Copy of Release Notes - OLD (2.7)

Sakai 2.6 Release Notes

Installing and Upgrading

The Sakai 2.6 installation guides provides information on how to install Sakai 2.6 or upgrade from a previous release. Database conversion scripts are supplied in each release in order to help you migrate your data to the 2.6 database schema.

What's New

The following sections provide an overview of what is new in this release. A complete list of /wiki/spaces/ARCHIVE/pages/19457216236 included in this release is also available.

Cross-Project Activities

• Accessibility
  • Minor improvements in some JSF tags.
• Internationalization
  • Support for localized tool names, page names not currently localized ( SAK-8908 - Getting issue details... STATUS , SAK-14393 - Getting issue details... STATUS , KNL-27 - Getting issue details... STATUS )
  • Localized date/time picker for Announcement, Assignment, Schedule, and Resources ( SAK-3825 - Getting issue details... STATUS ).
  • Localized start-of-week in Schedule ( SAK-8459 - Getting issue details... STATUS , SAK-12878 - Getting issue details... STATUS ).
  • Supported Languages
    • Arabic updated
    • Basque updated
    • Catalan updated
    • Chinese (Simplified)
    • Chinese (Traditional) new
    • Dutch updated
    • English (Australia)
    • English (New Zealand)
    • English (South Africa)
    • English (United Kingdom)
    • English (United States) updated
    • French (Canada)
    • French (France)
    • Japanese
    • Korean
    • Portuguese (Brazil)
    • Portuguese (Portugal) updated
    • Russian updated
    • Spanish updated
    • Swedish updated
• Kernel
  • A "K1" kernel release that brings all of the current components together in a single place.
  • See individual kernel components below for changes.
• Performance
  • Implementation of a working, proof-of-concept generic Sakai performance testing environment, including data.
  • Establish baseline tests for tools and build a test results library for comparisons among releases.
• Testing
  • Improvements to Sakai integration test support ( SAK-12334 - Getting issue details... STATUS )
• User Experience (UX)
  • No major changes from 2.5.
• Miscellaneous New Features and Functionality
  • Support for using db2 with Sakai ( SAK-12986 - Getting issue details... STATUS ).
  • Support for using Websphere with Sakai ( SAK-13408 - Getting issue details... STATUS ).
  • Session time-out alert ( SAK-13987 - Getting issue details... STATUS ).
  • View site as if in a different role, a.k.a. Student View ( SAK-7924 - Getting issue details... STATUS ).

