Old Release notes

Moodle 1.4.5 (7th May, 2005)

(Because this release contains important security fixes, we highly advise that sites using any previous version of Moodle upgrade to this version as soon as possible.)

Some important security fixes

Preventative measures against attacks to admin functions.
Lesson: Safer hiding of lessons (#2733)

A few new things

Flash Media Player: Now playing can start before the download is complete.
Added/updated language support for German (DE) and Turkish (TR).
Release notes now link to the relevant bugs.
Prefetching requests from Google Web Accelerator, Mozilla etc are denied.

Performance improvements

Added option to cache the languages list. Saves around 10MB of memory and 40 includes. See config-dist.php for details on how to enable.
Major efficiency improvements for Postgres databases on insert. Also fixed many calls to insert_record() which discard the returned record id to not ask for the record id.

Other bug fixes

HTML Editor: Fixes to some character encoding problems.
Quiz: fixes to export/import dropdown (#2963)
Quiz: Don't throw a fatal error on unknown question, try to continue.
Course Social Forum: Removed misleading link to unsubscribe (#2945).
Additional/updated translations.
Forums and Groups: Allow students not in a group to post into a discussion which is also not in a group, even if the course is using groups.
Sitewide HTML Editor settings: Fixed Can't save changes in editor configuration form bug.
Cron: Removed some warnings.
Choice: Choice shows a bad number of answers (#2452).
Better support for PHP5: Files uploads now use $_FILES rather than deprecated $HTTP_POST_FILES (#2828)
Backup/Restore: Manual links from lesson pages to resources are now preserved between backup/restore anywhere. (see this discussion)
Some fixes for Postgres constraint naming.
I18N support: Reset proper encoding upon login (#2770).
I18N support: Fixed some instances of garbled characters when using utf-8 in HTML Editor (#2763)
Flash Media Player: Turn off the autoloading of sound files.
Flash Media Player: Better handling of filenames files.
Postgres: Fixed sequences out of sequence (#2742).
Backup: Fixed memory limit overrun in backup config page.
Forums: Fixed error warnings when a teacher posts to a forum (#2723).

Moodle 1.4.4 (7th March, 2005)

Some important security fixes

Added strong URL validation functions.
Preventative measures against tampering of config settings.
Tighter input validation in Quiz, HTML editor and course edit.
More control over user's language settings.
Safer cleaning of HTML-formatted input.

A few new things

New MP3 content filter with Flash-based mp3 player.
Better display of options in the Choice module.
UI enhancements in HTML Editor's table editor.
$CFG settings in config.php now override database settings.
Enabled garbage collection for Debian systems, with the option to disable it. Fixes stale session problems.

Performance improvements

Serious performance optimizations in forums code.
Various optimizations by removing unnecessary database retrievals and sorting.
Major improvements in handling session locking. Downloading large files or monitoring the live logs will no longer slow down navigation in other windows.

Other bug fixes

Installer: Many fixes and updates from HEAD (including #2625) .
Installer: We now check for allow_url_fopen() before trying to validate our own URL.
Fixed some forum search problems.
Fixed sorting bug on forums (#2613).
Fixed problems in user searches with trailing spaces.
Fixed some instances of hardcoded /admin path.
Fixed some groups-related bugs (#2133, #2550, #2363)
Don't send HTML digests to people who want plain text email.
SCORM module — fixed navbar error.
Chat: Increased maximum socket read size to prevent empty pages and repeated messages
Files: added a "Parent Folder" icon, (#2491).
Postgres support: consistency fix in mdl_log table.
Auth plugins: Better cleanup and truncation of data.
Auth plugins: Fixed external authentication problem — if logged in as guest, logging in as external auth user fails if it is the first login ever for the account.
Auth LDAP: Fixed a regression from 1.4.2 where a trailing semicolon in some config fields would break authentication.
Auth DB: Database Authentication not fetching user data fields correctly (#2319).
Paypal Enrolment plugin: Now text sent to PayPal can be 'sanitised' to avoid some diacritics (Spanish for now) which break the enrol process. Only German and French diacritics are supported for now by PayPal. This functionality can be easily expanded to other characters.
Backup/restore: If the user isn't admin and the restored course hasn't teachers, add teacher (#2381)
Backup/restore: Fixed errors with courses with apostrophes in the fullname.
Backup/restore: Now group members are only included (backup and restore) if we have selected to have users (#2486).
Backup/Restore: General tidyup.
Glossary: Now 0 rates are supported in glossary (#2582) and better PHP5 support (#2581).
Glossary & Blackboard: import fixes (#2310).
Calendar: more robust handling of bad data.
Calendar: HTML fixes in calendar (#2350).
Course sortorder was broken in 1.4.3 and would sometimes prevent course creation — all the known problems with sortorder are now fixed. Includes some related fixes in get_categories() calls that would sometimes show up in "My Courses" listings.
Wiki: Several fixes.
Loglive now has an appropriate page footer.
Plus general cleanup and tidyups of the code.

