), 'moodle/legacy:student');
-    $guestrole = create_role(get_string('guest'), get_string('guestdescription'), 'moodle/legacy:guest');
+    $coursecreatorrole = create_role(get_string('coursecreators'), 'coursecreator', get_string('coursecreatorsdescription'), 'moodle/legacy:coursecreator');   
+    $editteacherrole = create_role(get_string('defaultcourseteacher'), 'editingteacher', get_string('defaultcourseteacherdescription'), 'moodle/legacy:editingteacher');    
+    $noneditteacherrole = create_role(get_string('noneditingteacher'), 'teacher', get_string('noneditingteacherdescription'), 'moodle/legacy:teacher');    
+    $studentrole = create_role(get_string('defaultcoursestudent'), 'student', get_string('defaultcoursestudentdescription'), 'moodle/legacy:student');
+    $guestrole = create_role(get_string('guest'), 'guest', get_string('guestdescription'), 'moodle/legacy:guest');
 
 
     // Look inside user_admin, user_creator, user_teachers, user_students and
@@ -1168,11 +1168,12 @@ function get_local_override($roleid, $contextid, $capability) {
 /**
  * function that creates a role
  * @param name - role name
+ * @param shortname - role short name
  * @param description - role description
  * @param legacy - optional legacy capability
  * @return id or false
  */
-function create_role($name, $description, $legacy='') {
+function create_role($name, $shortname, $description, $legacy='') {
           
     // check for duplicate role name
                 
@@ -1180,7 +1181,12 @@ function create_role($name, $description, $legacy='') {
         error('there is already a role with this name!');  
     }
     
+    if ($role = get_record('role','shortname', $shortname)) {
+        error('there is already a role with this shortname!');  
+    }
+
     $role->name = $name;
+    $role->shortname = $shortname;
     $role->description = $description;
     
     $context = get_context_instance(CONTEXT_SYSTEM, SITEID);                           
@@ -2207,7 +2213,7 @@ function get_roles_used_in_context($context) {
 
     global $CFG;
 
-    return get_records_sql('SELECT distinct r.id, r.name 
+    return get_records_sql('SELECT distinct r.id, r.name, r.shortname
                               FROM '.$CFG->prefix.'role_assignments ra,
                                    '.$CFG->prefix.'role r 
                              WHERE r.id = ra.roleid 
@@ -2313,7 +2319,7 @@ function get_user_roles($context, $userid=0, $checkparentcontexts=true) {
         $contexts = ' ra.contextid = \''.$context->id.'\'';
     }
 
-    return get_records_sql('SELECT ra.*, r.name
+    return get_records_sql('SELECT ra.*, r.name, r.shortname
                              FROM '.$CFG->prefix.'role_assignments ra,
                                   '.$CFG->prefix.'role r,
                                   '.$CFG->prefix.'context c
diff --git a/lib/db/install.xml b/lib/db/install.xml
index 9272e5efea3..a4885dc4dd7 100644
--- a/lib/db/install.xml
+++ b/lib/db/install.xml
@@ -1,5 +1,5 @@
 <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" ?>
-<XMLDB PATH="lib/db" VERSION="20060917" COMMENT="XMLDB file for core Moodle tables"
+<XMLDB PATH="lib/db" VERSION="20060918" COMMENT="XMLDB file for core Moodle tables"
     xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
     xsi:noNamespaceSchemaLocation="../../lib/xmldb/xmldb.xsd"
 >
@@ -915,8 +915,9 @@
     <TABLE NAME="role" COMMENT="moodle roles" PREVIOUS="blog_tag_instance" NEXT="context">
       <FIELDS>
         <FIELD NAME="id" TYPE="int" LENGTH="10" NOTNULL="true" UNSIGNED="true" SEQUENCE="true" ENUM="false" NEXT="name"/>
-        <FIELD NAME="name" TYPE="char" LENGTH="255" NOTNULL="true" SEQUENCE="false" ENUM="false" PREVIOUS="id" NEXT="description"/>
-        <FIELD NAME="description" TYPE="text" LENGTH="small" NOTNULL="true" SEQUENCE="false" ENUM="false" PREVIOUS="name" NEXT="sortorder"/>
+        <FIELD NAME="name" TYPE="char" LENGTH="255" NOTNULL="true" SEQUENCE="false" ENUM="false" PREVIOUS="id" NEXT="shortname"/>
+        <FIELD NAME="shortname" TYPE="char" LENGTH="100" NOTNULL="true" SEQUENCE="false" ENUM="false" PREVIOUS="name" NEXT="description"/>
+        <FIELD NAME="description" TYPE="text" LENGTH="small" NOTNULL="true" SEQUENCE="false" ENUM="false" PREVIOUS="shortname" NEXT="sortorder"/>
         <FIELD NAME="sortorder" TYPE="int" LENGTH="10" NOTNULL="true" UNSIGNED="true" DEFAULT="0" SEQUENCE="false" ENUM="false" PREVIOUS="description"/>
       </FIELDS>
       <KEYS>
diff --git a/lib/db/mysql.php b/lib/db/mysql.php
index e6337490378..91972cc13ff 100644
--- a/lib/db/mysql.php
+++ b/lib/db/mysql.php
@@ -2224,6 +2224,30 @@ function main_upgrade($oldversion=0) {
         delete_records('config', 'name', 'requestedstudentsname');
     }
 
