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Improve Adopt Content (for Courses and Groups)

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1 Initial Problem

Adopt Content (in both courses and groups—I will talk of courses here but mean both) only adopts content objects and item groups, it doesn't, however, adopt the content from the ILIAS page editor. This can be an integral part of a course, though, into which a lot of work has been put. But they can only be copied if the whole course is copied—or transferred “half-manually” via copy & paste from page editor to page editor, a process that involves far too many steps to be a real option for most end users.

At the same time a growing number of Universites strive to integrate ILIAS with their respective campus management systems (or have already done so, eg. Cologne and Stuttgart). These integrations (eg. via CampusConnect) usually lead to new courses being created every semester.[1] And while adopting content objects (via the function of the same name) can be done with similar ease as copying a course, adopting the course page contents etc. is a quite painstaking process up until and including ILIAS 5.3.

2 Conceptual Summary

We propose to extend the Adopt Content function to (optionally) include page contens, object blocks and perhaps even a sub-set of course settings (that make sense).

There already exists a patch that was done by Stefan Meyer for the University of Stuttgart that ”headlessly” (ie. without any user options) extends the Adopt Content function in that regard. We gladly “donate” this patch to kickstart the effort.

In it’s current incarnation this [patch] is not without problems, though, since users cannot choose what they want to adopt. For example the source course’s on-/offline status is adopted, too, which at least some users do not expect. (Also there seem to be (potential) problems when adopting content between courses and groups.)

So we propose a simple sensible checkbox list (perhaps at the start of the same screen of the adopt content process where content objects are listed and can be selected to be either copied, linked or left out) to make this managable.

In the Feature Workshop von NOV 7th we decided to introduce the following functions for the adopt content button:

What currently happens:

Step 1: Click on the Adopt Content Button.

Step 2: The Adopt Content button leads to a repository picker in which you can select all courses or groups to adopt content from. (Screenshot Repo Picker).

Step 3: This screen then leads to a copy screen in which all objects from the chosen course/group can be adopted. (Screenshot Copy Screen).

You can do this multiple times in order to copy content from multiple courses/groups into one course/group.

The copy process of the adopt content functionality, however, NEVER copies page editor content (while the normal copy process does). This is the issue we want to address in this feature request.

What should happen:

The adopt content function is supposed to not only copy the objects from the copy screen but also the page editor content if needed. Since the page editor content can't be copied in a separate step due to the dissolving of internal links, it must become part of the copy process.

Tags should also be copied, at least optionally. (Maybe even selectively?)

In order to achieve this a separate screen needs to be introduced which shows up between the repo picker (selection of course/group to copy from) and the selection of the content to copy (Copy Screen). This screen is supposed to ask if the page editor content is supposed to be copied as well. Page Editor content can only be copied IF the course/group to copy it into doesn't have any page editor content yet. Otherwise the checkbox can't be checked. In order to make the user understand this a blue checkbox is supposed to be shown on top of this screen which explains this behaviour. This will make sure that you can still adopt content from multiple courses but will avoid any mixing up of page editor content.

This will lead to the following new scenario:

Step 1: Click on the Adopt Content Button.

Step 2: The Adopt Content button leads to a repository picker in which you can select all courses or groups to adopt content from. (Screenshot Repo Picker).

(NEW!) Step 3: A new screen is shown which asks if the page editor content is supposed to be copied as well or not. The rules for this screen can be seen above.

Seitengestaltung übernehmen
Seitengestaltung übernehmen: Es gibt keinen Page Editor Content im Zielkurs.
Seitengestaltung übernehmen: Es gibt bereits Page Editor Content im Zielkurs.

Step 4: The new screen then leads to a copy screen in which all objects from the chosen course/group can be adopted. (Screenshot Copy Screen).

What should not happen:

"Adopt content" should NOT overwrite any course settings or permissions since it should adopt to the settings in its new container environment. We want to make this clear in this article since there is a patch (https://github.com/TIK-NFL/ILIAS/commit/41aa84c9468a88f2e9f7631b0c1bc8b282e6dbde) around which allows the copy process of page editor content via "adopt content" but it also overwrites different course/group settings.

