Colon allowed in filenames, leading to problems copying to Windows folders

Description

Resources allows files to be created with a colon ( : ) in the name. Attempting to subsequently copy these to a local Windows folder via WebDAV leads to an error.

Sakai should be as strict as Windows, so as to avoid later problems for users. Windows does not allow these characters (as reported by WinXP SP2):

\ / : * ? " < > |

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Miguel Pellicer March 6, 2020 at 6:12 AM

I provided a PR for this ticket some months ago, is anybody interested or have comments about that work?

Thanks in advance.

John Sullivan August 29, 2018 at 3:28 PM

Thanks Stephen and Tiffany, I will pass this information along and follow up if needed.

Seems like having the option to manage the WebDAV file and directory properties directly via the web interface would be a good idea, but I will have our course director try to rename the folder in CyberDuck to see if we can make WebDAV and SMB play nice.  If not, we'll just drag and drop the contents of the offending folder to a friendly one.

Tiffany Stull August 29, 2018 at 9:08 AM

Considering this is still an issue (albeit long-standing), it really should be fixed. I have a Help article that talks about the problem (Why aren't my folders or uploaded files working?) but the characters that break them should not be allowed in the first place.

It would also be appropriate to apply a fix to allow for actual editing of the folder and file names via the web interface.

I worked with an instructor yesterday who was experiencing an issue with display names being editable but actual folder names not changing - she was trying to create a new folder, it kept telling her that a folder with that name already existed, and she couldn't find the folder. I had to look through the details of all her folders and rename them to match the actual folder names, then tell her to move the files from folder instead. This is not at all intuitive to the user.

Stephen Marquard August 29, 2018 at 8:44 AM

Best to ask on the users list rather than in an old JIRA, but the workaround would be to create a new folder without a colon in the anme, move the files from the old to the new folder, and delete the old folder. Or it may be possible to rename the folder in Cyberduck, which would update the real name rather than the display name.

John Sullivan August 29, 2018 at 8:31 AM

Hi all,

I am a student and having this issue with our class's Resources folder as a network drive on Windows 10.  Our course director attempted to fix this by removing the ':' character from the folder name, but this seems to have only changed the displayed folder name on the website, and not the *file path* on the WebDAV server.  The issue is somehow circumvented by accessing the Resources folder with CyberDuck, but we would prefer not to make users download any additional software.  How can I explain to him what needs to be done to resolve the issue?

 

Thanks,

John

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Created April 10, 2006 at 7:28 AM
Updated March 7, 2025 at 7:35 AM
Resolved April 20, 2020 at 12:39 PM