Moodle 1.4.3 (21st December, 2004)

Some important security fixes

Better checking/cleaning of cookie data
Preventative measures for session fixation
Better checking/cleaning of parameters for RSS feeds, ip atlas parameters, glossary, forum, theme selection, SCORM module, document viewer
Added protection in viewing of uploaded files
Added protection against directory traversal
Fix for variable $FULLME necessary for cron
Prevention against internal libraries being called directly.
Prevent viewing of glossary if it's a hidden activity
Hidden sections hidden from students in recent activity
Fixed problem with guest user being able to see events in the calendar
Fixed encoding of TEX expressions

A few new things

Enforced enrolment uniqueness, this is also a performance fix.
Added transaction support for PostgreSQL
Logging in and logging out are now logged
Wiki and SCORM now both use new zipping code - this fixes reported SCORM issues
New paging system for glossary
User info from LDAP truncated for insertion into moodle to prevent data loss
Updated pclzip to new version
Memory_limit can be overriden by higher config settings from php.ini, commandline, httpd.conf, .htaccess
New translations started: Maori, Kannada, Albanian and Vietnamese
Many additions to other language packs
Teachers can now always try quizzes, even if they're not open yet
Glossary print view is now different for each format.
Glossary search now also searches aliases
Vastly improved multilang filter with more forgiving syntax

Performance improvements

Better caching headers mean improved performance on all pages when using back button
Database indexes added in many places to enhance performance in large scale deployments
Performance improvements throughout moodle where courses were being listed.
Various optimizations by removing unnecessary database retrievals and sorting.

Other bug fixes

Fixed restoring into a new course generating duplicate course idnumbers
Fixed many small Postgres issues
Fixed unnecessary notices when debug mode on
Fixed some more PHP5 Notices
Fixed support for apostrophes, quotes and backslashes in LDAP user data
Fix for pagination of search course results for Postgres
Fixed bug with whitespace in user search
Fixed chatroom bug where all chat users listed in multiple chatrooms
Fix for installation script bug
Case sensitive usernames in bulk user import fixed
Fixed bug in redirection after rating forum post
Fixed bug in quiz with matching questions
Fixed bug in quiz preview
Fixed bug in language editing
Multiple small fixes in SCORM module
SCORM module shows user pictures properly
Activity names sorted by name in activity filter
Glossary search will search aliases as well
Any RSS errors will result in a valid RSS error file rather than invalid RSS.
Fixed problem with SCORM package validation and PHP5
Fixed problem with backup/restore and empty categories
Better XHTML in wiki
Bug fix in chat reports for first chat session
Fixed a problem with SCORM when deleting a lot of files, or very large files
Fixed some problems with encyclopedia format in glossary
Fixed bug in SCORM integration with zipping code
Fixed bug in dialogue plain text email notifications
Fixed missing sesskey variables in social activity block
Excess sections for a course are now hidden in the navmenu
Added daylight savings time fixes for the calendar
First quiz edit in a new course has a default category assigned
Fixed bug in paypal module when accepting payment amount
Fixed bug in course files with loss of choose mode

Moodle 1.4.2 (5th November, 2004)

Some important security fixes

Better checking/cleaning of script parameters used in quite a few areas throughout Moodle (a BIG thanks to Petr Skoda for his recent security audit!)
Quoted some SQL parameters in the glossary module to prevent possible injection

A few small new things

New PAM authentication module for direct authentication on Unix/Linux
Course creators can now restore to new or existing courses
Forum posts now include detailed headers to allow correct threading in mail clients

