Public Sharing links

vladstudio

Hey,

I know I may be asking too much, but maybe you would consider adding ability to share folders publicly via unique URL? Similar to what Google Photos does with URLs like
https://photos.app.goo.gl/waS6CqmxLP7nCSp89

I hope to use Files to manage my storage, which includes photos, and I want to be able to share some (but not all!) photos with my family, simply by sending them links.

Technically, it could work like this:

I click "share this folder";
a folder is assigned some random token (string);
I copy URL containing this token;
someone opens this URL:
- the "root" variable is set to this folder;
- "username"/"password" are unset;
- no write operations.

Right now, as an ugly workaround, I did the following:

added 'share.php' file:

setcookie('pho_share', urldecode($_SERVER['QUERY_STRING']), time() + 86400, '/');
header('Location: /');

modified config.php:

$root = '...';
$share = $_COOKIE['pho_share'];
if ($share && $share != '/' && is_dir($root . $share)) {
  return array(
    'root' => $root . $share,
    'menu_enabled' => false
  );
} else {
  return array(
    'root' => $root,
    'username' => '...',
    'password' => '...',
    ...
  );
}

Thommy

vladstudio Hello, do you work with share.php? I have adopted this and unfortunately it does not work. I want to open the folder without having to press another button for login.

Greetings,
Thommy

Karl

Hi. Yes, this is interesting, although I would probably be looking to implement a proper multi-user login-system first, as this kinda covers similar behavior. For example, with multi-user login, could you not assign a user-login to a dir and just share it to the person/people you want? In this case, a user could also have a custom root dir assigned in user-settings ... I believe that would serve the same purpose without using tokens?

vladstudio

Karl thanks! yes, the multi user login kinda solves this problem, among other things. It would not give me ability to only share some folders inside Photos folder, though, but I'll find other ways around it, I guess.
I'll look forward to multi user feature then!

P.S. I do realize that every new feature moves the product away from being as easy to use as it is now, so please take these requests with the grain of salt.

Karl

vladstudio It would not give me ability to only share some folders inside Photos folder, though

In your case, you are asking to show only certain folders inside the root folder you are sharing? I can't really see how this feature would be easier with "token" vs pre-assigned "users". In either case, you want to hide or remove access to certain folders. With "users" you would be able to assign access to various folders.

Other things to mention, with "users" you would be able to sign some settings on a per-user basis. For example, you could use files_exclude and dirs_exclude to exclude some dirs/files for a certain user.

vladstudio P.S. I do realize that every new feature moves the product away from being as easy to use as it is now, so please take these requests with the grain of salt.

I think we have room to work towards an advanced user/login/share system.

The only challenge in regards to Files gallery, is that it doesn't use a database and doesn't control the file system. This means that if you for example make changes to folder names or paths, you may break paths stored for users. It also means we can't easily display custom selections of files/folders that are different from the physical file system.

vladstudio

Karl With "users" you would be able to assign access to various folders.

Oh, that solves it then! I assumed each user would only have one "root" folder, but if I can assign multiple folders to a user, that solves this use case. Excellent!

Karl it doesn't use a database and doesn't control the file system

Which (at least to me) is an advantage too. But yeah, from architecture point of view, this is a challenge.

Karl if you for example make changes to folder names or paths, you may break paths stored for users

which may be fine though. If I (as admin) decide to move/rename a folder I shared with other users, it is my decision and responsibility. Files app may help me - when it notices a shared folder is missing, it'd notify me (admin) and offer to update paths.

At least, I cannot imagine any other ways that do not involve database :-)

Karl

vladstudio I assumed each user would only have one "root" folder, but if I can assign multiple folders to a user, that solves this use case. Excellent!

Actually, I meant that you should be able to assign "permissions" to multiple paths per user, which means you could block access to some folders within the user's root. It could definitely be an interesting option to offer root as an array of different directories, although right now that would require re-factoring quite a lot.

It's worth mentioning that you could use symlinks for this purpose. For example path/user with path/user/symlink1 path/user/symlink2 and so on. Each symlink could point to independent dirs, but would make up the users root.

Food for thought.

ialexpw

Just to add to this (as I came to the forums to ask the exact question!)

I'm looking to use this to upload photos/videos but also other misc files that I can share with people that I know (multiple different people). It would be handy to be able to generate a "share link" where the user can go to to either instantly download the file or have a "Download file" button to trigger it.

When using other storage/photo hosting applications (Nextcloud, Google photos, Onedrive etc) you can generate this which would be easier than having to create user accounts and then saying "Go here, sign in with these credentials, then download those files".

Just an idea as it's something I thought of while testing this - really nice application though. :-)

Karl

ialexpw I'm looking to use this to upload photos/videos but also other misc files that I can share with people that I know (multiple different people). It would be handy to be able to generate a "share link" where the user can go to to either instantly download the file or have a "Download file" button to trigger it.

It's interesting of course, but if I may ask: Why do you need a special "share" link if you already have a link to share ?path/to/folder/to/share? Is it because you want the gallery to by private (login) by default, but then you want to share some folders public (without login)?

ialexpw When using other storage/photo hosting applications (Nextcloud, Google photos, Onedrive etc) you can generate this which would be easier than having to create user accounts and then saying "Go here, sign in with these credentials, then download those files".

Yes, those apps are more powerful than Files gallery of course, mostly because they are database-driven and organize files into their own structure. Files gallery is a single file, independent from database, that reflects your existing folder structure, and allows you to edit the structure by your own means (FTP, SSH, desktop file manager etc). This causes some restrictions as to what we can achieve with Files gallery, because it does not technically "control" your files (like other apps). Folders are physical (unlike categorized by database), and cache is tied in with folder paths. To create virtual url's for example, we would need to store "hashes" somewhere, which then point to actual physical paths ... Even if the link "expires" at some point, if the user logged where the files were loaded from (browser dev tools), they could still access these files, unless you add .htaccess protection ... Just to mention some the layers of precautions that managed applications already have built-in, because they control all your files.

It would definitely be interesting to consider features like this for a future release, but currently it's limited because of the passive nature of Files gallery. Thanks for contributing with feedback!

ialexpw

Karl Is it because you want the gallery to by private (login) by default, but then you want to share some folders public (without login)

Exactly this. I'd like to keep everything private by default with the option of creating a link to share a file/folder if needed and for the recipient they would "just have" the file without needing to do anything.

I understand it may be out of scope which is fair enough for a project like this, but thought I'd comment when I saw a similar request. :-)

XR219

I know I'm late to the party Karl, apologies for adding to this, but it seemed like a good place to put it.
I'd like to be able to have to log in to upload files etc (which I know I can enable in config.cfg) but at the same time, joe public without logging in can use files in the normal way. Appreciate this might be tied to some sort of multi user system (which would be ideal) as two of us could modify the content, and people without a login can download to their hearts content.

Karl

XR219 I know I'm late to the party Karl, apologies for adding to this, but it seemed like a good place to put it.
I'd like to be able to have to log in to upload files etc (which I know I can enable in config.cfg) but at the same time, joe public without logging in can use files in the normal way.

This is already a planned feature requested by many. See link below, which also includes a current "workaround" by using two Files instances that point to the same root dir.
https://forum.files.gallery/d/223-more-logins-with-different-rights

I will be looking into multi-user login soon.

XR219

Thanks Karl, I missed that one when i was looking yesterday. I’ll give it a go. Thanks for your help👍