Hello, I created the Bookface scheme for Frio. I'm not actually part of the Friendica development team. I just made a custom stylesheet.

Sorry for the inconvenience, but it's not a bug. I purposely hid the "File Attachment" button because there is no interface for managing/deleting the files. It only works with relatively small files and even when the upload limit is large it is prone to failing. Also, sometimes you may intend to upload an image and it will be uploaded as a file instead. Rather than expose new users to this incomplete, partially-broken feature, I made a UX design decision to hide the button in Bookface.

According to the Friendica GitHub account the lead developer said "I'd suggest you use PeerTube to post video and reshare from your Friendica account since both support ActivityPub." Presumably people should also be sharing other types of files by putting them on a cloud drive somewhere and sharing a link to the file rather than uploading them to their Friendica account.

Years ago there was a video upload button and section. Those were removed because none of the current Friendica developers have experience with handing video files. IMO if they're not going to add a file manager the File attachment feature should also be removed.

Tällaisen kommentin löysin Bookfacen kehittäjältä, jaoin koko ketjun myös omalle seinälle. Eli tiedostojako Friendicassa on puutteellinen joten et voi esim. poistaa tai muuten hallita lähettämiäsi videoita. Siksi se nappi on tarkoituksella poistettu. Mut sen voi jotenkin kiertää ja ohje käsittääkseni alla. Toki voisi olla parempi serverikuormituksen takiakin käyttää vaikka Peertubea jonka linkin sitten liittää postaukseen.

" Yes, that was a UX design decision on my part. It is mentioned in the General Notes of the Bookface README file that I purposely hide that button.

The file feature in Friendica is only partially implemented. My understanding is it was originally intended for uploading and attaching video files but the dev who was working on it left the project before it was completed. Which is why there is no interface for actually managing your uploaded files. Only a server admin can apparently manually delete them?

I believe the preferred method for sharing videos is to post them somewhere else (like Peertube), and for other types of files to put them on some cloud storage, and share the link in a post rather than uploading them to Friendica and making them file attachments.

I also experienced an issue with it where if I was both uploading and attaching images and files to a post it would look like it was in "Photo" upload mode but would actually upload the image as a "File" and I can never, ever delete that image file. I initially hid the button to prevent myself ever doing that again.

Since Bookface is supposed to make Friendica friendlier to new users, who would expect there to be some way to manage uploaded files, I decided to just hide that button so they wouldn't make the same mistake I did by using that partly-broken feature.

That said, it is set with the CSS variable --attach-file-button at the top of the server-side and client-side stylesheets. Change that value from "none" to "block" and the button will appear. A user content stylesheet/Stylus can also be used to override it if Bookface is set on the server. If you know how to use the browser development tools you can also temporarily show the button to upload files.

IMO though, it's terrible UX and the Friendica devs either need to finish implementing it with a way to manage the files or remove the feature entirely."