Archive Structure

Quiz archives can be structured in different ways with customizable file names and locations. The archive structure can be controlled for each archive during archive creation or globally using archive job presets.

Artifact naming

When creating a new quiz archive, the Advanced settings section contains three options for naming the files inside an archive and the archive itself:

• Archive name controls the name of the final archive file.
• Attempt folder name controls the folder in which each attempt's reports are stored when using the hierarchical file structure.
• Attempt name controls the names of the PDF reports generated for individual quiz attempts. If HTML source files are kept, they use the same base name.

Patterns may contain plain text and variables. Variables must use the ${variablename} syntax. The file extension is added automatically to the Archive name and Attempt name; do not add an extension yourself.

Warning

Attempt folder name has no effect when the Flatten export archive option is enabled because all files are placed in the root of the resulting archive. See File structure for details.

Available variables

The following table lists all variables available to the naming options. A variable is only expanded when it is supported by the selected option.

Variable	Description	Archive name	Attempt folder name	Attempt name
${courseid}	Course ID	✅	✅	✅
${coursename}	Course name	✅	✅	✅
${courseshortname}	Course short name	✅	✅	✅
${cmid}	Course module ID	✅	✅	✅
${groupids}	IDs of the student's groups	❌	✅	✅
${groupidnumbers}	ID numbers of the student's groups	❌	✅	✅
${groupnames}	Names of the student's groups	❌	✅	✅
${quizid}	Quiz ID	✅	✅	✅
${quizname}	Quiz name	✅	✅	✅
${attemptid}	Attempt ID	❌	✅	✅
${username}	Student username	❌	✅	✅
${firstname}	Student first name	❌	✅	✅
${lastname}	Student last name	❌	✅	✅
${idnumber}	Student ID number	❌	✅	✅
${timestart}	Attempt start Unix timestamp	❌	✅	✅
${timefinish}	Attempt finish Unix timestamp	❌	✅	✅
${date}	Current date (YYYY-MM-DD)	✅	✅	✅
${time}	Current time (HH-MM-SS)	✅	✅	✅
${timestamp}	Current Unix timestamp	✅	✅	✅

Info

This list may not be exhaustive. Please check the help text of the respective option in Moodle itself. It will always contain an up-to-date list of all variables that your current plugin version supports.

Naming rules

The following characters are forbidden in generated archive and report names: ., :, ;, *, ?, !, ", <, >, |, and /. The same characters must not be used inside an attempt folder name. In addition, an attempt folder name may use / as a directory separator to create nested directories, but it must not start or end with /.

The following examples show common patterns:

Option	Example pattern	Example result
Archive name	quiz-archive-${courseshortname}-${quizid}-${date}	quiz-archive-MATH101-42-2026-08-07.zip
Attempt folder name	${username}/${attemptid}	jdoe/17
Attempt name	attempt-${attemptid}-${username}	attempt-17-jdoe.pdf

File structure

The Flatten export archive checkbox determines how files are organized inside the resulting archive:

• When it is not selected, the archive uses a hierarchical structure with separate directories for the different artifact types and attempt reports. The Attempt folder name pattern determines the directory used for each attempt.
• When it is selected, the archive uses a flat structure. All files are placed directly in the root of the archive. Prefixes are added to file names to distinguish reports belonging to different attempts and to prevent name collisions. The Attempt folder name setting is ignored.

For example, with an attempt folder pattern of ${username}/${attemptid} and an attempt name pattern of attempt-${attemptid}-${username}, a hierarchical archive may contain entries like:

/
├── attempts/
│   └── jdoe/
│       └── 17/
│           ├── attachments/
│           │   └── 0/
│           │       ├── essay.pdf
│           │       └── essay.pdf.sha256
│           ├── attempt-17-jdoe.pdf
│           └── attempt-17-jdoe.pdf.sha256
├── attempts_metadata.csv
├── attempts_metadata.csv.sha256
└── backups/
    ├── quiz_archiver-activity-backup-42-20260807-181229.mbz
    └── quiz_archiver-activity-backup-42-20260807-181229.mbz.sha256

The equivalent flat archive keeps the same files at its top level and uses prefixes to retain their association with the attempt:

/
├── attempt_17.attempt-17-jdoe.pdf
├── attempt_17.attempt-17-jdoe.pdf.sha256
├── attempt_17.attempt-17-jdoe.attachment.0.essay.pdf
├── attempt_17.attempt-17-jdoe.attachment.0.essay.pdf.sha256
├── attempts_metadata.csv
├── attempts_metadata.csv.sha256
├── backup.quiz_archiver-activity-backup-42-20260807-181229.mbz
└── backup.quiz_archiver-activity-backup-42-20260807-181229.mbz.sha256