3.7.0 (stable)

Very important notes for MySQL 4.1.x users:

If you update from ILIAS 3.4.0 or 3.4.1 and already used MySQL 4.1.x: Due to a problem in the UTF-8 handling some extra update steps are necessary. Please <b><u>click on this link and follow the instructions</u></b>.

If you just plan to update from MySQL 4.0.x to MySQL 4.1.x please read our Migrating from MySQL 4.0.x to MySQL 4.1.x instructions.

Please read the Major Update Issues section below if you plan to update from an earlier version to ILIAS 3.7.x.

Known issues

1. LaTeX code bug in cloze questions
Using LaTeX code with {...} expressions is not possible in cloze questions because the code will be deleted due to problems with the PHP template engine. To solve the issue, download the following file class.assQuestion.php and replace the existing version in the assessment/classes/ directory (after making a backup copy of the existing one).

2. Essay question points could not be set by authors
Due to a wrong method call of the course objectives, the setting of essay question points in the course statistics does not work. To solve the issue, download the following file class.assTextQuestion.php and replace the existing version in the assessment/classes/ directory (after making a backup copy of the existing one).

3. "Could not find entry in modules.xml or services.xml" at Startup

On some browsers a message "Could not find entry in modules.xml or services.xml" appears on ILIAS startup randomly. To solve this problem, make a backup copy of file Services/Init/classes/class.ilStartUpGUI.php. Then copy the following patch file into directory Services/Init/classes/.

4. User registration fails with DB Error: no such table error

The user registration may fail with an error "DB Error: no such table
SQL: SELECT value FROM usr_pre WHERE usr_id='xxx' AND keyword = 'language'
Details: Table 'xxx.usr_pre' doesn't exist". To solve this problem, make a backup copy of file classes/class.ilObjUser.php. Then copy the following patch file into directory classes/.

Major Update Issues

• Please note that read permission for media pools will grant read access to media pools now. This presentation mode has not been implemented in the past (see also bug #1234). Please check your media pool permissions accordingly.

• All major style and template changes are listed on the Style/Template Changes 3.6.x -> 3.7.x page.

• The StudIP template/style is not provided with ILIAS 3.7.x. If the theme is activated on your installation, please move all users to the standard "Delos" theme in Administration -> Style Settings -> System Styles. The major purpose of this theme has been the bundling with StudIP, which is possible with 3.6.x but not with ILIAS 3.7.x yet. It is not planned that every major ILIAS version will be integrated with StudIP, probably the next version will be ILIAS 3.8.0.

• The exercise module has been revised fundamentally (see Exercise Section below).

New Features

ILIAS core

• CAS and SOAP authentication support (Alex Killing)

• Revision and enhancement of user registration (by Stefan Meyer, partly funded by Justizakademie NRW)

• PayPal-Payment (Jens Conze)

User Interface, Usability and Accessibility

• Allowing additional information on category pages, e.g. a short text explaining what a user can expect in this category. (by Alex Killing) [completed]

• Frame layout revision. Scalable layout, accessibility, remove top frame. (by Alex Killing) [completed]

• New two-columns layout (col1 -> learning objectives, col2 -> related learning materials) for courses oriented to learning objectives (by Arturo González).

• Forum Layout/Usability Issues: Clean up layout, attachment file names, ... (Alex Killing) [completed]

• Permanent Bookmark Feature for all Repository Objects: Allows to link to every object in repository from external web pages or bookmarks (Alexander Killing, completed)

Personal Desktop and General Services

• none

Learning and Content Management

• LaTeX support for ILIAS learning modules (Alex Killing, Helmut Schottmüller) [completed]

• Enable/Disable Page Elements and Pages in Learning Module Editor (Roland Küstermann, Alex Killing) [completed]

• Stylesheet Editor Extension - Allows to assign a stylesheet of an existing learning module to another one, to import/export stylesheets and to restrict usage of a stylesheet to a certain category (by Alex Killing for Copernicus/Autonome Provinz Südtirol) [completed]

• Header and Footer for all Pages of a Learning Module. (Alex Killing) [completed]

• Aggregated History for Learning Modules. (Alex Killing) [completed]

Test and Survey

• Sequence Scrambling: every user gets his own sequence of answers when he starts the test the first time. (Roland Küstermann/Helmut Schottmüller) [already implemented]

• Numeric question question type: Answer a question with a numeric value. Authors can define a lower and upper bound for the correctness of the numeric value (Helmut Schottmüller, Nina Gharib) [already implemented]

• Textsubset question question type: Learners must enter a defined number of a set of given answer terms to solve the question. (Helmut Schottmüller, Nina Gharib) [already implemented]

• Essay question extension: Add keywords for an automatic rating of an essay question when one of the keywords is found in the essay (Helmut Schottmüller, Nina Gharib) [already implemented]

• Multiple Choice Question Extension: Using image answers for multiple choice questions as well es text answers (Helmut Schottmüller) [already implemented]

• Detailed output switch for tests: Adding a switch to allow or hide the detailed solution output for learners. The detailed solution output contains the learners answers to a question and the correct answers (Helmut Schottmüller) [already implemented]

• Solution details switch: Add a switch to the test properties to allow learners to see (and print) their question solutions (as it already is implemented for Online Exams) (Helmut Schottmüller) [alread implemented]

