Release notes for WeBWorK 2.10

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                                     WeBWorK                                    
                         Online Homework Delivery System                        
                                  Version 2.10                          

                    Copyright 2000-2015, The WeBWorK Project                    
                              All rights reserved.                              

Details
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Release date: January ??, 2015

Github repository:  https://github.com/openwebwork
Modules:    webwork2   pg

Cautions

Warning : A number of new modules have been added since version 2.9, as well as significant database upgrades. There are also changes to the configuration files which will need to be integrated into your existing configurations. The process for upgrading to 2.10 is described below.:

Upgrade Instructions

1) There were a number of new perl modules added for 2.10 Run check_modules.pl and look for missing modules. They may include

  • Array::Utils
  • Dancer
  • Dancer::Plugin::Database
  • Iterator
  • Iterator::Util
  • Path::Class
  • XML::Parser::EasyTree

Install using your distributions package manager or via cpan ``` cpan Array::Utils Dancer::Plugin::Database Iterator::Util Path::Class XML::Parser::EasyTree ```

2) There were a couple of new LaTeX packages added for 2.10. Run pdflatex check_latex.tex and look for missing packages. Added packages include booktabs,tabularx,colortbl,caption,xcolor,path.

  • In apt based systems you may have to install texlive-latex-recommended and yum based systems may have to install texlive-path
Warning : There currently is no package on CentOS 7 which provides the path package. You can manually download and install the Fedora package and it will work.:

3) Check localOverrides.conf.dist and look for changes to add to the existing localOverrides.conf. They may include

  • Information for the Upgrade Notifier
################################################################################
# Repository Information
###############################################################################
# This is where you put your remote and branch for your WeBWorK, PG and OPL
# github repositories.
# To disable checking for a particular repository, set the remote and branch
# variables to be empty strings.
$enableGitUpgradeNotifier = 1;
$gitWeBWorKRemoteName = "origin";
$gitWeBWorKBranchName = "master";
$gitPGRemoteName = "origin";
$gitPGBranchName = "master";
$gitLibraryRemoteName = "origin";
$gitLibraryBranchName = "master";
  • Information for a local "site_info.txt" file
# This is the site_info file. You should consider changing this to point
# to a file which is not tracked by git
$webworkFiles{site_info} = "$webworkDirs{htdocs}/site_info.txt";
  • Default value for the showMeAnother feature
# The default showMeAnother for a problem to use when using the
# Library Browser, Problem Editor or Hmwk Sets Editor to add problems to a set
# or when this value is left blank in an imported set definition file. Note that
# setting this to -1 disables the showMeAnother button
$problemDefaults{showMeAnother} = -1;

4) Check site-conf.dist and look for changes to add to the existing site.conf. They may include paths for the following external programs

  • Git $externalPrograms{git} = "/usr/bin/git";
  • TTH $externalPrograms{tth} ="/usr/bin/tth";
  • Curl $externalPrograms{curlCommand} = "/usr/bin/curl";

5) Run the upgrade_admin_db.pl command from webwork2/bin to upgrade your admin course database.

Warning : You will not be able to access the admin course until you perform this step:

6) Log into the admin course and upgrade the databases for all of your courses.

7) Download the latest version of the OPL using git and run OPL-update

Primary Changes

This version contains a couple of major additions to WeBWorK and a collection of smaller features. The major changes are listed below.

  • Accessibility: We made a number of changes to the math4 interface to make it much friendlier to screen readers and other accessibility tools. Rather than one large change this is a huge number of small tweaks and improvements.
    • All color contrasts should be up to AA level
    • There is an easy to see focus box now and a skip to main content link.
    • Tables and fields should mostly meet accessibility standards now. The big exception is that fields in problems do not have proper labels.
    • Added aria labels to fields generated by PG. These labels identify each answer field as "Answer 1", or "Answer 1 Part 1", etc... These are not technical replacements for input labels, but are functional replacements for most screen readers.
    • Made tweaks to make the student interface of WeBWorK easy to navigate using the tab key.
    • Reordered the problem results table to make more sense when read left to right and added links which change focus from the "correct/incorrect" text to the corresponding field.
  • Update Notifier: When properly set up and enabled using the configuration files this will notify you when there are updates, or new versions, available for WeBWorK or PG. It will also notify you when there are updates to the OPL and if you need to run OPL-update. The notification appears on the Course List page of the admin course. Caution: This uses git ls-remote to check in with the github repositories. If the wait is too long the system can be disabled.
  • Theme Overrides: Using the files math4-overrides.css and math4-overrides.js administrators can include their own js and css in a way which will be compatible with future updates. Using this administrators can change coloring, the header images, or even basic functionality.
    • Added a red and green variant of the math4 theme.
  • Show Me Another: Added a "Show Me Another" feature. When enabled this will give students the option of viewing a different version of their current problem. Depending on the configuration this version may or may not come with a solution, hints, the ability to check answers, or the ability to view correct answers.
    • The problem is guaranteed to be different so the feature will fail on problems with no randomization.
    • The feature is enabled in the Course Configuration page, but also needs to be enabled for each individual problem.
  • Reduced Scoring: Changed how reduced scoring works so that instead of a fixed reduced scoring period, each set has an individual "reduced scoring date". After this reduced scoring date students will receive reduced credit for their answers.
    • This can be used with the existing override system to extend a due date for a student with reduced credit without changing the due date of the set for the class.
  • PG Additions: There were a number of new PG macros added which provide some nice functionality.
    • niceTables.pl: This allows problem authors to create tables with a large degree of control, including accessibility support.
    • contextPercentage.pl: This is a context for Percentages.
    • contextAlternateDecimal.pl: This context allows ',' instead of '.' as decimal places.
    • contextAlternateInterval.pl: This context allows ']2,3[' as an alternate notation for open intervals.
    • contextInequalitySetBuilder.pl: This allows for inequality based set notation.
    • contextPartition.pl: This allows for partitions of integers.
    • contextPermutation.pl: This allows for permutation notation.
    • parserRoot.pl: This allows for more generalized roots.
    • scaffold.pl: This new Scaffolding structure is an upgrade to the existing compoundProblem series of macros.

Smaller Changes

Installer

The ww_install installer has been updated to support version 2.10. It has been tested on Ubuntu 14.04, Debian 7, CentOs 7, and Fedora 20. Note: ww_install also installs the components necessary to switch your installation to the develop branch without installing new software.

Supported Distributions and Features

The following are the distributions and features that are officially still supported. You still can use WeBWorK on whatever you like, of course. In particular if you install WeBWorK on a very recent version of Ubuntu or Fedora and have problems let us know.

  • Ubuntu LTS 14.04
  • Debian 7
  • CentOs 7
  • Fedora 20

Note: There is currently a bug which prevents installation on Fedora 21. There is no package which provides the pnmtops program and this causes the installation to fail.

What could possibly go wrong?

  • You can get a warning when trying to log into the admin course: You will need to run upgrade_admin_db.pl. You will also need to upgrade all of your other course.
  • You can't get the update notifier to work: You need to update both the localOverrides.conf and the site.conf configuration files with the latest additions to get the update notifier to work.
  • You can't get hardcopies to work: You will need to install the latest LaTeX packages, including path.sty.
  • Remember to update the OPL and run OPL-update.
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