New in Moodle 1.2 Alpha (Due soon, in mid February, 2003):
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General Fixes
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Major new features
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Translation improvements in many languages
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Frame fix when switching languages in documentation
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All short PHP tags removed ... short_tags is no longer a requirement
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Forum search results link using anchor tag for better context
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Removed target from "delete" link on user editing page
-
'Search' on social format moved closer to the top to prevent browser
- self-scrolling
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Page redirection is faster and no longer causes intermediate page
- to be stored in IE history
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Course listings improved when courses are displayed, including more
- information
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Category listings show courses in full when there are under ten courses
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Invisible courses are always shown last in My Courses
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Course creators can now see all hidden categories and courses
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Styles added for category and course names
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Removed tags from question text on quiz 'simplestat' report
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Added percentages to downloaded data from 'simplestat' report
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Allow external deep linking using guest account ?username=guest
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Any admin can now add/remove course creators
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Primary admin can now update own username/password even with external authentication
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Quizzes can now be specified as having "no grade" and no grades will be shown
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When editing a language, missing strings files are created if possible
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Fixed bug in weekly journal date calculations
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Fixed bug in config.php that made error_reporting not work
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Fixed bug when editing user name with quotes in it
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Fixed bug in email obfuscation for email addresses with numbers in
- them
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Fixed missing PostgreSQL schema for chat module
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Fixed several typos in PostgreSQL upgrading code
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Fixed some uninitialised variables
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Several bugs fixed in Workshop module
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New support for groups and cohorts within courses (with many options)
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A fantastic new glossary module (Thanks to Williams Castillo!)
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An improved WYSIWYG editor, faster and more cross-platform than the old one.
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Text filters allow arbitrary processing on all text in Moodle
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New label module allows arbitrary HTML in the course page
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Automatic backups can be scheduled by the administrator for all courses at once
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New in Moodle 1.1 (28 August, 2003):
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Major Changes
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A completely new backup system for backup and restore
- of courses (Thanks, Eloy!)
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A new workshop module for peer grading (Thanks, Ray!)
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A new chat module for synchronous discussions
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All-new course manager to handle very large numbers
- of courses (tested with 3700)
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Custom-defined grading scales that can be used throughout
- a course
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Performance improvements in many areas
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General
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Clean up of the whole admin menu organisation to make it clearer
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Categories can be nested and sorted alphabetically or manually
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Courses and whole categories can be hidden from students
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Course descriptions and names can be searched for keywords
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Large categories are now completely paged
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Improved web caching for stylesheets and images
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"My courses" display on the home page when logged in.
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Inclusion of non-linked page to display ALL user pictures at once
- (see /userpix)
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The "secureforms" feature now defaults to OFF.
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Moodle now doesn't care if "magic quotes" is on or off.
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Images in /pix were rearranged and tidied up
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HTML email is better formatted for wider compatibility
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Mail bounces are now sent to the admin user
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Better cron tasks (less CPU used) and duplicate enrolments are now
- cleaned
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Improved display of logs with infinite paging and increased flexibility
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User log graphs now work at site-level (showing ALL logs on the site)
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People with manual accounts can now recover their password
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Improved system for defining/printing help files for major activity
- modules
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Activity modules can now have settings
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Email addresses are all completely obfuscated (to fool web spiders)
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There is now an index to the help files
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Library (Mark Kimes' add-on) is now supported if it is installed (see Moodle contrib for Library source)
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Courses
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Teachers can now have their course editing privileges removed
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Teachers can now manually enrol students if they want to
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Teacher management is now all combined in one interface
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Activities can be moved any distance with two clicks
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Topics/weeks can now be moved up and down
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Pop-up menu to quickly switch between topics/weeks when collapsed
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When self-enrolling, students are notified and given a chance to cancel
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Teachers and students see list of "My Courses" on course
- home pages.
