Advice on Teacher Students File access

[ROUBOS]

Hi all,
it's been while since I used Joomla last. I need to create a simple site for registered users only and need your advice.
I just need a teacher account to upload files for students. Now these files will be categorized by classroom, so registered students will be able to access files for their classroom only.

I need your advice on how to tackle this and the teacher, student per classroom access levels.
Also please advice on a file manager to use. I'm currently looking at Phoca Download as it is free.

So do I create a Teacher user and student users, but how do I group the students as per classroom they are enrolled in? Do I create a different access level per classroom? And then add each student to his/her classroom access level?

Wouldn't all Classrooms have the same access levels as registered users?
If I create Class A, Class B and Class C and then add students under each level, then create file categories to be access only by Class A, B or C. Would that work?

I hope I'm making sense.

I tried using Moodle but it had far too many features. Hope to achieve this using joomla, and hope it is friendly enough for the teacher to upload files per classroom from the front end.

Any help would be appreciated.
thanks in advance.

[AMurray]

I'd +1 Phoca Download, as I think it will cover everything you need to do.


This might be a little more complex than I thought.

What I see you needing to do is:

Create a top-level user access group called "Teachers" (same permissions as "Registered").

Create Child access groups within "Teachers" called "TeacherClassA", "TeacherClassB" etc.

Place the Users (Teachers) into their respective group(s).

In Phoca Download, create document categories, and assign the relevant user permission group to each - DocsClassA to TeacherClassA and so on.

In the same way, create a top level user group "Students" (based on "Registered"). Create sub-groups under "Students" for each class e.g. StudentClassA, StudentClassB etc).

Create menu items to the download page in Phoca Download (Phoca download menu item type has a file lis by category option). You will need a menu item for each Class - but only the students in each different class should see their own respective documents.

Each teacher should only be able to upload to their classes's "Category". Create the menu items for Teachers, in the same manner, multiple menu items needed, but you can set them up so each teacher sees their respective "Class" and can only upload to their specific category.

That's a long-winded explanation, but I think that will achieve what you need.

[ROUBOS]

Thanks for that. Will give it a go. The good thing is that I only need one teacher, and multiple classes.
Hope the menu items are available per class, and students get to see the menu item relative to their class.

[Webdongle]

Slightly disagree

Three simple steps
Step #1 creates a hierarchy with most important at the bottom. That is because user group Permissions are inherited downwards. But permissions are added in each category not globally

Step #2 allows each user group to see only content that is set to the view/access level they are assigned to.

Step #3 allows each user group to manipulate (add, edit, create etc) what they see. Changing the Permissions globally would allow the editing of all categories and prevent 'fine tuning' of what they could manipulate.


1. Create user groups (each with 'Registered' as Parent) class a, class b, class c etc.
Create user groups under those class a Author, class a Editor etc.
Set the permissions in the same way as the standard Joomla user groups.
You can have the bottom user group called Tutor class a (b, c respectively)
Do NOT change the Permissions in global config!!!

2. Create view/access levels for class a, class b and class c and select the respective user groups.

3. Create categories for class a, class b and class c.
In category class 'a' set the Permissions for user group class a 'author' similar to Joomla's 'author' similar for the other class a user groups
Do similar for the other categories

[ROUBOS]

thank you. Very helpful!

[ROUBOS]

1. Create user groups (each with 'Registered' as Parent) class a, class b, class c etc.
Create user groups under those class a Author, class a Editor etc.
Set the permissions in the same way as the standard Joomla user groups.
You can have the bottom user group called Tutor class a (b, c respectively)
Do NOT change the Permissions in global config!!!

If I only have one Teacher for all classes, then I could just have a normal Author User and the default Author group, right?

[Per Yngve Berg]

One last tweak you have to do. Phoca Download by default stores file in a folder named 'phocadownload' located inside public_html. Move this folder outside public_html and update the path in the options. That will prevent download by direct link. I'm sure students will find a way to get the documents even if they don't have permission.

