JourFixe-2014-07-07

The Jour Fixe takes place at Monday, July 07, 2014, from 12h30 - ... at ILIAS open source eLearning e.V. in Cologne. Participants:

• Alexander Killing (Minutes), Jörg Lützenkirchen, Stefan Meyer, Fabian Schmid, Timon Amstutz, Guido Vollbach, Richard Klees

1 Appointments

2014-07-08: SIG Performance, ILIAS office, @ Qualitus Cologne
2014-09-29: ILIAS Development Conference in Bozen
2014-09-30 - 10-01: 13th International ILIAS Conference in Bozen

2 Bugfixing for maintained versions 4.2, 4.3 and 4.4

Last releases:

• ILIAS 4.4.3 published at May 14, 2014
• ILIAS 4.3.7 published at March 21, 2014
• ILIAS 4.2.9 published at September 04, 2013

• 4.4.4 is scheduled for July 12, 2014
• 4.3.8 is scheduled for July 08, 2014
• 4.2.10 is scheduled for July 2014

We went through Mantis and had a overlook about all open issues reported or modified since the last Jour Fixe. All issues were screened and assigned to the responsible developers. We discussed in detail:

1. #12728 - deactivate session statistics: A setting to deactivate the feature is ok as a usability/performance fix.
2. #13525 - total time online / last login in LP: We prefer to remove these two dates from the view. Mainly because they are not relavant for the learning progress and presenting them to tutors is a privacy issue as well.
3. #13512 - booking threshold: This is current the intended behaviour. If this should be changed, a feature request in the feature wiki should be done and the change should be documented with a new major release.
4. #13541 - survey: skipped: We prefer to add a global survey administration setting that switches between the current behaviour and a custom value.
5. http://www.ilias.de/mantis/view.php?id=13197: We would prefer "AND" in this case.

3 Feature Requests for ILIAS 4.5

3.1 ILIAS 4.5 Statistics, Release Dates

According to the presentation at the last Development Conference we want to improve the documentation of the development process. The data of the following overview of development activities for the next upcoming major release is taken from the page Release 5.0. All developers are requested to update the status of their features.

Proposed Beta Release Date

• We propose to schedule a first beta release ILIAS 4.5.0 for September 15th 2014. Beta means, that all new features should be finished and tested by the developer. External testing of official testers must not be finished at this date. If any developer foresees that her or his already contracted developments may not be finished up to this date, please get in contact with the core team before the upcoming Jour Fixe.

3.2 ILIAS 4.5 Development Issues

1. #13534 - ilDateTimeInputGUI in disabled state makes problems: JF: We agree that this behaviour needs improvements. This should be discussed in the feature wiki as a feature/guideline request. Alex will check if setValueByArray can be ommitted for disabled input objects.
2. PDF-Export for the several participants - As Usibility Fix for 4.3 - 4.5. JF: Since the feature already exists and "only the button is missing on this screen", we accept this as a usability fix for 4.5.
3. Taxonomies for Test Questions - Topic 1.2.3 - Discussion 4.2 - Presentation of User Solutions According to Taxonom. JF: We postpone the discussion to the next JF where Mattthias will participate.
4. Streamlining: Copy Forum: JF: We think that there are definitely scenarios where users want to copy the content (e.g. a course template containing a forum with an introduction posting). We would not like to simple change the current behaviour of ILIAS here. We would need a general concept how components can provide additional options during the copy process, so that users can control the copy behaviour. However coping the moderators should be omitted, since this would be more consitent to the copy behaviour of other components (e.g. container do not copy assignments to local roles).
5. Save a page modification automatically: We think it should be discussed where such a behaviour should be available in general. E.g. when writing a forum posting or hand in a text assignment, on every form that contains text areas or even on all forms? We would not like to introduce the feature for the page editor only.
6. Relabel Core Conepts: We agree that the vocabulary in ILIAS could be improved. Since this is a very fundamental issue (at least the terms discussed above), we would like to invite everyone to participate in the discussion and to provide suggestions. If we find a common agreement on remaning these concepts, this could be done in 4.6, but not in 4.5 anymore.
7. Deactivation of notifications about new memberships: JF: We agree that notifications should not be activated implicitly. User should deliberatly activate the feature. We schedule this as a usability for for 4.5.

3.3 Feature Requests for 4.5

The following list contains features that have been added to the Feature Wiki before feature freeze and are supported by the responsible component maintainer, see also Feature Requests 5.0. Please do not add new features on this list.

