Chamilo LMS

Dear contributors,

After many years of good services from Redmine, we feel like our growing community needs require an issue reporting infrastructure that we cannot provide at the moment given our limited infrastructure.

As such, we will rely on Github's incredibly reliable infrastructure and move all new issues there. If you don't have a Github account yet, you can create a new one easily using just your e-mail address and a username (look for the "Sign up" button on https://github.com).

This move should give us, developers, more time to attend your issues, and should give you, our contributors, a faster and more available platform. That's a win-win situation for us.

We will take some time (probably around 1 year) to move all unclosed issues to Github. In the meantime, you can continue interacting on old issues through support.chamilo.org, as always.

Thank you for trusting our decision process and for contributing to chamilo.

Yannick Warnier
Project leader
Chamilo

We just released Chamilo LMS 1.10.0 beta.

This version is not yet stable, and is meant mainly for testing purposes until we release the stable version 2 or 3 weeks for now.

To download the beta, go to https://github.com/chamilo/chamilo-lms/releases/tag/v1.10.0-beta.1 and choose your package, then follow the install procedure.

You can check the list of new features in the Changelog: https://unstable.chamilo.org/documentation/changelog.html

At this time, the upgrade from Chamilo LMS 1.9.* should be fully operational, although you will have to use the default CSS style "Chamilo" to avoid a broken/ugly interface.

Let us know of any issue at https://support.chamilo.org/projects/chamilo-18/issues/new

Dear community,

Chamilo LMS 1.9.8 has been released (internally it is 1.9.8.2 already, but the download links point to the latest version anyway).

Chamilo LMS 1.9.8 comes with 22 new features, 31 improvements and 396 bugfixes, making it the version with the most bugs fixes in the history of Chamilo LMS, although very few were actually critical bugs, which goes to say we have improved the software in many ways.

We recommend you upgrade to this version as soon as possible.

Upgrading from 1.9.0, 1.9.2, 1.9.4 or 1.9.6 to 1.9.8 is dead easy, so don't wait too long before you upgrade.

1.9.8 brings you the following new features, between others:

• Added BuyCourses plugin to sell courses through PayPal from inside your portal (requires you to be an portal admin)
• Added OpenMeetings plugin for videoconference through Chamilo
• Added support for sessions in BigBlueButton plugin (requires re-installation or manual DB update)
• Added support tickets system integrated as a plugin (requires activation by admin)
• Added browser language auto-detection at first connection
• Allowed student to check his/her test results if the date of the test is over
• Added possibility to add menu tab entry for any plugin
• Added CAPTCHA on registration page (requires manual configuration edition)
• Added "Sessions subscribed to" icon in users list
• Exercises: Added auto-evaluation mode with feedback but without correct answer hint
• Course copy: Included work/assignments copy in course copy
• Groups: Added possibility to increase the number of users in a group above the category limit
• Added X-SendFile support to boost files download (requires manual configuration edition and web server modules)
• Exercises: Added possibility to clear all results before a specific date
• Exercises: Added auditing of "clean results" action by teachers
• Added support for "for" attributes in <label> fields for WCAG/WAI AA compatibility
• Added user profile fields of type "File upload", allowing users to upload their CV or other documents
• Added Aiken (text) import format in exercises

You can always check the full list of tasks that have been closed as part of 1.9.8 here: https://support.chamilo.org/projects/chamilo-18/roadmap?utf8=%E2%9C%93&tracker_ids[]=2&tracker_ids[]=3&completed=1&with_subprojects=0#1.9.8

Thank you for your continuous support reporting and helping fix bugs, translating, documenting (text or video) or even developing new features. Thank you also for spreading the word about Chamilo. We understand you like it, but it is always important to share it so others can benefit from it too.

I'll write to you again in 6-9 months for Chamilo LMS v10, containing major structural improvements!

Dear active contributor to Chamilo LMS,

There are only 5 bugs left open scheduled to be finalized in the next few days. This doesn't prevent us in any way to release the first BETA version of Chamilo LMS 1.9.8. Please download it from Github directly (big package as it still contains development folders) and test it on a non-production environment. This is still not considered a stable version (but following versions should be).

You can download it here: https://github.com/chamilo/chamilo-lms/archive/v1.9.8-beta.1.zip
You can also test it directly from https://stable.chamilo.org, connecting as admin/admin if you want to test administration features, or creating your own user if you prefer. This portal will be erased completely when we release 1.9.8 stable.

Please report on any issue you might find while using it, here: https://support.chamilo.org/projects/chamilo-18/issues/new
If you find any permissions issue installing on cPanel, please inform us here: https://support.chamilo.org/issues/7020 as this is one of the last bugs we have left before the Release Candidate.

If you feel like your own language is not translated well enough, make sure you complete your translation here: https//translate.chamilo.org

At this time, we are still working on a few visual issues to make Chamilo LMS 1.9.8 super attractive as well as super-stable. Once we are done with these (probably in a week or so), we will release v1.9.8 RC1. After that, there will be just a few weeks wait before the stable is ready and published in all press channels we have contacts with.

The RC1 will also be a special opportunity for us to crash-test Chamilo LMS 1.9.8 on the free campus, so we'll update this one soon as well. Stay tuned.

If you want to know what this is all about (Alpha, Beta, RC, stable, etc), you can check our release cycle here: https://support.chamilo.org/projects/chamilo-18/wiki/Release_cycle

Thank you for you relentless support,

Yannick Warnier
Development Manager
Chamilo LMS

I had forgotten to update the nightly builds script since we moved to Github with Chamilo around early April.

