31 October 2019, 22:54

Kia ora Mahara community,

Happy Mahara 19.10 release day. We invite you to explore this latest version of Mahara that the core team and contributors from around the world have been working on for the last several months. This version brings a sea change as we made a series of usability improvements that make viewing and editing of portfolios as well as commenting on learning evidence easier and more intuitive.

Highlights in Mahara 19.10 include: 

• Placeholder block replaces the content chooser
• More flexible layout that can be changed directly in edit mode
• Details mode for comfortable commenting on learning evidence besides being able to click evidence directly (where possible) to view additional information
• Custom background for page header area via skins
• Assignment plans that allow the auto-copying of portfolios into personal accounts
• Revoking of an assignment submission via LTI before final grading
• Removal of database triggers

Other notable new features include:

• Switch to Font Awesome 5 icons
• Report over submissions to groups
• Support embedding of .wav and .m4a media files
• Display more information on whether a site is on a supported Mahara version
• HTML export brings theme along

View the Mahara manual for these new features as well as changed functionality.

See the full list of new features and bug fixes here:

https://launchpad.net/mahara/+milestone/19.10.0

You can check out the feature release video.

Download the code at https://launchpad.net/mahara/19.10/19.10.0.

Alternatively, you can access it via Git from https://git.mahara.org/mahara/mahara.

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

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

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

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

Supported releases

Mahara 18.10 and 19.04 are still supported for security updates. The support for Mahara 18.04 ends now. Support for Mahara 18.10 will end in April 2020, Mahara 19.04 will be supported until October 2020. Mahara 19.10 will receive updates until April 2021.

For more information, please see https://wiki.mahara.org/index.php/SupportedVersions

We recommend you upgrade to 19.10 as that gives you the longest support time frame at the moment. If your organisation uses Mahara 18.10 or 19.04, you can stay on either version until their support runs out.

All site administrators running a supported version of Mahara are encouraged 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

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

The Mahara manual has been updated for Mahara 19.10. New features are listed under the "New in Mahara 19.10" index entry.

Credits

Many organisations around the world supported the development of Mahara 19.10 through funding new features, bug fixes, or contributing code. We want to thank the following organisations (in alphabetical order) for their support of this release:

• Catalyst
• Dublin City University
• LearningWorks
• Mitstek
• SWITCH
• The Australian National University
• Universität Bremen
• Université de Montréal
• University of South Australia
• University of Sussex

We also wish to thank the people who contributed code to this release. They are listed according to the number of changesets:

And the organisations they work for or are associated with:

The most complete translations at the time of writing (at least 90%):

• Basque. Contributors over time: Abel Camacho, Asier Iturralde Sarasola, Ibai Oihanguren Sala, Iñaki Arenaza, José Miguel Andonegi, Juan Ezeiz, Ramón Ovelar
• Czech. Contributors over time: Viktor Fuglík, David Mudrák, Adam Pátek, Matouš Trča, Veronika Karičáková, Marek Drahovzal, Lukáš Kotek, Jiřina Nováková, Tomáš Jeřábek
• Dutch. Contributors over time: Balaam's Miracle, Bas Brands, Eric, Jeroen Hendrickx, Joost Elshoff, Koen Roggemans, M Kerkhoff, Marinka van der Kolk, Raoul Dorrisen, Snicksie, Volker Schmidt, rmob
• French. Contributors over time: Alain Benoit, Alain Bolli, Alexandre Croteau, Anne017, Aurelien Besson, Cmathieu, David Truong, Dominique-Alain Jan, Emilie Lenel, Équipe StudiUM, François Lizotte, Giulia Vighetti, Hélène V., Jean Marc, londumas, Melvin Romero, Pascale Hyboud-Peron, Paula Caterino, Philippe Petitqueux, Pierre Guinoiseau, sic, Stéphane
• German. Contributors over time: Andy Hediger, Christian Kleinhanss, Daniel Winzen, Dennis Baudys, eledia, Ernst Artner, Ettore Atalan, finnnns, Gunnar Staniczek, Heinz Krettek, Jan Behrens, Jürgen Friedrich, Kristina Hoeppner, M. Ehlers, Marcel Debray, Mathias, Michael Engel, Michael Wuttke, Moritz Ringler, Nico Verse, Patrick Neumann, Ralf Hilgenstock, Ralph Ballier, Silas Zahner, Stefanie Berger, Steffen Pegenau, Tobias Bannert
• Japanese. Contributor over time: Mitsuhiro Yoshida
• Te Reo Māori. Contributor over time: Ian Cormack
• Slovenian. Contributor over time: Gregor Anželj

For a full list of translations and contributors, please see

https://translations.launchpad.net/mahara-lang/

Big thanks also go to the people who contributed to Mahara 19.10 as business analysts, UX researchers, testers, system adminstrators, developers improving supporting infrastructure, and security researchers.

Kia ora!

The 19.10 Release Managers at Catalyst