Provide search function for Server Files area in File Picker

This would be very CPU intensive but I think it's worth looking at.

What about just changing how the "Server files" browsing works?

Category>Course>Section>Activity/Resource>File is very precise but having to remember the topic and resource a file was added to, is not feasible for me anyhow

Would it not just be possible to have Category>Course - lists all files or at worst Category>Course>Section>file list

Thoughts?

The problem is that we have files all over the place, such as:

• assignment submissions
• forum attachments
• embedded media in labels
• resources

etc

Surely we can't just smoosh all that together in the browsing interface ...

Good point.

Currently too precise, my suggestion is too general, whats a usable middle group?

No clue on solution.

Would a search facility at this level be the first stage to be being able to link in Dublin Core Meta tag data to the uploaded resources? I think I would be really useful to be able to search by tags on the files, as well as file names... I appreciate that this would add load to the servers; but is that justifiable by the added functionality it would bring?

I think this discussion is related: search, possible re-org, visibility of this area, some confusing breadcrumbs: http://moodle.org/mod/forum/discuss.php?d=154880

Just to make some noise. There's way too many places where files can be and ordinary users shouldn't have to be bothered. They just want to find the file. A lost of available files (regardless of where they come from) and a decent search is surely the answer. They don't want to know about 'Recent files', 'Site files', 'Private files'.....

This issue is affecting MP clients. Please give it priority.

I have no idea how the back end of the files works - but this seems incredibly important for encouraging people to re-use / link to files. If it is too difficult people will just re-upload the file. (side question - if someone uploads an identical file with a different name - does the database end up storing one or two files?)

I actually think Gavin's suggestion is a very good one - show all the files in a course, in alphabetical order. I would suggest adding filters as checkboxes to determine what is shown. By default I would imagine assignment submissions, forum attachments would be off, and resources, assignment attachments (ie: files linked in the editor), labels etc would be on. Extra useful if there was a filter for file types. I have no idea how difficult this would be to implement, but I imagine usability to be high.

For your side question: if anyone uploads a file again then it gets stored internally just once.

This issue was assigned to me automatically, however I will not be able to work on this issue in the immediate future. In order to create a truer sense of the state of this issue and to allow other developers to have chance to become involved, I am removing myself as the assignee of this issue.
For more information, see http://docs.moodle.org/dev/Changes_to_issue_assignment

Could we not have a simple Search by File Name, which only searches the "Current Course" by default, or searches the folder currently being displayed? (Limited to course and not Site Level search?)

Currently a number of my staff are continuing to use "Legacy Course Files" because, as one staff member said, "It's too hard to find my files in the site files".

Thoughts?

Also another comment in line with Michael Blake to see if we can ad some priority to this issue. Numerous clients are asking for this feature. MootAU also saw me hit up with several requests. Thanks MarkD for reporting the issue.

Any chance we could at least have this assigned to someone at HQ so it does not just fade into the ether.

We don't "assign things to people at HQ" like that ... it's already in the BACKEND queue with some priority dues to votes and partner labels.