Moodle Alfresco - No Files Available

Moodle Alfresco - No Files Available

by Graham Paull -
Number of replies: 22

Hi,

I am looking into Alfresco as our central repository, I am still getting to grips with using alfresco and to be honest there is not too much info or help on the web for using Alfresco with Moodle.

The problem I am having is when I go to add a file to my course and try to select it from Alfresco I get "No Files Available" I have created a space withing Alfresco and added some files e.g. file1.doc, image1.jpg, arcihive.zip. I have tried loads of different files.

Do I need to set any permissions within alfresco ?, I have basically used the default install of alfresco with all the demo data etc.

I know this is leaning more towards Alfresco support but I always seem to get more answers in here.

Server CentOS

Moodle 2.0.1+

Alfresco (latest)

 

Many thanks.

 

 

 

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In reply to Graham Paull

Re: Moodle Alfresco - No Files Available

by Graham Paull -

Ok, I figured out what was happening, when I was publishing a file in Alfresco I was setting it as an article instead on "Content".

 

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In reply to Graham Paull

Re: Moodle Alfresco - No Files Available

by David Mudrák -
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Graham - thanks a lot for sharing this! You saved me hours of debugging.
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In reply to David Mudrák

Re: Moodle Alfresco - No Files Available

by moses mwangi -

am using alfresco version 3.4d. please guys let me know how you integrated alfresco and moodle.

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In reply to moses mwangi

Re: Moodle Alfresco - No Files Available

by Graham Paull -

Im glad that helped David, It really was a lucky dip finding it.

Moses, Have you turned on the Alfresco Repository plugin and input your details ?

 

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In reply to Graham Paull

Re: Moodle Alfresco - No Files Available

by Mark Hilliard -

Could someone who has linked their Alfresco repository, show a few screen shots of how they did it?  

Alfresco Comm. Ed. has a lot of features and confusing documentation (if it has any at all) and setting up an Alfresco "space" and / or "Share" with your files is NOT intuitive, way too many variables...

The enterprise Alfresco version with real support starts at "$15,000" per year so yeah...that's not going to happen anytime soon for most schools. Would anyone like to start a reasonable Pay/support group for the Comm. Edition that real people could afford?  hint   hint...

Mark H. 

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In reply to Mark Hilliard

Re: Moodle Alfresco - No Files Available

by Drew Blessing -

Hi Mark.  Are you still having trouble with the Alfresco/Moodle integration?

I'm assuming you are using Moodle 2.0 and the latest version of Alfresco community 3.4.x?  If so, I should be able to help you out as that is what we are running.

All I had to do to integrate the two is to have one instance of Alfresco 3.4.x already running somewhere.  Then, go into Moodle as an Admin and turn on and make visible the Alfresco repository plugin: Site administration -> Plugins -> Repositories -> Manage repositories.  Once you choose to turn it on and make it visible, you should be presented with two checkbox options.  I did not select either option, as that is not necessary for us.  Click save, and then select Settings next to the Alfresco repository plugin.

You should now see another section below the two checkboxes.  Click the Create a repository instance button.  Enter the information required, using the API URL as instructed below the form.  Once you save, the plugin should be active and working fine.  Users will now have access to their home folder files and any site documents for sites which they belong to in Alfresco.

Please let me know if you need more help.  I can do some screenshots and dive into the Alfresco side a bit more, too.  Just let me know exactly where you're at and what specific stuff you need help with.

Good luck.

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In reply to Drew Blessing

Re: Moodle Alfresco - No Files Available

by Mark Hilliard -

Drew, Thanks for your response to my Alfresco post!

Are you the same Drew Blessing from ESU 10 in Nebraska?

If yes, it sounds like you have quite a good background in Moodle, linux, and development! (Maybe Moodle.org should hire you...smile) and YES, my plan is to test Comm. Ed. Alfresco with Moodle 2.0. Both of which I have running. I have played with Alfresco for a few days and looked at the tutorials and am very impressed at what it can do...this is a REAL repository tool.

I'll follow your checklists to get try to get started...but quick question for you on HOW files in your Alfresco get "used" by Moodle 2.0

Are you having Moodle 2.0 TAKE a COPY of the Alfresco Master file, or are you using a URL type POINTER to link the Moodle to the Alfresco Repository?

Early discussions of Moodle 1.9 and Alfresco (circa 2008 or so on Moodle.org) seemed to focus on using POINTERS between Moodle and Alfresco, which is what we would like to do - if possible, but can you say how your Moodle is setup e.g. to "copy" or to "reference" the orginal content in Alfresco? Thanks for any info you can share.

Mark Hilliard

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In reply to Drew Blessing

Re: Moodle Alfresco - No Files Available

by Ishan Anders -

Hi Drew,

I read your post.

One question. Everything works for me as expected, but I cannot see the Alfresco Sites Folder in the Moodle filepicker. Permissions and everything is set correct in Alfresco.

Do you have any hints?

Thanks

Ishan

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In reply to Ishan Anders

Re: Moodle Alfresco - No Files Available

by Geoffrey Rowland -
Picture of Plugin developers

Hi Ishan

A fix to to show the Sites folder is given in a recent comment by Michael Woods at the end of: MDL-16384

A possible alternative is to use the Moodle 2 WebDAV repository interface/filepicker, rather than the Alfresco repository interface/filepicker. The WebDAV interface for Alfresco works out-of-the-box and is available on e.g. http://servername:8080/alfresco/webdav

Using WebDAV in this way, I can see the Sites folder.

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In reply to Geoffrey Rowland

Re: Moodle Alfresco - No Files Available

by Ishan Anders -

Hi Geoffrey,

thanks for the hint smile

Now everything works as expected.

