[Modules] Publish / Unpublish ALL Option

This idea has been developed and deployed to Canvas

Instead of having to click every single item in a long list to Publish or Unpublish them all, it would save a lot of time if we had the option to "Publish All" or "Unpublish All". It would be even slicker if we could select or highlight a large group of multiple items (though not necessarily all of them) to publish or unpublish all at once.

Added to Theme

121 Comments
adam_abbate
Community Novice

If this feature eventuates, we would like to see the ability to control who has access to this function or even disabled it completely. We often provide teacher-only resources in a course and do this by not publishing. Having a publish all button would be dangerous in our situation.

The idea to highlight a large number of items is a good idea though.

fisher1
Community Contributor

I don't know when this started happening (just noticed it recently), but I've noticed that you can mass "publish" a module. When you publish an unpublished module with unpublished items, it publishes every thing at once in that module. Here's a video that I made of this happening: Publish all at once.mp4 - Google Drive

Unfortunately, what I've also found is that you can't mass "unpublish" items in a module.

fisher1
Community Contributor

Same here. I've noticed that you can mass "publish" a module. When you publish an unpublished module with unpublished items, it publishes every thing at once in that module. Here's a video that I made of this happening: Publish all at once.mp4 - Google Drive

Unfortunately, what I've also found is that you can't mass "unpublish" items in a module.

richard_martin
Community Novice

I'm new to Canvas. I can't believe this feature is not implemented. I don't want my private unpublished answers keys to be automatically published, IF I press the Publish module. And Then I have to go back and try and remember which ones to now Unpublish. Cmon.

sthomas41
Community Novice

Could a Canvas staff member respond to why this occurs differently for some people compared to others?  Clearly we have people here saying that when they click "publish" to a module, NOT everything is published, but when others click "publish" to a module, everything IS published.  What is going on?

scottdennis
Instructure
Instructure

Hi Shelly,

If you add new content items to a module and all of them remain in their initial unpublished state, when you publish the module, everything in it will also be published.  However if you publish some content items in the module individually or unpublish previously published content, publishing the module will not publish all the content in the module all at one time.

borend
Community Novice

It publishes all of my content no matter under any module that I publish, even If I have some content published and other content unpublished.  Like Shelly Commented, why does it work differently for some of us?

scottdennis
Instructure
Instructure

Not sure, Debra.  What I described is what I have experienced in the past.  Consulting a colleague, it looks like the way Modules function currently is that publishing a module should now always publish all unpublished content contained in the module.  If you want to move an unpublished module to published state that contains some unpublished content is to publish the module and then immediately go back and unpublish the content items you do not want students to see.  I guess you could also publish your module and then add unpublished content to them later.

cward
Instructure Alumni
Instructure Alumni

We're reviewing what it would take on the engineering side to accomplish this, although I am unable to communicate any commitments or timelines at this time.

kcoleman1
Community Novice

I really hope this feature becomes a reality! I've been struggling with this going on 3 years. PLEASE make it happen. Thank you!