I am a K12 teacher in the US. My school is developing a website using a .NET based CMS called Ektron. Moodle has way more features implemented than Ektron (and Moodle is free). However, a new feature was added to the Ektron website which allows users to drag files from their desktop directly into a box on their homepage. This automatically uploads the file to the user's folder saving a few mouse clicks and menus. Is it possible to program this feature into Moodle?
Thanks for any info you provide.
Currently no. It would be nice, but I'm not sure it can be done with a website. Ektron, from what I can tell does not use the web for its drag and drop thing. Am I right in assuming it has some sort of client program?
For me, Moodle's file management is a bit clunky, but the flip side is that its a small price to pay for access to the enormous range of very in-depth tolls Moodle offers, not to mention the community support forums and third party plug ins.
For me, Moodle's file management is a bit clunky, but the flip side is that its a small price to pay for access to the enormous range of very in-depth tolls Moodle offers, not to mention the community support forums and third party plug ins.
It is possible to have a drag and drop file upload facility in Moodle with a freeware app called Rad Upload, you can get it from here Rad Links. However I have not had enough time to develop a Moodle module for this but am extremely interested in anyone who has developed a drag and drop facility in Moodle.
We've developed 'drag and drop' file transfer functionality in our institutions Moodle using WebDAV (more...). Windows Explorer supports WebDAV browsing, so teachers can browse their course folders as if they were browsing any other directory on their PC, and upload files (as many as they want at a time - drag and drop), rename, edit, delete etc - all live 
It's based on the PEAR/HTTP_Webdav_Server libraries, a quick Google search brings up this page. There's quite a lot of integration work done on security and restricting access but this hopefully will set you off on the right track.
It's based on the PEAR/HTTP_Webdav_Server libraries, a quick Google search brings up this page. There's quite a lot of integration work done on security and restricting access but this hopefully will set you off on the right track.
And in related news I've been working on a similar implementation - based on the same PEAR library - but fully integrated with Moodle. See http://moodle.org/mod/forum/discuss.php?d=89123
Hi Colin, Matt and everyone,
...a new feature was added to the Ektron website which allows users to drag files from their desktop directly into a box on their homepage. This automatically uploads the file to the user's folder saving a few mouse clicks and menus. Is it possible to program this feature into Moodle?
Yes, we are making something like that now--similar to Rad Upload. It should be ready for Moodle ver. 1.9 in late February. It is called the Project Course Format, and it includes easy uploading and easy backup of topics/projects for teachers. One feature we are doing is an auto-resource creator, which is a Flash-based uploader into Moodle.
...a new feature was added to the Ektron website which allows users to drag files from their desktop directly into a box on their homepage. This automatically uploads the file to the user's folder saving a few mouse clicks and menus. Is it possible to program this feature into Moodle?
Yes, we are making something like that now--similar to Rad Upload. It should be ready for Moodle ver. 1.9 in late February. It is called the Project Course Format, and it includes easy uploading and easy backup of topics/projects for teachers. One feature we are doing is an auto-resource creator, which is a Flash-based uploader into Moodle.
- click the "upload" button inside your topic
- select the files on your desktop or whereever
- click "go"
- files are automatically created as resources in your topic (auto-naming as well)
One feature we are doing is an auto-resource creator, which is a Flash-based uploader into Moodle.
Hi Don, are you developing this from scratch or are you basing it on an existing flash client?
I'm asking because we are developing a Moodle based content repository/translation engine and we would like to add this functionality. You all might be interested in the translation tool?
yes, yes, yes...
We take our language file, make a copy of it and then change all the words in such a way, that they fit better in our wished use of Moodle..
But then the next version arrives...
So a tool where you can stay in sync with the mother language and let you only overrule words and helpfiles (also with an undo option?)
Ger, you do realise that Moodle does this now standard (as lang as you use yourlanguage_local as the directory).
It even works from the browser!
http://docs.moodle.org/en/Translation#Making_small_customisations
It even works from the browser!
http://docs.moodle.org/en/Translation#Making_small_customisations
Yes, I saw it on the tiddlywiki of Wyatts but it has not a front-end:
I would prefer three columns: one for EN, one for NL(Koen) and one for our local exceptions ONLY, so I an keep trac of our changes against new releases.. (Or did I miss some screens?)
Hi Michael,
Yes, we are developing the auto-resource uploader from scratch, actually with part of an opensource library in there. It does not translate, so yes, we are interested in your translation tools. It uses Flash to make the interface a little nicer. Due in February.
However, it is based on the Project Course Format, which is a complete makeover of how we think about course formats. Backup/restore is done by *topic* (or "project" in our PBL language). So we have created media folders per topic, not per course or site. To use this , you will have to adopt a topic-based thinking of storage. Very much based on IMS-LD concepts of UOL (Unit of Learning).
Phase 2, is a "Sharing Cart" which follows a teacher around to pick up individual pieces of courses throughout the site. Why we didn't do this years ago, I don't know. Fabulous and ultra-needed. Due in March.
We will be very, very interested in the content repository you are developing. Our team has put together a design of one that is not implemented, so we have lots of ideas, particularly in incentives, moderation, and community aspects.
Cheers,
Don
Yes, we are developing the auto-resource uploader from scratch, actually with part of an opensource library in there. It does not translate, so yes, we are interested in your translation tools. It uses Flash to make the interface a little nicer. Due in February.
However, it is based on the Project Course Format, which is a complete makeover of how we think about course formats. Backup/restore is done by *topic* (or "project" in our PBL language). So we have created media folders per topic, not per course or site. To use this , you will have to adopt a topic-based thinking of storage. Very much based on IMS-LD concepts of UOL (Unit of Learning).
Phase 2, is a "Sharing Cart" which follows a teacher around to pick up individual pieces of courses throughout the site. Why we didn't do this years ago, I don't know. Fabulous and ultra-needed. Due in March.
We will be very, very interested in the content repository you are developing. Our team has put together a design of one that is not implemented, so we have lots of ideas, particularly in incentives, moderation, and community aspects.
Cheers,
Don
Don, that sounds amazing!
Would it allow me to convert an existing topics format course to the new format seamlessly so I could then drag and drop new files into place?
Would it allow me to convert an existing topics format course to the new format seamlessly so I could then drag and drop new files into place?
Yes, and no, Matt. Yes, you can convert an existing Topic format into a Project Course format. But no, not seamlessly. You will have to move and rebuild links to media files that are in the Course Files or Site Files directory. We are trying to make a widget that will assist this process. If you have some time to test, advise, or even program, we would really appreciate it. Contact me directly. And thanks for the encouragement. 
I can certainly help test and debug, but won't have enough free time to program new stuff. I just came across this thread where Martín Langhoff is adding a WebDav interface to the filestore. Seems like everyone's been thinking about the same problems for a while.