[LON-CAPA-admin] LON-CAPA version 2.10.0.RC2

Lars Jensen ljensen at mail.tmcc.edu
Sat Jan 15 03:45:31 EST 2011


Hi Stuart,

The new look and functionality is nice!

A couple of questions and comments: When I did step 9):

su www
/home/httpd/perl/loncron

I got an error because www doesn't have read permissions in /etc/httpd/logs

My question is: What do I need to change the dark green color right
above the "Log in" fields on the frot page http://schubert.tmcc.edu ?
On our page it would look better with the same green color our logo
and the bar at the top has.

Lars.



On Fri, Jan 14, 2011 at 7:45 PM, Stuart Raeburn <raeburn at msu.edu> wrote:
> New Testing Version 2.10.0.RC2 Released
>
> This version is currently installed on production servers at MSU.
> I expect to release this as the 2.10.0 final release within a few days.
>
> This new version contains some changes in default colors and changes
> in CSS styles.  It is recommended that users logging into LON-CAPA 2.10.0
> with a web browser which they have used recently to log-in to an
> earlier version of LON-CAPA, use a shift-reload, after log-in and role
> selection, to force reload of any cached css files.
>
> In addition, if a Domain Coordinator has previously configured the
> domain with background colors or font colors which are different from
> the defaults, she/he should select a Domain Coordinator role,
> Author role, Course Coordinator role and Student role, in turn, to confirm
> that text and background color choices for the different contexts provide
> sufficient contrast. There have been one or two changes in the way color
> settings are used in the new interface, as well as in the default color
> choices themselves.
>
> Changes from 2.9.1
>
>
> General User Interface
>    - User interface styles, colors and fonts are now more uniform
>      throughout LON-CAPA.
>    - A consistent style is used for menus and sub-menus.
>    - Breadcrumb trails are more ubiquitous.
>    - The use of icons is now more common, and in many cases existing
>      icons have been replaced with new ones which depict functionality
>      more clearly.
>    - A compact display is used for common elements on each page.
>      In order, from the top:
>      - A primary menu which contains links to features which are
>        independent of the current role.  This includes a "Messages"
>        link which will change to "New Messages" if new LON-CAPA messages
>        have been received.
>      - A secondary menu containing links to features specific to the
>        current role.
>      - A breadcrumb trail which encapsulates the context of the
>        current page in the hierarchy of menus and sub-menus.
>        In the case of resources in a course, the right hand side
>        of the breadcrumb bar contains icons for common utilities
>        (feedback, printout generation etc.).
>      - A functions list which contains specific functions for the
>        current page available for the current role.
>    - Where colors are used to highlight things, colors used are
>      subtler and deployed more sparingly within a page.
>    - Text Areas which support a Rich Text (or WYSIWYG) Editor, now
>      include a link for each instance to toggle the editor on/off
>      for that instance alone.
>    - Rich Text Editor updated to CKEditor 3.
>    - Updated design for "templated pages: "About Me", Simple Page,
>      Syllabus, standalone Discussion Board.
>    - Redesigned log-in page.
>    - LON-CAPA standard display (tables with alternating light/darker
>      gray tables) used in Construction Space and Portfolio.
>    - "Global" WYSIWYG preference in "Set my user preferences" and
>       single link on pages containing textareas eliminated.
>       (Replaced with link to toggle for each textarea).
>
>
> Authoring Resources
>    - New Problem Templates:
>      - Custom Response using Computer Algebra System and Hints
>      - External Response
>      - Drop Box
>      - Input-Dependent Problems:
>          - Using Learner Answer in Multipart Numerical Problem,
>          - Using Learner Formula in Graph with Formula Response
>          - Using Learner Formula in Graph with Math Response
>        - Randomized Question Stem Radio Button Response
>    - Upload of HTML files with references to embedded objects etc.
>        - More comprehensive feedback on reference detection.
>        - Reference updates in HTML file for changed paths originally
>          only available for upload of HTML file in course,
>          now available for uploads in all contexts.
>    - Consistent set of colors used in colorful editor.
>    - Colorful editor provides insert item to wrap content within a
>      problem part.
>    - Optionresponse problems:
>       - Can suppress display of checkbox choices.
>       - Display of bullet suppressed if there is only one foil.
>       - Improvements in printouts for problems with a part which
>         contains multiple responses.
>
>
> Student Interface
>    - Portfolio: No upload to portfolio if the uploaded file is zero
>      bytes in size.
>    - Dropbox: Improved student interface for managing files submitted