As a consequence, if you had downloaded a nightly build over the last 3 weeks, it is likely that it was not the state of the code "nightly", but rather the state of the code of around one month ago. Starting from 24/04/2013, you can now download nightlies again and they will be real nightlies.

The test site http://stable.chamilo.org was working as expected during all this time and it was updated every 15 minutes, like it always was.

Sorry for the inconvenience.

Several of you guys asked me for a database diagram lately. As I had a lot of disconnected time on my hands with the little flight trip to Mexico to promote Chamilo, I have tried to organize the diagram. It is not 100% complete with the relationships between tables (there are things that even I don't know for sure), but it is about 90% complete and should at least allow you to understand the basic relationship between all the tables inside Chamilo.

Please note that, as you should know, Chamilo LMS 1.9 is the first version of Chamilo LMS to use a single database without tables replication. As such, there are still many improvements we want to bring to the structure in future versions (in particular ensuring that there is a unique primary key for each table). At the moment, the structure does not allow for the use of the InnoDB engine in MySQL or MariaDB, and possibly for the use of another database system. Nevertheless, it is already much more organized, manageable and optimizable than it was in 1.8.

If you have suggestions or comments about the diagram, you know the way, just create a new feature in http://support.chamilo.org/projects/chamilo-18/issues/new

To download the diagram, go here: http://support.chamilo.org/documents/57

I take this opportunity to remind you that this is a community project, and although I try to lead you all a little bit so that we go in the same direction, there is no reason why we should contribute on Chamilo and you shouldn't. If you think something is wrong in Chamilo, do something about it! Raise your voice and if no one cares, suggest a patch. I can assure you we treat patches as god-sent opportunities and we will consider it (and you) with the highest level of respect. If you raise your voice, try to do it respectfully too. Do it in public and do not form your sentences in a way that could be misunderstood as a lack of respect. It does affect dramatically our motivation and, as a consequence, the quality of Chamilo.

Thank you all for being contributors of the Chamilo LMS project. We love working with each other and we hope you love it too.

Yannick

Hi everybody,

We have made a bunch of design changes yesterday (almost exclusively CSS and almost exclusively for mobile phones), so you might find your stable.chamilo.org portal a little broken. Fear not, just use the cabalistic CTRL+F5 key-combination and you should be ready for testing.

For those of you who might be curious about the responsive-design stuff, it's just a series of little things which should make using Chamilo 1.9.4 through a smartphone or tablet easier and more pleasing to the eye (less useless headers and borders, more aligned contents).

As a few of you might know, we have decided not to develop a specific "app" for Chamilo, but rather go directly in the HTML5 direction, which already enables you to use most of your Chamilo 1.9.2 with a smartphone. Once on a 1.9.2 portal, you can also click the "Add as application" in your browser options, and the Chamilo icon will appear as one of your smartphone applications.

Cheers,

Yannick

I have decided to postpone the release of the 1.9 Beta of a few days.

Many people are pressing for us to release it, so let me return the favor: it will be closed faster if more people help us review the remaining tasks. If you're Spanish speaking and you wonder how to use Redmine, you are lucky: I have recorded a video just for you: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cs2VEejeelU. If you are nos a Spanish-speaker and you want that video translated, please let me know.

In the meantime, we are working very hard to release a beta version on the 13th of June. Let's hope this date will work and we'll have some additional support this week-end to close the last issues.
The RC1, initially scheduled for the 15th of June, will be postponed to the 4th of July, and the stable release should remain on schedule for the 15th of July.

Don't hesitate, at any time, to take only 1/2h to review the issues queue for all the tasks configured as "Needs feedback", and test them either on http://chamilodev.beeznest.com (login admin/admin) or to download the latest nightly build (a version auto-generated every night) on Google Code: http://code.google.com/p/chamilo/downloads/list

Best regards,

Yannick

Chamilo 1.9 should be released in alpha version by the end of the year. This version will include many improvements to exercises, assignments, gradebooks and a new tool called "Skills tree", which will allow you to define human knowledge skills attached to courses.

We are already preparing the alpha and trying to establish what will be the basis of 1.9, so we can go fast and finish it on time (we hope it will be available in beta or RC by the end of January 2012). To do that, we need all of you to go through the tasks left pending and try things out or give us recommendations on how you think it should be. If you can do that, we'll be able to release on time!

Hope to see your comments or patches inside the tracking application soon!

In a few minutes, we will release Chamilo 1.8.8.2, which is a fix-release for Chamilo 1.8.8. As you might have seen, the release of 1.8.8 was quickly followed by a series of small bug reports of medium gravity, so we decided not to spread the 1.8.8 release too much and to immediately develop corrective patches. Version 1.8.8.2 is thus like an "official 1.8.8" release. A good one, this time.

If you had previously installed Chamilo 1.8.8, your job will be very easy: just overwrite the previous code with the new package. No upgrade procedure involved. If you want to do in the detail, update your main/inc/conf/configuration.php file to update the version number at the end of the file.

To celebrate the release of 1.8.8.2, we will organize an online Chamilo 1.8.9, 4h developers crash-course in Spanish (if there is enough demand, we'll do it in French and/or English too). If you want to know more, please send an e-mail to communication@chamilo.org or subscribe to http://support.chamilo.org/issues/3522.

We hope you like it,

The Chamilo team