Importing Content into Moodle Problem

[barney]

hello all,

we are in a position now where I'm wanting to import existing learning materials into Moodle, we are talking thousands of files in hundreds of folders.

As a test altered the maximum upload file size, created a 700 Mb zip and uploaded it no problem. When it comes to unzipping the file Moodle seems to bum out at the same point every time, without showing any error. I have checked the validity of the ZIP file itself using Winzip and WinRAR and they both report no problem.

Does anyone have any thoughts in this or should I be looking at WebDav and drag and drop the whole lot in that way. The problem is that I don't know where to start with WebDav

[Marc]

Exceeding the max php file size?

[barney]

Exceeding the max php file size?

 

Pretty sure it doesn't but surely that would have prevented me uploading it in the first place?

[ICTNUT]

Pretty sure it doesn't but surely that would have prevented me uploading it in the first place?

 

IIRC the default max upload size for PHP is 64Mb but this can be over ridden by moddle in the latest version to anything upto the MAX PHP size so you may not be able to upload that much anyway.

 

You could also be chewing all the resources on the server, open a command sessions on the server, assuming server is linux, and run TOP, then do the upload this should be obvoius if the server is being overwhelmed.

[barney]

IIRC the default max upload size for PHP is 64Mb but this can be over ridden by moddle in the latest version to anything upto the MAX PHP size so you may not be able to upload that much anyway.

 

You could also be chewing all the resources on the server, open a command sessions on the server, assuming server is linux, and run TOP, then do the upload this should be obvoius if the server is being overwhelmed.

 

I don't understand your first point? The file is successfully uploaded, I can see it within the files area of my particular course. It's the unzipping of the file that isn't working.

This is a windows box I'm not sure how to do an equivalent. For what it's worth the server is still responsive both within Windows and to other Moodle users.

[secretlife]

why can you not just ftp the folder into the relevant moodle directory rather than thinking in terms of webdav?

[Guest monkeyx]

why can you not just ftp the folder into the relevant moodle directory rather than thinking in terms of webdav?

 

I second this approach. We use scp(we host on a linux server) to copy to relevant course folder in moodle. Then unzip them and create folder structures. I too got irregular behaviour unzipping large content files within moodle.

 

Tim

[barney]

I second this approach. We use scp(we host on a linux server) to copy to relevant course folder in moodle. Then unzip them and create folder structures. I too got irregular behaviour unzipping large content files within moodle.

 

Tim

 

Thanks, I have tried this and to certain degree it works fine.

[kmount]

I wonder if its exceeding the maximum execution time for a script rather than the post/upload sizes since the file is already on there.

 

I'd also go for the unzip etc on the box itself approach if I'm honest.

[barney]

I wonder if its exceeding the maximum execution time for a script rather than the post/upload sizes since the file is already on there.

 

.

 

Now that makes total sense to me! Thanks.

 

Whilst we are are talking files and Moodle, am I right in think that these files won't be indexed by Moodle's Global Search??? IF so what do people do when their users want to search for files within moodle if they don't know the particular course the files are relevant to?

[kmount]

I don't know the answer to this but I had a look in the docs and there's a tick box to index files.

 

Global Search set-up - MoodleDocs

 

Not sure if that's it

[apoth0r]

It should index them, courses are refreshed often for new files. Using the ftp doesn't make them anymore invisible.

FTP is the way forward for us admins though, feel sorry for teachers who upload file after file, I think Moodle could really do with a 'Facebook - Upload Photo' type module, where things are uploaded, you then decide what to do with each file.

Theres still a lot of faffing in Moodle I think (although I stand by it as the platform to use)

[barney]

It should index them, courses are refreshed often for new files. Using the ftp doesn't make them anymore invisible.

FTP is the way forward for us admins though, feel sorry for teachers who upload file after file, I think Moodle could really do with a 'Facebook - Upload Photo' type module, where things are uploaded, you then decide what to do with each file.

Theres still a lot of faffing in Moodle I think (although I stand by it as the platform to use)

 

Thanks for the reply, it makes sense to me.

 

What I can't fathom out is how/when the file index is updated by moodle. I have just searched for a word document i uploaded 3 hours ago and nothing -

 

Searching in ...628 documents.

 

0 results returned for 'workplace'.

It took0.001035 seconds to fetch these results.

 

 

There are now thousands of files not just 628 from yesterday

[kmount]

Do you have a scheduled task in place running the cron.php ?

[barney]

Do you have a scheduled task in place running the cron.php ?

 

No, and I don't where I would go about doing that. Help please?

[apoth0r]

Barney there are some things that take a while to index, it depends whether you are reading internally or through the 'www'. Sometimes a file i upload can be indexed immediatly but when I go to change the file out it can take upto a day for the file to be changed through cache. It's just getting used to which actions are immediate and which are not. Although like you sometimes it throws me a curve ball and i sit scratching my head for a while then move on with something else

[barney]

Barney there are some things that take a while to index, it depends whether you are reading internally or through the 'www'. Sometimes a file i upload can be indexed immediatly but when I go to change the file out it can take upto a day for the file to be changed through cache. It's just getting used to which actions are immediate and which are not. Although like you sometimes it throws me a curve ball and i sit scratching my head for a while then move on with something else

 

Tell me about it! I've got a Google Mini sat on my network that has happily indexed 40,000 odd documents for the last 5 years without any problem. I now have to try and replicate that performance in Moodle.

[Wallgo]

I've a load of Active Teach stuff to upload via ftp - how do you know what folder to shove it in?

[secretlife]

look for the moodledata folder(sometimes called uploaddata) In it should be numbered folders correspoiding to your courses -directory one is the site files -each course has its own numbered folder so if you look at the properties of a resource in the course files of the course where you want it you will see the number of the folder into which to put your stuff.

[Wallgo]

Will have a good look this weekend - thanks for this!