[Xerte] Re: FW: Re: Moodle 2 server file structure?

Dave Burnett d_b_burnett at hotmail.com
Mon Jul 11 13:10:16 BST 2011 


Lot's of complaining from "advanced" users, or at least the folks who are doing something more than uploading a Word doc and linking to it.

I'm late to the discussion, but it appears it's a dispute about LMS vs LCMS philosophy.
So they are severely restricting the content manipulation side of things.

Ron: If I was administrating the thing, I would take your advice and host the heavy media elsewhere.
But the architecture is engine based, and really counts on a known structure to run multiple courses.

root //engine
  course folder
    section1folder
      audiofolder
      videofolder
      xmldriverfile 
  course folder

    section1folder

      audiofolder

      videofolder

      xmldriverfile 

etc

Rejigging to have external media is of course possible, but this sort of radical structure change for a large base app is kind of stupid IMO.

Sure, AS2 to AS3, but the advantages there are obvious.
What does this Moodle change accomplish? Save some server space by reusing files?
I thought storage costs were almost a non-factor these days...
Why they would interfere with OS based pathing and interpolate a databased one is bizarre to me.

Peeved.

Dave







  



From: Julian.Tenney at nottingham.ac.uk
To: xerte at lists.nottingham.ac.uk
Date: Mon, 11 Jul 2011 12:47:00 +0100
Subject: [Xerte] Re: FW:  Re: Moodle 2 server file structure?



Doesn’t sound great. Is there any discussion in the moodle forums on the subject? From: xerte-bounces at lists.nottingham.ac.uk [mailto:xerte-bounces at lists.nottingham.ac.uk] On Behalf Of Dave Burnett
Sent: 11 July 2011 12:10
To: Xerte list
Subject: [Xerte] Re: FW: Re: Moodle 2 server file structure? 
Even more unsettling is it seems the database lookup for files forms a single point of failure/slowness.
The same piece that runs fine on 1.9 runs painfully slowly under 2.0.
And I do not believe you can simply overwrite a file anyway. The database uses the individual file sizes as part of the was to identify them, so you need to actually alter the database entry to match the new file.

I think Moodle has really shot itself in the foot with this one.
I would like to see a list of the supposed benefits that justified such a radical structure change.

DaveFrom: ronm at mitchellmedia.co.uk
To: xerte at lists.nottingham.ac.uk
Date: Mon, 11 Jul 2011 09:44:44 +0100
Subject: [Xerte] Re: FW: Re: Moodle 2 server file structure?It does seem a short sighted and in many cases impractical solution.The only solution to your problem that I can think of is keep the larger media assets external and link via full url when developing the LO. Not ideal but would perhaps resolve the file size problem?Ron  From: xerte-bounces at lists.nottingham.ac.uk [mailto:xerte-bounces at lists.nottingham.ac.uk] On Behalf Of Dave Burnett
Sent: 09 July 2011 20:53
To: Xerte list
Subject: [Xerte] FW: Re: Moodle 2 server file structure? 
Point being of course, let's say you have a SCORM object layed out in a set of folders.
One of those folders contains 500 Mb of video.

It seems Moodle 2 is trying to say, each time you change 1 byte of any file within the SCORM .zip, you have to re-upload the entire thing.
You can see how that will get old pretty quickly...

I am seeing another complaint regarding "mini-websites" uploaded and unzipped.
Apparently all relative links are broken, because the files are not being maintained on the server in the same relative structure.

I can see their point about making resources reusable by databasing the paths, but not allowing access to the underlying SCORM structure files, or at least giving an option to "database ignore these files and maintain relative structure" is pretty short-sighted IMO.

DaveFrom: d_b_burnett at hotmail.com
To: xerte at lists.nottingham.ac.uk
Subject: RE: [Xerte] Re: Moodle 2 server file structure?
Date: Sat, 9 Jul 2011 11:13:56 -0400
Thanks Ron.

Not yet. I've also taken a peek at this:
http://moodle.org/mod/forum/discuss.php?d=166999#p735868

I'm a bit hobbled at the moment because I do not have admin access to the Moodle 2 setup, so can't create repositories etc to test stuff.

Even with that though, the workarounds are all pretty involved (I won't be adminning them myself).
As well, they seem to be aimed at maintaining relative link integrity, etc.

What I had the ability to do in 1.x was:

- Upload and unzip SCORM shell structure.
- Find that strucrure with file picker utility
- add/overwrite files within that structure


Is there any way at all within Moodle 2 (custom repository? files system folder?) to emulate that capability?

DaveFrom: ronm at mitchellmedia.co.uk
To: xerte at lists.nottingham.ac.uk
Date: Thu, 7 Jul 2011 21:32:29 +0100
Subject: [Xerte] Re: Moodle 2 server file structure?Hi Davedid you find your answer? Moodle 2 does have a files area but not in the same was as previously and you may not like the 1st answer/solution as it's nowhere near as straightforward as previously! 1. So if you really want to go the same route as before see http://www.pengzhang.ca/blog/2011/01/10/updating-large-scorm-courses-loaded-on-moodle/but if you can set it up the following might be a better option:2. http://www.pengzhang.ca/blog/2011/01/08/loading-large-scorm-pif-packages-onto-moodle-2-0/ HTHRon From: xerte-bounces at lists.nottingham.ac.uk [mailto:xerte-bounces at lists.nottingham.ac.uk] On Behalf Of Dave Burnett
Sent: 07 July 2011 18:03
To: Xerte list
Subject: [Xerte] Moodle 2 server file structure? 
In Moodle 1.x I had this process to evade the php.ini upload max size.

Upload SCORM package containing shell structure of LO, complete with folders for audio/video media.
Go to the left hand menu Files area, dig down to numbered folder representing root of unzipped SCORM package.
Upload audio/video files to appropriate folder.

Moodle 2 has no "Files" area, now has something called "Repositiories".

I have my shell uploaded, but I'll be darned if I can find that file structure anywhere.
Hints?

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