Open edX Teak Developer & Operator Release Notes

Open edX Teak Developer & Operator Release Notes#

These are the developer & operator release notes for the Teak release, the 20th community release of the Open edX Platform, spanning changes from October 24, 2024 to April 25, 2025. You can also review details about Open edX Platform Release Notes or learn more about the Open edX Platform.

To view the end-user facing docs, see the Open edX Teak Release - Product Release Notes.

Breaking Changes#

Administrators & Operators#

Settings and Toggles#

Added Feature Toggles#

  • +ENABLE_CODEJAIL_DARKLAUNCH: xmodule/capa/safe_exec/remote_exec.py (line 32)

    • Default value = False

    • Description: Turn on to send requests to both the codejail service and the installed codejail library for [output truncated, see link for full description]

  • +FEATURES[‘IN_CONTEXT_DISCUSSION_ENABLED_DEFAULT’]: cms/envs/common.py (line 567)

    • Default value = True

    • Description: Set to False to disable in-context discussion for units by default.

  • +USE_EXTRACTED_ANNOTATABLE_BLOCK: lms/envs/common.py (line 5555)

    • Default value = False

    • Description: Enables the use of the extracted annotatable XBlock, which has been shifted to the openedx/xblocks-contrib repo.

  • +USE_EXTRACTED_DISCUSSION_BLOCK: lms/envs/common.py (line 5595)

    • Default value = False

    • Description: Enables the use of the extracted Discussion XBlock, which has been shifted to the openedx/xblocks-contrib repo.

  • +USE_EXTRACTED_HTML_BLOCK: lms/envs/common.py (line 5585)

    • Default value = False

    • Description: Enables the use of the extracted HTML XBlock, which has been shifted to the openedx/xblocks-contrib repo.

  • +USE_EXTRACTED_LTI_BLOCK: lms/envs/common.py (line 5575)

    • Default value = False

    • Description: Enables the use of the extracted LTI XBlock, which has been shifted to the openedx/xblocks-contrib repo.

  • +USE_EXTRACTED_POLL_QUESTION_BLOCK: lms/envs/common.py (line 5565)

    • Default value = False

    • Description: Enables the use of the extracted poll question XBlock, which has been shifted to the openedx/xblocks-contrib repo.

  • +USE_EXTRACTED_PROBLEM_BLOCK: lms/envs/common.py (line 5605)

    • Default value = False

    • Description: Enables the use of the extracted Problem XBlock, which has been shifted to the openedx/xblocks-contrib repo.

  • +USE_EXTRACTED_VIDEO_BLOCK: lms/envs/common.py (line 5615)

    • Default value = False

    • Description: Enables the use of the extracted Video XBlock, which has been shifted to the openedx/xblocks-contrib repo.

  • +USE_EXTRACTED_WORD_CLOUD_BLOCK: lms/envs/common.py (line 5545)

    • Default value = False

    • Description: Enables the use of the extracted Word Cloud XBlock, which has been shifted to the openedx/xblocks-contrib repo.

  • +contentstore.enable_course_optimizer: cms/djangoapps/contentstore/toggles.py (line 622)

    • Default value = False

    • Description: This flag enables the course optimizer tool in the authoring MFE.

  • +contentstore.use_react_markdown_editor: cms/djangoapps/contentstore/toggles.py (line 222)

    • Default value = False

    • Description: This flag enables the use of the Markdown editor when creating or editing problems in the authoring MFE

Removed Feature Toggles#

Added Settings#

  • +DISABLED_ORGS_FOR_PROGRAM_NUDGE: lms/envs/common.py (line 5390)

    • Default value = “[]”

    • Description: List of organization codes that should be disabled

  • +ORA_PEER_LEASE_EXPIRATION_HOURS: lms/envs/common.py (line 3821)

    • Default value = 8

    • Description: Amount of time before a lease on a peer submission expires

  • +ORA_STAFF_LEASE_EXPIRATION_HOURS: lms/envs/common.py (line 3826)

    • Default value = 8

    • Description: Amount of time before a lease on a staff submission expires

  • +LIBRARY_ENABLED_BLOCKS: cms/envs/common.py (line 2904)

    • Default value = “[‘problem’, ‘video’, ‘html’, ‘drag-and-drop-v2’]”

    • Description: List of block types that are ready/enabled to be created/used

Removed Settings#

Other Operator Changes#

  • The Authoring MFE is now the default course authoring experience, and the legacy experience will be removed in Ulmo. See Studio UI Modernization for more details.

    • Operators can, for the Teak release, revert back to legacy Studio pages using the legacy_studio.* flags detailed in the Toggles section above on a page-by-page basis. These flags will be removed in Ulmo.

