To all
As part of the ongoing effort to streamline Moodle and increase HQ’s ability to deliver new features and improvements faster to the community we are announcing the retirement of the Classic theme from Moodle core. From our usage research Classic theme is only used in approximately 1.6% of registered Moodle systems, this is less than half the next most popular theme. Given the significant level of effort and resourcing required in testing and development to maintain Classic theme it is clear this would be best redirected to other areas that will benefit a larger proportion of the community.
We understand that this has been a beloved part of Moodle for many years and that some institutions may have their own custom themes based on Classic. As such there will be an extended period before it is removed from core entirely and moved to the plugin database.
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From Moodle 5.0 until Moodle 5.3 Classic theme will continue to be supported
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Testing will continue as it is currently conducted with every release
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New functionality will be supported in Classic theme
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Accessibility bugs and significant issues will continue to be addressed
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Minor and more trivial issues will be deprioritised
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As part of the Moodle 6.0 release, Classic theme will be moved out of core and into the plugins directory.
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No new features will be supported in Classic for the Moodle 6.0 release and beyond
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Any remaining issues that only affect Classic will be closed
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Some CSS and code cleanup will occur in Moodle 6.0 and subsequent versions to remove items only used in the Classic theme; this will occur in line with the current depreciation policies.
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This timeline essentially gives existing users of the Classic theme until Moodle 5.3 before having to transition to another theme. This is approximately 4 years as Moodle 5.3 will have general support until October 2027 and security support until Oct 2028. We feel that this is a more than reasonable time line to allow any transitions to occur.