>      to dropbox over multiple tries.
>      - Display of submitted files for dropbox and Bridge Task
>        includes warning about consequences of file deletion.
>      - Clarification on how to disassociate previously submitted
>        files for dropbox or Bridge Task assessment items.
>    - Course Catalog will display the end date for self-enrollment
>      both before and during availability of self-enrollment.
>    - Fonts and icons used for the Course Contents screen are more
>      compact. Icons replace the "Select Action" dropdown list.
>    - Can choose to overwrite when uploading a file to the portfolio
>      if a file with the same name already exists in the same path
>      (unless the file is locked).
>      - If the portfolio file is locked for an assignment with access
>        controlled by a slot which is currently open for the user,
>        overwrite is still possible.
>    - If the "Course roster" is included within a course, forward and
>      backward arrows are now included to permit navigation to adjacent
>      course items.
>    - For assignments for which collaborators can be specified:
>      collaborators can be modified when new submissions are made.
>    - Files submitted to dropbox items directly from the student's
>      desktop instead of by selecting from the portfolio are now also
>      stored in the student's portfolio  (thereby allowing return of
>      a version with instructor comments to the student).
>
>
> Communication
>    - Transactions which were to hide/unhide or delete posts do not
>      contribute to the count of visible postings.
>    - New set of "smilies"/emoticons. Smilies that could conflict
>      with URLs and mathematical expressions disallowed.
>
>
> Course/Community Management
>    - Information about specific LON-CAPA version required is
>      available in Course Configuration (General Settings) -
>      determined by content, and parameters in use (e.g. questiontypes).
>    - Course Editor
>      - A tabbed interface separates editing of items in the main
>        course contents area from editing of items in the (optional)
>        supplemental documents area.
>      - Editor Functionality is separated into: Import Documents,
>        Published Resources, Special Documents and Tools. These items
>        are now below the listing of resources in the current folder,
>        and buttons have been replaced with icons/links.
>    - Parameter Manager
>      - Overview/Table Mode: List of selectable Folders includes
>        indentation to show course hierarchy of folders and sub-folders;
>        "Parameters to View" is a list which can be expanded or collapsed.
>      - Modify Mode: Radio buttons replace free form textbox to assist
>        in assignment of appropriate value for "Question Type".
>    - Browsing LON-CAPA shared repository: Style and icons consistent
>      with listing of files in Course Contents display for a course.
>    - For roles in Courses/Communities requiring a specific minimum
>      LON-CAPA version, in cases where the server hosting the session
>      is not running a sufficiently recent version:
>      (a) If server hosting the session is running 2.10 or later, a
>          link is provided for the role on roles/courses screen to switch
>          to a server in the user's domain or to a server in the course's
>          domain (if any have required version).
>      (b) For servers hosting sessions running 2.9 or earlier, only roles
>          which can be run on the version on the server hosting the session
>          are available.
>    - New problem modes (i.e., "questiontypes")
>      - Anonymous survey (submission information not tied to
>        identifiable user information).
>      - Anonymous survey with credit for submission
>      - Survey with credit for submission
>      - New Randomization after N tries (N set as a parameter; default = 1).
>    - Simple Problem Type (added directly to a course via Course
>      Editor) now includes a "simple numerical" type.
>    - Time intervals are supported for resources for which access is
>      slot-controlled.
>    - For case sensitive and case insensitive stringresponse problems,
>      the computer's answer is available in the detailed submission display
>      for each submission.
>    - Groups: the link to the group homepage supports cases where the
>      group homepage has an encrypted url.
>    - Course Requests: now allow users without existing accounts to be
>      included in course creation requests, as long as a default
> authentication
>      type has been set for the domain.
>    - Slots: for slots schedulable by student slot can set slot to
>      send message(s) when student reserves slot or releases reservation.
>
>
> Domain Coordination/Domain Settings
>    - Domain Coordinators can control:
>      (a) where their users may have sessions hosted (by internet
>      domain and/or LON-CAPA version).
>      (b) which other domains may have user sessions hosted on
>      servers in the domain.
>    - Domain configuration to set a portal or default URL, e.g., a
