Version 2.6.8

New Features

  • A new experimental Docker Desktop extension is now provided for deploying workshops to a local docker environment. This provides a extension UI in Docker Desktop which under the covers uses educates docker workshop deploy to deploy workshops.

  • The test examiner script URL endpoints can now be accessed from outside the context of the workshop session dashboard by supplying the services password as token query string parameter to the HTTP API call.

  • Any clickable action can now set a hidden property. The result of this is that the clickable action will be hidden from view in the workshop instructions. Not being visible a user will not be able to click on the action, however it can still be triggered automatically if autorestart property is set, or if it follows a clickable action which has cascade property set. For more details see Hiding clickable actions from view.

  • When using educates deploy-workshop you can now specify --image-repository option and the registry setting will be added against the workshop in the training portal with the supplied value replacing value of $(image_repository) in the workshop definition. This can be useful when using educates publish-workshop --image-repository ... to publish a workshop to a remote image registry and you need to test the deployment of the workshop using the remote image registry.

  • When using educates docker workshop deploy you can force the use of a builtin workshop base image from the local image registry at localhost:5001 used during development of Educates, by supplying --image-version as latest. You can also completely override what workshop image is used by instead setting the --workshop-image option.

  • A Linux arm64 version of the educates CLI is now provided.

Features Changed

  • When using educates new-workshop the Hugo workshop template, rather than the classic renderer template, is now the default.

  • When using educates serve-workshop --patch-workshop, the access token to secure the connection is now generated the first time it is required and cached, so that it used for subsequent runs, rather than generating a new access token each time. This makes it possible to exit the CLI and run again while still in the same workshop session. If you need to force the replacement of the cached access token, you can use the --refresh-token option. For a specific run, you can still set your own access token using --access-token.

  • The Hugo param shortcode has been overridden to return an empty value when a referenced data variable does not exist, or is set but empty. The original Hugo implementation for the param shortcode would error when a data variable existed but was empty as it couldn’t distinguish between not set an empty. This makes it different to the original Hugo behaviour as it will now not raise an error when mistakenly reference a wrong variable name, but in context of workshop instructions, is preferred that rendering isn’t completely broken in this case.

Bugs Fixed

  • Data variables for the Git server and image registry were not being made available when using the Hugo renderer for workshop instructions.

  • The clickable action for file uploads was broken in 2.6.0 when the workshop user home directory was always placed in a volume. The feature also possibly didn’t work before that point either when persistent storage was requested for the workshop session.