+    if ($oldversion < 2006091804) {
+        $roles = get_records('role');
+        $first = array_shift($roles);
+        if (!empty($first->shortname)) {
+            // shortnames already exist
+        } else {
+            table_column('role', '', 'shortname', 'varchar', '100', '', '', 'not null', 'name');
+            $legacy_names = array('admin', 'coursecreator', 'editingteacher', 'teacher', 'student', 'guest');
+            foreach ($legacy_names as $name) {
+                if ($roles = get_roles_with_capability('moodle/legacy:'.$name, CAP_ALLOW)) {
+                    $i = '';
+                    foreach ($roles as $role) {
+                        if (empty($role->shortname)) {
+                            $updated = new object();
+                            $updated->id = $role->id;
+                            $updated->shortname = $name.$i;
+                            update_record('role', $updated);
+                            $i++;
+                        }
+                    }
+                }
+            }
+        }
+    }
     return $result;
 }
 
diff --git a/lib/db/mysql.sql b/lib/db/mysql.sql
index 57cfd7ba5ef..ba379b86907 100644
--- a/lib/db/mysql.sql
+++ b/lib/db/mysql.sql
@@ -910,6 +910,7 @@ CREATE TABLE prefix_blog_tag_instance (
 CREATE TABLE prefix_role (
   `id` int(10) unsigned NOT NULL auto_increment,
   `name` varchar(255) NOT NULL default '',
+  `shortname` varchar(100) NOT NULL default '',
   `description` text NOT NULL default '',
   `sortorder` int(10) unsigned NOT NULL default '0',
   KEY `sortorder` (`sortorder`),
diff --git a/lib/db/postgres7.sql b/lib/db/postgres7.sql
index 97fa7686ad2..f4dd5694ae6 100644
--- a/lib/db/postgres7.sql
+++ b/lib/db/postgres7.sql
@@ -681,6 +681,7 @@ CREATE INDEX prefix_bti_tagid_idx ON prefix_blog_tag_instance (tagid);
 CREATE TABLE prefix_role (   
   id SERIAL PRIMARY KEY,     
   name varchar(255) NOT NULL default '',     
+  shortname varchar(100) NOT NULL default '',     
   description text NOT NULL default '',      
   sortorder integer NOT NULL default '0'     
 );   
diff --git a/lib/moodlelib.php b/lib/moodlelib.php
index db5dc751985..89d298578db 100644
--- a/lib/moodlelib.php
+++ b/lib/moodlelib.php
@@ -137,6 +137,11 @@ define('PARAM_FORMAT',   0x0004);
  */
 define('PARAM_NOTAGS',   0x0008);
 
+ /**
+ * PARAM_MULTILANG - general plain text compatible with multilang filter, no other html tags.
+ */
+define('PARAM_MULTILANG',  0x0009);
+
 /**
  * PARAM_FILE - safe file name, all dangerous chars are stripped, protects against XSS, SQL injections and directory traversals
  */
@@ -368,6 +373,9 @@ function clean_param($param, $type) {
         case PARAM_NOTAGS:       // Strip all tags
             return strip_tags($param);
 
+        case PARAM_MULTILANG:    // leave only tags needed for multilang
+            return clean_param(strip_tags($param, '<lang><span>'), PARAM_CLEAN);
+
         case PARAM_SAFEDIR:      // Remove everything not a-zA-Z0-9_-
             return eregi_replace('[^a-zA-Z0-9_-]', '', $param);
 
diff --git a/version.php b/version.php
index 66f810ec73d..4a70d7c39a6 100644
--- a/version.php
+++ b/version.php
@@ -6,7 +6,7 @@
 // This is compared against the values stored in the database to determine
 // whether upgrades should be performed (see lib/db/*.php)
 
-   $version = 2006091800;  // YYYYMMDD = date
+   $version = 2006091804;  // YYYYMMDD = date
                            //       XY = increments within a single day
 
    $release = '1.7 dev';    // Human-friendly version name