[ROUBOS]

One last tweak you have to do. Phoca Download by default stores file in a folder named 'phocadownload' located inside public_html. Move this folder outside public_html and update the path in the options. That will prevent download by direct link. I'm sure students will find a way to get the documents even if they don't have permission.

Good point. Thank you

[ROUBOS]

One last tweak you have to do. Phoca Download by default stores file in a folder named 'phocadownload' located inside public_html. Move this folder outside public_html and update the path in the options. That will prevent download by direct link. I'm sure students will find a way to get the documents even if they don't have permission.

Will the play/preview work? And I need to setup the absolute path right? For example /phocadownload for folder above public_html

[Webdongle]

...

If I only have one Teacher for all classes, then I could just have a normal Author User and the default Author group, right?

Yes, or better still create a user group called 'Tutor' with groups under that and select those in all the 'Class' view access levels.
Then give the relevant permissions in all the 'class' categories.
(To be more ordered ... create a parent category called 'Classes'. You can then put 'class a' etc under it so you only need to set the Permissions once for Tutors.

Not using the Joomla user groups has the advantage of not setting the permissions site wide. That way you are 'future proofing' ... if needed you can do similar for governors or donators etc.

[ROUBOS]

OK I'm doing something wrong.

Create Classes user group with parent "Registered"
Create Class A user group with parent "Classes"

And the Teacher user group will have a parent "Author" and access level classes

[ROUBOS]

OK This is what I've done and works, so please tell me if I need to improve it.

User groups Class A, B, C etc with parent Registered
user group Teacher with parent Author

Viewing access levels:
Class A - Class A
Class B - Class B
Class C - Class C

Teacher - Class A, Class B, Class C, Teacher

Then created a user and assigned to all user groups, teacher, class a, class b, class c

Now if I create another user as student, and assign them to class a only, they will only see class a items.

[Per Yngve Berg]

You did create the Category inside Phoca Download?

The Categories inside the Content Menu is for Articles.

[ROUBOS]

You did create the Category inside Phoca Download?

The Categories inside the Content Menu is for Articles.

Yes I did create the categories and am able to upload a file under a specific category.

[ROUBOS]

Phoca might not be the right tool.
Deleted a file from the frontend, checked under admin that the file is not listed in Phoca>Files, tried to upload it again via the front end, and getting an error message that the file already exists.

EDIT: under filemanager in Cpanel the file is there, even though the user deleted it. Must be an option in Phoca to keep the files.
Also noticed phoce creates a folder with the username of the person uploading the files. I want files uploaded by the teacher in frontend to be viewable by all students that has access to that category.

[Webdongle]

...
user group Teacher with parent Author

...

Now if I create another user as student, and assign them to class a only, they will only see class a items.

would be better
User group Tutor with Registered as Parent
User group Tutor Author with Tutor as Parent

Now if you have a Tutor category as Parent to the Class's categories then you just need to edit the Permissions for 'Tutor Author' in the Tutor category.
That allows for some Tutors to see and others to see and edit etc.

Users in user groups selected in a view/access level can see Articles, menu items etc. that are set that level. Permissions Create, Edit etc. allow users (in the user group) to perform actions.


Oh and having dummy users and several browsers saves logging out and back in

[AMurray]

Phoca might not be the right tool.
Deleted a file from the frontend, checked under admin that the file is not listed in Phoca>Files, tried to upload it again via the front end, and getting an error message that the file already exists.

It must just delete the database record of the file, not the file itself. I'm not sure other download components would behave any differently (not saying others won't, but you may come across the same issue with other similar components).

[Webdongle]

Try https://extensions.joomla.org/extension/jdownloads/

https://www.jdownloads.net/documentatio ... curity-tab

Protect Directory
The Default setting for option 'Protect your Download Directory' is No.

If it is set to Yes, a special jD htaccess.txt file is copied to the Downloads root-directory, normally jdownloads, and renamed as .htaccess.

This enables protection so that all external file and subdirectory accesses are blocked.