1. User Interfacce: UI Framework / Design Revision - Update after decision of Advisory Council
   • We support the idea to create a prototype based on bootstrap. After that all developers should evaluate the impact on their components. On this basis we discusse the further steps and roadmap for the upcoming releases. If everythings goes very smooth, an introduction in 4.5 might be possible, but more likely it will be 4.6.
   • The ultimate goal should be to use as far of the bootstrap classes and concepts in ILIAS as possible and to remove all classes and JS implementations in ILIAS that can be replaced by bootstrap implementations.
   • A CSS/JS concept should be developed that clarifies the relation between bootstrap and remaining ILIAS classes. When can ILIAS CSS classes be used, how are the embedded in the LESS/SASS build process? Do we use LESS or SASS? How should mixins be developed/designed?
2. Container: Sorting of Categories: JF: We support the idea and schedule it for 4.5
3. Personal Desktop: (Advisory Council) Add multiple items from My Courses/Groups to Selected Items: We still support the remaining part (add multiple items from "My Courses/Groups" to the "Selected Items" screen) and schedule it for 4.5. BUT the naming of the feature must be improved. "Add to Desktop" on the "My Courses/Groups" screen is slightly confusing.
4. Learning Module SCORM: increase performance for SCORM 1.2 by changing manner of storing data: JF: We support this improvements and schedule it for 4.5.
5. Learning Module SCORM: SCORM 1.2: Ability to set score.max to get a percentage-value similar to score.scaled in SCORM 2004: JF: We support this improvements and schedule it for 4.5.
6. Learning Module SCORM: Set Specific Value For IE-compatible Mode: JF: We still support this improvements and schedule it for 4.5.
7. Learning Module SCORM: Storing data without session for SCORM 1.2: JF: We still support this improvements and schedule it for 4.5.
8. LTI: Consuming LTI in Repository – Basic: JF: We support this improvement in general and schedule it for 4.5. Please contact the Repository maintainers Alex and Stefan, and provide technical details especially about the part the provides additional repository object types.
9. Wiki: Extending User Activities for Page Editing, Protecting and Deleting: JF: We support a solution of the general issue: The access of users to certain permission without the full "edit permission" permission should be possible. We think that a settings screen is not the best location for this access, since settings screens are differ in the organisation and the complexity in the various repository object types. We suggest a general tab for these cases, a simplified replacement of the current permission tab. However did not come to a final conclusion for the points "Naming" and "Permission Handling". (for more details see feature wiki entry)

3.4 Postponed

The following features requests have been postponed to the next Jour Fixe due to missing time.

1. Core / General: Use minify to combine javascript and css - No existing maintainership.
2. File Handling: Filename Encoding - Not related to one distinct maintainership.
3. Administration: Default object settings - Not related to one distinct maintainership.
4. Logging: Log-Level - No maintainer yet
5. Logging: Object History - No maintainer yet
6. Exercise: Personalised Peer Feedback
7. Test: Support commenting of questions in question pool
8. Test: Abandon Flash Question Type
9. Test: Abandon Java Applet Question Type
10. Test: Excel-Export: disable setting shuffle questions
11. Test: Item export: Include hints and media objects
12. Test: PDF-Export for the several participants
13. Notification System: (Advisory Council) General Notification System
14. Notification System: (Advisory Council) General revision and unification of the notification system(s)
15. SOAP / Webservices: SOAP Method: getLearningProgressOfAssignedCourses
16. Survey: Print and email own answers

4 Feature Requests for ILIAS 4.6

The following features requests have been postponed to an upcoming Jour Fixe due to missing time.

1. function to report a post to the moderator
2. Option to deactivate the file upload possibility
3. Notification to the author or administrator if a new comment was posted
4. Option to disable/hide the Export Profile-Button
5. Enforce Public Profiles + Option to force the global publishing of the personal profile (duplicate)
6. configurable Autostart for Videos
7. Letter Avatars
8. Password Recovery by using secret question
9. MS SQL Support
10. SMTP-Settings-Page
11. WAC: Enable Web-Access-Checker by default
12. Time-based activation of sections
13. Update questions from pools to tests
14. Search in blog
15. Editing a blog post by a non-author
16. Password protection for SCORM Modules

5 Miscellaneous

• Next Jour Fixe: Monday, July 21, 2014, from 12h30 until 17h30 at the office of ILIAS-Verein in Cologne.