JourFixe-2014-08-06

The Jour Fixe takes place at Wednesday, August 06, 2014, from 12h30 - 18h30 at ILIAS open source eLearning e.V. in Cologne. Participants:

• Björn Heyser, Michael Jansen, Alexander Killing, Matthias Kunkel (Minutes), Jörg Lützenkirchen, Stefan Meyer, Martin Studer

1 Appointments

2014-08-27: SIG Mathe+ILIAS Treffen in Göttingen
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 4.4.4 published at July 20, 2014
• ILIAS 4.3.8 published at July 14, 2014
• ILIAS 4.2.10 published at July 31, 2014 (last release of this version)

• 4.5.0_beta1 is scheduled for September 15, 2014
• 4.4.5 is scheduled for August, 2014
• 4.3.9 is scheduled for August, 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. #12870 / Show concrete time inside the log data output: We accept the change as a bug fix, since the column header already states Date/Time.
2. #13711 Booking Pool: limit schedule : This is a feature request. Please create a page in the feature wiki. We propose to introduce
   • an optional start date and
   • an optional end date.
3. #13732 - Anonymization or just hiding the name? : We should avoid "Anonymization" because it is not given. 
   • Our proposals for German:
     • Ihr Name und Votum ist in den Abstimmungsergebnissen für Administratoren sichtbar.
     • Ihr Name wird in den Abstimmungsergebnissen nicht angezeigt.
   • We should collect all screens that make use of the term "Anonymization" and try to find descriptions that clearly state what data is shown to whom.

3 Feature Requests for ILIAS 4.5

3.1 ILIAS 4.5 Statistics and 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. Selecting recipients for group and course mails: We support the first mockup added by Matthias under 1.3 and accept it as a usability fix for 4.5. The second screen (member list) should be re-used by the existing implementation in the mail system (without role column).
2. Taxonomies for Test Questions - Support of tests with fixed selection of questions : We envisage the following workflow for fix question tests using taxonomies:
   • The taxonomy feature must be activated in the general test settings screen.
   • If activated a new taxonomy tab occurs.
   • Initially the tab includes an option (button) to load the taxonomy information from all pools related to questions in the test.
   • Loading this information will make it impossible to change the question set of the test, without removing the taxonomy information before again.
   • Additionally it is possible to "reload" the taxonomy information at any time.
   • Information messages should make the implications listed above clear.
   • A question list should show the current taxonomy node assignment.
3. #13617 Setting "Mode": Remove text "Minimum Value:1": We think that the Min/Max information is dispensable in most of the cases, thus we will disable it per default. If validation fails, the information will be enabled automatically. Developers may also enable the presentation of the Min/Max info for special cases (e.g. min. number of assignments to pass in exercises).
4. Optimisation of Autocomplete User Search: The "more" solution in the drop down is ok for us. The long list should include max. 1000 entries.
5. Secure Password Storage: We support the current concept of Michael.
   • We still reject the exporting of the passwords (import of all encryption types is ok).
   • Types in the import are PLAIN, ILIAS3 (=MD5), MD5, and BCRYPT.
   • The setup should not allow to enter or display the global salt. It should just offer a "generate" button, if no salt exists.
   • The global salt should be stored in a file in the external data directory.
6. UI Framework: Alexander presented the current bootstrap prototype branch (/branches/iic/4_5_bs). We will continue to develop this branch.
   • Next steps will be:
     1. General design mockups (funded by Universität Münster, provided by a webdesigner at CaT) -> August
     2. A new "ILIAS" skin based on the design mockups using the bootstrap framework
     3. An estimation of all maintainers about the costs to make necessary changes in their components (esp. introduce bootstrap classes in non-standard templates)
     4. Finalize the icon set developmentWe still see an opportunity to provide a solution for 4.5, but we will make all these steps in the separate branch for now.
   • We may postpone the beta release due to these developments up to end of September, but not later.
7. Advisory Council 2014-03-26_Results_ Completing and streamlining
   1. Streamlining the use of the notification system: General Notification System, General revision and unification of the notification system(s), http://www.ilias.de/docu/goto_docu_blog_3439_146.html : We are still missing a written concept for this, especially for the user interface part (mockups for config screens, as discussed on the DevConf in Zürich). This concept should be funded first. We will postpone the feature.
   2. Forcing the full implementation of guidelines: Feature cannot be funded by AC as long as Notification System is not realised and we know about the budget left.
   3. Add multiple items from My Courses/Groups to Selected Items: Feature cannot be funded by AC as long as Notification System is not realised and we know about the budget left.
   4. ILIAS Page Editor improvements / Linking in ILIAS Editor: Feature cannot be funded by AC as long as Notification System is not realised and we know about the budget left.
8. Memory Caching Service: We highly appreciate this improvement and schedule it as a usability/performance improvement for 4.5. Please add at least a general memcache activation option in the setup under "Tools".

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. Logging: Object History : We postpone this topic to an upcoming release. There is no maintainer for this component and we don't have enough funding/resources to finalize this concept for 4.5.
2. Notification System: (Advisory Council) General Notification System and General revision and unification of the notification system(s): We are still missing a written concept for this, especially for the user interface part (mockups for config screens, as discussed on the DevConf in Zürich). This concept should be funded first. We will postpone the feature.

3.4 Postponed

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

1. Test: Excel-Export: disable setting shuffle questions
2. Test: Item export: Include hints and media objects
3. SOAP / Webservices: SOAP Method: getLearningProgressOfAssignedCourses

4 Feature Requests for ILIAS 4.6

Decission postponed

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
17. Lightweight profiling of requests
18. Style for Tests
19. course assignment: add all users of a role
20. option to skip Enter the course-page if direct join is possible
21. First Come First Serve Solution
22. Reminders and Notifications in Booking Pool

5 Miscellaneous

• Development Conference: Please feel free to suggest a topic for the upcoming DevConf in Bolzano. Send the suggestion to Matthias Kunkel (kunkel@ilias.de).
• Next Jour Fixe: Monday, August 18, 2014, from 12h30 until 17h30 at the office of ILIAS-Verein in Cologne.