3 User Interface Modifications

3.1 List of Affected Views

  • Course » Content : Manage → Adopt Content

3.2 User Interface Details

  • A new screen is introduced giving information about copying "page content" (see the two screenshots above)
  • We will only introduce the new screen which makes the user decide if he/she wants to copy page editor content (see 3.1 and its corresponding screenshots)

3.3 New User Interface Concepts

  • none

4 Technical Information

The implementation sticks to the description above. Small changes are:

  • The back-link in the tab-bar is now called 'Cancel', unless one is already at the end of the process, when it is called 'Back to Repository'
  • There are consistently no back-buttons in Content Area.

5 Contact

6 Funding

If you are interest in funding this feature, please add your name and institution to this list.

  • …

7 Discussion

Erkens, Jochen [j.erkens] 2018-04-26: We would highly appriciate this feature.

Mela, Alix [ILIAS_LM] 2018-09-17: Nice!

Lowe, Simon [simon.lowe] 2023-01-26: FH Dortmund: We also are interested in this feature, but we think that there is more discussion needed, where the feature should start and where it ends, because often the whole course should be used again like in the last semester (e.g. style, course-settings).

Kergomard, Stephan [skergomard] 2023-03-02: I approve of this feature request and believe that this would be a valuable improvement for ILIAS. A small additon: Copying Tags, is not clearly covered in the workflow above. What are the expectetions there. I don't think we should introduce an addionnal dialog asking for copying tags, so this would need to be an either/or decision from my point of view.

Kunkel, Matthias [mkunkel], 16 MAR 2023: It's a good step forward to include the content of an adopted container object to this process. But it's a pity that we do not have the resources to improve the entire workflow (copying and adopting) and introduce the KS Workflow and to unify the positions of buttons within this workflow. They will still jump around the screen... (I know the reasons why).

But I have one request that should be tackled with this feature. Please move the button "Adopt Content" to the upper toolbar right of "Add New Item". It has nothing to do with the table below.

Screenshot of Course, shows where button should be placed: right of Add New Item
Course in ILIAS 8 : Position of "Adopt Content" button should be changed.

Seiler, Yvonne [yvseiler], 20 MAR 2023: @mkunkel +1 for your comment and +1 for your suggestion to replace the "Adopt Content" button. This would resolve the issue reported here: https://mantis.ilias.de/view.php?id=36725

JourFixe, ILIAS [jourfixe], 20 MAR 2023: We highly appreciate this suggestion and schedule the feature for ILIAS 9 with the following changes:

  • The message box on the new screen for adopting the page content should only appear if there is already page content in the target course/group and page content can therefore not be inserted.
  • Tags are not considered because they are user content.
  • If page editor content is adopted as well, the content style is copied too - except the target course/group is a forced content style from an upper category.
  • The Adopt Content button should be moved to the upper tool bar.

JourFixe, ILIAS [jourfixe], 10 JUL 2023 : We agree with Stephan's suggestion to always allow copying a page even when already page content exists. In addition, we prefer a clearer wording for the offered options to adopt content - as suggested by Samoila, Oliver [oliver.samoila] on the screenshot below.

8 Implementation

The feature has been implemented according to the text and the screencaptures above. Two small changes to the wording were made:

  • The back-link in the TabBar is now called 'Cancel' unless you have finished the whole process and are looking at the progress-bar.
  • The texts for the options have been slightly reformulated, to make them clearer.

Adopted wording of dialog

Test Cases

Test cases completed at {date} by {user}

  • C7115: Inhalte übernehmen
  • C5881: Inhalte aus einem Kurs im Magazin in einen anderen übernehmen

Approval

Approved at 2023-06-30 by Falkenstein, Rob [rob].

[1] This, by the way, has huge benefit: Users always get a course genereated from the current RBAC template—whereas copying old courses from semester to semesters also leads to old and ever aging RBAC settings being replicated, seemingly forever.

Last edited: 17. Aug 2023, 13:05, Kunkel, Matthias [mkunkel]