Best practice forum (Archived) - Moodle 2.0

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Moodle 2.0

Hi,

I was wondering if Totara was planning for a new release based on Moodle 2.0 and what the timetable would be.

The reason that i'm asking this is that one of our larger customers (over 10k users) is currently working on Moodle 1.9 version, they want to upgrade to a Moodle 2.0 solutions because of the extra possibilities, but as a last step they want to upgrade to a Totara version.

Since i think the current version of Totara is still based on Moodle 1.9 i was wondering what the correct course of action would be.

Moodle 1.9 ==> Moodle 2.0 ==> Totara 2.0

OR

Moodle 1.9 ==> Totara 1.9 ==> Totara 2.0

Thank you for your input.

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Hi there Wouter,

Totara is scheduled to move directly to Moodle 2.2 in March 2012.

It is at this stage we will be adopting Moodle's release numbering system, which should help to make it clearer which version of Moodle is being used for the Totara distribution.

This roadmap link explains things in some detail

http://www.totaralms.com/feature-a-benefits/roadmap

Thanks,

Andy

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The answer depends on how fast they want to migrate. Moodle 1.9 ==> Totara 2.2 is the optimal

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Thank you both for your quick response.

Our customer wants to move from Moodle 1.9 pretty quickly, because they like the new functionalities in Moodle 2.0. Some of those functionalities are already implemented in Totara (based on Moodle 1.9), but not everything they want.

Therefore, they would like to move to Moodle 2.0 first, but they would like to end up with a totara license, because of the learning plan and hierarchical structures currently present in Totara.

It would take us and our customer also a lot of work to rework the content and definition of the different users in the system if we move directly to totara and use it in the way it is ment to be. Therefore we would like to proceed with moving to Moodle 2.0 first and then wait for the Totara 2.0 version and then upgrade.

Kind regards,

Wouter

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Hi Wouter,

I hope you are aware that the current Moodle release is Moodle 2.1.2 . I think it would be a good move to choose Moodle 2.1.2 if you need to opt for Moodle as Moodle 2.0 is outdated.

Moreover, Moodle 2.1 onwards has a new question engine and migrating to Totara 2.2 might turn out to be easier than from Moodle 2.0 .

Regards,

Vikram

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Hi Vikram, Thanks for pointing this out. We will upgrade to the latest Moodle version or will a specific Moodle version be chosen as base for Totara 2.2?

Kind regards,

Wouter

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The current moodle release schedule has 2.2 coming out in December. We are aiming to Release Totara 2.2 in March so it would be based off 2.2.

You should use the current 'stable' release which I believe is 2.1, then you can upgrade to moodle 2.2 in December and Totara 2.2 in March.

Simon

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Hi Simon,

I'm picking this up again. We are currently pretty close to March and we haven't upgraded our clients Moodle yet to Moodle 2. Now we are investigating if this would still be necessary.

Is the Totara 2 version still scheduled for March (beginning or end?)?

Starting from a Moodle 1.9, would it be better to to upgrade :

to moodle 2 and then to totara 2
to totara 1.9 and then totara 2
immediately to totara 2

?

Thank you for your input.

Kind regards,

Wouter

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Hi Wouter,

We were aiming for the end of March, but to be honest, it's taking longer than we had anticipated to get it done, partly because of an increase in the number of support requests (which is giving us less time to work on it) and partly because there's more to do than we expected.

You will be able to upgrade either from moodle 2 or from totara 1.9, and we will ensure it works for unmodified versions of Totara. If you've made local customisations you will have some work to do but that will be needed which ever way you upgrade.

Simon

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Will it be possible to get access to a beta version once it is out?

Alex

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Yes we'll make a beta version available once we've got the basics working. It won't be suitable for production though - i.e. we won't guarantee a smooth upgrade path to the final release so it will be for testing only.

Simon

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just a "+1" from me - a beta version, however unstable, would be really important for us too (we need to build some upload scripts so I'm very intersted to see, as soon as possible, whether/how key user/position/organisation tables have changed).

In fact: Simon/others - is there anything you can tell us at the moment, even in principle, about data structures? i.e. are you using Moodle 2.2 data structures for users, and the existing Totara 1.1 structures for positions, competencies, organisational hierachies, and manager/learner relationships? (I suspect the answer is "it's not that simple" but I thought I'd ask just in case it is).

Cheers

Tim

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Hi Tim,

1.9 is made up of Moodle 1.9 code + Totara additions. In Totara 2.2 we'll basically be migrating the Moodle 1.9 code to Moodle 2.2, which means we'll include any data structure changes made by the core moodle team. The Totara code structure (including additions like the hierarchies) will remain the same, other than to update it to use the moodle 2 functions etc.

