Release v1.18.0, December 2022, Release Candidate 1

New features:

• Added LTI Tool v1.3 feature.
  • A+ may be used as an external tool from LTI platforms such as Moodle.
  • There are some unfinished parts left in this feature, for example, the LTI grading service is missing for Acos server and JSAV assignments and other assignment services that create new, graded submissions by sending the submission data via the assignment service in the end of the student's workflow.
  • LTI stands for Learning Tools Interoperability, a standard protocol.

Release notes:
https://apluslms.github.io/releases/v1_18.html

Release v1.17.2, December 2022

Fixed an issue in the setup of the background task for the synchronization of course participants from Sisu.

Version v1.17.0 included a defect that effectively removed the periodic Celery task for the course participants.

Release notes:
https://apluslms.github.io/releases/v1_17.html

Release v1.17.1, December 2022

Fixed major defects in the new feature "automatic retries of incomplete grading jobs" that was added in v1.17.0.

Release notes:
https://apluslms.github.io/releases/v1_17.html

Release v1.17.0, November 2022

New features:

• Automatic retries of incomplete grading jobs. A+ tries to detect submissions whose grading has gotten stuck and automatically sends them to regrading. (#988)
• A+ course news items may be emailed to the course participants by ticking the checkbox in the create/modify news form. (#377)
• Added support for MathJax.js v3. The built-in JavaScript in A+ does not crash any longer if the course materials include MathJax.js v3 for rendering mathematics. MathJax.js v2 is still supported as well. (#871)

Minor changes:

• Changed the logic for selecting the latest course instance in the course redirect address, for example, https://plus.cs.aalto.fi/o1/. It now prefers course instances that have started and contain open course modules. Previously, it could select empty course instances long before they were intended to open. (#919)
• Increased the size of the buttons in the chapter assignment frame, e.g., the "show model solution" button. The buttons have been too hard to notice according to some users. (#856)
• Added new HTML classes to the chapter assignment navbar components. This is useful to courses that want to change the CSS styles in their own code. See details in the git commit.
• Changed the wording in the message after making a submission. It is now "Your submission has been received" instead of "Your submission has been accepted for grading."
• If the user can see hidden course instances, then the hidden instances are clearly labeled in the A+ course archive page (https://plus.cs.aalto.fi/archive/). (#727)
• In the submission inspect view, the submission details modal dialogue shows more metadata about the submission, e.g., the time when the grading results were received. (#614)

Bug fixes:

• When delayed feedback is used in file upload assignments, the (feedback) modal dialogue after making a submission no longer shows another active submission form with a submit button. (#935)
• Enrollment questionnaires are not affected by the module opening time. They are now only affected by the course enrollment time setting and not by the module opening and closing times. (#679)
• Fixed window scroll positioning in chapter assignment anchor links. The window used to land outside the targeted assignment depending on how long the assignment descriptions were in the chapter. (#1028)
• Fixed chapter exercise feedback modal missing focus after the duplicate submission modal had been shown. (#1093)
• Fixed a crash in the duplicate submission check when the submission form included optional file fields. (#1095)
• Fixed the student group selection in the edit submitters view under the inspect submission view. The group selection used to target different users than what was shown in the table. (#1091)
• In forms that contain (user) search-select widgets, the selected users are not wiped out if the form submission fails to validation errors. (#998)
• In forms that contain (user) search-select widgets, the label of the input is correctly connected to the input in the HTML markup. This supports accessibility and usability. (#934)

For system administrators and developers:

• There are new settings to control the automatic retries of incomplete grading jobs.
  • SUBMISSION_EXPIRY_TIMEOUT = 30 * 60
    • Number of seconds after which a submission can be resent to grader, if not completed. If set to None, retries are disabled.
  • SUBMISSION_RETRY_SERVICES = []
    • List of services with automatic grading where retries are allowed. Network location is sufficient, e.g. "localhost:8080" or "grader.cs.aalto.fi".
  • GRADER_STABLE_THRESHOLD = 5
    • Number of unresponded retries beyond which we move to recovery state.
      In recovery state there likely is more persistent problem with the grader
      or network that needs fixing.
      In recovery state A+ periodically probes the state of the grader, sending only one
      grading request out every SUBMISSION_EXPIRY_TIMEOUT seconds.
      We do not want to congest the potentially broken system unnecessarily with several
      requests in this case.

Release notes:
https://apluslms.github.io/releases/v1_17.html

Release v1.16.3, September 2022

Bug fixes:

• Optimized a database query that is used in the points cache. The query was slow and took several seconds to finish in the production environment. The query fetches deviations for the student. The points cache is used in at least the points and submission API endpoints and in rendering a student's personal points page.
  (Issue #1087)
• Fixed a crash when a SIS-enrolled student should be redirected to the enrollment questionnaire.
  (Issue #1074)
• Fixed the feature: approve late/unofficial submissions in a whole course module.
  This feature was broken as it tried to modify submission grades for a different student than the teacher was targeting. The feature is accessed in the inspect submission page via the Approve submission button (requires that the selected submission is late or unofficial).
  (Issue #1086)

Release notes:
https://apluslms.github.io/releases/v1_16.html

Release v1.16.2, September 2022

Bug fix:

• Fixed an issue in the identical/duplicate submission check.
  When a checkbox question in a questionnaire included multiple choices in the same question, the submission comparison was incorrectly based on only one selected checkbox instead of all the selected (PR #1069).

Release notes:
https://apluslms.github.io/releases/v1_16.html

Release v1.16.1, August 2022

Bug fix:

• Fixed an issue that prevented making new submissions in assignments that do not include file uploads and are not questionnaires. In practice, the issue affected assignments that depend on custom frontend JavaScript code.

Release notes:
https://apluslms.github.io/releases/v1_16.html

Release v1.16.0, August 2022

Changes:

• Assignments embedded in chapters warn the student when he/she tries to submit an identical solution to the existing submissions.
• Redesigned the support page (in the A+ site footer).

Minor changes:

• Automatic enrolling of course participants from Sisu begins 14 days prior to the course start.
• Minor usability fixes for the course instance creation under the "Edit course - Instances" menu.

For system administrators and developers:

• Updated the Django REST framework and DRF extensions packages.
• Added database table PendingSubmission for a new feature that will be released in a patch later (issue #988): automatic retries of incomplete grading jobs.

Release notes:
https://apluslms.github.io/releases/v1_16.html

Release v1.16.0, August 2022, Release Candidate 1

Changes:

• Assignments embedded in chapters warn the student when he/she tries to submit an identical solution to the existing submissions (#1006).
• Redesigned the support page (in the A+ site footer).

Minor changes:

• Automatic enrolling of course participants from Sisu begins 14 days prior to the course start.
• Minor usability fixes for the course instance creation under the "Edit course - Instances" menu (#1054, #1056).

For system administrators and developers:

• Updated the Django REST framework and DRF extensions packages.
• Added database table PendingSubmission for a new feature that will be released in a patch later (issue #988): automatic retries of incomplete grading jobs.

Release notes:
https://apluslms.github.io/releases/v1_16.html

Release v1.15.1, June 2022

Minor fixes:

• Fixed the LTI parameter list displayed in the LTI launch view (#1049).
• Fixed the netloc of the address used in the LTI parameter custom_context_api. This is important with the testing containers that use the localhost address. That is, the address uses SERVICE_BASE_URL now.

Release notes:
https://apluslms.github.io/releases/v1_15.html