25 May 2009, 22:02

When a view is copied all of the files that are associated with the view also seem to be copied.

This could lead to the possibility of lots of  duplicate files being stored and the possibility of the original file being updated and changes not being refelected in the copied file.

I was thinking that a teacher could make a view that has course resources in it that could be copied by students. Each student would then personalised the view. I don't think that this would work too well using the copy view.

Is there another way that this  could work without  the file duplication .

I think the template view copies files also, if it does then could the template view be modified so only the links to the files are copied rather than the files themselves.

Any suggestions welcome.

26 May 2009, 17:39

Hi,

The copying of files when views are copied is deliberate. It doesn't actually take up any more space on disk, but it does mean that the user who made the copy is in control of the image, which fits with users being in control of their portfolios.

Even if we did just link to the original image, you can't actually change image contents in Mahara yet (you can only add and delete images), and we keep no link between the original view and the copied one, so even updating the block where the image was wouldn't change the copied views.

I don't see why the current model wouldn't suit teachers making views with course resources. If the resource is going to change a lot, my suggestion is to have it in a view that isn't copyable, and tell students to grab it from there.

27 May 2009, 19:46

So it is the file location that is copied rather than the files themselves and the file can only be modified by the file owner.

or is it more complex than this

28 May 2009, 1:35

The file is actually copied - as if I had e-mailed a file to you. You control your copy, I control mine, changing mine doesn't change yours.

The other trick related to Mahara is that neither you nor I can actually edit our copies - we can only delete them or change the filename/description.

Hope that explains?

02 June 2009, 18:34

Sorry to come back to this again.

I am still not getting why someone would want to copy a view without being able to edit the copied view .

I thought the idea of copying a view or template was to provide a guideline for how you want  a student view to appear and for the person copying this to modify this with their own content. 

in this case you would want a copied view or template to be able to be edited.

Is there another way  you can do this - if not I would like to see the template able to be copied and editted or is there a big picture aspect that  I am missing that prevents this.

02 June 2009, 22:07

Um, now I'm confused

"I am still not getting why someone would want to copy a view without being able to edit the copied view ."

But in Mahara, students can edit any view they copy, so I don't see what the problem is?

Have you encountered a case where a student copied a view, and then was unable to edit the copy for some reason?

02 June 2009, 23:37

Yes - this is what I have been told - I will find out more details.

I just tried editting a copied view as another user and it worked for me.

04 June 2009, 19:07

The fog is starting to clear  - you are right views can be copied and editted.

When you go into a view that has been made copyable to a group through the Group ->About -> Views shared to this group by others , the view does not have a copy this view link.

You need to go in through MyPortfolio ->My Views ->Copy  View

Not sure if this needs to be addressed in the user interface. I don't think it would do any harm having a copy view link in the Groups tab if it can be added easily.

04 June 2009, 20:11

05 June 2009, 4:14