Tools

• Assignments
  • Support for multiple submissions of an assignment on an assignment-wide basis ( SAK-14746 - Getting issue details... STATUS ).
  • Support of custom fields, with timing and role control over who/when can see them ( SAK-4384 - Getting issue details... STATUS , SAK-7653 - Getting issue details... STATUS , SAK-5803 - Getting issue details... STATUS , SAK-10211 - Getting issue details... STATUS ).
  • Improved integration with Schedule and Announcement; when an assignment opens, expose link to the assignment from schedule and announcement items.
• Blog
  • Improved performance of db layer.
• Calendar Summary
  • Added indicator with number of events to each calendar day.
  • Event description is now formatted as HTML.
  • Improved performance, so tool loads faster.
• Citations Helper
  • New configuration option for maximum number of databases to search simultaneously ( SAK-14166 - Getting issue details... STATUS )
  • Support for populating direct vendor URLs from Search Library Resources and RIS import ( SAK-13441 - Getting issue details... STATUS )
  • User interface improvements ( SAK-14326 - Getting issue details... STATUS , SAK-14343 - Getting issue details... STATUS , SAK-14338 - Getting issue details... STATUS )
• Email Archive
  • Performance improvements for handling a large number of messages in the archive ( SAK-11544 - Getting issue details... STATUS ) .
• Forums
  • Improved reporting.
• Gateway
  • Improve performance when there is a significant number of sites.
• Gradebook
  • Ability to add multiple items at the same time ( SAK-12114 - Getting issue details... STATUS )
• Mailtool
  • Being deprecated and removed.
  • New version of the tool available in Contrib resulting from a major re-write, including switching from JSF to RSF, and improving recipient selection, email validation, and group awareness; not considered ready for production use yet.
• Messages
  • Ability to reply all ( SAK-12073 - Getting issue details... STATUS )
  • Option to turn off 'send to email' option in message composition for a site ( SAK-12176 - Getting issue details... STATUS )
• OSP
  • Improvements to UX.
  • Ability to edit and delete feedback and evaluations ( SAK-8638 - Getting issue details... STATUS ).
  • Aggregation of Evaluations across sites via My Workspace ( SAK-10139 - Getting issue details... STATUS ).
  • Better group awareness and filtering in Wizards tool ( SAK-11545 - Getting issue details... STATUS ).
  • Ability to apply an OSP Style to more screens of a Matrix ( SAK-12154 - Getting issue details... STATUS ).
  • Ability to control allowed general and item-specific feedback (0, 1, many) in Matrices and Wizards ( SAK-13406 - Getting issue details... STATUS ).
• Polls
  • Add entity support to Polls tool ( SAK-14216 - Getting issue details... STATUS ).
• Preferences
  • Customize Tabs is now the default initial page; pages can be re-ordered ( SAK-6545 - Getting issue details... STATUS ).
  • Improved functionality for re-ordering tabs ( SAK-12870 - Getting issue details... STATUS ).
  • User configurable number of tabs ( SAK-11710 - Getting issue details... STATUS ).
• Presentation
  • Retired and removed from the release for 2.6.
• Resources
  • Upload, download and extract Zip archive files ( SAK-800 - Getting issue details... STATUS ).
  • SAK-7670 - Getting issue details... STATUS : Notification of items with release dates should be at release time
• Rwiki
  • Added WYSIWYG editor ( SAK-8535 - Getting issue details... STATUS ).
• Schedule
  • iCal External Subscription support in Schedule Tool ( SAK-12852 - Getting issue details... STATUS )
• Tests & Quizzes (a.k.a. Samigo)
  • ( SAK-8432 - Getting issue details... STATUS ): Allow the ability to edit published assessments and re-grade submissions.
  • ( SAK-13058 - Getting issue details... STATUS ): UCT contributed improvements:1) Group scoped tests 2) Improvements to statistics reporting 3)Include part scores in spreadsheet export.
  • ( SAK-13545 - Getting issue details... STATUS ): Missing confirm screen after Submit for Grading. (Based on contributed code from Rutgers)
  • ( SAK-14474 - Getting issue details... STATUS ): Auto-submit at due date in Tests & Quizzes/Samigo.
  • ( SAK-14380 - Getting issue details... STATUS ): Enhancements to Audio Recording Applet.
  • ( SAK-14273 - Getting issue details... STATUS ): Show the anonymous users their test results immediately after they submit the assessment. Contributed by ASU.
  • ( SAK-14147 - Getting issue details... STATUS ): Ability to share question pools with site members. Contributed by UPV.
  • ( SAK-14106 - Getting issue details... STATUS ): Negative point value for incorrect answer selection. Contributed by UPV.
  • ( SAK-14042 - Getting issue details... STATUS ): Samigo published assessments should be registered as Entities in the Entity Broker and available through the direct servlet. Contributed by ASU.
  • Improvements to UX and Performance.

• User Membership
  • Include the created and last modified date on the screen and in the CSV export.
  • Filtering the searching and viewing of users to only those users with the same named usertype(s).
• Web Content
  • Option for displaying a link and user-entered WYSIWYG text.
• Worksite Setup/Site Info
  • Add option to import and replace content from another site ( SAK-12433 - Getting issue details... STATUS )
  • Create sites from templates ( SAK-12868 - Getting issue details... STATUS ).
  • Support for optional survey questions during site setup ( SAK-12912 - Getting issue details... STATUS ).
  • More configurable control over adding tools (e.g., Chat) multiple times to a site ( SAK-7209 - Getting issue details... STATUS ).
  • Deep delete of site data before importing content from other sites.
  • Enhanced group creation; ability to add a role or a provider id to a group ( SAK-13413 - Getting issue details... STATUS ).
• WYSIWYG Widget (FCKeditor)
  • FCKeditor upgrade to version 2.6.2, which brings in bug fixes and better Safari support ( SAK-13844 - Getting issue details... STATUS ). (FCKeditor version 2.6.4 is currently undergoing integration testing with Sakai and will likely be included in a future Sakai 2.6 Maintenance Releases, SAK-15994 - Getting issue details... STATUS .)
  • FCKeditor plug-in to allow users to embed entities.

