Extending the support period for the November releases

Extending the support period for the November releases

by Steve Powell -
Number of replies: 11

Dear Colleagues

This is my first post on Moodle.org, so please forgive any mishaps or unintended breaches of etiquette. My name is Steve Powell and I head up the e-Learning team at Lancaster University. Some of you may know me from the Moodle Users Association or Moodle Moot. My proposed topic of discussion is whether Moodle HQ would consider extending the period of support provided for November releases. Here at Lancaster, we upgrade Moodle once a year during the summer. As you would expect we take the May release. 

It might seem that there would be plenty of time between May and September to upgrade Moodle, but in practice this is not the case. There are a lot of modifications/plugins that we need to refactor and test, and that takes time and we aim to make the new version available for staff to try as soon as we possibly can. This is because we know that the majority of academic staff are by and large unavailable in the months of July and August. Staff are tied up with marking, conferences and often spend the summer months away from Campus. As a result, teaching staff will often only see the new version of Moodle in September when they come back to teach. So just before teaching begins, when academics and support staff are already overloaded with work and under stress, the upgrade, far from being perceived as an improvement can be viewed as yet another issue to deal with.

I feel sure that the picture I am describing (not very well I grant you) is not unique to us. The biggest change that I can see that could really help us is if Moodle HQ can extend the period of support for November releases so that we could take the November release, but actually deploy it during the following summer (July/August). This would mean that November releases would in effect be long term releases. This would give the development team more time to deploy the upgrade, and give staff a real opportunity to look at the next release and understand what new and exciting features it provides, building a sense of anticipation rather than anxiety. 

I would be interested in knowing whether other users would recognise the picture I describe, and would consider this idea of value. If other members do think this idea has merit

Thank you

Steve





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In reply to Steve Powell

Re: Extending the support period for the November releases

by Visvanath Ratnaweera -
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Hi Steve

No response for so long, quite unusual. May be we have had many similar discussions over the years and people don't want to repeat. Here are two of them:
- Next Moodle LTS? https://moodle.org/mod/forum/discuss.php?d=315301.

- HEADS UP: Moodle 2.9 and minor versions coming next week https://moodle.org/mod/forum/discuss.php?d=313040.
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In reply to Visvanath Ratnaweera

Re: Extending the support period for the November releases

by Steve Powell -

Hi Visvanath

Thanks for the reply and the links. They don't quite cover the issue I am raising really. I wonder if I am posting to the right forum. Maybe I should use the teaching with Moodle forum instead. release dates are a real issue for us.

Best

Steve

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In reply to Steve Powell

Re: Extending the support period for the November releases

by Visvanath Ratnaweera -
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Hello Steve

About the proper forum: "General help" is never wrong. It says, "If you're not sure where to post, use this forum!" If there is a better place, the moderators will move the discussion. For example, all the discussions mentioned in the replies were in the "General developer forum".

The release and support cycles are after all policy decisions. See Jon's post for Martin D's take on this.

Rereading your OP, I question whether a yearly release cycle is the right one for your institution. What is the problem if you go at a slower pace?
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In reply to Visvanath Ratnaweera

Re: Extending the support period for the November releases

by Steve Powell -

Hi Visvanath

I really appreciate the response. It is reassuring to know that I posted to a good place. The issue with going at a slower pace is that there is still a pressure to take advantage of new features, so like most Higher Ed. Institutions in the UK we look to upgrade once a year and the only chance we have to make that switch is in the Summer - outside of the teaching year. 

Will check out Jon's response.

Best

Steve

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In reply to Steve Powell

Re: Extending the support period for the November releases

by Rick Jerz -
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Steve, I do recall some discussion about the issue that you raise, but it was over in the (somewhat private) CLAMP group.  I don't know if you have access to CLAMP (https://cme.clamp-it.org), but if not, I think that you could request access.

I don't recall where the discussion on CLAMP ended up.  I appreciate the issue, but I also appreciate that Moodle is a world-wide product used in many different environments, and that there might never be a solution that satisfies everyone.  I run my own small Moodle, so I update frequently, usually not more than a month behind.  Some releases, like the upcoming 3.7, make me want to explore (3.7) before jumping ahead.  I cannot recall any problems with minor releases.

But I do appreciate what bigger schools go through deciding upon updates.  

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In reply to Steve Powell

Re: Extending the support period for the November releases

by Mark Sharp -
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We have a similar situation where we upgrade in the summer. Our practice is to take current release - 1. So we'll be taking 3.6 (November release) this summer until next summer.

Since I'm the only developer at the uni working on Moodle it takes time to evaluate a new release and ensure all our plugins (many home grown) are working with that release. If I was to take the May release, that wouldn't really give me enough time to code and test - at least to my satisfaction.

Each release brings with it something new, for example Moodle 3.6 uses Bootstrap 4, whereas it was using 4 alpha in M3.4. That's taken me a while to check it works with our theme and make relevant changes.

By taking the latest release-1 I give myself 6 extra months to ease into that release. The downside, of course, is that there's a gap between the last security update and the upgrade, but I feel that's mitigated by being a release that's matured over 18 months (I do apply the updates when they come out).

Taking the older release also gives time for the TEL team to put together their support and communication materials as early as possible so that it's not such a shock to the academic system. We upgrade in July and will be making next years modules available in the next week or so, just to give them as much time as possible to get acquainted with the newer Moodle.

Having a few extra months for security patches of course would help ease anxiety about a security issue going left unpatched, but there's nothing stopping any of us applying a patch or withdrawing a feature in lieu of an official release if it's significant. And I'm sure MoodleHQ would take a view on backporting a security patch if it really was a doozer.
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In reply to Steve Powell

Re: Extending the support period for the November releases

by Jez H -
We upgrade in the summer but usually take the November release as it is more stable, plugin support is better and it gives us more time to test. The issue with that is it falls out of support before we next upgrade. Having a longer support period for security patches would be really useful.
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In reply to Jez H

Re: Re: Extending the support period for the November releases

by Steve Powell -
Mark Sharp above does something similar. The picture at least in HE is either pushing through the May upgrade with a lot of stress, and unhappy academic staff or going with the November release and hoping that nothing bad happens for a few months. I struggle with the former and running without gauranteed security support is not an option. I get that HEIs are only one type of customer in a global market, but they are significant and what I am asking for would not substantially change when other types of Institution would do their release. If HQ can extend the period of support for security then that would make a big difference.
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In reply to Steve Powell

Re: Re: Re: Extending the support period for the November releases

by Dan Marsden -
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Just thought I'd mention that we have a client releasing a site running 3.7 this month which we've been running in a test environment (and doing significant new theme and new development work for) that has been running the master/3.7 unstable code on it for the past 3 months - I found it pretty good - we pulled in the lastest weekly builds each week and didn't run into many issues - we hit a couple of theme breakages that occurred in the weekly updates but they were very quick to resolve. There isn't really anything major stopping you from doing something similar - especially after feature freeze and it also helps you to give back by helping with the QA of a new release.

Some Moodle Partners can provide extended support for out of official support releases - (we've only just recently stopped providing a client with security backports for a Moodle 2.6 site as they have finally managed to make plans for their new system.)
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