The last difficulties were finally resolved when my sysop wrote a cron script that checks the permissions of all the objects in the ims_repository folder and corrects them ever 5-6 minutes. Depending on the operator's status, simply copying ims materials into the folder didn't necessarily guarantee that Moodle would see them.
Many thanks to Helen Foster, James Ballard and many others who helped sort that all out in 06-07.
I have a "hypothetical" question about the defined location of the ims_repository folder:
Would it be possible to relocate the ims_repository folder inside the "moodledata" folder, without disastrous consequences?
I ask because many related php scripts seemingly assume the ims_repository folder resides in the standard location. Now that I finally have the feature working, I'd like for things to stay that way. But I'd also like for the contents of that folder to not be openly accessible to the internet.
Does anyone have any warnings, thoughts or solutions they're willing to discuss?
Bob Blomeyer (BobBl)