The following tools have no changes in functionality for 2.6, incorporating only bug-fixes since the 2.5 series.

• Announcements
• Calendar
• Chat
• Help
• Linktool
• Login
• Membership
• Metaobj
• MOTD (Message-of-the-Day)
• MyWorkspace
• News (RSS)
• On-Line
• Podcasts
• Post'em
• PreferAble
• Presence
• Reset Password
• Roster
• Search
• Section Info
• SUTool
• Syllabus
• Tab Management
• Users
• Worksite Information

Services and Framework

(Note: Many of the services listed below, but not all, have been re-organized into a "kernel" package for Sakai 2.6.)

• Citations
  • Support for Serials Solutions 360 Search metasearch engine ( SAK-13754 - Getting issue details... STATUS )
  • Support for returning direct vendor URLs from Search Library Resources and RIS import ( SAK-14322 - Getting issue details... STATUS , SAK-14282 - Getting issue details... STATUS )
• Cluster
  • Improve performance by switching to a JMS-based implementation ( SAK-12797 - Getting issue details... STATUS )
• Config
  • New module that includes configuration files (e.g., sakai.properties) and localization files.
• Component
  • Support for more flexible configuration of components ( SAK-8315 - Getting issue details... STATUS )
• Content Hosting Service
  • JCR implementation, testing and migration.
  • Hooks for a virus-scanner service to support optional, add-on virus scanning capabilities ( SAK-12985 - Getting issue details... STATUS ).
• Course Management
  • Allow administrative control over which Academic Sessions are current or active ( SAK-12883 - Getting issue details... STATUS ).
• Email
  • Refactor email service
• Entity Broker
  • Add Bug report emails ( SAK-14248 - Getting issue details... STATUS ).
  • Add REST support ( SAK-13374 - Getting issue details... STATUS ).
• JSF
  • Improved formatting and accessibility of ToolBar tag ( SAK-13233 - Getting issue details... STATUS ).
• Message
  • Improve performance and capabilities of the Message API and storage mechanisms ( SAK-12837 - Getting issue details... STATUS ).
• Portal
  • Enhance support for displaying site hierarchies ( SAK-12350 - Getting issue details... STATUS ).
• Providers
  • Configure the default authz group provider without editing source code and rebuilding ( SAK-12583 - Getting issue details... STATUS ).
• User
  • Support for context-sensitive display names (jira:SAK-7970}, SAK-10868 - Getting issue details... STATUS ).
  • Improved performance when retrieving many user records (SAK-14230).
• Web Services
  • Added IP Address Filtering ( SAK-13689 - Getting issue details... STATUS ).
  • New web services:
    • Get a list of users in an authzgroup (or site).
    • Remove an individual member from a site (acts on Site rather than AuthzGroup).
    • Returns title of a site.
    • Returns description of a site.
    • Returns site joinability.
    • Checks if a user exists in an authzgroup (or site).
    • Gets XML doc of all users in an authzgroup (or site) with the given role(s), including username, displayname, and role.
    • Modifies a site's title value.
    • Modifies a site's skin value.
    • Modifies a site's joinable value.
    • Modifies a site's iconurl value.
    • Creates a session for a given user without knowing their password (admins-only, for security reasons).
    • Gets the displayname of a given user (the original was session based, this is more flexible).
    • Get a custom property of a site.
    • Set a custom property for a site.
    • Remove a custom property for a site.
    • Check if a role exists in a given authzgroup.
    • Search for users that meet the given criteria and returns xml.
    • Add contact name and email to site given a siteid and username.
    • Get list of groups in a site.
    • Get list of participants in a group.
    • Another signature of addNewSite() that takes an additional flag to tell it to copy the site's resources over as well.

The following services have no changes in functionality for 2.6, incorporating only bug-fixes since the 2.5 series.

• Access
• Alias
• Authz
• Build
• Content-Review
• Courier
• Database
• Entity
• Event
• IMSTI
• JCR
• Memory
• Portlet
• Privacy
• Profile
• Quartz Scheduler
• Realms
• Reports
• Rights
• Site
• Sites
• Skins
• Test Harness
• Tool
• Util
• Velocity
• WebDAV
• WSRP