  • In LMS and CMS, Celery now uses task protocol 2.

    • Action: Any operator using custom Celery tooling should ensure it is compatible with protocol 2. For other operators, no action is required.

    • Background: Celery 4.0 switched how task messages are structured and the new message format is called protocol 2. The version of Celery we currently use (anything >=4.0) can create and consume both protocol versions and it should be safe to switch between them with zero downtime.

      • By default, Celery 4.0 and higher produce messages in this format, and Celery 3.1.25 and higher can read messages in this format.

      • edx-platform was pinned to protocol 1 during the upgrade to Celery 4, presumably as a precaution. This change is the long-delayed unpinning of the protocol version so that Celery can use its default version.

      • Operators can still override the protocol version using the Django setting CELERY_TASK_PROTOCOL although there is no guarantee that protocol 1 compatibility will be preserved in the future.

  • When codejail is used by LMS and CMS, it no longer requires write access to the sandbox virtualenv .config or .cache directories.

    • Action: If you run codejail, it is recommended that you remove write permissions to <SANDENV>/.config and <SANDENV>/.cache from your AppArmor profile, if possible.

    • Background: Running import matplotlib in a custom Python-evaluated XBlock in Sumac and earlier required the AppArmor profile to allow write access to one of these directories. In Teak, edxapp now sets the MPLCONFIGDIR environment variable for inputs sent to codejail, so matplotlib will now write to the ./tmp/ subdirectory inside the codejail-created sandbox.

      • You should be able to identify these exclusions by looking for lines like /home/sandbox/.config/ wrix, although the exact parent directory may vary. Other temporary directories may have been allowed instead, such as /tmp. Any such write permission to a global directory is inadvisable, since it reduces the ability of codejail to perform effective sandboxing. Removing these lines in Teak will (appropriately) reduce the permissions of sandboxed code. They should not be removed before Teak, however, as this will cause matplotlib to fail to load.

      • Operators who have not previously needed to support matplotlib in instructor or learner code may not have these exclusions in their AppArmor configurations. If this is your situation, no action is required.

      • Removing these lines may cause other, unanticipated failures in sandboxed code. Monitor your codejail logs and failure rates when deploying this change.

  • All MFEs have been upgraded to React 18. If you have forked an MFE and want to pull in the upstream changes from Teak, you will need to ensure all dependencies work with React 18.

  • MFE slots now follow a versioned naming convention, for example, footer_slot is now org.openedx.frontend.layout.footer.v1.

    • Aliases are present for existing slots, and will be throughout the lifecycle of the available slot. Any version bump to a slot will have an associated DEPR ticket.

    • See the slot renaming ADR for more details on the new naming scheme. All new slots will use this naming scheme, and developers making new slots should pay attention to the ADR.

  • New feature: Codejail local/remote darklaunch

    Not relevant to Tutor deployments

    This is not relevant to Tutor, which does not support local codejail.

    • Audience: Deployers who support codejail (e.g. custom Python-graded problem blocks) and are not already using a remote codejail service.

    • Background: Historically, codejail execution has been performed on the same hosts as LMS and CMS, aka “local codejail”. There is a new codejail-service that allows performing this code execution remotely. This allows for additional security restrictions, and the new code includes several security enhancements.

    • Purpose: The darklaunch feature allows operators to gain confidence in preparing for a switch from local to remote codejail. When enabled, it can send all codejail executions to both local and remote codejail, while only using the results of the local execution and suppressing all errors from the remote side. This allows operators to discover issues in the remote service’s configuration under real production traffic conditions.

    • Usage: To use darklaunch to switch from local to remote:

      • Create a codejail-service cluster

      • Configure LMS and CMS to call it by configuring CODE_JAIL_REST_SERVICE_HOST but not ENABLE_CODEJAIL_REST_SERVICE (which must remain disabled for the moment).

      • Begin the dark launch by setting ENABLE_CODEJAIL_DARKLAUNCH to true. Traffic will begin flowing to the new service, but the results will be ignored.

        • The only user-visible impact should be that codejail executions take twice as long, as the local and remote executions are performed serially.

      • Observe telemetry to discover errors and behavior mismatches.

        • Mismatches can include:

          • One side failed to execute entirely (“unexpected error”) while the other did not. This might include network issues.

          • One side returned an error from the submitted code, while the other did not, or produced a different error.

          • Both sides succeeded, but the returned globals dictionaries differed.

        • Error and warning logs from safe_exec.py in edxapp containing codejail darklaunch will tell you about configuration problems, unexpected errors, and mismatches in behavior between the two environments.

