Next Exams v6.2.0 Changelog

New Features 35

Six new question types: image choice, range (slider), hotspot (pin), image marking, graph and puzzle.
A range question asking for an interval has one slider with a handle for each end.
Every new type can also be answered from the keyboard, with a screen reader and without JavaScript.
Results show a visual answer drawn against the correct one.
Hotspot and image marking areas can be rectangles, circles or polygons, drawn on the picture with handles to reshape them.
The range, graph and puzzle editors show the slider, the grid and the shuffled pieces while you set them.
New app: Visual Question Types, to switch the new types on or off.
A demo exam with one question of each visual type.
Exam Studio: build an exam on one full-window screen, with an outline, the exam as cards and question settings side by side.
Write and edit questions inside the exam, without going to the question bank first.
Keep in bank: a question can belong to one exam only, hidden from the bank, the picker and random draws.
Preview the exam on your site's real exam page, at desktop, tablet or phone width; nothing is recorded.
Pick questions from the bank with search, filters and multi-select.
Random draws show how many questions match while you build them.
Reorder questions and sections by drag or keyboard.
Undo and redo for what you arrange.
Section descriptions.
An issue count warns about drafts, short random draws and duplicates before you publish.
Unsaved changes are kept in the browser and offered back after a closed tab or expired session.
A warning when someone else saved the exam or a question while you were editing it.
Copy a shared question for one exam, or edit it everywhere.
Changing the answers of an already answered question saves a new version; past results keep the old one.
New setting: whether questions written inside an exam are kept in the bank by default.
A question's page says which exams use it and whether learners have answered it.
The question list has a "Used in" column: how many exams use each question.
Leaving a question page with unsaved changes asks first.
New module, NextExams - Exam: one exam's start screen in any module position.
The `{nextexam id=N}` shortcode shows the exam's start screen: access code, guest details, Start or Resume, right in the article.
Shortcode and module options: compact or full layout, which details to show, and your own Start label.
A wrong access code or a start problem brings the learner back to the page they were on.
Start can open the exam in a full-window view over the page (`start=modal`, or the module's "Start opens" option). Leaving asks first and keeps the attempt; the result shows in the same window.
Clean exam addresses: `/exams/12-final-test` by default, or alias only, or ID only (Settings → SEF / SEO).
Optional subject path in exam addresses, such as `/exams/mathematics/algebra/12-final-test`.
An Alias field for exams (Exam Studio → Settings → General) and for subjects.
Each exam page names its canonical address; an old or wrong address redirects to it with a 301.

Changes 23

The `{nextexam}` card follows the exam's access rules and the configured colours, instead of always offering Start.
The exam page's start screen is one overridable layout (`html/layouts/com_nextexams/exam/start.php`), shared with the module and the shortcode.
The four-tab exam builder is replaced by the Exam Studio.
The question editor is one page instead of three steps, and is the same in the bank and the studio.
One Save button saves the exam and every changed question together.
Points set in an exam apply to that exam only.
Deleting a question that an exam still uses is refused and names the exams.
A deleted question that learners have answered is kept hidden, so their results still open.
The type of an already answered question can no longer be changed.
Version history opens from a button in the question's header.
Difficulty is shown by name (Very easy to Very hard) with a five-dot meter.
Cards have a border on every screen.
An image-choice picture is changed from a pencil button on the picture.
The hotspot, image-marking and puzzle pictures are changed from a pencil button on the picture too.
After drawing an area, the page no longer scrolls the picture away to its name field.
Saving an exam needs the publish permission to change its published state.
API tokens need the exams write scope to put a question into an exam.
Editing, unpublishing or deleting an exam-only question also needs the exams edit permission.
A random draw never serves a question that has a newer version in the bank.
Moodle XML export leaves out question types it cannot express, instead of writing them as multiple choice.
Links in emails, certificate QR codes, invigilator invites and webhooks use the site's clean addresses instead of `index.php?option=…`.
An exam is linked beneath the Exams menu item filtered to its subject, when there is one.
Two exams, or two subjects with the same parent, can no longer share an alias; a clash gets `-2`, `-3`… added.

Bug Fixes 8

Editing a question after learners had answered it could score their answers as zero.
A reloaded exam page could show an already given answer as blank after the question was edited.
A draft or unpublished question silently disappeared from papers without any warning to the author.
The exam builder could only find the first 500 questions.
Negative marking on multiple-answer questions was saved but never applied. A wrong answer now costs points; an attempt's total never goes below 0.
Exams and My Exams menu links carried `?subject_id=0` or `?exam_id=0` in every address.
A question's own "Shuffle options" switch was ignored. Switched off, it now keeps that question's options in order while the exam shuffles the rest.
Essay minimum and maximum word counts were saved but never used. The learner now sees them with a live word count, the maximum stops further words, and a minimum above the maximum is refused.

Security 1

With Joomla's System - Page Cache plugin on, a guest could be shown another guest's exam or result page. Next Exams pages are no longer page-cached.

Language 6

618 new strings, for the Exam Studio, the question editor, the visual question types, the exam embed and the SEF settings; 7 unused strings removed.
Six new languages: German, French, Italian, Spanish, Hungarian and Arabic.
Arabic is shown right to left in the administrator app, the live monitor and the exam pages.
Certificate PDFs print Arabic correctly, with joined letters and right-to-left order. A long Arabic line that wraps onto a second line still prints its lines in the wrong order, so keep such fields to one line or break them by hand.
A string that has not been translated yet shows in English, not as its code.
The rich-text editor uses the same language and direction as the rest of the app.

Notes 4

Updating adds three columns to the questions table and four settings. No extra steps are needed.
Exam addresses change from `/exams/12` to `/exams/12-final-test`. Old addresses keep working and redirect; choose "ID only" to keep the old shape.
Existing questions all stay in the question bank.
Pictures for the new question types come from the Next Exams media library.

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