Allow folders in Pages

[hasti]

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.

Comments from Instructure

Please refer to the update from the product team here. 

[ronmarx]

Let me try to mitigate your frustrations: you have lots of company!  @garrett_william ‌ succinctly said, "Course management and content development are intertwined. Ultimately, the end user should be able to decide what balance they want when developing inside of Canvas." My response to Debra is intended to bring more of us into the same tent, so our voice is persuasive enough to help Instructure make the development decisions that we all know would do great things for Canvas.

Sometimes we need course management and sometimes we need basic content creation. Sometimes you feel like a nut, and sometimes you don't.

[deppeler]

It seems my attempt at sarcasm has been lost.  Let me clear this up.  I very much wish to use pages for content creation on my Canvas courses. 

However, it has been made clear to me that Canvas does not see content creation as something they need or wish to support, at least not via the pages tool.  Files are enough they say, develop content on Google docs and link, they say.

My answer above was a facetious suggestion of a "work-around" similar to what I had to do in 1981 to "insert" new lines into my ForTran program code of that era.  I very much wish that folders in pages were the rule and not something we have to "fight" Canvas to consider.

At least my post above got a few more supporters of folders in pages to chime in.  Thanks everyone for the discussion!

[GideonWilliams]

Ha! Now altered the first line accordingly...

Although if I am serious for a moment, when a learning platform no longer assists in supporting and developing content creation I will suggest to my school that we review our continued use of the platform and look for one that does!

[dli1]

Unbelievably long overdue.  Initially I got fooled her I thought I was simply creating "folders", only to find that "groups" are something totally different.

[dli1]

Spot on.  Canvas continually disappoints me by assuming it knows better what I need than I do.  It has made independent development of sites painful.  For example I need have our campus administrator give me privileged of access to the entire campus just to edit and create new items in the main menu.  The list goes on. Wouldn't it be nice to haves tabs available on a page without having to peal back the hypertext coding!

[awilliams]

Hey  @dli1  Welcome to the Canvas Community! It looks like this is your first comment and I am sorry to hear that you are finding some difficulties in accomplishing what you are trying to do. Have you considered creating a discussion in the Canvas Developers‌ group? It sounds like you're trying to create some custom code for an institution and I believe there are some strategies that could be offered, but it would be best to discuss those separate from the comments on this idea. More generally speaking, Instructure firmly believes in listening to our users' feedback, including feedback from official Partners and independent developers, and providing an open platform that others can develop to. I hope you'll continue to leverage the Community in your endeavors, cheers!

[michael-espey]

 @dli1 ‌ awilliams‌

Here https://community.canvaslms.com/thread/7433 is something that may be of use, you don't need to edit the root CSS/JS as everything is already included in the base elements on Canvas.

I didn't write the original example above, but I have been using this approach for a while and why rewrite a guide that has more information than what I would include.

Let me know if this was helpful, or if you have any other questions.

Thank you,

Michael

[eszeli]

I honestly don't see the downside.  Seems like a perfectly logical and practical solution.  I've only just begun using Canvas, and I'm already puzzled by the absence of this feature -- and frustrated by the chaos on my Pages screen. 

[nsweeten]

I voted this idea up--and I believe that this solution can be provided by a smaller code adjustment: Allowing the "Homepage" and "Frontpage" to be two different pages! (Currently, a page has to first be set as the Frontpage on Pages tab before it can then be designated the Homepage/landing page for the entire course.)

Here's why this small change could solve the issue: 

Design options open up when the first "page" in Pages tab is different than the course Homepage.  For the majority of designers with the good sense to hide pages when using modules--the frontpage can easily serve as the "organizing page" by topic or a teacher-only tool.  

Why limit the homepage & frontpage by linking them? It provides no user benefit and is likely an artifact of programming by someone with limited teaching experience. 

[lindalee]

I wish I could like this more than once!

[nsweeten]

Thanks!

[chinson]

Thank you for revisiting this!