And a bunch of other bug fixes

Backup is now more able to cope with errors (eg if backup is interrupted) and can clean up uncompleted files
Fix for database authentication against a PostgreSQL database
Fixes for some parts of installation to PostgreSQL
Forum subject lines are now only broken up in recent activity display
Database-based enrolments now actually work :-)
SQL fixes for creation of RSS feeds from PostgreSQL
Added rtsp to the list of allowed protocols in cleaned HTML text
User profile and profile editing page can be called without parameters
Upgraded xmlize library to latest version
Upgraded phpmailer library to latest version
Various small code-only cleanups
Admin menu now allows backup/restore of the "site course" (front page)
Fixed a display bug in the forums index which only showed in PHP5
Highlighting function (eg after search) was stripping backslashes
Info from LDAP is now decoded from utf8
Course listings now work better with very large amounts of courses
Two SCORM bugs fixed (a typo and a problem with onbeforeunload)
Some cleanups when printing text, headers and variables in Lesson
Calendar now functions as expected even when you login as someone else
Fixed a few remaining short PHP tags
Better randomness for random questions (fix for bug introduced in 1.4)
When a teacher is removed from a course, they are now also removed from all groups in that course
Fixed strip_pages bug in Wiki
Fixes for charset detection in backups and multilang filter under PHP5

Moodle 1.4.1 (12th September, 2004)

A few little new things

New "Email Protection" filter will obfuscate all email addresses within all texts (to help prevent automated address-harvesting)
Allowed email addresses can now be restricted (see config-dist.php for details)
Extra instructions for translators embedded in translation interface
New help page for Directory Paths

And some bug fixes

Improved performance when viewing site logs
Improved paging and performance in glossary
Glossary entries are now shown correctly if they belong to multiple categories
Do not redeclare auth_user_login upon failed login
Fixed two missing icons in the cordoroyblue theme
Fixed missing "New event" button on Upcoming Events page
Always addslashes on chat messages from daemon users before inserting into db.
Fixes for handling of fixed enrollment periods when this is set for a course
Site course ID (defined as SITEID) is no longer assumed to be always 1
Default memory limits are increased beyond 16M, to help Moodle continue working even when there is some unplanned memory problem
Smilies are now rendered as pictures in Markdown format texts
Workshops work under Recent Activity again
file.php can now only be used to access data within courses
Improved behaviour of calendar blocks on home page
Fixed quotes bug with PostgreSQL database specification produced by installer
Fixed sometimes-missing display of correct answers during quiz review
<tt> and <code> are now allowed tags
Section summaries, course summaries and labels are again no longer cleaned of Javascript
Fixed a rare LDAP bug that could cause new accounts not to be created

Moodle 1.4 (31st August, 2004)

Headlines

Compatibility with PHP 5
New easy installer wizard leads you through the creation of the initial config.php file
Installation is now completely localised to your preferred language
Completely revamped Resource module make it easier to add new resources and to send data to them.
New Enrolment system featuring modules such as completely automated Paypal payments, flatfile scanning, or external database control.
Blocks now work on the front page, plus you can put a topic section above the middle part
Chat now includes a server-side daemon (in PHP) for scalable, instant chat
New Wiki module!
New support for editing text using the Markdown format
Many bug fixes in all areas

Under the hood

Resource module has its own Add menu now, and uses class-based submodules, making it much easier now to add new resource types to this menu
Quiz module has been refactored into class-based questiontype plugins.
Enrolment process has been refactored into class-based enrolment plugins.
Glossary display formats are now name-based, and it's easier to plugin new ones.
Improved behaviour of many modules when they are used on the site page.
Revised Filter structure is faster and now compatible with Turck MMcache.
Adding activities is now more forgiving of fields left empty
We can now alter PostgreSQL columns at will using table_column()
RSS generation has been sped up tremendously, putting much less load on cron
Some bigger modules have split lib.php into locallib.php for less memory usage

Languages and localisation

Updates to nearly every language pack
Moodle can override the default character set in Apache, making languages more reliable
Multibyte languages now wrap properly
Better handling of locales and encodings on very multilingual sites (like moodle.org)
New languages: Slovenian and Hebrew!

Security Fixes

Fixed a number of possible XSS entry points and path disclosures
Attributes of tags in HTML are now parsed even more thoroughly for naughty scripts
User profile pages are no longer available by default to strangers
All text is now cleaned on output (not just input)
Email addresses are not used on outgoing mail if the user requests that
New setting loginhttps will use secure https for the login, then switch back to http

Administration

Spiffy new interfaces for adding/removing students, creators and admins
Failed logins are now logged, and can be displayed to users upon a successful login
Logs now support viewing by group, and by errors
Modules now behave more consistently on the site front page
Front page "students" can be all users on site, or all users in at least one course on the site
Email-sending can now be enabled/disabled on any user's profile page

Authentication

All authentication methods will now co-exist with internally-created accounts
New support for authenticating against First Class servers
Fixes for POP3 authentication

