As defined in our DEV site standards, Open LMS provides complimentary test (aka: "DEV") sites on an as-needed basis to help prepare for upgrades or to test new tools and integrations. These sites are usually decommissioned two weeks after the upgrade of your production site has occurred.
We recommend doing thorough testing in advance to prepare for your scheduled upgrade. This helps us and you to identify any potential issues so they can be addressed in advance and provides administrators and support staff the opportunity to anticipate questions they may receive from users following the upgrade. Should have any questions or run into issues while testing, please let our team know so that we can assist you.
Here are some suggested areas to review:
Documentation
Review the What's new in Moodle? article that provides an overview of new features and enhancements since your current version. We recommend paying special attention to changes that will have an impact on your end users. Based on our experience thus far, the new features that lead to the most questions include:
- Course overview block now on 'My Courses page' instead of the Dashboard
- Course navigation
- Block locations
- Activity and resource icons
- Activity completion display changes
Theme/User Interface
If you are interested in using this upgrade as an opportunity to update your theme, please let us know and we can assist with that transition. The current themes Open LMS supports on your site are Boost, Snap, Classic, and Boost Union.
- The theme will be upgraded to the latest available version when your DEV site is upgraded.
- Custom themes like Lambda or Fordson are not supported for version 4.x, so a transition to a new theme will be required. We recommend the Boost Union theme, as it is the easiest to customize.
- Please note that any images, slideshows, logos will not display as they should as the dev site does not contain moodledata.
- Check for any CSS customizations you have had us implement to confirm they are displaying and working as intended.
Plugins
PLEASE NOTE: Existing additional plugins on your site are upgraded only if a compatible version is available, reviewed, and approved for the version you are moving to.
- Pay careful attention to whether any plugins you rely on are unavailable on your dev site.
- The client is also responsible for testing additional plugins that are updated to 4.x compatible versions to ensure they continue functioning according to their needs.
- Check plugins which connect to external services.
- Test all custom 3rd party plugins. You can confirm whether a given plugin is compatible with the version you will be upgrading to by consulting the Moodle™ plugins directory. Even if the plugin version hasn’t changed, it is wise to test it for compatibility with the upgraded version.
- If you have the H5P plugin (mod_hvp) installed and actively in use, we recommend you review this article about your options regarding H5P plugin vs. Moodle™ core H5P in the latest versions.
Language
- If you have previously customized language strings, verify they are present and functioning.
- Note any changes to core and plugin language strings.
Modules/Activities/Resources
- Verify that all course activities or resources you use (forums, glossary, questionnaire, etc.) are present and functioning as expected.
- Verify activities that can rely on external files or resources, such as SCORM, Kaltura, and LTI activities.
- Verify quizzes and all question types.
- Note: The quiz module is perhaps the most utilized activity type in most Moodle sites. Thoroughly check all options and settings.
- Verify functionality of embedded content such as audio and videos.
- Verify repositories - OneDrive, Google Suite are functioning as expected.
Optional
- With a sample of user accounts, test login workflow.
- Most SSO methods will require further configuration to work with the dev environment. Let us know if you would like to coordinate on configuring the dev site to conduct this testing.
- Test that default and custom profile fields are as expected.
- Verify course enrollments and roles.
- If you are using the internal messaging system, test message sending and receiving.
- Note: Email notifications will not be sent from the dev site.
Things to remember while working in your dev site
- The dev site is a copy of the database for your site but includes none of the moodledata (uploaded files) behind it. Your moodledata folder stores all the files and documents and images uploaded into Moodle. Since an upgrade doesn't usually include any changes to how features associated with moodledata work, you should be able to fully experience the latest version without it.
- The dev site does not have the same resources dedicated to it as the client “production” site. You may notice reduced performance compared to your live site during testing.
- The Moodle cron DOES NOT run on the dev sites. If you are testing a feature that uses the cron, this will require further coordination.
- Email delivery is disabled in the dev site so password resets and email notifications will not be sent.
- The dev site is a separate instance. Any content and setting changes you make in the dev site will not transfer to production in an upgrade.
- The dev site should NOT be used for course development or other instructional activities.
- We recommend limiting dev site access to a select group of users to conduct necessary testing.
- If you change a setting or content on the dev site, please keep a record of these updates so they can be applied to your production site after the upgrade. This includes any site default settings or CSS changes made in the UI for any themes you are using.