[mantennr]

The votes are very much in favor of “Organizing Pages” now. Canvas needs to reckon this and provide the facility to organize folders in PAGES. May I request that this be done on a top-priority basis as it would benefit all LMS users?

[jayne]

Excellent idea. I use the Portfolio to record notes on art and design courses I have undertaken and then post work. It would be great to be able to better organise the pages so that I can group all courses/work done on say Acrylics together, then Drawing etc.

[dwaggle]

I'm a new Canvas user.  I'm not sure why we should be voting for folders -- this has kind of been a standard organization tool since the first PC. I know I've been using folders since I got my first PC around 1985.  There should also be folders in the Quizzes section. 

I'm just "voting" to vent my frustration. 

I've also searched for bulk editing, such as deleting multiple pages. Again, we need to vote to get software features that everyone has taken for granted for at least 50 years.

[laurakgibbs]

I think we are just inheriting a half-hearted decision from the start to make a "wiki" inside Canvas. Wikis do not traditionally have folders, but of course wikis have all kinds of other features that make folders irrelevant.

Unfortunately, though, Pages in Canvas are not really a wiki. They are instead an HTML editor for creating content, as opposed to content uploaded into Files. So, as far as users are concerned, Files and Pages are fulfilling exactly the same function (they house content), but the interface for Files and Pages are completely different, with Pages being the big loser in terms of available features in the interface.

I'm really surprised nobody from Instructure has had anything to say here. The numbers of upvotes on this request is now colossal compared to others... some kind of update would be welcome.

[dwillmore]

I am very disappointed with the decision Instructure made.  Organizing pages in Canvas are critical in my opinion.

[nsweeten]

It is possible that some of Canvas' hesitation in making changes in the Pages tool is because many of the functions or uses described in these comments can already be more appropriately accomplished in the Modules tool.

The first clarification for this idea is: Is this meant to affect the student's path through the material, or the teacher's?

For student user experience and student-centered design needs, the Modules tool already works well.  (Unfortunately, I've repeatedly witnessed "experienced" faculty attempting to use modules, assignments, and pages in conflict with the actual programming or--worse yet--opposing the designed programming limits.) Some requests for Pages changes seem to reflect an unnecessary invention of parallel navigation systems, etc. by those who do not understand Modules. 

Organizing and clarifying content page needs within the course for the Teacher's benefit (whether students see this or not) would make a big difference.  Teachers can do it in Files. We need to be able to do it with Canvas content pages.  Much of this functionality could be implemented with minor programming changes:

1. Disconnect the Frontpage and Homepage designation. Currently, Frontpage of pages tab must be set as an unnecessary condition prior to the custom course Homepage designation. Allow Frontpage and Homepage to be two different pages! 
   1. a free-and-independent Frontpage could easily be utilized as an index or Files-type organization page for all other content pages, provided it doesn't supplant a student-friendly Homepage. 
2. Add the sort or drag-n-drop options for pages to display in a different order. (Current default is alphabetical sort by H1 page title.) 

[jdick1]

A think a part of the issue is if a course has a lot of pages, the modules page can quickly become overwhelming to both students and instructors. (Case in point: I'm supporting the development of digital materials for an advanced physics course and with only three units done, we're already looking at over 25 pages, not counting the supporting many short formative assessment quizzes and discussion forums.) While you can collapse module content on the module page, it can take students and teachers a number of clicks to get to where they want to go later on in the term. I suspect the default show all is for accessibility purposes, but it means that I've had to do a DIY table of contents page, which is not a great solution because it's one more course object I need to maintain and test. I'm at a small institution with pretty light Canvas usage, so it's doable at the moment, but it's not a great scalable solution, particularly when this seems like functionality that ought to be baked into the platform: providing efficient learner- and teacher-friendly ways to organizing and navigate through a large number of objects in a course.

[bdust]

I have over 100 pages in one course because I keep student research projects from previous courses for current students to review. It is a nightmare trying to find the one page that I need, plus, Canvas has the annoying features of refreshing the Pages list while trying to search for what I want.

Being able to organize the pages makes sense. This should have been included in Release 1.0 of Canvas years ago.