Navigation

Visitors can be automatically logged in as guest
Jump menu now always shows "Jump to" to help distribute clues about what it does
Jump menu now has a much clearer way of grouping activities into sections

Blocks

Block system can now cope with custom course formats and changes in format
New login block allows login from site front page
Online users block on home page shows users from the whole site

Editor

New editor configuration screen for the admin
New support for anchors within pages
Spell-checking is now supported in the editor, it uses aspell on your server operating system

Chat

Chat now includes a server-side daemon (in PHP) for scalable, instant chat

Choice

Significantly revamped to make a lot more sense, with more option

Forum

Several fixes when dealing with groups
Users can choose to receive forum posts as daily digests of subject lines or whole posts.
Discussion listing is now paged
Teachers now have complete control over forum subscriptions, and can subscribe anyone at will
"Last post" date is shortened and linked to the last post
Forums now list RSS feeds on the index page
Better-looking HTML mail using the full stylesheet
Forum mail older than two days is never sent out (to prevent unwanted floods)
Blocked mail is logged so that teachers can see it
Discussion branches can be "split" from the main discussion, into a new discussion

Glossary

Glossary entries can be defined as "always editable"
Glossaries now list RSS feeds on the index page
Many fixes throughout

Quiz

New floating timer for timed quizzes
Attempts may now be restricted to specific computers
Quizzes can now require a special password
New question type for Calculated Questions
Numerical questions now support units
Questions can be previewed in the editing pages
Questions can now be exported in several formats
More intelligent handling of category listing when editing questions
New (and incomplete) XML export format, will eventually be quiz-feature-complete
Shortanswers can now contain all sorts of strange characters

Resource

Adding resources is now a one-step process with more control
Web page, Web link, Uploaded file and Program resource all combined into one type!
Program resources replaced by Parameters that allow a lot of of interesting interaction with external resources, both remote and uploaded into Moodle.
Collapsible forms with memory to make forms less daunting for beginners without slowing down experienced users

SCORM

Many fixes and improvements - works with an even wider variety of packages
Optional extra verification of the manifest file

New in Moodle 1.3.4 (11th August, 2004)

Updates

Some compatibility was added for handling glossaries and resources from Moodle 1.4.
Forbid restricted users from changing enrolments

Bug fixes

Fixed a reported vulnerability involving arguments to forum/post.php file
Fixed a possible vulnerability involving strings in Moodle texts
Fixed a rare glitch with attempt numbers in quizzes
Fixed a bug with regular expression logic in short answers
Fixed a typo in the PostgreSQL install
Fixed some documentation links

New in Moodle 1.3.3 (16th July, 2004)

Updates

The ADOdb library was upgraded to a version compatible with PHP 5.0
Improvements to the detection and conversion of URLs in backups

Bug fixes

A possible vulnerability involving arguments to the help.php file was fixed.
A possible vulnerability involving language setting was fixed.
Fixes for the editing of lang strings with double quotes in them
Several small problems fixed in Glossary
Some minor issues fixed in the Scorm module

New in Moodle 1.3.2 (9th July, 2004)

Updates

The SCORM module is now included as standard
Some new languages (Malaysian, Estonian)
Many more existing languages are now completed up to 1.3.x

Bug fixes

A possible front page vulnerability with Moodle servers on some old PHP versions was fixed. If you are using a version of PHP previous to 4.3 then it might be a good idea to upgrade to this version of Moodle.
Important fixes to logic when forums are used for group activities
Editing teacher profiles are visible even to separated groups in a class
Subject lines in multibyte languages in recent activity are no longer broken by wrapping function
A few issues related to glossary export/import were fixed
Backup is now better at managing it's temporary files
Other small fixes here and there

New in Moodle 1.3.1 (4th June, 2004)

Bug fixes

Some HTML code affecting stability of HTML editor under IE6 on some pages was fixed
Some bugs were fixed in several auto-linking text filters
Improved-looking navigation bar (using the » character)
Flash files now have their own icon
Adding course links using HTML editor now fixed for teachers
Section links block now preserves focussed view
Sites files now respect forcelogin setting
Upgrading blocks without database functions now works
Language updates

New in Moodle 1.3 (25th May, 2004)

Major new features

New Calendar feature (thanks to Jon Papaioannou and the Greek School Network!)
New Blocks feature, allowing blocks to be added and moved around on course pages (thanks to Jon Papaioannou, Eloy Lafuente and others!)
New RSS System allows Forums and Glossaries (and later other modules) to publish RSS feeds (Thanks, Eloy!)
Mediaplugin filter now supports auto-embedding of Quicktime, Flash, and Windows Media files.
A new Activity Names filter will automatically add hyperlinks to other activities in the same course whenever their name is mentioned.

