Better files attachments/clarification

[Aveyron-RetD]

Is your feature request related to a problem? Please describe.
Seen in https://apps.nextcloud.com/apps/collectives comments :

Design Concerns and Vendor Lock-In: Unfortunately, some design decisions severely limit portability. Markdown is typically chosen for its flexibility and ease of reuse in other systems. But Collective undermines this advantage:
When you paste an image into a note, the app converts the note into a folder, stores the image inside it, and renames the note to readme.md. This approach makes migration to other tools almost impossible. A better strategy, as seen in tools like Obsidian, would be to store all images in a central assets folder and keep the original file structure intact. The folder structure itself is unconventional. Instead of using established concepts like “categories” (as seen in Nextcloud Notes), Collective creates subfolders for each note and saves the main content as readme.md. This reinvention of basic structures adds unnecessary complexity. Conclusion: Collective is an easy-to-use app and has potential for team collaboration—if you’re willing to accept its unusual file structure and limitations in Markdown compatibility.

I am also poised with the limitation of the file picker search nextcloud/server#55609 (comment)

I have finally understood that any file dropped into the collectives is stored in the collective.

But I still do not know if a file in a collective is read only or can be modified by the members of the team, the same can be said in deck.

If i link a file it is not displayed that the file is linked to the collectives

Describe the solution you'd like
Should there be an admin setting who define permissions on file attachments /file drops
all the files linked to the team are by default : (read only / modifiable)

=> If i link a file to the collectives it would be good to see the attachment in Files app (sidebar) and be able to change the permissions there

What happens when i use the smart picker ? 🤯

Describe alternatives you've considered
A user documentation who explains this https://nextcloud.github.io/collectives/usage/
(I can help maybe with that)

Additional context
Add any other context or screenshots about the feature request here.

[Aveyron-RetD]

I suppose this comment is part of the answer #1722 (comment) but what about a file shared with the smartpicker is it readonly to others ?

[mejo-]

Thanks for your report @Aveyron-RetD and sorry for the late reply. To be honest the integration of attachments in Collectives isn't in the best shape currently.

First regarding your question about permissions of files dropped into a Collective: users have the same permission for these files as for pages in the Collective. In other words: users with read-write permissions can also add/alter/delete attachments, users with read-only permissions, can only open/download the attachments.

From your description I got the understanding that you're confused by the two different concepts to link a file into a Collectives page (also described as "link file", and to insert a file into a page (also described as "insert attachment" or "upload").

When doing the latter (insert an attachment), the file in question is always copied to a .attachments folder that belongs to the page in question. This is done to make sure that everyone with access to the page has also access to its attachments. These attachments can be browsed in the "attachments" tab of the page sidebar on the right. If you chose "Insert attachment" and then "Insert from Files" in the editor menubar, a copy of the chosen file is also saved to the .attachments folder for this reason.

On the other hand when you insert a link to a file somewhere in the Nextcloud to your Collectives page ("Insert link" -> "Link to file or folder"), then the target file stays untouched and you have to take care yourself that the resulting link works for everybody with access to the Collective.

I agree that this is far from perfect.

I'm currently working on improving the situation with attachments in Collectives in #2235. It enhances the attachments tab in the page sidebar to allow uploading/renaming/deleting attachments next to a page. The aim is that users don't have to navigate to the Files app anymore for managing attachments in Collectives and that they have a more seamless experience with attachments in Collectives.

I'd be curious if the improvements in the pR would help in your usecase. If you have a few minutes, could you take a look at #2235 and comment here what you think about it?