Release notes for WeBWorK 2.2.0

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This article has been retained as a historical document.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

The WeBWorKTeam is pleased to announce the release of WeBWorK 2.2.0. This release contains numerous improvements over WeBWorK 2.1.4. 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 3.1: 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.

In addition, the following has changed since the release of WeBWorK 2.2-pre1:

  • Fix for a security issue in which a privileged user could execute arbitrary commands in the security context of the web server.
  • Improvements to math.template.
  • Fix for the behavior of the floating "info" box: display is more robust, box is not shown if there is no info to report.
  • Improvements to the PG problem editor's handling of temporary files and browser windows.
  • Help file for the PG problem editor.
  • jsMath 3.1
  • Fix for an error message triggered by selecting "the following files" in the Classlist Editor import options. (See %BUG{944}%.)
  • Fix for a warning message triggered by missing permission levels when importing users from a classlist file. (See %BUG{942}%.)
  • Converted error messages to warning messages when renaming a course and a directory cannot be moved. Added pre-checks to avoid this situation in the first place. (See %BUG{943}%.)

The following has changed since WeBWorK 2.2-pre2:

  • Improvements to math.template: HTML/CSS validation; limit info box width, allow contents to scroll; clean up siblings sidebar; remove the grey box around problems; reduce font size in sidebars; cut off overflowing text in sidebars;
  • Restore $courseDirs{DATA} configuration option, for future use.
  • Remove extraneous Instructor Tools link from problem set list.
  • Update copyright dates in source files.
  • Converted error messages to warning messages when adding or deleting a course and a directory or database table cannot created or deleted. Added pre-checks to avoid this situation in the first place.
  • Remove some local admin utilities from webwork2/bin.
  • Remove deprecated gif2eps, gif2png, png2eps scripts.
  • Update check_modules.pl.
  • jsMath 3.1c
  • Fix an issue where the feedback recipients list was not actually set when changed though Course Configuration. (See %BUG{961}%.)
  • Fix an issue where the hardcopy generator is unable to create its temporary directory. (See %BUG{950}%.)
  • Fix a cosmetic error in hardcopy error reporting.
  • Fix an issue preventing the Report Bugs link from appearing. (See %BUG{960}%.)
  • List students last name first in Student Progress.
  • Remove deprecated editFileSuffix mechanism in several modules.
  • Set $main::VERSION to 2.2.
  • Allow Grades module to handle versioned sets.
  • Fix a security issue where the sourceFilePath mechanism could be used to supply an arbitrary file on the server as a PG source file for translation. (See %BUG{970}%.)
  • Fix an issue where jsMath could crash firefox 1.5.0.1.
  • Fix an issue where Student Progress display options were not preserved when re-sorting the table.
  • Move the "[edit]" link in the Course Info and Set Info boxes to the header of the box. (See %BUG{978}%.)

Availability

WeBWorK 2.2.0 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-2-2-0.

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

You must also have PGLanguageRelease2pt2pt0 installed. The installation manual covers installing PG.

Installation

Installation instructions are available from InstallationManualV2pt2.

If you are upgrading from WeBWorK 2.1.x, please read the section Upgrading WeBWorK, paying special attention to the subsections Before you upgrade and Making changes for the new release.

No changes are necessary when upgrading from 2.2-pre1 or 2.2-pre2.

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

Please submit bug reports and feature requests at http://bugs.webwork.rochester.edu/.

-- Main.SamHathaway - 09 Feb 2006

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