Release notes for WeBWorK 2.2-pre1

This article has been retained as a historical document. It is not up-to-date and the formatting may be lacking. Use the information herein with caution.

Introduction

This is a test prerelease of the upcoming WeBWorK 2.2. It contains numerous improvements over WeBWorK 2.1.3. Some changes are as follows:

Removal of deprecated database layouts: The gdbm and sql database layouts have been removed. If you have existing courses that use either of these database layouts, you must convert them to use the sql_single database layout before upgrading. Please consult InstallationManualV2pt2#Before_you_upgrade for more information.

Gateway testing: allows a user to complete multiple versions of a problem set. The instructor can optionally specify restrictions on how often a new version can be viewed, how long a user has to complete a version, and whether a proctor is required to authenticate before a version is completed.

jsMath 3.0: See http://www.math.union.edu/~dpvc/jsMath/changes.html for details.

Status system: The status system maps status names (like "Enrolled", "Drop", "Audit") to a list of behaviors the system should have when dealing with users who have the status. (For example, users who are auditing the course are allowed to log in and are included in assignments, but are not included in scoring.) See comments in global.conf for more information.

Additional permissions: can_always_use_show_old_answers_default, can_show_old_answers_by_default, download_hardcopy_format_pdf, manage_course_files, proctor_quiz, view_problem_debugging_info, view_proctored_tests.

Hardcopy rewrite: Faster, smaller memory footprint, better error handling.

Course Configuration module: Allows web-based configuration of commonly-modified settings.

User Detail module: Replaces "Sets assigned to user" module, allows customization of open/due/answer dates as well as assigning/unassigning sets.

Login and activity logs: Detailed login success and failure information is logged to the login log. The activity log logs each request issued to the WeBWorK system (if configured).

Feedback improvements: Subject line is now customizable. User, set, and problem record information is now printed in a more readable format.

File Manager improvements: Show dates and sizes of files, provide better control over renaming of uploaded files whose names already exist, allow the creation or gzipped tar archives from files in the course directory, follow symbolic links that are to files or directories within the

course hierarchy (and outside of the course directory, if configured).

And of course, many UI improvements and bug fixes.

Availability

WeBWorK 2.2-pre1 is available from our CVS repository. Read WeBWorKCVSReadOnly for more information on how to set up a CVS connection. For those who already have a CVS connection, this update can be obtained by updating to the tag rel-2-2-pre1.

WeBWorK 2.2-pre1 is also available as a tarball from our SourceForge project page: http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=93112

You must also install PGLanguageRelease2pt2pre1 at the same time you install WeBWorK 2.2-pre1.

Installation

Installation instructions are available from InstallationManualV2pt2.

If you are upgrading, please read the section Upgrading WeBWorK, paying special attention to the subsections Before you upgrade and Making changes for the new release.

Help

If you need help installing or using WeBWorK 2.2, visit the WeBWorK discussion group and post your question there. The developers monitor this forum.

Bug Reports & Feature Requests

Submit bug reports and feature requests at http://bugs.webwork.rochester.edu/. We can't fix bugs and add features if you don't tell us about them!

Patches

While we welcome patches of any sort, by patching against the latest CVS code, you save us and yourself time. A bug in this release may be fixed in CVS, and we can more easily handle patches against the latest code. Check out the latest development version from CVS and patch against that. Consult the WeBWorKCVS topic for more information.

-- Main.SamHathaway - 12 Jan 2006
-- Main.SamHathaway - 13 Jan 2006 (tweaks)