Batch processing

Introduction

When viewing Downloads in the backend the Control bar at the top of the screen
has, on the left side, a panel of 'buttons' likeV4 control bar left.  For Categories the left side
panel is like V4 control bar left categ. Note in both cases V4 button action inactiveis inactive.
Both Downloads and Categories have 'buttons'V4 control bar righton the righthand side.

To gain access to the Batch operations for say Categories then select the Categories button and select one or more categories or sub categories you wish to move or copy
The Batch processing option, which is only available in the Backend, was originally just used for moving or copying Categories and Downloads.

As illustrated opposite it has expanded to do several other useful items like Setting Access levels, and adding Tags to multiple Categories and Downloads.  Also in a multilingual site it allows changing the language for the selected categories or Downloads.
Note: the multilingual option only appears when a site is multilingual

These additional changes may be used individually or combined with each other or in conjunction with a move or copy.

Also note that there are three options when copying. This allows making duplicates of a Download in multiple categories.
V4-batch-main-screen01

Selecting the Categories or Downloads

The Selection process for either Categories or Downloads is essentially the same.

First you just need to tick the selection box of the required items. In the image opposite three downloads have been selected.
Initially the V4 button Action inactive button is inactive but when one or more items are selected then it becomes active V4 button Action02 and various actions are available as listed in the image on the far right


So click on the V4 button batch01button in the pulldown list.
Select DownloadsV4 actions list
Beware that it will only select those that you are on the page you are currently  viewing, it does not select those that are on another page.

Unlocking

In order to be safe when moving or copying then ALL other Downloads or Categories, as appropriate, are LOCKED during the process. This is because many of the 'moves' or 'copying' relate to database changes. Having other changes made to the database at the same time would lead to database corruption.

To UNLOCK if the batch processing should fail for an unknown reason then go to the button tools section on the jDownloads Control Panel and select the unlock button .

Changing the Access Level

Basically the Access Level sets what a user in the relevant UserGroup may see in the front end. Unlike permissions, Access levels do not 'cascade', they are set individually for each category and for each Download.

By default jDownloads sets the Access level to Public.  That is any user is able to see them whether they are logged in or not.

The 'Set Access Level' is very useful for example when changing a site so that Registered users may see additional Downloads and Categories from those that the Public users can see.
set access

Adding Tags


This is quite simple just select an existing tag in the pulldown that you wish to add and then click on the button process button.

The default setting is 'Keep original Tags'.
add tags

Changing the Language

This batch facility is very useful if you have a multilingual site.

It is particularly useful when converting a non-multilingual site to a multilingual site

The default setting for 'Set Language' is to keep the original language.
set language

Moving Categories or Downloads

It is useful to recall the strucure of 'categories' and 'Downloads'.

This is illustrated opposite where a rectangle represents just one category and a circle which represents one or more Downloads.

There are three top level categories each with Downloads;  four sub-categories of which only  three have Downloads, and three sub-sub-categories with Downloads.


V4 category structure

Moving Categories

When you MOVE a category to another position, then the corresponding folder, all it subfolders and all the Downloads and the files are moved to the new position in the category tree.  The use of 'category' here means  a category at any level in the entire category tree.
The 'moved' categories will retain their position relative to each other.

Note that if you wish to move the selection such that the most 'senior' category is to become a top level category then select 'Add to root' as the destination.
In this example we will move sub category 'Dated Cats'. To select click on theV4 not tickfield of the relevant category.

The V4 tick alongside 'Dated Cats' indicates that it has been chosen as the 'source' category.

Presently Dated Cats is a sub category of 'LoggedOnDownloads'.

It has 4 sub categories.


select category

Having selected the 'source' category as above use the pull down to select the 'target' category.

As shown in the first image opposite use the pull down to select the 'target' category, which in this example is 'TopA'.

After clicking on the target category and selecting the 'Move' option the view will be like the image below.
V4 Select Destination Categ02Next click on the V4 button Processbutton. The result is shown on the far right where Dated Cats and its sub-categories have been moved.

V4 Select Destination Categ01V4 move after


When moving categories the associated downloadable files are also moved.  So it is recommended that moderation is used in the number you select.

Moving Downloads

Whilst moving Downloads is essentially a database operation, the downloadable files are also physically moved to the relevant folder.  This may take some time if the files are large or you select a large number Downloads.  So moderation is recommended, doing a large move in a re-organisation is best done in modest steps.

This example selects moving the Downloads in category 'Public Downloads' as shown in image  1 into another Category called 'April 2017' Using the original as illustrated in the setup 2 below.

The result is shown in image 3 where the Downloads have been moved.
 
batch10
batch01batch11

Copying Categories or Downloads

Copying Categories

When you COPY a category only the category and its sub-categories are duplicated; the Downloads are not duplicated.

Copying Downloads

There are three Copy options:
  • Copy without assigned file  - this then makes them a simple Downloads without a file, indicated by copy simple  in the listing.
  • Copy with assigned file - this results in a standard Download with a downloadable file, indicated by copy normal  in the listing.
  • Copy with reference file - the copied Download does not have its own downloadable file but refers to the one in the original Download, indicated by copy refered in the listing.
This example illustrates 'Copy without assigned File' of two Downloads in category 'Public Downloads' as shown in image  below into another Category called 'AM-cat' as illustrated in the image below.

The result is shown in image where the Downloads have been copied.
batch01batch10
batch11
Note that in this example the copied Downloads are now just simple Downloads without a downloadable file, they are shown with a copy simple symbol in the backend listing of Downloads.
The other two copy modes are carried out in the same way but result in either their own downloadable file,copy normal, or a referenced downloadable file, copy refered.

Clearly if a Download being copied is itself a simple Download then the resultant copy will also be a simple Download.

 Colin M June 2020, revised April 2023, July 2023

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