Other new features

New resource type "Directory" will display a whole directory of uploaded files (including subdirectories)
Resources that are files (uploaded, or webpages) now show the relevant icon on the course page
Most internal HTML links within forums and resources are now preserved during backup/restores
It is now possible to pass normal http arguments to files in the Files section. This allows some fancier HTML and Flash in resources.
$CFG->forceloginforprofiles can be set to prevent guests from seeing site-level user profiles (including Google).
When Google access is enabled, then Google web page translations now work too.
Sessions are now stored privately in the Moodle data directory - this makes Moodle work better on clusters, and solves some session timeout problems when using Moodle on shared web hosts
User pictures can now be easily deleted from the profile editing page
Talking in Chat now appears in the main logs.
Hidden sections in courses can now be completely hidden from students (course setting)
Improvements to text inside graphs for some non-English languages, using Unicode fonts.
Improved interface for managing Scales, as well as better handling in mulitlingual sites
All students can now be unenrolled with one button (on the Students page)
Subscribers to forums can now be manually subscribed or unsubscribed in groups
Better handling of some European characters in filenames and usernames
Feedback notices for a hidden assignment aren't mailed out until it's unhidden
Expanded support for importing Blackboard quizzes
The cron script can now be run using a PHP binary from any directory
The HTML editor has been further improved and streamlined.
The default recent activity display is now calculated from the last access to that course (or two days, whichever is more recent). Previously it was from the last login to the site.
Confirmation emails are now in HTML and Text, to help prevent breaking of confirmation link.
New languages: Farsi, Latvian, Norwegian Primary School, Unicode version of Traditional Chinese.

Bug fixes

Hundreds of small bugs were fixed in all areas, generally improving appearance and robustness.
As always, if you find bugs in Moodle, please report them to our Bug Tracker!

Finally, don't forget to look at some of the many optional modules under development, including the SCORM module, the Wiki module, the Hot Potatoes module and many other innovations.

New in Moodle 1.2.1 (25th March, 2004)

Various small bug fixes

Fixed some bugs that were causing survey graphs and results not to display in some circumstances
Improved security in the cron script
Fixed WebCT quiz import to deal with missing images, shortanswers and escaped characters
Fixed formatting on editor dialog to insert links
Prevent glossary from adding links to activity names that are already links
Fixed some timezone calculations when user isn't present
Characters like :( in Javascript code within filtered HTML are no longer converted to a sad smiley
Improved handling of ratings for single forums when secureforms is on.
Multichoice question creation now defaults to a single correct answer format
Guests can no longer see email addresses if "show only to course participants" has been set by that user
Primary admin is now the lowest-numbered entry in user_admins, rather than the admin with the lowest userid.
Modified flash MP3 plugin to improve brightness of Play button on darker screens
Various polishing and improvements in many language packs

New in Moodle 1.2 (20th March, 2004)

New support for groups and cohorts within courses (with many options)
Text filters allow arbitrary processing on all text in Moodle, including automatic linking, mathematics support, multi-language content and infinitely more possibilities
A fantastic new Glossary module (thanks to Williams Castillo!) with many different ways to contruct learning activities based around collecting definitions
A great new Lesson module (thanks to Ray Kingdon!) easily creates active content with pathways and multiple-choice questions
A new Label module allows arbitrary HTML in the course page
An improved WYSIWYG editor, faster and more cross-platform than the old one
Automatic backups can be scheduled by the administrator for all courses at once

Courses

Activities can now be indented on the course outline, allowing more structure
A new report for Recent Activity makes it easier to see what's happened recently
A new logs button on every activity links to the logs page to show logs per-activity
Restore button now always functional
Improved "index" view for all modules
Improvements to participants display, including paging and initial searching
Excel downloads are more compatible with different operating systems
Better error reporting when adding/updating activities
Search box no longer auto-focuses (it was causing annoying auto-scrolling on long courses)
Self-unenrollment link on the course page for students
Change password link on the course page for students
Students can now be allowed to see their own activity reports (course setting)
Teachers can browse the course files for images when using the new editor
New image of empty box as destination when moving activities
Accesses are now recorded by course, so the participant listings make more sense
The activity navbar now has buttons for previous and next activities
File dates were incorrect on some systems - this is now fixed.
Old chat users are no longer shown in the recent activity

