Unable to link to an external file in Alfresco

Unable to link to an external file in Alfresco

by Sam Stegers -
Number of replies: 15

Hello all,

For the last couple of weeks I have been trying to get the Moodle 2.0 / Alfresco tie in to work as "advertised". I have the Moodle and the Alfresco environment working perfectly and I also have setup the alfresco repository plug in so I can "see" alfresco from inside Moodle.

I am able to copy a file from alfresco inside a course, no problem. But since the beauty of the tie-in lies in the fact that you can do all kinds of cool things with the original documents inside Alfresco (ie update a file which is used in multiple courses in Moodle) and this is automatically visible inside Moodle, it is quite frustrating to see that this does NOT work when using the file resource.

I hear you think "You should not use the file resource but use the url function instead". I think you are right but somehow when I try to use the URL resource, I am not given the alfresco repository as an option to link to. I have tried this with the Flickr option and there it works perfectly.

I am so hoping that I have forgotten something small in the configuration but am fearing the worst, that it is not (yet???) possible to link to a file in Alfresco (instead op copying the file to Moodle).

Any ideas/suggestions/whatsmore are welcome.

 

Regards,

Sam

Average of ratings: Useful (1)
In reply to Sam Stegers

Re: Unable to link to an external file in Alfresco

by Matt Cornock -

Hi Sam,

Though I don't have Alfresco, I did come across this setting which might be worth testing:

Site administration > Plugins > Repositories > Common repository settings

Setting called 'repositoryallowexternallinks'

When you then use the filepicker, there's a checkbox called 'link external' which might do what's needed.

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In reply to Matt Cornock

Re: Unable to link to an external file in Alfresco

by Ulrike Montgomery -

Hi Sam,

We have exactly the same problem. Even though we activated 'repositoryallowexternallinks' , direct linking is not possible. From what I understand, this feature was possible in the beta-version, but was disabled later.

Does anybody know, why it was disabled and if direct linking will be possible again in 2.1?

Cheers,

Ulrike

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In reply to Ulrike Montgomery

Re: Unable to link to an external file in Alfresco

by Elena Ivanova -

Ulrike, I am wondering what is your release version?
I have looked on Builds: 20110125 and  20110209

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In reply to Elena Ivanova

Re: Unable to link to an external file in Alfresco

by Ulrike Montgomery -

Elena, we have version 20101229.

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In reply to Ulrike Montgomery

Re: Unable to link to an external file in Alfresco

by Elena Ivanova -

Hmmm, I think I could still link on that version too (or something close to that release).  Can you please tell what steps are you taking to link?

Also, are you talking about Alfresco only, or any type of repository? I do not know about alfresco behavior, as we do not have it

If you cannot link at all to any repository,  and if it is not production in the middle of the semester smile , I would recommend to upgrade.
You can take a look at http://qa.moodle.net - does it seem to be working for your needs (linking to files in repositories)?

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In reply to Elena Ivanova

Re: Unable to link to an external file in Alfresco

by Ulrike Montgomery -

Elena,

Thanks a lot for your help and your detailed list of linking and copy possibilities.

Here are the steps I took:  1. File picker - can only copy, 2. URL: search for URL - works with Picasa, Flickr etc but not with Alfresco.I tied it both with our Moodle and with http://qa.moodle.net

What we need is the direct link to Alfresco. I wonder why Alfresco doesn't show up in the list when I click on search for URL.



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In reply to Ulrike Montgomery

Re: Unable to link to an external file in Alfresco

by Elena Ivanova -

Oh,  I did not realise that there was ticket for this, and that direct linking to Alfresco has been disabled on purpose.

I believe that ticket should be re-open, since if the admin already allows external linking for an installation, Alfresco should also provide this option.

Please leave your comments asking to  re-open the ticket here: MDL-23951 (since we cannot vote on closed tickets)

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In reply to Elena Ivanova

Re: Unable to link to an external file in Alfresco

by Tammy Snyder -

Hi,

We are in a similar situation.  We are piloting Moodle 2.0 and are about to go into Production but linking to files in a repository is an absolute requirement to move forward. 

