Are there any plans/interest in a way or hacks for a way to manage the order of a set of files in a directory resource?
Thanks!
One of our faculty asked how to organize the directory resource. She wants to be able to put files in a certain order within the folder on the course page. I gather the only way to control the order of files in a directory resource is by numbering them or naming them alphabetically
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Are there any plans/interest in a way or hacks for a way to manage the order of a set of files in a directory resource?
Thanks!
Are there any plans/interest in a way or hacks for a way to manage the order of a set of files in a directory resource?
Thanks!
Michael, I think the solution you pointed in your post is the way to go. Simple and effective, both for files and folders. Or what about a "child" course where the child course home page is the list of files you can manage as you prefer?
Otherwise you could try the Skodak's Book module, where you can arrange the pages in the order you add them, regardless of thier name. In the Book module you can also embed plugins such as flash and, if I correctly recall, .pdf.
Hi Michael,
I would see as an improvement a way to set order of Directory files by clicking on colum name ("Name", "size", "Modify"). That is, alphabetical order, by size or by last mod (always direct and reversed). This would be consistent with the interface of the Particpants list.
But a system to impose an arbitrary order to would be an overhack.
I think that if there is a reason to set a particular order to list the files, probably you want to make it explicit to students, even to add notes or explanatory comments to filenames.
But then, that's a web page with links to that particular files. Your teacher can construct such and index page for the files in a couple of hours, as much, using a Web page Resource. And perhaps the final product may result more appealing for students than a simple list of files (boring whatever the sorting).
Thinking in the long term, perhaps in a future there will be XHTML templates in Moodle for such Resources. A teacher could select an Index page template, plugin a directory feed and voilá, the page constructed (and further editable).
- Enrique -
I would see as an improvement a way to set order of Directory files by clicking on colum name ("Name", "size", "Modify"). That is, alphabetical order, by size or by last mod (always direct and reversed). This would be consistent with the interface of the Particpants list.
But a system to impose an arbitrary order to would be an overhack.
I think that if there is a reason to set a particular order to list the files, probably you want to make it explicit to students, even to add notes or explanatory comments to filenames.
But then, that's a web page with links to that particular files. Your teacher can construct such and index page for the files in a couple of hours, as much, using a Web page Resource. And perhaps the final product may result more appealing for students than a simple list of files (boring whatever the sorting).
Thinking in the long term, perhaps in a future there will be XHTML templates in Moodle for such Resources. A teacher could select an Index page template, plugin a directory feed and voilá, the page constructed (and further editable).
- Enrique -
Hi Enrique,
Well, the thing is I have some programming instructors with each week about 20-30 files for the students to look over. They don't want to put them all in a topic week because it takes too long to set up and leads to a crowded looking week.
They want to present the files in a certain order b/c that is how they make sense-how they are presented in class and how they are meant to be viewed (easy to harder), but they don't want to have to rename every file, either. Seems to me the resouce folder system should be able to make this process shorter, simply by allowing them to organize the files the way they can organize resources in a topic block.
But a system to impose an arbitrary order to would be an overhack.
Well, what is the point of allowing them to arrange files in a topic/week block by an arbitrary order then? Seems to me that for consistency and convenience, if they can arrange resources in a topic block, they ought to be able to arrange them in a folder?
They could construct a web page (or book) in a a few hours, and certainly faculty who's pedagogical needs call for this do, but that seems like it should be something that could be short-cut pragmatically by having an ordering method in the folder similar to that in the topic/week blocks, esp. when the faculty intend the files to be referenced by their filename and displayed in a certain order, --and are doing that one at a time in the topic block but wish they could do it more efficiently in a folder.
Well, the thing is I have some programming instructors with each week about 20-30 files for the students to look over. They don't want to put them all in a topic week because it takes too long to set up and leads to a crowded looking week.
They want to present the files in a certain order b/c that is how they make sense-how they are presented in class and how they are meant to be viewed (easy to harder), but they don't want to have to rename every file, either. Seems to me the resouce folder system should be able to make this process shorter, simply by allowing them to organize the files the way they can organize resources in a topic block.
But a system to impose an arbitrary order to would be an overhack.
Well, what is the point of allowing them to arrange files in a topic/week block by an arbitrary order then? Seems to me that for consistency and convenience, if they can arrange resources in a topic block, they ought to be able to arrange them in a folder?
They could construct a web page (or book) in a a few hours, and certainly faculty who's pedagogical needs call for this do, but that seems like it should be something that could be short-cut pragmatically by having an ordering method in the folder similar to that in the topic/week blocks, esp. when the faculty intend the files to be referenced by their filename and displayed in a certain order, --and are doing that one at a time in the topic block but wish they could do it more efficiently in a folder.
I also got inquires from our teachers about changing the sorting of files in the list. I think moodle should either support arbitrary order as set by instructors (the way admins set the order of teachers, for example) or allow users to sort them when displaying by clicking headers (as it is done for participants). The latter should allow instructors to set the default sort for the course.
For now, I'd settle for having files sorted by date. We have instructors using same files for different courses as well as revising the files already posted. With some courses having over 30 files in a list, it is hard for students to see which ones are new or revised. Renaming files in moodle is a hassle not only because of extra work but also because they are then out of sync with local copies on teachers' computers.
For now, I'd settle for having files sorted by date. We have instructors using same files for different courses as well as revising the files already posted. With some courses having over 30 files in a list, it is hard for students to see which ones are new or revised. Renaming files in moodle is a hassle not only because of extra work but also because they are then out of sync with local copies on teachers' computers.