>      loadbalancer server or a specific alias on a multidomain server.
>    - Linked select boxes in course catalog can support names of
>      categories for components of the institutional codes used for
>      official courses which differ from the standard names: Year,
>      Semester, Department, Number.
>    - Number of responders to anonymous survey items required before
>      displaying anonymized submission data can be set for domain.
>
>
> Internals/system behavior
>    - No longer stop and start firewall rules for existing hosts when
>      nightly loncron connection check is made for new servers in the
> cluster.
>    - LON-CAPA log files contain less superfluous logging (e.g., for
>      non-existent metadata files).
>    - LON-CAPA's Apache configuration file includes a directive for
>      cacheable files which allows a user's browser to use the disk cache
>      for such files served via SSL.
>
>
> Printing
>    - Breadcrumbs added to "Preparing Printout" and "Download PDF" pages.
>
>
> Localization
>    - New translations and improvements for German interface.
>    - Default to English for any untranslated phrases in simplified
>      Chinese interface.
>
>
> Accessibility
>    - Need for pre-2.10 "Text-based Interface Login" and
>      "Accessibility Options" items eliminated by improving accessibility
>      of regular pages (e.g., alt tags standard).
>
>
> Documentation
>    - Course Coordination Manual updated to include new icons and discussion
>      of redesigned general user interface.
>    - Domain Coordination Manual expanded to include entries about
>      access to Server Status pages, course defaults, and hosting of
>      user sessions.
>
>
> Installation Notes:
>
> To use this release you need to have version 1-18 of LONCAPA-prerequisites
> installed.
>
> *****
>
> SuSE/SLES only:
>   If you are running SuSE/SLES you will need to modify:
>   /etc/sysconfig/apache2
>
>   to include:
>
>   headers
>
>   in APACHE_MODULES, if it is not already included.
>
>   You can do this using a text editor, or you can download the
>   installation tarfile for your SLES/SuSE version file from:
>   http://install.loncapa.org/versions/suse and then replace the existing
>   /etc/sysconfig/apache2 with the sysconfig_apache2 included in
>   the installation directory extracted by untarring the slesN_install.tar or
>   suseN.M_install.tar tarfile, appropriate for your distro.
>
> *****
>
> To install this update:
>
> 1) You will need to be running CentOS 5, RHEL (AS|ES) 4, 5 or 6,
> Scientific Linux 5, SLES 9, 10 or 11, Fedora Core 10, 11, 12, 13 or 14,
> or SuSE 11.1, 11.2 or 11.3. (Fedora Core 5, 6, 7, 8, & 9, and
> SuSE 10.1, 10.2 & 10.3 should continue to work, but are deprecated.)
>
> 2) Update LONCAPA-prerequisites to 1-18.
>
> (a) Fedora
> yum update
>
> (b) RedHat Enterprise 4
>
> up2date -u LONCAPA-prerequisites
>
> (c) Red Hat 5 and 6/Centos 5/Scientific Linux 5
>
> yum update
>
> (d) SuSE/SLES
>
> Use yast-> Installation Source to refresh the LON-CAPA repository
> Use yast->Software Management->Search to update LONCAPA-prerequisites
>
> On all distributions, it is recommended that you check that you have
> the correct versions of LONCAPA-prerequisites installed before proceeding.
>
> rpm -q LONCAPA-prerequisites
>
> should report:
> LONCAPA-prerequisites-1-18.X
>
> (where X is a distro identifier e.g., centos5.lc)
>
> 3) Download the new LON-CAPA tarball from
> wget http://install.lon-capa.org/versions/loncapa-2.10.0.tar.gz
>
> and untar it
>
> tar xzvf loncapa-2.10.0.tar.gz
>
> 4) stop the LON-CAPA system services
>
> /etc/rc.d/init.d/loncontrol stop
>
> 5) stop the webserver:
>
> Fedora/RHEL/Centos/Scientific Linux
> /etc/rc.d/init.d/httpd stop
>
> SLES 9:
> /etc/init.d/apache stop
>
> SUSE 11.1,11.2,11.3/SLES 10,SLES 11:
> /etc/init.d/apache2 stop
>
>
> 6) Run the UPDATE script as root
> cd loncapa-2.10.0
> su
> ./UPDATE
>
>
> 7) restart the LON-CAPA system services
> /etc/rc.d/init.d/loncontrol start
>
>
> 8) restart the webserver:
>
> Fedora/RHEL/Centos/Scientific Linux
> /etc/rc.d/init.d/httpd start
>
> SLES 9:
> /etc/init.d/apache start
>
> SUSE 11.1,11.2,11.3/SLES 10,11:
> /etc/init.d/apache2 start
>
>
> 9) It is also recommended that loncron is run
> (as the www user) after installation/update is complete.
>
> su www
> /home/httpd/perl/loncron
>
> This will write to files in /home/httpd/lonTabs used to
> store information about LON-CAPA versions on other servers in
> the cluster to which the server belongs.  It may take some
> minutes to complete as the script will contact other servers
> in the LON-CAPA network sequentially.
>
>
> ----NOTES
> 1) Many questions are answered at http://help.lon-capa.org
> 2) Defects reports, and enhancements requests can be entered at
>       http://bugs.lon-capa.org
> 3) Mailing lists can be joined and left at http://mail.lon-capa.org
>
> Stuart Raeburn
> LON-CAPA Academic Consortium
>
>
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> LON-CAPA-admin mailing list
> LON-CAPA-admin at mail.lon-capa.org
> http://mail.lon-capa.org/mailman/listinfo/lon-capa-admin
>




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