Attachment helper

July 07

In 2.4, we have two (or three!) different versions of the filepicker in use.

Filepicker 1, used by Announcements, Schedule & Assignments, allows people to upload local files or attach a copy of an existing Sakai resource. If they attach an existing resource, the tool takes a copy of the file as it was at the moment when it was attached, and stores that in a hidden area of the site. Subsequent changes to the resource will not be reflected in the attachment, as it is a copy.

Filepicker 2, used by Wiki, looks just like the Resources tool, and allows people to create folders, upload files, add web links, etc. They can also link to an existing Sakai resource. If they link to an existing resource, the tool does not make a copy of it, and subsequent changes to the resource will be reflected in the attachement.

Note that the Mailtool allows people to upload files from their desktop in-line, as suggested by Michelle (see attachments) 

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Attach v. Link

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In revising the use of attachment helper in Velocity tools, we need to decide how each tool should manage its attachments. The attachment helper can attach items as links to the original item or it can make a copy and attach to that copy. The tool can use a SecurityAdviser to grant access to an item to users who are not members of the site where the attachment is made. If we do that, users can create an attachment by linking to a resource in any collection and adding a SecurityAdviser that grants access to the item to users who will see the attachment.

The following table attempts to identify entities for which the attachment helper might need to be modified. For each entity types, it lists the user groups who might create, view and modify attachments.

The following table attempts to identify where thse entity types might be found when creating attachments and where they might be stored to afford the right set of access restrictions.

This work will be done under http://bugs.sakaiproject.org/jira/browse/SAK-4224, and more information may be found in the JIRA ticket.

Please add comments including additions and corrections to these table entries.