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file upload question: where are the files stored?

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7 years 2 months ago #148170 by DenisChenu
Replied by DenisChenu on topic file upload question: where are the files stored?

jelo wrote: ....
For me the biggest issue with the current file upload question is the lacking of removing the files when deleting the survey and the database. The whole application gives the user the impression that the uploaded files are gone too.
The uploaded files stay on the server.
....

BUT !

I think upload/survey/XXXX/ directory are deleted when delete a survey, it's not true ? Really a bug here ....

There are code for deleting files when you delete one response : github.com/LimeSurvey/LimeSurvey/blob/ma...els/Response.php#L14

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7 years 2 months ago #148178 by jelo

DenisChenu wrote: I think upload/survey/XXXX/ directory are deleted when delete a survey, it's not true ? Really a bug here ....

There are code for deleting files when you delete one response : github.com/LimeSurvey/LimeSurvey/blob/ma...els/Response.php#L14


I only use LTS. You describe two situations:

1.) Deleting survey
2.) Deleting one response.

The most common scenario is just deactivating the survey and than from time to time doing a "check data integrity".
In that scenario the uploaded files stayed on the server. You can say that is an intended behavior but I doubt many users differentiate between database and file-based responses.

Will check again, but in the last years I always deleted uploads by hand from the server after the survey was deactivated and responses where purged via "check data integrity".

LS should clearly separate deleting of survey (structure and assets) vs. deleting of responses (db and uploads).

The meaning of the word "stable" for users
www.limesurvey.org/forum/development/117...ord-stable-for-users
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7 years 2 months ago #148184 by DenisChenu
Replied by DenisChenu on topic file upload question: where are the files stored?
OK, your right : deactivate survey don't delete already answers. But there are another problem if we delete file upload : if user reactivate survey and reload answer DB : the file was lost. In fact : deactivate survey don't really delete responses : make a backup ...

Files are deleted when 1 and 2 , not when deactivated.

New checkbox when deactivate ????

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7 years 2 months ago #148202 by jelo

DenisChenu wrote: New checkbox when deactivate ????

Not sure yet.

To delete everything when the survey is deleted is a clear concept.
Other tools use that as well, with the difference that you don't have the deactivation. You have pause and can edit the survey during the collection.
LS wording when deactivating is

All responses are not accessible anymore with LimeSurvey. Your response table will be renamed to: ....

. So that is the truth. The upload question came later into the game. So perhaps adding a remark at this screen about uploads and the path will be quick fix to the situation.

Technically I would prefer a export routine, which moves the database and the files to a folder, when the survey is deactivated. If the survey is reactivated the feature to reimport data is still possible. If the survey is deleted, all data is deleted.
Currently, if I reactivate the survey, but not reimport the old database the old uploads are still in the same folder as the new uploads.

The uploads are also not in the LSA export / import. Which is an issue from the user point of view. I understand the issues with the sizes. But from the user standpoint the uploads are part of the responses.

The meaning of the word "stable" for users
www.limesurvey.org/forum/development/117...ord-stable-for-users
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7 years 2 months ago #148217 by DenisChenu
Replied by DenisChenu on topic file upload question: where are the files stored?
When we have QuestionObject : create an upload and save to DB fix this issue :)

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7 years 2 months ago #148511 by Csurvey
Hello Denis and everybody,

As someone (or something like a google robot for indexing ) could reach directly the material in /upload/survey/{SID}/files,
by entering the url in a browser, if i am not misunderstanding (we had a discussion about that a few month ago in this forum) , how would you do to protect that with a simple system login/pwd passed in the url from a question that direct to a file in this folder ?

I did some research about placing the clips in a dropbox or something like that, but there is no way to get a link containing login/pwd that i can fill in limesurvey interface with source for reaching the clip. The only way i know is functioning like that : everytime a clip is reached from this content dropbox, the participant get a window inviting to manually enter the pwd, or to enter once and indicate to the browser to record it.

I mean, i will have a survey with short clips that would be uploaded in /files, my participants are informed that they do not have the right to share this material i have the right to use for this survey but i do not own; but someone else or google could reach and index this url. Could i password protect the/files folder and a subfolder in /files, putting somewhere in the limesurvey question the login/pwd ?

It will be visible for my participants only, and that would be the best solution for me because they sign an agreement about not sharing files, so if they see the login/pwd in the url that is not a problem, but it would be like i want, not accessible for someone else scrawling the repertoire ?

Many thanks,
Best,
Chris
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7 years 2 months ago #148520 by jelo
Chris, this thread is about the file upload question. Your topic is total unrelated to this topic.

The meaning of the word "stable" for users
www.limesurvey.org/forum/development/117...ord-stable-for-users
The following user(s) said Thank You: DenisChenu
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7 years 2 months ago #148522 by Csurvey
Very sorry, Jello.
I was thinking that as my concern is about where the files are stored (and protected) when you use the interface upload device, it was related . Could i move my topic in an other thread ?

Many thanks and sorry again.
Best,
Chris
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7 years 2 months ago #148526 by jelo
Just open a new post with subject like "Protecting videoclips from downloading" or something more suitable and copy the content of your post here.

The meaning of the word "stable" for users
www.limesurvey.org/forum/development/117...ord-stable-for-users
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7 years 2 months ago #148533 by Csurvey
Many thanks and sorry again, i open a new subject in "can i do that..."
Best Regards,
Christ
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7 years 1 month ago #150053 by bigred
I think i found the issue. In em_manager_helper.php (around line 8655) when the files are moved from the upload/tmp directory to the upload/surveys/SID directory. It creates a new filename starting with "fu_"+random 15 characters, then moves the file to the surveys upload folder. This filename no longer contains the _extension at the end (ex futmp_randomString_jpg becomes fu_newRandomString). It also doesn't look to update the response with the new file name either so all references to the file will now be broken and your file can no longer be traced back to a response.

I think once the new fu_ file name gets the _extension appended and the matching response gets updated, this should start working.

There also seems to be an issue when someone uploads files with the same name. It stores the file fine but when you click to download from responses page, it will grab the first item in the json with name = value. I started appending a timestamp to the name to get around this but the response page can always be updated to use the random filename field.

I'm using version Version 2.51.4
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6 years 9 months ago #156847 by CarlosN
Finally I found the way to do this.
Just go to Survey List->Responses ->Responses and statistics->Display responses.
Once you are there, select all responses and choose the button "download files". Thats all.
The files has the original name and extensions are right.
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