Select/deselect items in File Manager from the grid menu
When selecting items in File Manager in either grid or list view, ability to hold Shift key to select multiple items
Display number of items selected “Delete 234 Selected Items” within File Manager
Drag and drop items items within File Manager between folder locations
This afternoon I needed to delete 350 folders from a clients file manager, I couldn’t select all from the list view as there were more than 350 items within the folder I didn’t want to delete. Ability to either select multiple items easily, or drag files into other folders would have lessened the time required.
This could be utilised in other areas of the platform, such as dragging and dropping to relocate a page within a page folder, dragging and dropping a gallery item into a gallery group etc…
I’d like to add my 2 cents here…
Bulk deletion of files and folders via the admin File Manager is dangerous, because… well, you know clients.
This task is better suited for FTP, which also lessons the risk of less savvy user error.
But, if this were to be implemented I could live with it.
However, the ability to drag and drop folders/files to restructure them is probably worse, as an untrained user would find it very easy and intuitive to restructure all their image folders, for example, or go on a ‘tidy-up’ spree. Thinking they are doing a great job… because the systems making it so easy for them to do… only to discover they’ve just broken half the links on their site and will need to un-do all their reorganisation.
Also, drag and drop can often be finicky, especially on this sort of scale, which adds to the risk of accidental dropping in the wrong location, or accidentally clicking and dragging across the screen and unknowingly moving an entire directory into another (I’ve even done this myself on my computer file system). Especially when using different input devices like trackpads, or when on mobile devices.
Sorry to put a negative spin on your idea @lee.relianceit but I feel this is a valid concern. I’m, of course, open to counter arguments on this.
@lee.relianceit - I can see that it makes file managing much easier in the file manager, but I have the same concerns as @Adam.Wilson.
Is there a reason why you want to use the file manager for this instead of the FTP?
If I wanted to do something similar I would always do it via the FTP but that might just be differences in workflows? To be fair I don’t use the file manager all that often, so I am interested in knowing if you find it easier to use in these cases.
I think that if it is implemented it would be nice to have a setting to turn it on/off. I have clients that would be able to mess their site up really fast as @Adam.Wilson mentioned
That being said I am not to be the judge of anything going into the public backlog, so I will of course add it, but would be nice if we could have a few more partners chime in to see how we can solve this in the best way possible
I see this as very basic functionality for an end user.
I do all of my work from the partner portal, which is often why I see things differently to most the devs, I only see/do/change what a client would. I haven’t earned my FTP licence yet
There is a possibility of an end user making errors here, so perhaps we add the ability to turn it off/on from within admin user role permissions? I’d suggest off by default.
Also, in regards to end users really messing things up, it only provides more of an argument to have site backups and rollback features available to us.
Perhaps we can chat about it further at Treehouse meeting to get more of an understanding, and other partner input? Happy to wait adding it to backlog until after this discussion.
I hear you
For me personally I would just leave it “off” for my clients.
In regards to rollback functionality I am looking forward to that as well.
I think the difference between the rollback functionality, on one specific page/item, and the file manager is that on a single page/item, it would take you a long time to mess up an entire site, going from page to page.
In the file-manager (with drag/drop functionality) the client can by mistake move an entire folder in seconds, leaving your entire site down, and it might take a long time figuring out what is causing the problem.
Have you seen this as a basic functionality in other CMS?
If this is implemented or not I really think you should get that FTP license. It is VERY easy and I will gladly show you how it works. I am sure it will make your life A LOT easier. When the FTP is set up and you are connected it is basically a file structure just as you see in the file manager or on your local machine where you can drag/drop, delete, edit names etc. If you see it, it would feel the same as moving files around your desktop machine, so really there is nothing to it
See attached image of a Treepl site.
This is my view when I go to the FTP (Program is called “Transmit”).
All the things you want can be done in this, very easily and you just set the connection up one time and it is just a matter of putting in the site URL, email and password, almost like logging into the site in the backend. When it is set up one time your just have it saved and just click it to connect
Great to see everybody having such friendly and productive discussion here.
Select/deselect items in File Manager from the grid menu
Do you mean the ability to select and deselect all items in the grid view?
Similar to this button?
When selecting items in File Manager in either grid or list view, ability to hold Shift key to select multiple items
Having range select with shift seems like a reasonable request to me.
Display number of items selected “Delete 234 Selected Items” within File Manager
This seems like a good idea. Having the number of files represented when a user goes to delete items would be a good way to signal what action is about to be taken.
Drag and drop items items within File Manager between folder locations
I tend to agree with Adam and Peter on this one. Drag and drop can be a bit iffy. I also have some concerns about users going in and moving files that causes issues.
What about adding a “Move to folder” to the fly-out menu on the files. Then the sidebar file selector would come up allowing you to select the folder. This would be much more intentional and would avoid potential of the the mistakes. If we wanted multi item move then there would also have to be a button similar to the multi delete for move - multi move.
That wouldn’t avoid “tidying” behavior.
I’m a bit split on that point. On one hand I see where you, Peter and Adam, are coming from not wanting somebody to go in and restructure the files behind a site and break links, but I think ultimately there will be a pool of power users who use the admin to manage their sites. Lee, I think you represent an edge case currently, a power use who doesn’t use FTP for file management.
Perhaps having these features and having the ability to turn them off under the admin user roles, or having them off by default under the Settings ->Misc is a good compromise.
I wonder though, how much of this file system functionality would actually be needed after the initial site development. Once a site is a year or so old it would be pretty risky to move files around like this (even for the developer), not really knowing where or how they might be still in use somewhere (depending on the site of course).
All good and useful ideas though, so I guess it comes down to the votes and where you’d prefer to see the dev teams time spent over other features in the backlog.
I’ve just had a case pop up where an end user has been uploading files (over 500) to an incorrect file manager folder since we migrated it to Treepl. I now have the job of correcting it. It would be a lot easier to relocate the existing files to the correct folders, then fix any mapping errors on the site.
Instead, I now have to download the files, reupload them, then remap any errors. A real pain tbh.
I’ve not needed to try it with the Treepl server but with cPanel servers when I connect via FTP, I can simply move files on the server without having to download & reupload them. Have you tried this?
Thanks Hope, a few of us have discussed this above in short, I use the admin console the same as an end user would. The end user experience is extremely poor. If the client did not have a management agreement with us, they would need to be fixing these 500 files themselves by downloading and reuploading as general users wouldn’t have FTP knowledge/access.
I can understand why you wouldn’t expect your client to use FTP, but if you are correcting the end user’s mistake, why can’t you use FTP? Even if you download the files, move them to the correct folder and then upload them, it’s got to be quicker than using File Manager.