Another question or discussion topic:

When I use the "external link" functionality in Moodle, which provides the most advantage when using an external repository like Alfresco, Moodle attach a unique ID to the URL, so no second authentication against Alfresco is needed. 

But when the Alfresco system has to be restartet, the ID's have to be renewed, else authentication against Alfresco is needed.

In my opinion we need a solution where no second authentication is needed. Do you or others in this thread think also?

Ishan

 

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In reply to Ishan Anders

Re: Moodle Alfresco - No Files Available

by Geoffrey Rowland -
Picture of Plugin developers

Hi Ishan

Glad it is now working.

Thanks to you too, Your note on the way the external-link uses the URL ID (ticket) has helped to explain things to me.

You are exactly right, the access of linked resources is a (the!) key issue. It is no good if, say, students can't view repository linked resources added by their teachers.

A quick fix is to make the relevant spaces (and files in them) in Alfresco Public. It may also be possible to manage this in a more granular way via Alfresco Groups. I'm only starting looking into this. So, would also be grateful for any advice/guidance.

I'm also not sure if Edu-Sharing or Elis, which include a Moodle-Alfresco integration, may have a more sophisticated solution to this.

Cheers

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In reply to Ishan Anders

Re: Moodle Alfresco - No Files Available

by Geoffrey Rowland -
Picture of Plugin developers

Just had some pointers, on the Alfresco forum, on setting up a permanent cache for tickets.

http://forums.alfresco.com/en/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=40905&p=119252#p119204

No idea how viable this option is, but just in case it helps...

See also

http://wiki.alfresco.com/wiki/Repository_Cache_Configuration

Hmmm, I am posting the same information in several places.

So, from now on I'll continue in just http://moodle.org/mod/forum/discuss.php?d=176140#p808064

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In reply to Graham Paull

Re: Moodle Alfresco - No Files Available

by Geoffrey Rowland -
Picture of Plugin developers

I didn't read this post until recently and hence spent hours debugging sad

But thanks for a simple solution cool

Appreciate this is an Alfresco question, but is there any way to set the default in the Alfresco 'Add Content Dialog' to 'Content' rather than 'Article'.

Also, any simple way to convert files marked as 'Article' to 'Content' so as to make them visible to moodle (apart fom reuploading them!).

Before I discovered this post, I had been using the' work-around' that files uploaded to Alfresco via the /share interface, rather than the /alfresco (Explorer) interface, are visible to Moodle, by default (Moodle 2.1.1, Alfresco Community 3.4.d).

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In reply to Geoffrey Rowland

Re: Moodle Alfresco - No Files Available

by Ishan Anders -

Hi Geoffrey,

I'm interested in workflows in Alfresco Share. I have heard that future plans of Alfresco Development are to switch completely from Alfresco Explorer to Share.

One advantage in Share is to define workflows. It will be possible to give authoring teams roles in Alfresco and Moodle, so they can work effectively and fast together. Source documents will be developed in Alfresco and with external linking they are up-to-date in Moodle without work in Moodle.

I think this is a practible workflow in the future and one of the central enhancements in Moodle 2.x.

Ishan 

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In reply to Ishan Anders

Re: Moodle Alfresco - No Files Available

by Geoffrey Rowland -
Picture of Plugin developers

Hi again Ishan

Yes, Alfresco Workflows certainly have potential, particularly if there are teams involved in developing learning resources and, for example, a formal quality review process is required. As I understand it, you can set Alfresco Workflows up via either the Explorer or the Share interfaces.

At the risk of stating the obvious, Alfresco offers a couple of other potential advantages.

1. Version control

2. Transformations. e.g. drop a PowerPoint file into an Alfresco folder and have it automatically transformed into a more 'lightweight' Flash format accessible from Moodle. There are probably many other simlar multimedia format conversion use-cases.

Happy to continue this conversation with anyone interested, as Alfresco does seem to offer the most mature repository solution for Moodle 2 currently available.

Geoff

 

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In reply to Geoffrey Rowland

Moodle 1.9 Alfresco integration

by ihsanullah khan -

Hi,

I am new to moodle. I have to integrate moodle 1.9 to alfresco but i donot now how to do. I just start moodle 4 days ago, so please the detail answer.

Thanks in advance.

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In reply to Geoffrey Rowland

Re: Moodle Alfresco - No Files Available

by Juan Gimenez -

Where did you find the elis.alfresco package compatible with Moodle 2.1? I could not found it at git.

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In reply to Geoffrey Rowland

Re: Moodle Alfresco - No Files Available

by Miryan salas -

It has been a long time since this post, but just in case someone needs to show documents  stored with a different type that "content" in Alfresco,  there is a "quick fix" in the following link:

https://tracker.moodle.org/browse/MDL-38275

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In reply to Miryan salas

Re: Moodle Alfresco - No Files Available

by Matteo Scaramuccia -
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Hi Miryan,
if you're still interested in evaluating Moodle<->Alfresco scenarios, please take a look at the CMIS repository plug-in too: https://moodle.org/mod/forum/discuss.php?d=224855.

At the time of this post, it's a POC (tested with Alfresco CE) that will eventually evolve in a cleaned-up/well-tested repo plug-in.

HTH,
Matteo

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In reply to Graham Paull

Re: Moodle Alfresco - No Files Available

by jamal mohammed -

Hi,

I have same problem i get No files Avaliable through Alfresco Integration, even though it was working before when i used moodle2.2.(it is confusing me)

any way now i used version 2.3 with alfresco Community 4.0 and there are a screen shoots show what i did.

in the first ebaled Alfresco repository

then i created a repository Instance

 finally No files Avaliable when i entred Alfresco username and Password

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In reply to jamal mohammed

Re: Moodle Alfresco - No Files Available

by Kevin Ritter -

Hi Jamal,

 

Did you ever find a solution to this issue?

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