• Test password: For additional and fast protection of tests (e.g. inside of courses) a test password could be defined for a test. Independent from the role of the user, a user (with read permissions) could only start the test if he/she enters the correct test password (Helmut Schottmüller) [already implemented]

• Negative points for answers: Allow negative points for answers and add mechanisms to cut the reached points at zero. Negative points have to be introduced to be more compatible with other Test & Assessment systems. For more information see this Forum thread. (Helmut Schottmüller) [already implemented, checks tbd]

• Anonymous tests: Allow tests in public sections of the ILIAS platform for anonymous users. This includes anonymous tests in the non public accessible repository where every test pass is treated like a complete single pass test of separate users. This allows statistics of tests where more than one user uses the same account (Helmut Schottmüller) [already implemented]

• Survey code revision: Change the survey codes to be handled easier. Reduce the survey codes from 32 character to 5 character codes and add a language selector for the survey code URL's to set a default survey language for anoymous users (Helmut Schottmüller) [already implemented]

• Question summary for test users: Allow test users to get a summary of all test questions (like in online exams) which shows a list of the questions in the current sequence, an info if the user entered values to answer the question and an URL to directly access the questions (Helmut Schottmüller) [already implemented]

• RTE-Editor support for Test & Assessment: Allow the usage of an Rich Text Extension editor for textareas in test questions and test properties. The editor must support a fixed set of tags which can be defined in a system wide setting for Test & Assessment (Helmut Schottmüller) [already implemented]

• Full LaTeX support for Test & Assessment: All question texts and many answer fields could be used with LaTeX code (Helmut Schottmüller) [already implemented]

Exercises

• Remaining Working Time for Exercises. In case that an exercise delivering date has not been reached, a floating box is displayed in exercise view screen, showing the remaining working time as a localized string (i.e. "29 days, 12 hours, 50 minutes"). If the delivering date has been reached, a red warning "time is over" is shown. (Arturo González) [already implemented]

• Improvements to Exercise Interface - "Display Members" screen now contains:

  • "Last Submission" field (Date). This field is sortable.: If a student has delivered a new file after it has been marked as solved by the teacher the "Last Submission" field is displayed in bold text.

  • "Mail Feedback" link to student as an action button.

  • "Comments for Learner"/"Mark": A comment for the learner and a grading can be provided. This information is displayed on the learner's information screen of the exercise. If the learning progress feature is activated, comment and grading are fully synchronised with it.

  • "send mail to user(s)" has been added to action list in member table. Now, a mail can be sent to a list of selected users.

  • Other modifications:

    • The checkboxes sent/passed/submitted are all replaced by detailed information. If exercises are sent via e-mail to the learners a column "Exercise Sent" will contain time and date of the mail. The submissions are featured by hat number of submitted files and the date of the last submission. The "Solved" checkbox is replaced by a grading column including the status ("Not Graded", "Passed", "Failed") and an input field for the mark.

    • "Already delivered files" table has been modified in order to have the "Files" and "Dates" in usual order. Beside this, it has been changed according to ILIAS common user interface.

  (by Arturo González, Alex Killing)

Communication and Syndication

• Feedback module for evaluating user's satisfaction in courses or groups (Stefan Haberl, endo7 on behalf of Copernicus/Autonome Provinz Bozen) [completed]

• LaTeX support for fora (Alex Killing) [completed]

• Forum: Posting statistics; ranking of users ordered by number of posts of a specific thread. Can be enabled/disabled locally (forum) and globally (administration), for data security reasons. Statistics shows: ranking (number of posts), firstname and lastname. (Roland Küstermann) [completed]

• Mail to Role - sending a mail to all users who are assigned to a specific role (Sascha Hofmann) [completed]

Groupware and Course Management

• Learning Plan Support - allows to plan the learning time and schedule for courses (Stefan Meyer) [completed]

• Live Event Support for Courses - represents live activities and events in courses, incl. information about schedule, place and agenda (Stefan Meyer) [completed]

• Course and Group Members Gallery: A new submenu tab is displayed on the "Members" section of a course or group, named 'course/group members gallery' (which is usually called 'orla' in spanish) that displays a set of floating images of the course/group members:

  • firstname and lastname below the images

  • each picture is linked to user public profile (if activated by the user).

  • a darker background for the tutors, so that they can be recognised easily.

  • improving the css for print purposes.

  (by Arturo González)

• iLinc: Support of Cost Centers - Assigning of iLinc Cost Centers to users and Learnlinc Seminars via ILIAS (Sascha Hofmann) [completed]

• iLinc: Added Members Gallery feature to Learnlinc Seminars by Arturo González (Sascha Hofmann) [completed]

• iLinc: Added Mail to Members feature to Learnlinc Seminars (Sascha Hofmann) [completed]

Administration

• Statistical Aggregation of ILIAS LM: see here for more details. (Roland Küstermann) [completed]

• Trash handling: Added a quick delete option. The trash handling may be disabled in system adminiatration. If disabled, objects are deleted immediately from system and not moved to trash. (Sascha Hofmann) [completed]

• Welcome Mail for New Users: If users are created by the administrator or by user import, a welcome mail is sent to the new user. (Stefan Schneider, Alex Killing) [completed]