18 October 2012, 21:29

As the first version under the fixed 6-monthly release schedule, we are proud to announce the final release of Mahara 1.6.

Mahara 1.6 is now available for download from Launchpad:

  https://launchpad.net/mahara/1.6/1.6.0

Or through git from Gitorious:

  https://gitorious.org/mahara/mahara/trees/1.6_STABLE

Out of the 32 recorded new features and over 130 bug fixes, we would like to highlight some.

Theming

• A new "responsive theme", designed to work fluidly on many screen sizes; especially mobile devices
• Members of multiple institutions can decide which theme to use
• Basic support for theming logged-out users

Pages and blocks

• Option for images to be resized at upload time
• Ability to add journal entries directly from a page
• Tagged journal entries block can show full entries

Copying and sharing

• Collections can be submitted to groups
• Mobile uploads support multiple devices
• Mobile API support for journal entries and attaching files to journal entries
• Mobile API support for syncing messages, tags, files, and journals

Usability and documentation

• Breadcrumbs in small headers are visible at all times
• New "Unpublish" button for journal entries
• Optional "Clean URLs" for user profiles, portfolio pages, groups and group pages with support for subdomains

Groups

• More sorting options on member's listing in a group
• Collections are available for groups, institutions and on the site level
• Group information expanded to include number of forums, topics and posts
• Group admins can enable and view participation reports within groups
• Editability of group content can be limited with a start and end time
• Pagination for forum topics

Admin tools

• Statistics for institutions and more statistics at the site level
• Cron error message appears red for visibility
• Option to add institution staff rights during registration approval
• Configurable SafeIframe site list
• Option to allow self registration process for users authenticating via Persona
• Cron can poll an imap inbox for mail bounces
• Option to allow local customisation of "Edit site pages" list
• "User search" in the admin area links to profile pages

See the full list of more than 130 bug fixes here:

  https://launchpad.net/mahara/+milestone/1.6.0

New features for the release are listed on Launchpad with the "newfeature1.6" tag:

  https://bugs.launchpad.net/mahara/+bugs?field.tag=newfeature1.6

How to install / upgrade

You can find instructions on how to install a new Mahara site or upgrade an existing one on our wiki:   

  https://wiki.mahara.org/index.php/System_Administrator's_Guide/Installing_Mahara

If you are looking for translations, have a look at this page:

  https://wiki.mahara.org/index.php/Language_Packs

New support policy and ending support for 1.4

With the introduction of the 6-monthly release schedule, we have reviewed our security updates policy.

Support for 1.4 ends with this release of 1.6, but Mahara 1.5 and future releases will now be supported for 3 cycles, rather than 2.

Therefore, we are delighted to announce that 1.5 will continue to be supported until Mahara 1.8 is released, and 1.6 will be supported until the release of 1.9.

If you are running a 1.4 installation, make sure you upgrade to 1.6 now. On the other hand, if you are running 1.5, then you have until 1.8 is released to upgrade.

We invite you to subscribe to our security announcements:

  http://mahara.org/interaction/forum/view.php?id=43

Support and bugs

If you find any bugs in this new release, please feel free to use our bug tracker to report them:

  https://bugs.launchpad.net/mahara/+filebug

The user manual has been updated to reflect the changes that we have made for Mahara 1.6. New features are listed under the "New in Mahara 1.6" index entry.

And if you need help with anything, the support forum is the best place to ask your questions:

  http://mahara.org/interaction/forum/view.php?id=2

Conclusion of the security bug bounty

The Mahara security bounty has officially ended. There were 9 security vulnerabilities reported during the bounty, several of them critical. These bugs have now been fixed in the latest releases, including 1.6.

Credits

We would like to thank the following organisations for funding the features and bug fixes that have gone into Mahara 1.6 (in alphabetical order):

• Aotearoa New Zealand Association of Social Workers
• Catalyst IT
• Deltak edu
• Lancaster University Network Services
• New Zealand Ministry of Education
• PLANE
• Southampton Solent University
• Teaching and Learning Centre, University of Canberra
• University of the Arts London

Mahara Partner fees also contributed to enhancements and infrastructural support.

We would also like to highlight all the people who have contributed code to this release:

And the organisations they work for:

And finally the most complete translations at the time of writing:

• Catalan (Contributors: Albert Gasset, David Planella, Joan Queralt Gil, Puri Andrés)
• Dutch (Contributors: Bas Brands, Koen Roggemans, Marinka van der Kolk, Snicksie)
• French (Contributors: Dominique-Alain Jan, Hélène Vanderstichel, Pascale Hyboud-Peron, Laurent Opprecht and Philippe Petitqueux)
• German (Christian Kleinhanss, Daniel Winzen, Dennis Baudys, Ernst Artner, Heinz Krettek, Jens Maucher, Kristina Höppner, Marcel Debray, Michael, Nico Verse, Ralf Hilgenstock, Uwe Böttcher)
• Greek (Contributors: Hasiotis Nikos, Ioannis Katsenos, Kostas Milonas and Yannis Kaskamanidis)
• Japanese (Contributor: Mitsuhiro Yoshida)
• Slovenian (Gregor Anželj)

- The 1.6 Release Team