While waiting for feedback on MDL-23951, does anyone have any tips on how to restore proper insertion of a link to documents on Alfresco?   We have undone the minor changes in this patch and now we have the checkbox to link to external documents back.  However the link does not work - the url includes only the link to the document but lacks the Alfresco server and storage space.

Any tips would be greatly appreciated.  Or if someone has good experience linking to another external repository that they recommend would also be great.

Thanks very mcuh.

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In reply to Tammy Snyder

Re: Unable to link to an external file in Alfresco

by Tammy Snyder -

A patch has been uploaded on MDL-23951.  We have implemented it and so far our tests look good!  We can link to documents in Alfresco, change them in Alfresco and those changes are immediately reflected in Moodle.  The documents are not copied into Moodle.

Thanks very much to Dongsheng for providing this patch.

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In reply to Tammy Snyder

Re: Unable to link to an external file in Alfresco

by Elena Ivanova -

Cool smile

Per note from Dong, I have also submitted new ticket MDL-26451 ( I assume this is need to get the patch into the core). Please vote there.

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In reply to Sam Stegers

Re: Unable to link to an external file in Alfresco

by Elena Ivanova -

One indeed has to choose Add a Resource > URL in order to replicate 1.9 behavior and link to the files in the Repositories.
Plus, if you Allow External Links for the installation, then you can use Insert/Edit link or image icons in the text editor - and  can also link directly to some repositories.

However, repositories behave differently: some of them are set to allow linking, others are not; plus not all of them appear all the time in the File Picker. It depends on your starting point.

I do not have all repositories in place, so here is my list based on our local install and on qa.moodle.net.  Moodle 2.0.1+

Please add your experience smile

Add a Resource > File (copying from repositories)

  1. Server files ( I guess it is not really a "repository", but it still stores files) – Shown. Copy.
  2. Legacy Course Files – Shown. Copy.
  3. Private Files - Shown. Copy.
  4. WikiMedia - Shown. Copy.
  5. YouTube  - Not Shown in the File Picker
  6. GoogleDocs  - Shown. Copy.
  7. Picasa web album - Shown. Copy.
  8. Flickr - Shown. Copy.
  9. URL downloader - Shown. Copy.
  10. WebDav - Shown. I see my folders from there, but I do not see any files inside (we are still working on this), thus not sure in the behavior
  11. Merlot.org   - Not Shown in the File Picker
  12. Dropbox – Shown. I do not see any files there, not sure in the behavior
  13. Alfresco - ? ?
  14. Equella - ??

Add a Resource > URL (linking to repositories)

  1. Server files - Not Shown
  2. Legacy Course Files - Shown. Link.
  3. Private Files - Not Shown
  4. WikiMedia - Shown. Link.
  5. YouTube – Shown. Link.
  6. GoogleDocs - Not Shown
  7. Picasa web album  - Shown. Link.
  8. Flickr  - Shown. Link.
  9. URL downloader  - Shown. Link.
  10. WebDav -  Shown. I do not see any files there, not sure in the behavior
  11. Merlot.org  - Shown. Link.
  12. Dropbox – Not Shown
  13. Alfresco - ? ?
  14. Equella - ??

Insert/Edit LINK in the text editor (both copying and linking)

  1. Server Files -  Shown. Copy only
  2. Legacy Course Files - Shown. Both link and copy
  3. Private Files -  Shown. Copy only
  4. WikiMedia - Shown. Both link and copy
  5. YouTube - Shown. Copy only
  6. GoogleDocs - Shown. Copy only
  7. Picasa web album  - Shown. Both link and copy
  8. Flickr  - Shown. Both link and copy
  9. URL downloader  - Shown. Both link and copy
  10. WebDav – Shown. I do not see any files there, not sure in the behavior
  11. Merlot.org – Shown. Copy only
  12. Dropbox - Shown. I do not see any files there, not sure in the behavior
  13. Alfresco - ? ?
  14. Equella - ??

