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Moodle 2.5

Unsupported Moodle Version
This version of Moodle is no longer supported and will not receive fixes for security risks.
You are encouraged to upgrade to a supported version of Moodle.

Release date: 14 May 2013

Here is the full list of fixed issues in 2.5.

See New features for a user-friendly tour with screenshots.

Many thanks to all the developers that worked on fixes and features in this release.

Our release process continues to evolve and improve with more testing (human AND automated) than ever before. Thanks especially to the Moodle HQ integration team for tirelessly reviewing and improving all new code, David Monllao for our excellent new behat-based interface testing mechanism, as well as all the QA testers, peer reviewers and issue testers who tested every single addition in Moodle 2.5 (3 times!)

Requirements​

These are just minimums. We recommend keeping all your software updated.

  • Recommended minimum browser: Google Chrome 11, Firefox 4, Safari 5, Internet Explorer 8 (IE 10 required for drag and drop of files from outside the browser into Moodle)
  • Moodle upgrade: Moodle 2.2 or later (if upgrading from earlier versions, you must upgrade to 2.2.9 as a first step)
  • Minimum DB versions: PostgreSQL 8.3, MySQL 5.1.33, MariaDB 5.2, MSSQL 2005 or Oracle 10.2 (oci_native_moodle_package.sql needs to be executed before upgrade on Oracle servers)
  • Minimum PHP version: PHP 5.3.3
  • New PHP extension requirements: GD

NOTE: We will drop support for IE8 in Moodle 2.6 (to be released November 2013). This means IE8 will probably still work for 2.6, but developers will not be required to test their new code on that browser. Moodle, like most of the world's web sites and browser producers, encourages you to keep your browsers current to improve security and functionality while saving us valuable time. (For example see what Google is doing)

Major new features​

Open Badges integration​

  • MDL-35073 - Badges may be awarded manually or for course or activity completion. Users can choose to display their badges in their Moodle profile and in their Mozilla backpack. Thanks to Yuliya Bozhko from Totara for the bulk of work on this.

Add-on installer​

Themes​

  • MDL-38016 - Bootstrap-based themes, with responsive design for all screen sizes (including a new Clean theme as an example). Thanks to Bas Brands, David Scotson, Stuart Lamour and Mary Evans for their volunteer work on getting this done.
  • MDL-23504 - Transparency and RGB support in themes colour picker

Forms improvements​

  • MDL-30637 and MDL-38012 - Improvements to the usability of big complex Moodle forms in general
  • MDL-38614 - Reduced size description field with collapsible editor

Enrolment​

See MDL-36504 for the full list of all enrolment-related improvements.

Assignment activity​

Database activity​

Glossary activity​

Quiz activity​

  • MDL-38538 - Option to auto-save during quiz attempts
  • MDL-37417 - Question editing forms improvements
  • MDL-36955 - Better grading for partially correct Cloze questions with Interactive behaviour
  • MDL-35793 - Defaults for when a question is previewed
  • MDL-10516 - Essay questions can have a template, so the student starts answering from the template, not a blank editor

Workshop activity​

Resources​

Repositories​

Course listings​

  • MDL-37009 - Course listings are displayed consistently throughout the site (theme changes may be required)
  • MDL-38708 - Course settings option to add images and other files to course summaries, displayed in course listings
  • MDL-37572 - Categories edit page is separated from view and does not depend any more on global editing mode

Performance improvements​

  • MDL-35716 - New performance overview report
  • MDL-35685 - Improved login performance
  • MDL-36809 - Support for persistent connections to MariaDB/MySQL servers
  • MDL-34344 - CFG caching in MUC
  • MDL-34346 - New repository caching
  • MDL-34401 - New caching of plugin information
  • MDL-37718 - Improved database recordset memory use
  • MDL-38212 - Workaround for some memory issues in cron
  • MDL-38391 - Improved YUI module loading performance
  • MDL-37127 - Use of minified YUI modules to reduce content size

Database reads (-4.6%)

Time used (-7.3%)

Files included (-2.7%)

Database writes (0%)

KiloBytes downloaded (+1%)

getstring() calls (+0.4%)

Automated functional testing​

Other highlights​

Drag and drop improvements​

  • MDL-33688 - Drag and drop file upload progress indicator in filepicker
  • MDL-32652 - Block drag & drop now works throughout the site (not just on course pages)!

Forum activity​

Upload users​

Settings block rename​

Miscellaneous​

  • MDL-28585 - Improved LDAP authentication password expiry handling
  • MDL-37644 - New setting for showing course full names in the navigation block
  • MDL-37728 - Role definition overview improvements
  • MDL-32341 - New calendar settings for specifying a custom export date range
  • MDL-34917 - Jump to section navigation for 'One section per page' setting in course formats
  • MDL-36395 - New setting Maximum users per page for specifying the number of users shown in search results
  • MDL-37596 - Scheduled maintenance mode
  • MDL-35775 - Group import allows new groups to be assigned to groupings
  • MDL-26649 - Date picker usability improvements
  • Multiple improvements in MS SQL Server and Oracle database drivers
  • MDL-37284 - Unicode support in MariaDB/MySQL is now configured automatically during installation
  • MDL-35819 - Rewrite tooltip help to improve UI consistency, and performance.

Security issues​

Moodle 2.5 also includes fixes to security issues resolved in earlier minor versions released after Moodle 2.4. See the release notes for Moodle 2.4.1, Moodle 2.4.2 and Moodle 2.4.3 for more details.

For developers: API changes​

  • MDL-34640 - Improvements to how the question engine handles uploaded files. This should make it possible to write question types that automatically grade uploaded files.
  • MDL-37287 - 3rd party libraries updated, ex.: YUI 3.9.1, TinyMCE 3.5.8, latest tcpdf and others
  • MDL-15727 - jQuery and jQuery UI supported in add-ons
  • MDL-29996 - Legacy filters are not supported any more, developers need to migrate filters from modules to standard filter location
  • MDL-35356 - Excel and ODS export improvements
  • MDL-35434 - Theme developers may use new admin setting type for user uploaded logo images
  • MDL-37726 - PREVIOUS and NEXT attributes are not required in install.xml files
  • MDL-38558 - It is now possible to run local pre-upgrade script
  • MDL-38391 - Convert YUI_config to class in lib/outputrequirements.php.
  • MDL-35819 - JS M.util.help_icon deprecated in favour of moodle-core-popuphelp

Upgrade notes for developers​

See also​

Translations​