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Grades can be hidden from students if not needed
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Activities can now be indented on the course outline, allowing more structure
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A new logs button on every activity links to the logs page to show logs per-activity
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Restore button now always functional
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Improved "index" view for all modules
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Improvements to participants display, including paging and initial searching
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Excel downloads are more compatible with different operating systems
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Better error reporting when adding/updating activities
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Search box no longer auto-focuses (it was causing annoying auto-scrolling on long courses)
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Self-unenrollment link on the course page for students
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Change password link on the course page for students
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Students can now be allowed to see their own activity reports (course setting)
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Teachers can browse the course files for images when using the new editor
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New image of empty box as destination when moving activities
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Accesses are now recorded by course, so the participant listings make more sense
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The activity navbar now has buttons for previous and next activities
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File dates were incorrect on some systems - this is now fixed.
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Old chat users are no longer shown in the recent activity
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Languages
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Site administration
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Hungarian and Greek have been added,
- and there are lots of other updates. As usual, the language packs within
- this release may not be fully completed yet. You can always download
- the newest language packs from http://moodle.org/download/lang/.
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Updates and fixes to most languages
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Languages now have a parent language (for displaying missing strings)
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Some fixes for locales and time display in several languages
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es_mx is being phased out in favour of "es" (International
- Spanish)
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An important security fix preventing teachers from logging in as admins
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User's names can now be configured so student's can only see "firstname lastname", "lastname firstname" or "firstname"
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A new setting "forcelogin" can force people to log in before they can see any of the site
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Upload sizes can now be controlled throughout Moodle using "maxbytes". There is a site limit (bounded by the current PHP limits), which itself is the upper bound for course limits, which is the upper bound for activity limits.
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Students can be allowed/disallowed self-unenrolling
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Moodle cookies can be customised (helps when running multiple Moodles on one site)
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Included script for analysing database performance (admin/dbperformance.php)
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Included standalone script to check a server for Moodle compatibility (lib/compatible.php)
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If a file called cronextra.php exists in the dataroot then cron will run that too. This allows sites to have "special" maintenance features.
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Course formats are now more like plugins, in separate directories
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Users can now be uploaded from text files
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If $CFG->disableuserimages is defined then user images can not be changed
+
If $CFG->opentogoogle is defined then Google can get in as guest
+and people referred by google also get in as guest
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Support for restricted demo users (eg the teacher demo on Moodle.org) - usernames can be added to a list of names in config.php. eg $CFG->restrictusers = 'teacher,fred';
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Forum
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Themes
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Much improved searching, with multiple keywords, paging etc
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Forum grading can be either off, used by everyone, or used only by teachers
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Forum grading can use custom scales or numbers
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A date range can be set to restrict the posts that can be graded.
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Admin now has access to some settings via Admin -> Modules -> Forums
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After editing a post, user is returned to post in context
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Attached images are displayed inline
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Email copies in plain text format now print URLs nicely
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Fixes for Internet Explorer can be more robust at using the style sheet
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Miscellaneous fixes and improvements to themes - custom themes need upgrading.
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Quiz
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Translations
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New question type: Embedded Answers (Cloze) - allows text passages
- with embedded answers
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New question type: Numerical - allows a range of numerical answers
- to be entered
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New question type: Description - not a real question, it allows text/graphics
- to be inserted anywhere
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Expanded quiz reporting with modular report plugins
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New feature for repeat attempts, where each attempt builds on the
- last
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If the quiz is closing within the next 24 hours, a small countdown
- clock is shown in the title bar and alerts warn at ten minutes and zero
- minutes.
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Some refactoring to the quiz code to make it easier to extend with
- new question types
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New languages: Galego and Lithuanian
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Improved language editing interface - it allows the current language to be chosen and allows each file to be edited separately.
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The list of country names can now be translated, as can the editor buttons, smiley names and file sizes (Mb, Gb etc)
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Language packs can now define the default language direction (RTL or LTR)
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Language packs can now define the order that people's names should be shown in
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Language files are now written using slightly more efficient PHP code
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Finally got rid of the final bogus linefeeds in the multi-line strings
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Backup / Restore
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All needed users are now included in course backups (even if no longer enrolled)
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Miscellaneous bugfixes
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Text Filters and Formatting
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Warning: the new text filters can increase the load on your server, particularly when used with complex filters. Use them with caution. For now, filters need to be enabled by manually editing the config.php file. See the Modules Download page for details of other filters in development, including some exciting ones for creating and displaying mathematics formulae as cross-platform GIF images.
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The new glossary filter can create links to glossary entries from matching words throughout Moodle.
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The new 'censor' filter can be enabled to filter out bad words.