Insert/Edit IMAGE in the text editor (both copying and linking)

  1. Server Files -  Shown. Copy only
  2. Legacy Course Files - Shown. Both link and copy.
  3. Private Files -  Shown. Copy only
  4. WikiMedia - Shown, both link and copy
  5. YouTube – Not Shown
  6. GoogleDocs - Not Shown
  7. Picasa web album  - Shown. Both link and copy
  8. Flickr  - Shown. Both link and copy
  9. URL downloader  - Shown. Both link and copy
  10. WebDav – Shown. I do not see any files there, not sure in the behavior
  11. Merlot.org - Not Shown
  12. Dropbox - Shown. I do not see any files there, not sure in the behavior
  13. Alfresco - ? ?

Moodle Media  in the text editor (both copying and linking)

  1. Server Files -  Shown. Copy only
  2. Legacy Course Files - Shown. Both link and copy.
  3. Private Files -  Shown. Copy only
  4. WikiMedia - Shown, both link and copy
  5. YouTube – Shown. Copy only
  6. GoogleDocs - Not Shown
  7. Picasa web album  - Not Shown
  8. Flickr  - Not Shown
  9. URL downloader  - Shown. Both link and copy
  10. WebDav – Shown. I do not see any files there, not sure in the behavior
  11. Merlot.org - Not Shown
  12. Dropbox - Shown. I do not see any files there, not sure in the behavior
  13. Alfresco - ? ?
  14. Equella - ??

P.s. Back to the original question from Sam - I am not sure why Alfresco is not shown in the File Picker for the URL resource :/

Average of ratings: Useful (2)
In reply to Elena Ivanova

Re: Unable to link to an external file in Alfresco

by Sam Stegers -

Hi all,

 

Thanks for all the replies and suggestions, after applying the patch it works like a charm.

 

Regards,

Sam

Average of ratings: -
In reply to Elena Ivanova

Re: Unable to link to an external file in Alfresco

by Olaf Nöhring -

Hi,,

I took your list and tried to create a matrix from it for a better overlook:

 

S= Shown




Ns = not shown




C = copy




L = link




? = no information available

















Add a Resource > File (copying from repositories) Add a Resource > URL (linking to repositories) Insert/Edit LINK in the text editor (both copying and linking) Insert/Edit IMAGE in the text editor (both copying and linking) Moodle Media in the text editor (both copying and linking)
Server files ( I guess it is not really a "repository", but it still stores files) s,c ns s,c s,c s,c
Legacy Course Files s,c s,l s,c,l s,c,l s,c,l
Private Files s,c ns s,c s,c,l s,c
WikiMedia s,c s,l s,c,l s,c,l s,c,l
YouTube Ns*1 s,l s,c ns s,c,l
GoogleDocs s,c ns s,c ns ns
Picasa web album s,c s,l s,c,l s,c,l ns
Flickr s,c s,l s,c,l s,c,l ns
URL downloader s,c s,l s,c,l s,c,l s,c,l
WebDav S*2 S*2 S*2 S*3 S*3
Merlot.org Ns*1 s,l s,c ns ns
Dropbox S*3 ns S*3 S*3 S*3
Alfresco ? ? ? ? ?
Equella ? ? ? ? ?






*1) not shown in file picker
*2) I see my folders from there, but I do not see any files inside (we are still working on this), thus not sure in the behavior
*3) Shown. I do not see any files there, not sure in the behavior

Olaf

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In reply to Olaf Nöhring

Re: Unable to link to an external file in Alfresco

by Elena Ivanova -

I have the visual chart here wink

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In reply to Elena Ivanova

Re: Unable to link to an external file in Alfresco

by Eugene Voevodin -

Greetings Elena,

Don't you find it odd to be unable to link to the file from file system repository? What I need is to upload one file to the server and use it in many courses without the need of copying it, but to link to it. Also I would love to get some directions with resource linking, I would like to create some repository course and use its resources sitewide as links, not duplicates. Please advise

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