Site administration

An important security fix preventing teachers from logging in as admins who are students in their course
New setting "forcelogin" can force people to log in before they can see any of the site
New setting "opentogoogle" allows Google and people referred by Google to get in as guest
New setting "timezone" allows a default timezone to be set for the whole site
New setting "deleteunconfirmed" specifies the time we'll wait for email accounts to be confirmed
New setting "allowunenroll" enables/disables students from unenrolling themselves from courses
New setting "fullnamedisplay" allows override for the formatting of user full names so students can only see "firstname lastname", "lastname firstname" or "firstname"
Individual users can have their email disabled by the teacher or admin (useful for dealing with broken mail accounts that are bouncing)
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.
Moodle cookies can be customised (helps when running multiple Moodles on one site)
Included script for analysing database performance (admin/dbperformance.php)
Included standalone script to check a server for Moodle compatibility (lib/compatible.php)
If a file called cronextra.php exists in the dataroot then cron will run that too. This allows sites to have "special" maintenance features.
Course formats are now more like plugins, in separate directories
Users can now be uploaded from text files
If $CFG->disableuserimages is defined (in config.php) then user images can not be changed
If $CFG->admineditalways is defined then the administrator can edit ANY post at any time.
If $CFG->filterall is defined then even little things liks forum subjects and activity names are filtered
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';

Themes

Fixes for Internet Explorer can be more robust at using the style sheet
Miscellaneous fixes and improvements to themes - custom themes need upgrading!

Translations

New languages: Galego and Lithuanian
Improved language editing interface - it allows the current language to be chosen and allows each file to be edited separately.
The list of country names can now be translated, as can the editor buttons, smiley names and file sizes (Mb, Gb etc)
Language packs can now define the default language direction (RTL or LTR)
Language packs can now define the order that people's names should be shown in
Language files are now written using slightly more efficient PHP code
Finally got rid of the final bogus linefeeds in the multi-line strings
Courses can now "force" a language on all users

Backup / Restore

Automatic backups can be scheduled by the administrator for all courses at once
Logs are now fully restored
All needed users are now included in course backups (even if no longer enrolled)
Miscellaneous fixes and improvements

Text Filters and Formatting

Warning: the new text filters can increase the load on your server, particularly when used with complex filters. Use them with caution.
The new glossary filter can create links to glossary entries from matching words throughout Moodle.
The new TeX filter can convert TeX code found anywhere in Moodle into true Mathematics notation (GIF format image). There is also an algebra filter with a simpler input format (more like calculators).
The new censor filter can be enabled to filter out bad words.
The new multilang filter allows texts to be entered in multiple languages, and only the best one will be shown to each user (depending on their language setting)
The <nolink> tag can be used to prevent autolinking within a passage of text.
More tags are now allowed, including <acronym> and all <math> tags.
Some areas where text wasn't properly filtered before (security risk) have now been fixed.

Developer API

A new coding guide is available
A new Philosophy guide is available ;-)
Improvements to the template for new modules
Modules should now specify the minimum version of Moodle they are compatible with
Scripts can specify to print_header() whether the page is pure XML
Any module can save and retrieve user preferences that stay around between logins

Chats

Chat sessions can now be deleted
Scheduled chat times now show the timezone to make it clearer

Forums

Forum viewing preferences are remembered between logins
"Show parent" link on all posts for faster navigation around forums
Anchor tags allow individual posts to be referenced in all views
Improvements to cron job when manually run, as well as logging of mailer errors
Only print the ratings button when there are ratings to be made
Vastly improved email text versions of HTML forum posts
When replying, an outline of other replies is shown.
When using the HTML editor to post, other formatting options are no longer provided.

Journals

Journal questions can now use the HTML editor
Some fixes to the report page when assessing journal entries

Quizzes

Questions and categories can now be edited without needing to open a quiz
All questions can now use any of the Moodle editing formats
New import format: GIFT format (this is the new default format)
New import format: Course Test Manager
New import format: WebCT format
New import format: Aiken format
Short-Answer questions can now use wildcards for matching eg wild*rds
Images now work in questions from external published categories
Improved the overview reports to show more info and allow deletion of attempts
Added a new detailed quiz report for statistical anaylsis
All question types can now have up to 10 answers each
Menus in quiz editing no longer need submit buttons (just select from menu)
Fixed bug that occurred when re-grading SOME quizzes with random questions in them
Fixed bug that occurred in backups of quizzes with random questions in them
Many other small bugs fixed

