Sakai 2.4 Tool Preview

Original text from email from Peter Knoop 4/5/07 - additional text added from various tools

The following list is a preview of some of the new and updated functionality the project teams are expecting to deliver in Sakai 2.4, in addition to bug fixes. Links to more detailed information on most projects can be found in the Management/Project Coordination space in Confluence: http://bugs.sakaiproject.org/confluence/display/MGT

Tool Promotions/New Tools

Tools Promoted to Core:

Messages (Formerly part of Message Center)
Forums (Formerly part of Message Center)
Post'Em
Roster

Tools Promoted to Provisional:

Mailtool
PageOrderHelper
Polls
User Membership

Recently Added Contrib Projects:

Agora
Breeze Link
Config Viewer
Evaluation System
Gallery
Home Page Tool
ImageQuiz
Mneme
Open Course Ware (OCW)
PreferAble/TransformAble
Recent Activity
Reset Password
TurnItIn integration

New Features/Enhancements

Announcements:

Added support for show/hide for consistency with other tools; expands on and replaces previous draft functionality

Assignments:

Changes to the way in which assignments are entered into the Gradebook to make it easier to edit Gradebook entries that came from the assignment tool API change
Provide a setting on the Assignment to allow all students to resubmit (as opposed to having to visit each submission to allow resubmission) Assignment level resubmit Not available until 2.5
Allow instructors to enter a grade for students who haven't posted a submission Grade non-submitted
Provide an additional assginment type which doesn't require an electronic submission Non-electronic submission option
Send an email to the student to confirm their submission Submission confirmation
Add the ability to upload a zip file containing submissions Upload all
UCT is adding an optional interface to TurnItIn

Authz

Some ease-of-use (for developers) enhancements
New "provider only" for roles
Improved transaction handling

Blog

No changes listed for Blog tool in version 2.4

Calendar Summary

Show more event info (attachments, link to schedule event)
Add week/month view option
Use colors for event types based on user-defined priority
Small I18N issue (SAK-8541)

Chat Room

Support multiple concurrent chat rooms.
Normalize chat's schema into relational tables (coversion from XML storage).
Rewrite UI in JSF.
Refactor manager class for easier plug in of other messaging platforms like XMPP.

Component

Full spring lifecycle support
Demo optional components

Content Review

Adding a generic content-review service API which can be used by any tool (in trunk).
Adding support for the content-review service in the Assignments tool (in trunk).
Adding an implementation of content-review for the TurnItIn service (in contrib).

Courier

Enhanced to support the new chat.

Course Management Framework

The default group provider in 2.4 is backed by the CM service.
Performance improvements.

Database

Better transaction support
Enhanced cross-vendor feature support

Gradebook

A per Sakai installation configurable spreadsheet download via a plug in
Section/Group specific spreadsheet downloads based on the user's filter options
Support for course grades indepedent of grade calculation scheme
Simplification/clean up of student view
Participation in Sakai site re-use
Participation in nascent Sakai migration/archiving service
Participation in Sakai Event tracking
A grade comments feature
Expanded services for client tool integration
Reduce data contention in Gradebook SAK-7407, e.g., "the ONLY time data contention should occur is when two graders are trying to change the same score for the same student at around the same time."

Help

Update help content for new functionality in 2.4.
Additional help content for newer tools.
Ability to redirect to an external help webapp (SAK-7619).

Internationalization

Complete localization of all core tools
Updates to existing translations (Catalan, French, Japanese, Spanish, Swedish)
Additional translation in Arabic (requires RTL skin)
Internationalized date/time input widgets available to tools
Internationalized Tool Titles & Descriptions

JSF

Classes added to support generic spreadsheet formatting. (Mostly not JSF-specific.)
The Pager can be fully internationalized.
The Pager and other JSF components can now follow standard Sakai locale support.
Toolbar separators can now be customized.

Messages/Forums (formerly Message Center)

Split Message Center (renamed) into two tools - 1) Messages and 2) Forums.
Addition of Message Notification synoptic view
Support for importing Forums & topics from other sites added
Group aware Discussion Forums
Enforce enhanced privacy management settings.
Quote feature (Insert original text in forum messages)
Display statistics for user's postings and read messages in Discussion Forums
Ability to expand all discussion forum posts to include body text, not just subject heads
Revamped UI of Forums
Ability to moderated topics

Portal

Pluto 1.1.1 integration.

Portlet

Support for JSR-168 portlets using Pluto 1.1

Resources

Content Handlers to mount external resources in CHS and navigate into packaged resources (details)
Resource "Type" Registry
Move implementation of "Form Items" out of "content" project and use type registry to maintain their presence in Resource tool
Add support for Citations and/or Citation Lists in Resources tool (as a new type registered in the registry)
UI changes to action links in Resources listing
Sorting by column fixed (per SAK-9103)

Roster

Add group/section support to tool.
Add new print friendly view.
Enforce enhanced privacy management settings.
Bug fixes
Performance enhancements

Sakai Maven Plugin

Maven 1 no changes
Maven 2 support added

Section Info:

The automatic creation and representation of SIS-provisioned course structures, metadata and memberships (aka Sections).
Support for multiple meeting places and times per Section
Configurability to ensure that the application functionality and UI match local institutional needs and SIS data

Site (SVN Module)

Improved transaction handling.

Skins (CSS)

Eliminate default margin-bottom and padding-bottom on h3, h4, h5 tags in tool.css
Show column borders on sortable lists in tool.css
Add underlines to default links in tool.css
Replace black-and-white folder icons with manilla-colored ones

Syllabus

Adding Print friendly view

Tests & Quizzes (Samigo) - not in original email from Peter

Added email functionality to allow instructors to email invididual sudents from 'Scores' screens, SAK-7094
Allow instructors to give individual students permission to re-take the assessment SAK-7093
A disable/enable toggle of all FCK Editors in Authoring screen. SAK-5904. Based on Dave Ross's contributed patch.
Random questions and multiple attempts: added flavor of randomization selection for random parts. SAK-7696
Allow Samigo contents to be imported from other Sakai Sites using the Site Info tool's 'Import From Site' link. SAK-7378
Allow instructors to change feedback settings for after assessments are published. SAK-3943
Change the 'copy' function in question pool to be a deep copy, rather than a link. SAK-3526
Implemented IMS content packaging to allow import/export of assessments with attachments SAK-5419
Allow importing of Samigo assessments to Question Pool. SAK-6993. Contributor: Lisa Wilson from UC Davis.
Importing simple text formatted assessments to Samigo using Word-2-QTI converter. SAK-8642. Contributor: James Renfro from UC Davis, based on code from Claremont McKenna College.
i18n Internationalization/localization support implemented. SAK-8643. Contributor: Diego del Blanco Orobitg from Universidad Politécnica de Valencia.
performance enhancements / bug fixes

WYSIWYG

Upgraded to FCK Editor 2.4.1 to address a variety of issues, such as IE7 compatibility.

Worksite Setup/Site Info

Updated course creation process.
Integration with new CourseManagementService.
Ability to search for a course.