Visvanath Ratnaweera

Hi

>> Isn't that odd. You lived without those "killer, must-have new features". Did you miss anything?
>> If you anticipate pain, why do you jump in?
>
> I inherited the administration on a v2.5.x site five days ago because the school technician
> has greater priorities. I've never used Moodle before, and there's quite an organisational mess
> to clean up from last year's courses. It needs to be organised and useable as soon as possible,
> and I've still got my normal job/duties to do too, so all this has to be done in my own time.

Are sure that the mess you are talking about will be cleared once you upgrade? If you are lucky,
those two things are unrelated. If you are less lucky, the upgrade will up the mess!

> Frankly the administration of courses and students is an absolute pain in v2.5. I've spent a couple
> of dozen hours trying to do things which should have been much simpler in such a mature piece
> of software.

Now that one is complete off-track. You saw Moodle five days ago and dare to make such statements!

> I can't do an upgrade now,

Good decision. Make a list of the "mess" and find solutions for each. If you're unsure, you can post your list. Well, we can't do anything about the organizational mess, sorry!

> but I was wondering whether it would enhance the admin capability

hardly.

> and UI much, or whether the step from 2.5 to 2.9 wasn't actually a very big change.

Obviously it is a big change. You are talking of four full versions later.

> I can't read all the release notes (they don't even make sense because I have no idea what the
> features and bugs are that they refer to),

Then it is prudent to wait, till you understand them!

> so I was looking for people to give a definitive 'Yeah, it
> totally rocks' or 'Meh, don't bother - nothing has really changed that much'.

Funny, in the digital world there's no simple Yes/No answer!

> Thanks for already giving your opinion.

You are welcome! No need to thank. There is a "Useful" button, if you found the opinion useful that is.

> I'd like to hear from anyone who has upgraded from v2.5.x to v2.9 (or a similar jump to v2.9).

I have taken a number of sites along the path 2.4 > ... > 2.7. Does that qualify me to answer your questions?

> Are there any killer, must-have new features or bug fixes that made the upgrade very much worth it?

Isn't that odd. You lived without those "killer, must-have new features". Did you miss anything?

The usual "killer" is security bug fixes. See https://docs.moodle.org/dev/Releases.

> Was it a smooth transition, with virtually no troubleshooting and fixes required afterward?

Unproblematic - to upgrade, I mean. Well, those sites had very few non-core plug-ins, nor code changes.

> Or perhaps the opposite true - a lot of pain for not much gain (or even loss)?

If you anticipate pain, why do you jump in?

Did you go through the forum documentation? They are at the top when you enter this forum: https://moodle.org/mod/forum/view.php?id=596.

Also, don't forget to Add a new discussion https://moodle.org/mod/forum/post.php?forum=94, so that you see the complete information.

Another possibility: https://moodle.org/mod/forum/discuss.php?d=316222&parent=1289817

Hallo Dominic

Moodle kann und will nicht E-Mails direkt versenden, sondern benoetigt dafuer einen sogenannten SMTP-Server (vergleichbar mit dem Postschalter eines Postamts). Deshalb sind die Daten deine Moodle-Umgebung unabdingbar. Konkret, "Da es hier um die Technik geht, beschreiben Sie Ihre Hard- und Software möglichst genau. Moodle wird auf zahlreichen Rechnerarchitekturen, Betriebssystemen, Webservern, Datenbankservern, usw. eingesetzt. Besonders wichtig ist die Angabe der von Ihnen genutzten Version von Moodle. Ohne diese Angaben ist manchmal eine Frage kaum zu beantworten." (Ersten HInweise auf diesem Forum "Moodle-Technikforum" https://moodle.org/mod/forum/view.php?id=949, Punkt 2.)

Mehr dazu: https://docs.moodle.org/24/en/Messaging_settings