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The <nolink> tag can be used to prevent autolinking within a passage of text.
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More tags are now allowed, including <acronym> and all <math> tags.
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Some areas where text wasn't being filtered before (security risk) have now been fixed.
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Developer API
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A new coding guide is available
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A new Philosophy guide is available ;-)
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Improvements to the template for new modules
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Modules should now specify the minimum version of Moodle they are compatible with
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Scripts can specify to print_header() whether the page is pure XML
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Any module can save and retrieve user preferences that stay around between logins
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Chats
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Chat sessions can now be deleted
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Scheduled chat times now show the timezone to make it clearer
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Forums
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Forum viewing preferences are remembered between logins
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"Show parent" link on all posts for faster navigation around forums
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Anchor tags allow individual posts to be referenced in all views
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Improvements to cron job when manually run, as well as logging of mailer errors
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Only print the ratings button when there are ratings to be made
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Vastly improved email text versions of HTML forum posts
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When replying, an outline of other replies is shown.
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When using the HTML editor to post, other formatting options are no longer provided.
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Journals
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Journal questions can now use the HTML editor
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Some fixes to the report page when assessing journal entries
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Quizzes
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Fixed bug that occurred when re-grading SOME quizzes with random questions in them
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Fixed bug that occurred in backups of quizzes with random questions in them
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New import format: GIFT format (this is the new default format)
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New import format: Course Test Manager
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New import format: WebCT format
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New import format: Aiken format
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Short-Answer questions can now use wildcards for matching eg wild*rds
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Images now work in questions from external published categories
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Questions and categories can now be edited without needing to open a quiz
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Improved the overview reports to show more info and allow deletion of attempts
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Added a new detailed quiz report for statistical anaylsis
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All question types can now have up to 10 answers each
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Menus in quiz editing no longer need submit buttons (just select from menu)
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Many other small bugs fixed
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Resources
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Web links can now be in very customisable pop-up windows.
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Admin now has access to some settings via Admin -> Modules ->
- Resources
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Teachers can browse files more directly when creating uploaded file
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New settings to allow a default URL, a default search page and default popup settings
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Uploaded files can appear in popups too.
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Much better display of popups when using the navbar to go there
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MP3 files are now streamed using a built-in Flash MP3 player
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Video files (Media player, Quicktime) are embedded using local plugins
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Some of the more annoying bugs recently fixed
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Moving posts now also moves attachments
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No more warnings when looking for uploaded files in an empty course
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Students no longer always get plain-format mail on force-subscribed
- forums
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Cookies can no longer interfere with the admin setup during installation
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Effectively no limit to the number of activities per section
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Several fixes when dealing with zip files, especially on Windows
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Admins can now edit accounts created from external databases
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Session no longer conflicts with other software
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Excel files now work on non-Intel machines
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New in Moodle 1.0.9 (29th May, 2003) :
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General
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Workshops
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Various optimisations and significant performance enhancements
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Several obscure security fixes
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Moodle is now well-behaved when enclosed within a frame
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Richtext editor can now be used in more text-editing fields
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New format "Plain text format", useful when posting code or HTML.
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New format "Wiki format", allows Wiki-style tagging in most places
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New popup allows emoticons/smilies to be inserted by clicking on images
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Ability to specify permissions of new folders and files created on the server
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Some fixes for servers running in Safe Mode (some file problems remain)
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Various fixes for cleaning some external text of quotes, etc
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Various fixes for PostgreSQL 7.3 compatibility
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Started migration of HTML code towards XHTML Transitional
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Countless other little fixes all over the place
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Changes to handling of peer assessments
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New assessment phase
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New options for the league table
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Languages
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Miscellaneous
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10 new language packs! Argentinian Spanish, Czech, Portuguese, Slovakian, Romanian, Danish, Russian, Polish, Chinese Traditional and French Canadian.
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Fixes and upgrades to almost all language packs
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Language can be specified for the current session (see menu on home page and login page) and can be changed on any page by something to the url, eg: http://moodle.org/?lang=ru
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Language menu can be restricted to a subset of languages and even removed.
