Dokkeos

I've updated the Dokeos 1.8.5 page to reflect the fact that we now have a Release Candidate and are very close to the stable release. This is a time for us (developers) to take a deep breath and analyse things with the satisfaction of someone having done a nice job.

We officially released 1.8.5 RC1 tonight, although we might alter the package just for two little microscopic changes tomorrow morning (one concerning SCORM export on Dokeos installs that use a subdirectory of the web server document root, and the other implementing a default hiding of the audiorecorder for the learning path building tool). I think there's not much to say, other than it's a *great* unstable release. I find it amazing how much we can progress with a good team.

Introduction

To prepare for RC1, I have to submit the latest database changes for this release. The objective of these changes is specifically to add the management of repeated events to a simple agenda system that doesn't have them. So, what's the big deal?

[digg=http://digg.com/programming/Dokeos_1_8_5_Beta_2_Released] Alright, so I did release a little brother for Dokeos 1.8.5 Beta today.

[digg=http://digg.com/programming/Dokeos_Drupal_link_in_the_making] I had an interesting talk with Marco Antonio Villegas Vega the morning of 19th April 2008 about a possible link between Drupal and Dokeos in the medium-term future (a few months). The idea is that Dokeos lacks one thing that Moodle has (but that we don't want in Dokeos itself): the possibility to build a widget-based website with your content. Dokeos has a strong structure, which Moodle lacks of, making it simpler for new users to get around

I've updated the 1.8.5 page, basically to mention that although I had initially planned the beta to be released last Friday, I failed on that predicament and I'm trying to make it ready for tomorrow or Wednesday the 16th. Obviously, the official release date for Dokeos 1.8.5 stable will be pushed back (a lot more, this one) as we want to have a beta, then a release candidate, then a stable release, each of them separated by at least one week to let you guys try it out and report things that are *still* not working.

I've already touched the topic slightly earlier, and there is a nice Dokeos 1.8.5 page in the tabs above that give a global idea, but Dokeos 1.8.5 comes packed with a lot of tiny but practical new features, and tiny but practical improvements. Some of the things we are working on at the moment are listed below

Regional Managers and Human Resources Managers

It's been a repeated complaint among our users that the flexibility of Dokeos roles was not complete enough for medium to large-size companies.

I'm back on track now and preparing Dokeos 1.8.5 which release has officially been announced for 19th of April 2008 in the March Newsletter. As usual, there will be a Beta and possibly some Release Candidates one and two weeks before that. We are trying to release a beta next week, I will keep you updated here. Note that an alpha version with many bugs has already been released internally, and we are submitting the last bugfixes at the moment, but we still have one or two new features to integrate before the beta, which is what is going to take the most time.

A customer recently hired us to develop an iCal export for the Dokeos agenda tool.