Allow folders in Pages

[hasti]

Greetings all.
Conversations in the community unthread after 100 comments, making the conversation difficult to follow, and official comments hard to find. For this reason we're posting our most recent update here:

We know this is an important topic to many. We appreciate all of the use cases (pros/cons) that have been presented and the ideas for solutions. We are working toward a longer range strategy that we envision solving many of the struggles you've expressed here. We do not have an immediate solution. Stay plugged into the Canvas Ideas space to watch this strategy unfold (beginning with Assignments 2.0)

The Files section of Canvas allows folders for organizing files. Pages does not. Why the awful inconsistency in the user interface? I currently have 30+ pages that I've created in - all in flat directory structure. I'd like to be able to organize them, you know, like Files and stuff I have on my computer.

[glenaz]

In addition to folders, having some sort of sort, filter, and tagging mechanism would be helpful (even preferable to folders, which can grow and become a pain to manage).  I understand to present pages to students should be done through Modules (which I am doing), but when editing and modifying pages for new templates, revisions in courses, etc.,. by only being able to look at the name of the Page, it makes it difficult to know which is the current page or not.  By being able to sort & filter in the View All Pages area, it is much easier to determine which pages are old and should be discarded versus new ones that are being worked on.

[mwolfenstein]

I'm in full agreement with you on tags as the fundamental need here from a dev. standpoint. Tags and content searchability are definitely the underlying user needs here, and taking this data-centric approach can allow for a variety of different approaches for considering what the UI is that will ultimately work best to handle those needs.

[hasti]

For my own management (since I do NOT make Pages visible to students), I would much rather have a folder-like option than tagging. I've tried to use tags when searching for info in the Canvas Community and Guides (and added tags to content I've made) -- I find it to be an exercise in frustration: I have to guess which terms people use to describe different things (want to make a link to someone in a post? don't bother using "link") and deal with multiple tags which are basically the same ("file preview", "view file").

Also, I often use a laptop to do work. Folders (and folder-like options like sections of content that can be collapsed) allow me to navigate more easily with much less scrolling.

[glenaz]

I certainly wasn't trying to advocate "tagging" over "folders".  I find tagging more useful as I could tag all Page having to do with "Module 1" as "Mod1" and then could easily search for those pages.  If I'm using a page for multiple modules, I could then add "Mod 2" and "Mod 3" as necessary, instead of having duplicate pages in different folders (or forgetting what folder I put what pages).  

[mwolfenstein]

I also wanted to clarify that my advocacy for tagging is in terms of the technical solution to this issue. Actually enforcing a directory structure would be massively limiting, whereas using tags (i.e. metadata) would allow for a variety of options in terms of actual UI including potentially a folder UI.

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[deppeler]

this worked for me too and now it is a matter of course to get to pages more quickly.  Along this line, I do not keep the page maximized but rather in a smaller frame, to load as I scroll.  Thanks.

[mitchel_stimers]

Here's a little run-down on the top 10 requests, including this one (asc, up-votes):

Post Title	Opened	Time Open	Total Views	UP	DOWN	UP%
Printable / PDF-exportable quizzes	3/31/15	4 yrs, 11 mo, 30 d	35,608	2,461	29	98.84%
Allow folders in Pages	11/11/16	3 yrs, 4 mo, 10 d	27,822	2,250	82	96.48%
Multiple Due Dates (checkpoints) for Discussions	5/5/15	4 yrs, 10 mo, 4 d	30,246	2,201	14	99.37%
Create Question Banks from MSWord	5/17/15	4 yrs, 10 mo, 16 d	36,825	1,728	24	98.63%
Ability to Save and Copy from Frequently Used Comments in Speedgrader/DocViewer	5/15/15	4 yrs, 10 mo, 14 d	13,900	1,467	10	99.32%
Regrade quiz when deleting questions	9/1/15	4 yrs, 6 mo, 0 d	17,964	1,304	20	98.49%
Notifications by Course	10/27/15	4 yrs, 4 mo, 26 d	58,116	1,099	5	99.55%
Adjust all assignment and quiz dates on a single page	4/7/15	4 yrs, 11 mo, 6 d	19,681	1,076	9	99.17%
Submit an assignment on behalf of a student	4/14/15	4 yrs, 11 mo, 13 d	21,846	1,042	27	97.47%
Let us schedule a Publish Date / Time for Content Pages	11/16/15	4 yrs, 4 mo, 15 d	9,163	1,015	12	98.83%
		AVERAGE	27,117	1,564	23	98.54%
		MAX	58,116	2,461	82	99.55%
		MIN	9,163	1,015	5	96.48%

[guerreromrgd]

Yes, clearly!

[Renee_Carney]

mitchel.stimers@park.edu 

A link may help give the bigger picture here, as it's always the most accurate data.  The current list of ideas by vote can be found at Ideas: Open for Voting.

In addition to that, I'd add that it's also helpful to look at Ideas: Completed to see the work that has been done with the insights of the Community!

Votes are an insightful element of the ideation process, but they're not the only deciding factor in how/when something gets developed.  We have a fairly robust dashboard on the backend of the process that lets us give a meta data to the product team, but the most important feedback comes from the use cases that are provided in the initial problem statement and the use cases in discussion that persists.  I share that just to say that development isn't simply defined by math!

[mstimers1]

@Renee Carney

Hi Renee, and thanks for the feedback.

I understand, as I suspect most of us do, that product development is not one-dimensional. My point with the table is that although, as you point out, votes are one factor, aren't the people working in your system the most important? We are the ones who log on and use this everyday to connect with our students. I just don't see how Instructure is failing to comprehend this relationship: you've created a product we use, we're telling you what would be top-notch features to add. You have hard data telling you what we want. Imagine if a restaurant had this type of data, telling the owner exactly what the customer wanted to eat, do you think that owner would shrug it of in favor of the menu they deemed appropriate? I am not trying to be difficult here, but you asked and we answered (with a resounding collective yes), so I am just not understanding why these highly-desired features, having been discussed for 4.5 years, are not in place.

Thanks for your attention and response.