Abandon LaTeX in Certificates

Please note that existing certificates are stored as code before MathJax processing and the PDF generation. After update to ILIAS 10 they will show the Latex code instead of formula when being downloaded. If you used such certificates, please encourage the users to download them before the update  to ILIAS 10.

1 Reasons to Abandon Feature

ILIAS currently supports the use of LaTeX code in certificates. This possibility was introduced with the feature request “Server-Side MathJax Rendering”.

If TinyMCE is activated, the richtext editor for the certificate text does not offer a TeX-Button. It is, however, possible to enter LaTeX code with [tex]…[⁄tex] delimiters. This will be processed by a MathJax server to create formula images.

The XSL-FO based PDF generation of certificates by the Java server of ILIAS can only handle LaTeX code that has been rendered as a PNG image.  This requires the configuration of a MathJax server with an old MathJax-node version (0.5.2) which may have security issues, e.g. a missing safe-mode. The feature request “Streamline LaTeX Usage” proposes to replace the installation descriptions of the MathJax Server in favour of MathJax 3, which can’t render PNGs.

As a conclusion the support of LaTeX in certificates is a kind of ‘hidden’ feature that works only under specific conditions and relies on outdated third-party software. It seems of little purpose since the certifcate text normally consists of short information about a user and an achieved knowledge.

2 Technical Information

The support of LaTeX in certificates should be dropped. The code for processing LaTeX and all related unit tests will be removed from the Certificate component. The test cases C1305 and C13056 regarding ‘MathJax im Zertifikat' will be removed. This abandon can be tested with the standard unit tests and test cases of the certificate service (C13576, C13537, C24821, C24811, C24829).

3 Contact

• Author of the Request: Neumann, Fred [fneumann]
• Maintainer: Jansen, Michael [mjansen]
• Implementation of the feature is done by: {The maintainer must add the name of the implementing developer.}

4 Funding

This Feature is funded by Leibniz University Hannover

5 Discussion

Use the following discussion section to express your objections against this request or your consent to get rid of this feature.

JourFixe, ILIAS [jourfixe], 22 JUL 2024: We fully support the decision to abandon LaTeX in certificates. Feature will be abadoned with ILIAS 10.

6 Implementation

Pull Request is merged: https://github.com/ILIAS-eLearning/ILIAS/pull/8190

Removed Testcases

The following testcases have been removed from Testrail or modified because the feature is no longer part of the ILIAS core.

• C13055:  MathJax in der Zertifikats-Vorschau anzeigen
• C13056:  MathJax im Zertifikat anzeigen

Approval

Approved at 2024-10-16 by Jansen, Michael [mjansen] (PR: https://github.com/ILIAS-eLearning/ILIAS/pull/8190).