VPL 4.0.0

Release of VPL 4.0.0

This version includes support for JSON-RPC, improves compatibility with Moodle 4, and fixes bugs on VPL. 3.5.0+.

• The plugin now can use JSON-RPC instead of XML-RPC to communicate with the execution server. Notice that the execution server (vpl-jail-system) must be version 3.0.0 or higher. A new switch in the plugin configuration allows selecting the use of JSON-RPC or XML-RPC (default JSON-RPC). This feature removes the need for the PHP-xmlrpc extension.
• The compatibility with Moodle 4 has been improved by:
  • Removing the show of the activity description on each page.
  • Changing the plugin logo to one with the new Moodle 4 icon style.
• Adds support for running web applications (PHP and HTML) using a local browser. This feature reduces server resources needed drastically and improves development including updating code without restarting the running task. This feature requires execution server V2.8 or later.
• The web services have been improved. Now a teacher can retrieve the submission of a student.
• Fixes a bug introduced in the previous version that prevents to set manually a zero grade mark.
• This version is compatible and has been tested with PHP from version 7.4 to PHP version 8.0.

Release of VPL 3.5.0+

This is a bug-fix release of VPL. 3.5.0.

Fixes and improvements from VPL 3.5.0

• Fixes bug of computing max post size. This bug affected when the PHP max_post_size setting is set to zero.
• Fixes a bug introduced in V3.5.0. This bug generates an error running the eveluate.php script.
• Fixes coding style of brackets
• Adds "@covers" tags to the tests

Release notes of VPL 3.5.0

Prerequisites

• Moodle 3.8 or higher
• PHP 7.3 or higher

New functionalities

This release includes the override feature thanks to @Astor-Bizard from the Caseine Project. This feature allows to set in a VPL activity a different startdate, duedate, reduction by evaluation and free evaluations for specific users or groups.

Small improvements

• Shows variations assigned to users in the descripción in the code editor.
• Adapts extend settings navigation to support Moodle 4.
• Applies filters to the activity name display.
• Run scripts adds environment vars MOODLE_USER_ID, MOODLE_USER_NAME, and new MOODLE_USER_EMAIL.

Bug fixes

• Fixes bug that shows the students the grade reduction in comment titles.
• Fixes bug that removes variation title when updating activity setting.
• Fixes performance problem due to regex expression inefficiency when showing evaluation report.
• Fixes reports of students working periods when no data.
• Fixes bug setting $PAGE URL. Reported by @pavelsokolov issue #128.
• Fixes bug of handling decimal numbers internationalization.

Programming languages

• Adds support for Julia by adding a default run script. Julia is detected when using files with the jl file extension.
• Removes obsolete swipl command-line option in Prolog run script.