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 refresh after login 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.RC2.tar.gz

and untar it

tar xzvf loncapa-2.10.0.RC2.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.RC2
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


