Feature Wiki
Pestañas
FTP/HTTP File Upload
1 Description
- The feature is needed at least needed for SCORM uploads
- The feature should only accessible for system administrators.
- In a second step we may introduce a "global" permission (like permission to send external mails) to restrict the feature.
2 Status
- Scheduled for Release: ILIAS 4.0
- Funding: Funded by Bundesagentur für Arbeit
- Development: Feature is to be developed by Fred Neumann, FIM (finished)
3 Additional Information
- If you want to know more about this feature, its implementation or funding, please contact: bromberger at qualitus.de
4 Discussion
Wouldn't it be easier, if the WebDAV interface of ILIAS could be used for uploading of SCORM content packages instead?
- SCORM objects could be represented as files in ILIAS webfolders with the extension .scorm.
- Copying a file with this extension into a webfolder could cause ILIAS to create a SCORM learning module instead of a file object.
- Overwriting a file with this extension in the webfolder, could cause an update of the SCORM learning module object in ILIAS.
If ILIAS would use distinct filename extensions for each of its object types, this could be extended for the automatic creation of other object types using webfolders. For example, if question pools would be represented as files with the extension .qpl in a webfolder, then question pools could be uploaded this way as well.
Fred Neumann, 26 Mai 2009: the main reason for this feature was to overcome the upload size limitations of HTTP and PHP that we faced on the servers of our customers and that would also affect the WebDAV protocol. Therefore I implemented a little extensions of the upload dialogue for SCORM and HTML modules that allows administrators to select a file from a pre-configured server directory instead of uploading it. The contents of this directory can be maintained in any way - by SFTP or Samba, depending on your server. A selected file will be directly copied from the upload directory to the base directory of the learning module. In a first attemt the "upload" directory will be configured globally in ILIAS and the selection will be only visible for administrators. In further versions there may be different upload directories for different roles/users.
The upload directory may be configured at "Administration -> Learning Resources".
Randelshofer, May 29, 2009:
What size limitation in HTTP and PHP are you referring to?
We use WebDAV for transferring single 2 GB files and for complete directory structures many times larger than this, all the time.
We have also several SCORM courses installed which are between 1 and 2 GB in size.
(Not every user is allowed to transfer such large files though. Regular users may only transfer individual files up to 700 GB, complete
directory structures are not limited yet, since we haven't implemented the Disk Quota feature yet.)
Please note, that I am not opposed at your proposal. I just wonder why HTTP doesn't "cut it" for you.
> Therefore I implemented a little extensions of the upload dialogue for SCORM and HTML modules that allows administrators to select
> a file from a pre-configured server directory instead of uploading it. The contents of this directory can be maintained in any way - by
> SFTP or Samba, depending on your server. A selected file will be directly copied from the upload directory to the base directory of the
> learning module. In a first attemt the "upload" directory will be configured globally in ILIAS and the selection will be only visible for
> administrators. In further versions there may be different upload directories for different roles/users.
> The upload directory may be configured at "Administration -> Learning Resources".
Okay, I understand now what this proposal is about. This looks like a very sound and reasonable proposal to me.
Fred, July 17, 2009: The problems we faced with large HTTP uploads were due to the settings in the customer's php.ini (upload_max_filesize, max_execution_time etc.) and due to their firewall settings which we shouldn't change. I assume some of them will also affect the WebDAV protocol but I haven't checked in detail because WebDAV wasn't an option for them.
I think the current solution is just a little extension the doen't prohibit others like recognising special content when copied to a web folder.
Werner Randelshofer, July 21, 2009: Okay, then it is not a limitation of HTTP - just bad settings on the server and the firewall. :)
WebDAV in ILIAS picks up upload_max_filesize from php.ini. It doesn't have to. I implemented it this way, so that all restrictions can be set in one place. Max_execution_time must be set very high for WebDAV. Unlike with the browser interface, we can't spin off a separate process on the WebDAV server to perform lengthy operations which act on subtrees of the repository (such as copying a directory structure). This is because WebDAV clients start sending new commands as soon as the server returns a response to a command.
5 Follow-up
Última edición: 17. Abr 2025, 15:11, Kunkel, Matthias [mkunkel]