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Truetype fonts are now part of the language packs
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ALL dates/times can now be reformatted as part of the language pack
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A small but annoying bug was fixed with the web-based language editor on Windows servers that caused language files to grow
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Developers
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Global debug variable gives more feedback about uninitialised variables and the like
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Various fixes to tidy up and further standardise some of the PHP code
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Various fixes for robustness (ensuring variables are always initialised)
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Admin
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Some changed options and code in config-dist.php (if upgrading, compare with your current config.php or rebuild your config.php from scratch)
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Many changes to themes - authors of custom themes should read theme/UPGRADE.txt
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New moodle.org registration function for security notifications etc
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Admin directory can be moved from /admin to something else (see config-dist.php)
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User listing is now paged, and can now be searched for strings
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Module management: activity modules can now be individually disabled or deleted completely
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Improvements to the language editing page
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Better checking of PHP environment during installation, with warnings
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Cleaner installation procedure.
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User management
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New role: Course creator - just like teacher but can also create new courses
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New authentication plug-in named "manual", prevents users from creating their own accounts
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"Forgot Password" routine now uses an email confirmation before resetting password
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Courses
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Activities on the course page now have a little button to hide/show that activity to students
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Whole topics/weeks can also now be hidden or shown
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The list of participants now has some paging, to cope with very large classes
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Zip/Unzip is now supported by an internal zip library, removing
- the dependence on external programs to do this. This also means that
- zip/unzip now works on Windows.
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Assignments
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Assignment submissions can be sorted
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Assignment notification mail isn't sent to unenrolled students
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Forums
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Display of forum discussions list is greatly improved
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Whole discussions can be moved to any other forum with a single click
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Date/time of posts is now "last modified", not "created"
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Blank subject-lines or messages are now prevented
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More intelligent parsing and display of text in posts
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Force Subscribe now works on the "Site News" forum (mails all active students/teachers)
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Better handling of mailouts to prevent the possibility of double copies
- that sometimes happened with very large classes
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Workshop Assignment module (not included: available soon as a separate download)
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A very interesting new module contributed by Ray Kingdon,
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A flexible tool that implements a variety of peer-grading and
- example-setting schemes that involve a whole group in examining
- and grading pieces of work.
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Quizzes
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New question type, Random Question (selects from all questions in the same category)
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New question type, Matching Question (student must match answers to questions)
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New question type, Random Matching Short-Answers (randomly creates Matching Questions
- from the available Short Answer questions in the same category)
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Quiz question import from text files (modular design allows expansion to new formats - a beta Blackboard module is included)
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'Create multiple questions' wizard to quickly create a random quiz
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Quiz questions may be randomly shuffled
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Quiz answers (multiple choice, etc) may be randomly shuffled
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Fixed off-by-one error when "Save Grades" button wasn't used.
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Regrading works properly if the quiz has been changed
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Editing a question after it's already been used in a quiz no longer affects quiz results
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Multiple choice answers are labelled a,b,c not 1,2,3
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Resources
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Better performance when editing large text or HTML resources
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Plain images are now display centered within a proper web page (not raw).
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Wiki format added as a new option for Resource pages
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Custom Themes
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A number of new styles have been added to all built-in themes. Some of these are ESSENTIAL
- to viewing some of the new features. PLEASE SEE
- theme/UPGRADE.txt
- TO SEE THE CHANGES YOU WILL HAVE TO MAKE TO OLDER THEMES.
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Custom themes now have the capability to re-define all the little button graphics.
- There is a new entry in theme/x/config.php ($THEME->custompix) and a new
- optional subdirectory "pix". See the theme cordoroyblue for an example.
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Moodle now ignores any folders that Frontpage may have added to it (_vti_cnf).
+
Improved HTML -> XHTML in many places
+
Many fixes for non-MySQL databases
+
A few hard-coded text strings around the place were made translatable
+
User profile data is now properly cleaned
+
FIxes for when Moodle is embedded within a frame (eg in Postnuke)
+
Bug fixes to Wiki mode
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Admin can no longer edit external accounts
+
Qmail users can use "qmail" in the smtphosts field for better results
+
Multiple methods of redirecting, to work around some browser bugs
+
Small improvements to the display of grades in the gradebook
+
More student profile fields can be edited, such as department and institution, and these are also written to grade dumps in text or Excel.
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When a student is added as a teacher, they are now automatically unenrolled from being a student