21Q4 // Sep 27, 2021
Highlights
Optional Steps
So far, Event Managers had to decide up front if they wanted to configure a challenge in "competition" or "training" mode, but there was nothing in between. With this release, it is possible to allow students to give up points in exchange for (parts of) the step by step instructions available in training mode.
The Event Managers can configure "penalties" students will have to accept if they would like to see
- the step titles (already providing some information)
- the content of individual steps
Students can then give up points in order to view the step titles and - once they've identified where they're stuck - to access the contents of the relevant step(s) individually.
Messaging System
It is now possible to send information to users directly within the platform. We will for example inform you about downtimes or release upgrades.
Event Mangers or Teachers can send messages to students based on the events they are participating in and these messages can directly link to Events, Units or Solutions.
- As a student when you received a new grading
- As a teacher when there is a new Writeup available
- General information of teachers and managers
New Manager Dashboard
The new manager dashboard gives a better overview of the tenant's status. It also provides Event Managers with a way of sending messages to users, using the new messaging system.
New Features
- Default to the color scheme (dark / light) of the operating system.
- New markdown rendering engine (remark.js)
Notable Fixes
- The teacher flag was not passed to nested events in curricula.
- Progress of events did show up even not required
- Date format in event overview was misleading
- The point slider for grading a solution was not working
- Broken labels on input fields in the editor
- Dates could not be edited as text in Chrome
Engineering
- In the background, we've done a lot of work to improve development processes. All the projects making up the Hacking-Lab Cyber Range are now united in one monorepo.
- We've deduplicated a lot of code and moved more code to TypeScript, which already helped us find and fix some bugs.