Resources

Teachers can browse files more directly when creating uploaded file
New settings to allow a default URL, a default search page and default popup settings
Uploaded files can appear in popups too.
Much better display of popups when using the navbar to go there
MP3 files are now streamed using a built-in Flash MP3 player
Video files (Media player, Quicktime) are embedded using local plugins

Workshops

Changes to handling of peer assessments
New assessment phase
New options for the league table

Miscellaneous

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
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.
When a student is added as a teacher, they are now automatically unenrolled from being a student
Upgraded ADOdb (database layer)

New in Moodle 1.1.1 (10 September, 2003):

General Fixes

Translation improvements in many languages
Frame fix when switching languages in documentation
All short PHP tags removed ... short_tags is no longer a requirement
Forum search results link using anchor tag for better context
Removed target from "delete" link on user editing page
'Search' on social format moved closer to the top to prevent browser self-scrolling
Page redirection is faster and no longer causes intermediate page to be stored in IE history
Course listings improved when courses are displayed, including more information
Category listings show courses in full when there are under ten courses
Invisible courses are always shown last in My Courses
Course creators can now see all hidden categories and courses
Styles added for category and course names
Removed tags from question text on quiz 'simplestat' report
Added percentages to downloaded data from 'simplestat' report
Allow external deep linking using guest account ?username=guest
Any admin can now add/remove course creators
Primary admin can now update own username/password even with external authentication
Quizzes can now be specified as having "no grade" and no grades will be shown
When editing a language, missing strings files are created if possible
Fixed bug in weekly journal date calculations
Fixed bug in config.php that made error_reporting not work
Fixed bug when editing user name with quotes in it
Fixed bug in email obfuscation for email addresses with numbers in them
Fixed missing PostgreSQL schema for chat module
Fixed several typos in PostgreSQL upgrading code
Fixed some uninitialised variables
Several bugs fixed in Workshop module

New in Moodle 1.1 (28 August, 2003):

Major Changes

A completely new backup system for backup and restore of courses (Thanks, Eloy!)
A new workshop module for peer grading (Thanks, Ray!)
A new chat module for synchronous discussions
All-new course manager to handle very large numbers of courses (tested with 3700)
Custom-defined grading scales that can be used throughout a course
Performance improvements in many areas

General

Clean up of the whole admin menu organisation to make it clearer
Categories can be nested and sorted alphabetically or manually
Courses and whole categories can be hidden from students
Course descriptions and names can be searched for keywords
Large categories are now completely paged
Improved web caching for stylesheets and images
"My courses" display on the home page when logged in.
Inclusion of non-linked page to display ALL user pictures at once (see /userpix)
The "secureforms" feature now defaults to OFF.
Moodle now doesn't care if "magic quotes" is on or off.
Images in /pix were rearranged and tidied up
HTML email is better formatted for wider compatibility
Mail bounces are now sent to the admin user
Better cron tasks (less CPU used) and duplicate enrolments are now cleaned
Improved display of logs with infinite paging and increased flexibility
User log graphs now work at site-level (showing ALL logs on the site)
People with manual accounts can now recover their password
Improved system for defining/printing help files for major activity modules
Activity modules can now have settings
Email addresses are all completely obfuscated (to fool web spiders)
There is now an index to the help files
Library (Mark Kimes' add-on) is now supported if it is installed (see Moodle contrib for Library source)

Courses

Teachers can now have their course editing privileges removed
Teachers can now manually enrol students if they want to
Teacher management is now all combined in one interface
Activities can be moved any distance with two clicks
Topics/weeks can now be moved up and down
Pop-up menu to quickly switch between topics/weeks when collapsed
When self-enrolling, students are notified and given a chance to cancel
Teachers and students see list of "My Courses" on course home pages.
Grades can be hidden from students if not needed

Languages

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/.
Updates and fixes to most languages
Languages now have a parent language (for displaying missing strings)
Some fixes for locales and time display in several languages
es_mx is being phased out in favour of "es" (International Spanish)

Forum

Much improved searching, with multiple keywords, paging etc
Forum grading can be either off, used by everyone, or used only by teachers
Forum grading can use custom scales or numbers
A date range can be set to restrict the posts that can be graded.
Admin now has access to some settings via Admin -> Modules -> Forums
After editing a post, user is returned to post in context
Attached images are displayed inline
Email copies in plain text format now print URLs nicely

Quiz

New question type: Embedded Answers (Cloze) - allows text passages with embedded answers
New question type: Numerical - allows a range of numerical answers to be entered
New question type: Description - not a real question, it allows text/graphics to be inserted anywhere
Expanded quiz reporting with modular report plugins
New feature for repeat attempts, where each attempt builds on the last
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.
Some refactoring to the quiz code to make it easier to extend with new question types

