Folders & Configuration

Folders are the backbone of a Medipal instance. Every questionnaire lives in exactly one folder, and folders can be nested to any depth to mirror your organisation: departments, clinics, studies, care pathways. Two things travel down the folder tree:

• Permissions: who may view, edit or own the content.
• Configuration: questionnaire settings such as languages and available engines.

Both are inherited by nested folders and by the questionnaires inside them, so most settings are made once at the top and refined only where a branch needs something different.

Browsing folders

The Home page is a folder browser. Opening a folder shows its subfolders and questionnaires, with these controls in the header:

Control	Purpose
Grid / list view	Switch between tiles and a table.
Details panel	Show a side panel with the selected item's summary.
Zoom	Resize tiles in grid view.
Search	Find folders and questionnaires by name within the current folder.
Create New Folder / Create New Questionnaire / Import Questionnaire	Add content to the current folder.
Go Back to Parent Folder / Go to Home	Navigate up the tree.

Selecting several items enables bulk actions: Move to folder… and Export JSON.

Mark a folder as a favourite from its menu; favourite and recent folders appear in the Folders group of the left side panel for one-click access.

Creating and organising folders

1. Open the parent folder (or Home for a top-level folder) and choose Create New Folder.
2. Enter a Folder Name and optional Notes.
3. Confirm the Parent Folder (or Top level (no parent)) and select Create Folder.

To reorganise later, use Move folder or Move questionnaire from the item's menu and choose the target folder. Moving an item changes which permissions and configuration it inherits, so review the effective settings afterwards.

A folder can only be deleted when it is empty. Deletion is permanent.

Permissions

Open a folder and go to Configuration → Manage Access to see the Authorised Users list.

Each permission has:

Field	Meaning
User	The account receiving access.
Access Level	Owner (full control including access management), Editor (create and change content), Viewer (read only).
Apply recursively	All nested folders: the permission also applies to every subfolder and questionnaire below. Only this folder: it stops here.

Rules to keep in mind:

• At least one Owner must remain on every folder.
• A user's effective access to an item is the most permissive grant found on the item itself or on any ancestor folder with a recursive permission.
• Questionnaires have their own Manage Access tab with the same access levels, used when a single questionnaire needs collaborators who should not see the whole folder.
• Users who have no permission on a folder do not see it at all.

Permissions control what a user can do with content. What the user can do in the application overall (for example, whether they can open the Admin Panel) is governed by their role; see Users, Roles & Scopes.

Folder configuration

Open a folder and go to Configuration. It has three tabs:

• General: name, parent folder and description.
• Manage Access: permissions, as described above.
• Advanced: the Questionnaire Configuration that this folder passes down to its contents.

What can be configured

Group	Setting	Effect
Language Settings	Allow Multiple Languages	Whether questionnaires in this branch may be authored in more than one language.
	Enable Multi-Language by Default	New questionnaires start with multi-language mode switched on.
	Default Language	The primary language proposed for new questionnaires.
	Available Languages	The languages authors may add as translations.
	Initial Languages	Languages added automatically when a questionnaire is created.
Questionnaire Engines	Engine list	Which questionnaire engines authors can choose for questionnaires in this branch.
Questionnaire Cores	Core list	Which questionnaire core runtimes are permitted. Usually managed together with the engines.

Only settings you actually change are stored on the folder; everything else is left empty and therefore inherited.

How inheritance works

Configuration is resolved from the outside in:

1. The instance configuration set by your administrator is the baseline.
2. Each folder on the path from the top of the tree down to the item may override individual settings. A setting defined on a folder closer to the item wins over the same setting defined higher up.
3. Finally, a questionnaire's own configuration (for example, its languages and chosen engine) overrides the folder result.

Settings merge key by key, so a subfolder that only sets Default Language still inherits the engine list, the available languages and everything else from above. Nested folders below it inherit the new default language.

Viewing the effective configuration

On the Advanced tab, switch on Show Inherited properties. The form becomes read-only and shows the combined configuration from all parent folders plus the instance baseline, so you can see exactly what a new questionnaire in this folder would receive. Switch it off to return to editing this folder's own overrides.

Overriding at a lower level

To give one branch different behaviour, open that folder's Advanced tab and set only the values that should differ. For a single questionnaire, use the questionnaire's Configuration → Languages and Configuration → Questionnaire Engine tabs; those take precedence over every folder.

Removing overrides

Purge Folder Configuration in the Danger Zone removes all configuration stored on this folder (language settings, engines and cores). The folder then inherits everything from its parents again. Content is not affected, but questionnaires created afterwards will follow the inherited defaults.

Troubleshooting

Symptom	Likely cause	What to do
A colleague cannot see a folder you share	They have no permission on the folder or on an ancestor with recursion	Add a permission on the folder, or make the ancestor permission recursive.
"Multiple languages not available" when creating a questionnaire	Multi-language is disabled on an ancestor folder or at instance level	Enable Allow Multiple Languages on the folder branch, or ask an administrator.
The expected engine is missing from the engine picker	The engine is not listed in the effective Questionnaire Engines	Check Show Inherited properties; add the engine on the folder or ask an administrator.
Cannot delete a folder	The folder still contains subfolders or questionnaires	Move or delete the contents first.
Cannot remove a permission	It is the last Owner permission	Grant Owner to another user first.
A moved questionnaire behaves differently	It now inherits from a different branch	Review the effective configuration in the new folder and adjust overrides.