        • Span-based telemetry (New Relic, Datadog, etc.) can be used to track rates of mismatches and break them down by course ID and type. See set_custom_attribute calls starting with codejail. in safe_exec.py

          for available attributes. The local-only, remote-only and local/remote darklaunch calls all have different span names as well, e.g. safe_exec.remote_exec_darklaunch.

        • Use CODEJAIL_DARKLAUNCH_EMSG_NORMALIZERS to normalize away spurious mismatches between the environments. (Not all mismatches can be readily ignored, such

          as ordering differences in sets.)

      • Once behavior and performance differences are resolved, remove ENABLE_CODEJAIL_DARKLAUNCH and set ENABLE_CODEJAIL_REST_SERVICE to true. This will complete the migration, and codejail executions will only be performed on the remote service.

  • New feature: Accredible Integration for Open edX Credentials Badges. See Credentials (Badging) for more product details. Configuration instructions are as follows:

    • Audience: Operators and deployers who wish to issue digital badges from Accredible.

    • History: previously Verifiable Credentials sharing and Credly integration were implemented to provide a new credentials sharing capabilities to the Open edX ecosystem. Now we provide another integration option for Providers.

    • Purpose: Add another badging backend to Open edX Credentials.

    • Usage:

      • For tutor based deployments, install and enable the tutor-contrib-badges plugin. See that plugin’s README for details.

      • Besides the Accredible integration, the Tutor plugin that adds and configuring features for sharing to different “providers”:

    • To start using this feature an Accredible account is necessary.

      • Register on Accredible and create your account.

      • Create at least 1 group.

    • Badges feature is optional and it is disabled by default. So, it must be enabled to be accessible:

      # LMS service:
FEATURES["BADGES_ENABLED"] = True

# Credentials service:
BADGES_ENABLED = True

Deprecations & Removals#

  • [UPCOMING] In Ulmo, pre-design-tokens brand packages will no longer be supported. With design tokens, theme authors will instead override core Paragon tokens by defining their own JSON tokens that get deep merged alongside the core Paragon tokens, thus overriding any tokens that were defined by the theme author. See the associated DEPR ticket for details, and follow the Design Tokens (New Theming System) page for more detail. Operators will be able to try out Design Tokens using the Teak Design Tokens branches.

  • [DEPR]: block_structure.storage_backing_for_cache in edx-platform This is a simplification to how course content is cached. It should be invisible to all end users.

  • The flag ENABLE_BLAKE2B_HASHING was removed. blake2b hashing is now used for caching instead of the deprecated md4 hashing. After upgrading, it’s possible that performance could be degraded as the cache rebuilds.

  • [DEPR]: django-oauth2-provider (DOP) related tables

    • For LMS and CMS, there is a new script to clean up old DOP-related authentication tables.

    • If you have an old installation of the Open edX platform (Palm or earlier), you may have many outdated/unused authentication-related tables that can lead to confusion when looking at the database.

    • The script is not related to Teak other than it now being available, and should be ok to run on any installation using Palm, Redwood, or Sumac.

  • [DEPR]: Support for footer replacement via npm installing forked footers

    • It is possible to work around this breaking change by also exporting your forked Footer component as FooterSlot and your forked StudioFooter component as StudioFooterSlot

  • [DEPR]: DISPLAY_COURSE_SOCK_FLAG

    • The DISPLAY_COURSE_SOCK_FLAG was a waffle flag that was used to determine whether verification related upsell messaging should be displayed in the courseware. This data was used to determine whether the sock should be displayed in the legacy courseware which is itself deprecated.

Researcher & Data Experiences#

Upgrading to Aspects v2.3.1 will give you the latest Aspects functionality with Teak, including Introducing In-Context Analytics in Studio. See the upgrade instructions here: How-to Upgrade Aspects.

Next, be sure to:

  • Enable the ASPECTS_ENABLE_STUDIO_IN_CONTEXT_METRICS toggle - Enables or disables in-context metrics.

  • Ensure this setting: ASPECTS_IN_CONTEXT_DASHBOARDS is populated - A dictionary mapping block types to in-context dashboards. You can use this option to remove or replace the in-context dashboard for a block type. The key course defines the in-context dashboard for course overview.

  • And finally, to ensure in-context analytics are enabled, be sure to rebuild your MFE image:

    tutor images build mfe --no-cache

Mobile Updates#

No new changes were introduced in Teak. See Mobile Updates (Teak) for more detail.

Known Issues#

See the Build Test Release project board for known open issues.

Maintenance chart

Review Date

Working Group Reviewer

Release

Test situation

June 2025

BTR

Teak

Pass
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