Resources

Web links can now be in very customisable pop-up windows.
Admin now has access to some settings via Admin -> Modules -> Resources

Some of the more annoying bugs recently fixed

Moving posts now also moves attachments
No more warnings when looking for uploaded files in an empty course
Students no longer always get plain-format mail on force-subscribed forums
Cookies can no longer interfere with the admin setup during installation
Effectively no limit to the number of activities per section
Several fixes when dealing with zip files, especially on Windows
Admins can now edit accounts created from external databases
Session no longer conflicts with other software
Excel files now work on non-Intel machines

New in Moodle 1.0.9 (29th May, 2003) :

General

Various optimisations and significant performance enhancements
Several obscure security fixes
Moodle is now well-behaved when enclosed within a frame
Richtext editor can now be used in more text-editing fields
New format "Plain text format", useful when posting code or HTML.
New format "Wiki format", allows Wiki-style tagging in most places
New popup allows emoticons/smilies to be inserted by clicking on images
Ability to specify permissions of new folders and files created on the server
Some fixes for servers running in Safe Mode (some file problems remain)
Various fixes for cleaning some external text of quotes, etc
Various fixes for PostgreSQL 7.3 compatibility
Started migration of HTML code towards XHTML Transitional
Countless other little fixes all over the place

Languages

10 new language packs! Argentinian Spanish, Czech, Portuguese, Slovakian, Romanian, Danish, Russian, Polish, Chinese Traditional and French Canadian.
Fixes and upgrades to almost all language packs
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
Language menu can be restricted to a subset of languages and even removed.
Truetype fonts are now part of the language packs
ALL dates/times can now be reformatted as part of the language pack
A small but annoying bug was fixed with the web-based language editor on Windows servers that caused language files to grow

Developers

Various fixes to tidy up and further standardise some of the PHP code
Various fixes for robustness (ensuring variables are always initialised)

Admin

Some changed options and code in config-dist.php (if upgrading, compare with your current config.php or rebuild your config.php from scratch)
Many changes to themes - authors of custom themes should read theme/UPGRADE.txt
New moodle.org registration function for security notifications etc
Admin directory can be moved from /admin to something else (see config-dist.php)
User listing is now paged, and can now be searched for strings
Module management: activity modules can now be individually disabled or deleted completely
Improvements to the language editing page
Better checking of PHP environment during installation, with warnings
Cleaner installation procedure.

User management

New role: Course creator - just like teacher but can also create new courses
New authentication plug-in named "manual", prevents users from creating their own accounts
"Forgot Password" routine now uses an email confirmation before resetting password

Courses

Activities on the course page now have a little button to hide/show that activity to students
Whole topics/weeks can also now be hidden or shown
The list of participants now has some paging, to cope with very large classes
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.

Assignments

Assignment submissions can be sorted
Assignment notification mail isn't sent to unenrolled students

Forums

Display of forum discussions list is greatly improved
Whole discussions can be moved to any other forum with a single click
Date/time of posts is now "last modified", not "created"
Blank subject-lines or messages are now prevented
More intelligent parsing and display of text in posts
Force Subscribe now works on the "Site News" forum (mails all active students/teachers)
Better handling of mailouts to prevent the possibility of double copies that sometimes happened with very large classes

Workshop Assignment module (not included: available soon as a separate download)

A very interesting new module contributed by Ray Kingdon,
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.

Quizzes

New question type, Random Question (selects from all questions in the same category)
New question type, Matching Question (student must match answers to questions)
New question type, Random Matching Short-Answers (randomly creates Matching Questions from the available Short Answer questions in the same category)
Quiz question import from text files (modular design allows expansion to new formats - a beta Blackboard module is included)
'Create multiple questions' wizard to quickly create a random quiz
Quiz questions may be randomly shuffled
Quiz answers (multiple choice, etc) may be randomly shuffled
Fixed off-by-one error when "Save Grades" button wasn't used.
Regrading works properly if the quiz has been changed
Editing a question after it's already been used in a quiz no longer affects quiz results
Multiple choice answers are labelled a,b,c not 1,2,3

Resources

Better performance when editing large text or HTML resources
Plain images are now display centered within a proper web page (not raw).
Wiki format added as a new option for Resource pages

Custom Themes

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.
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.

Older releases can be seen in the Moodle.org announcement forum.

Moodle Documentation

Version: $Id$