The only other significant change I can think of is that we're creating a new 'totara' module type (moodle 2 supports creating custom module types) moving all the totara 'local' modules to be 'totara' modules and moving the core totara code into a 'core' totara module. This will free up the 'local' area again for sites that want to make there own customisations on top of Totara.

Hope that helps,

Simon

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Hi Simon,

Will Totara 2.2 still install/upgrade 'packages' if they are placed in the 'local' folder if they have the required files or should they also be developed as Moodle 2 modules?

Ben

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Yes 2.2 will support local 'modules'.

Simon

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Hi Ben,

To clarify, any local modules that exist for 1.9 will still need to be re-coded to work in 2.2, but the concept of local modules that we have in 1.9 will still be there in 2.2.

Simon

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Thanks Simon, that's really useful.

Tim

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I'm curious as to how the progress for this is coming along?

Cheers, Josh

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Hi Josh,

The good news is I can assure everyone there won't be the release date delays experienced with Moodle 2.0 itself. wink However, our original target release date of March has slipped for a number of reasons.

This is at the same time a massive release, and yet we're not introducing new Totara features! This is because the underlying architectures of Moodle 1.x series and Moodle 2x series are very different. We won't see a repeat of this type of upgrade so we'll have greater certainty in release scheduling going forward.

However, for the Totara 2.2 release it's inherently difficult. There are approximately 181,000 lines of additional code in Totara compared to a standard Moodle and all have to be ported. If the team did that manually it’d take forever so some automated scripts have been written but it's still a massive job and thankfully will not have to be repeated.

Of course, for you, our subscribers, it's paramount the job is robust so we don't wish to cut corners to meet arbitrary deadlines. Our production releases need to be well tested and as described, this is a massive shift to the underlying code which won't be repeated for many years. Due care is required. Progress is good and I will keep subscribers updated via this forum.

kind regards
Richard Wyles

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Hi Richard,

I can very much understand your point of view. There is indeed a huge difference between Moodle 1.9 and Moodle 2.0 and i like your product better than Moodle because it is more robust.

Nonetheless, a deadline of March was being communicated, so we passed this along to a number of possible clients. Would it be possible to give us an estimation on the release for the new Totara 2 version? It doesnt need to be exact, but will it be within a month, during summer vacation, after summer vacation, ...

Thanks in advance,

We appreciate your openness in this.

Kind regards,

Wouter

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Hi Wouter,

I appreciate that and it was remiss of me not to indicate a timeframe. It is the extent of testing and bug-fixing that means I can't provide an exact date but we're confident we will have the alpha release by the end of April so a production version will be in the 2nd quarter - i.e. between April-June.

kind regards
Richard

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Hi Richard,

I was wondering if there is already news for the Totara 2.0 version. Reason for asking is that we have just sealed a deal with a big company in Belgium (+5k users), but they would like to start with the 2.0 version. Problem is that there is need for data synchronization, so extra development is necessary to make this work.

To make this implementation doable considering the different deadlines, we now need to make the choice whether we can wait for Totara 2.0 or not. So i would like to know when this version will be released.

We are really looking forward to it.

Thanks in advance,

Kind regards,

Wouter

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Hi Wouter,

Totara 2.2 will have a flexible HR data synchronisation included in the release so that should help your project. Totara 2.2 candidate release (includes upgrade paths) will be released on 6th July. We're confident of this timeframe.

What are their deadlines?

kind regards
Richard

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Hi Richard,

that's great news. We will be able to postpone our implementation untill then.

Kind regards,

Wouter

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Hi Richard,

Would it be possible to get an early beta release? We have to deliver some admin training to a new customer and we need to determine if then new Totara release is is significantly different than current from an admin view.

If there are significant changes we might have to consider delaying the training until we have a stable release of the new version -or- talk about where and what the changes are and what they look like.

Thanks,

Mark.

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Hi Mark,

Yes, it is possible - I'm moving this discussion across to the partners area tho as it seems to be in the wrong place - all the participants here are partners.

cheers
Richard

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Hi,

Thanks Richard, we are not too concerned about stability/bugs, we'd like to get an early look, which would help us with some planning.

Maybe giving us access to a git branch is the easiest option?

Thanks,

Mark.

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Thanks, Richard - good to know about 2.2RC for 6 july. What will be the process for testing and reporting bugs? Also, when might we expect 2.2 stable release?

Cheers, Chad

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