[DEPR]: Legacy Problem Editor

Please first read the parent DEPR ticket, [DEPR]: All Legacy Studio Frontends.

RFC Start Date

2025-02-19

Target Plan Acceptance Date

2025-03-14

Target Transition Unblocked Date

2025-11-14

Target Breaking Changes Unblocked Date

2025-12-14

Earliest Open edX Named Release Without This Functionality

Deprecated but available (via opt-out) in Teak. Opting out will also require opting out of the new Unit editor and using the deprecated legacy Unit editor, which will lack some Content Libraries features.

Full removal lands in Verawood.

Rationale

The legacy ProblemBlock (aka "CAPA") editor is based on outdated frontend technologies that do not integrate well with the new React-based Studio micro-frontend. There is a newer React-based editor that replaces it. Supporting both editors is a major burden for maintenance and feature development.

Removal

The old pop-up modal Problem editor will be removed.

Replacement

The React-based Problem editor is the replacement.

Deprecation

We will warn about the pending deprecation in the Teak release notes.

Migration

N/A

Additional Info

N/A

Task List

Remove the LEGACY_STUDIO_PROBLEM_EDITOR waffle flag.

Remove the legacy problem editing UI (defined in edx-platform, ProblemBlock.studio_view) and all orphaned supporting code.

@pdpinch

@pdpinch , here's a DEPR for the old Problem editor as we discussed. You mentioned that there were more Problem-specific editor concerns--let's collect those here.

Some more specific feedback I have gathered comparing the Legacy Problem Editor to the MFE Editors:

Ease of Copy-Paste: The Legacy Editor(Basic or Advanced) allowed you to copy-paste entire problems from text-editors outside the platform to build assessment items. As opposed to the MFE editor that requires you to copy-paste assessment items line by line into a form. A 10-item MCQ quiz with a standard 4 choices and solution and 2 hints goes from 10 copy-pastes actions from an external design doc to the Legacy Basic Editor and becomes 80 copy-paste actions with the addition of extra clicks to select the "correct" answer. This is a huge waste of time and will create errors.
The building everything as a form is only useful to folks as a learning aid, the first time they attempt something. After that, bulk building becomes the norm. Not one Instructional Designer or SME across all the institutions I have worked ever wrote content in the CMS of any LMS. So the forms required to build items makes them shy away from building online assessments.
Instructional Designers (IDs) often use a multi-step assessment items to hit one learning objective. These items have 1 submit button. For example: Putting an image, e.g. A Graph, with significant areas labeled a, b, c, etc., then 3 text-entry, or 3 numerical entry, or 3 drop-downs asking learners to identify, categorize, or compute values for each of those indicated areas. Sometimes IDs mix assessment types (Drop-downs, MCQ, Text-Entry, Numerical Entry) within one problem to hit different parts of the same learning objective and grade them as one whole.
The Legacy Editor allowed multi-assessment items to be generated at the WYSIWYG-level vs. the MFE Editor that forces you through the process of creating only one problem with the form editor for non-technical users then you need to end up in the advanced editor to be able to do anything else. Note: You are required at that point to know the weeds of the XML to get the same problem created.
Flexibility of formatting: Legacy Advanced Editor allowed you to implement and preview inline. This meant that you could compare your changes against other items in the Unit and re-format problems using HTML on the fly. You are not stuck with the default formatting available to an individual problem.
All of the standard usability changes that applied to Text components applies here as well. Things like location within the course, publication status, and advanced editors require more effort to access when the new MFE editor navigates folks away from their content on the Unit page.

@SIdnani

Thank you @SIdnani. Noted on all counts.

This was possible in the Legacy editor because the modal wasn't fixed in the window. By scrolling the page, it's possible to remain in the editing state but still see other parts of the courses. So it's not a preview of the content currently being edited, but you can see other parts of the course page and make edits based on the context.

Product proposals relevant to this feedback:

Communicated via: https://discuss.openedx.org/t/deprecation-removal-all-legacy-studio-frontends/15049

I think this bug is pretty serious and should be fixed before we remove the legacy problem editor: openedx/frontend-app-authoring#1491. We're experiencing it on edx.org currently and it's another reason for us not to deploy the new problem editors to our other systems.

Thanks, noted, I've added that bug to the list of items that need to be resolved before removing the legacy editor.

I actually meant December 14th 😅

@pdpinch

[Update]

We've determined that these remaining sub-tasks of this DEPR are not blockers for removal of the legacy problem editor:

Numerical Input Component Incorrectly Handles Formulas as numericalresponse frontend-app-authoring#1680
- Why not a blocker? The new markdown editor has the same behavior of the legacy (markdown) editor, so authors desiring the old behavior (auto-convert-to-stringresponse) can still get it via markdown.
- Work in progress: There is a PR that needs some rework, but should be done within the next few weeks: validation added to NumericalInput to just accept numerical values on block creation form frontend-app-authoring#2615
Add formatting buttons to new Markdown editor frontend-app-authoring#2073
- Why not a blocker? MIT OL has confirmed that they don't see this as critical feature of the markdown editor.
- Work in progress: There is a PR that needs some refactoring, but should be done within the next few weeks: feat: Add formatting buttons to new Markdown editor #2073 frontend-app-authoring#2456
The "Markdown" editor has never supported real Markdown frontend-app-authoring#2444
- Why not a blocker? The legacy editor had the same issue.
- Work in progress: None yet. We might be able to rename the editor by Verawood. We're not going to introduce "real" markdown support by Verawood, or possibly ever.

So, I'm marking this ticket as Transition Unblocked and confirming that the planned removal date is 14 December.

Please let me know if there are concerns with any of the above.

fyi @pdpinch @feanil

This is unblocked for removal.

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[DEPR]: Legacy Problem Editor #36261

RFC Start Date

Target Plan Acceptance Date

Target Transition Unblocked Date

Target Breaking Changes Unblocked Date

Earliest Open edX Named Release Without This Functionality

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[DEPR]: Legacy Problem Editor #36261

Description

RFC Start Date

Target Plan Acceptance Date

Target Transition Unblocked Date

Target Breaking Changes Unblocked Date

Earliest Open edX Named Release Without This Functionality

Rationale

Removal

Replacement

Deprecation

Migration

Additional Info

Task List

Activity

kdmccormick commented on Aug 8, 2024

SIdnani commented on Sep 5, 2024

kdmccormick commented on Sep 16, 2024

SIdnani commented on Feb 6, 2025

kdmccormick commented on Feb 10, 2025

kdmccormick commented on Feb 19, 2025

pdpinch commented on Feb 20, 2025

kdmccormick commented on Feb 20, 2025

32 remaining items

kdmccormick commented on Oct 31, 2025

kdmccormick commented on Nov 14, 2025

kdmccormick commented on Dec 18, 2025

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