Feature #23321
openFolder actions in group libraries
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Description
It looks to me like the only way to add a folder to a group library is when one adds a file to it. The workflow for adding a folder after having created a bunch of library items seems to be (1) to go to an individual item, click "edit," and then add a folder, or (2) to go to Tags > add a folder
I'd suggest that both of these methods are slightly unintuitive -- that for (1), one has to go to edit an individual item when what one wants to do is create a collective folder, and that for (2) the wording (tags vs folder) is confusing and means that people might not go to "tags" when looking to create a folder (I didn't).
Furthermore, it looks like we don't actually visually display folders.
All of this leads me to ask that we review the following:
- "folder" vs "tag" classifications -- should we do away with "folders" and just call them "tags"?
- if we keep folders, should we display folders in some way?
- whichever way we go with the above, it seems like there should be some place in the library or group management area where one can create/edit/delete folder/tags, no?
Files
Related issues
Updated by Boone Gorges 10 days ago
I was never a fan of the folders metaphor and I personally would be glad to get rid of it.
We used to have a panel where the folders were displayed in a list/tree. When we moved to the unified Library, we mapped the bp-group-documents tag/category system (which we'd previously skinned as folders) to the Library tags system. It looks like we left the word 'folder' in the doc edit/create interface. Perhaps a low-hanging fruit is to change this to tag.
As for the list, we show a list of these tags/folders in a dropdown. Whether we need a more visual list for browsing, I leave up to others.
whichever way we go with the above, it seems like there should be some place in the library or group management area where one can create/edit/delete folder/tags, no?
Yes, this seems fine, though it'll need a whole new set of interfaces.
Updated by Matt Gold 7 days ago
- Related to Feature #20499: Allow forum attachments to be sorted into Group Library folders added
Updated by Sara Cannon 4 days ago
- File Screenshot 2025-09-08 at 5.28.45 PM.png Screenshot 2025-09-08 at 5.28.45 PM.png added
- File Screenshot 2025-09-08 at 5.50.03 PM.png Screenshot 2025-09-08 at 5.50.03 PM.png added
chiming in! I agree that it makes sense to remove all mentions of "folder" and just categorize everything by tag. We can clarify this by taking the tags out of the details section of the table and adding a column to the library just for tags where you can click on the tag to pull up the view of just that tag.
As for the forum attachments, it seems that by default these are not tagged and can not be tagged. Is this correct? If we want to treat them like other library items, it would make sense to have them be tagged "forum attachment" by default and allow them to be able to be managed along with the other media. Would we want this or do we want to treat them differently than the other media in the library? If we think that we want to treat forum attachments differently than other library media, we could have the default screen set to NOT show the forum attachments. One way to do this is by including a little checkbox that is de-selected by default to not include them in the library view unless selected or just remove them from the library all together (my preference for simplicity)
When it comes to the tag management and filtering,
The main question here is how granular we want to get with this. Do we want to be able to on the main library screen, view by just all or one tags at a time OR be able to select multiple tags to show (in a multi-select chip UI) I took a ROUGH look at what the chip UI could look like and it seems like it might be overkill and it makes sense to stick with the above.
I'll think through what the management of the tags looks like after I get some feedback here :)
Updated by Boone Gorges 4 days ago
One way to do this is by including a little checkbox that is de-selected by default to not include them in the library view unless selected or just remove them from the library all together (my preference for simplicity)
Removing forum attachments altogether seems fine to me. Barring this, I like the idea of a separate checkbox toggle that defaults to off.
Do we want to be able to on the main library screen, view by just all or one tags at a time OR be able to select multiple tags to show (in a multi-select chip UI) I took a ROUGH look at what the chip UI could look like and it seems like it might be overkill and it makes sense to stick with the above.
Multiple select for tags feels like a confusing interface to be, because it's not obvious whether it indicates and "items that have BOTH 'foo' AND 'bar'" or or "items that have EITHER 'foo' OR 'bar'". The use-case for AND feels too limited - few libraries are so large that you'd need it. And the use-case for OR could be realized by simply doing one filter and then filtering a second time. So I'm in favor of leaving these as single-select.
Updated by Colin McDonald 4 days ago
Just in case we have users who get utility out of the forum attachments being in the library, I like the idea of still having the option to show them, but the toggle is off by default. Would it also be possible to give attachment items other tags? Single-select also seems fine to me.
Updated by Matt Gold 4 days ago
Updating after our dev call today. I think we should consider the following solution:
1. Do not display forum attachments in the group library. This helps define the library space as one in which admins intentionally curate by uploading items to it. The rationale for this is partly that people attach (intentionally or unintentionallY) a lot of things to forum posts, especially when sending via email -- ics files, images, vcards, etc.
2. Create a new way of filtering messages within the forum itself that allows users to view posts that have attachments. This would allow users to find posts with attachments relatively easily. If a user decides they actually want to add a forum attachment to the group library, they can still do so by going to the group library