Allow users to overwrite/update files with same name

[Melvin Romero]

This is actually an improvement request.

Currently in all versions, if a user wants to update or overwrite a file with the same name, the system simply adds the file with a .1, .2 at the end. So, if I have "file1.png" in a page and I want to update it, I have to delete the old file, upload a new one and redo the link in my page.

Unless I'm doing something wrong, Mahara should have the same function as Moodle in this case. The user is prompted if he/she wants to overwrite/update or rename the file. That way, all links to this file are updated in the pages.

[Aaron Wells (u-aaronw)]

Hi Melvin,

You are correct, that's functionality Mahara is currently lacking, and it's something that it would be nice to have, for the specific reason you described. Especially since we allow this kind of edit-once-change-everywhere functionality for virtually every other type of Mahara artefact.

If we were to add this ability, it would also be good to retain a history of the previous versions of the file, viewable in the artefact details section. I think in an academic environment that would probably be useful to provide an audit trail. On the downside, it would also use up extra user quota space, and add a lot of code complexity, so maybe that would be better saved for a follow-up patch.

Cheers,
Aaron