12 January 2014, 18:06

Hi,

A user had a page that had images that are "group images".  I copied the page into the group, and then I copied the page into another user.

The files were copied, even though both users were part of the group.  Is there any way to say that when a page is copied to not copy the files if the files belong to the group?  I am trying to put files that all users are supposed to have in a group to help save disk space.

Also, when I copy a file, the text sections are being shared between the file when I don't want them to be.  I created a header "template" for a whole collection.  I copied the pages, but when I try to edit the header to change the date, all of the other pages also get their data updated unless I then click "make copy of text box".  But it would nice if I coiuld specify when I copy the pages if the text boxes should be linked (all the same) or if they should just be a copy, where I can modify it for each page without having to worry that I am going to mess up all of the other pages.

Currently I have over 100 pages will messed up headers do to this that now have to be manually unlinked from each other and manually fixed.  Frustrating is the word of the day.

Melissa

20 January 2014, 15:03

Hello Melissa,

Normally, the original text boxes should not be updated when you copy the pages into somebody else's portfolio. If you copy the pages within your own portfolio the text boxes stay linked and have to be unlinked when you want to update individual text boxes.

I think it was Don who suggested making linking of text boxes optional and the default behavior to not link them.

When you copy a page, usually all content is copied into the user's portfolio as it cannot be guaranteed that the original will be available at a later point. For journals you can say specifically whether to copy the journal entries or whether to just display them or not bring them along at all. This does not exist for files. I don't know why, but it must have been a design decision early on. I thought that Mahara knows internally not to actually copy a file until it is really necessary, but a developer would need to confirm / refute this assumption.

Cheers

Kristina