[Owncloud] Mounting External Storage

[Melvin Carvalho]

On 20 February 2012 23:05, Michael Gapczynski <mtgap at owncloud.com> wrote:

> **
>
> On Monday, February 20, 2012 10:48:03 PM Michael Grosser wrote:
>
> On Feb 20, 2012 10:42 PM, "Frank Karlitschek" <karlitschek at kde.org> wrote:
> >
> >
> > On 20.02.2012, at 22:11, Michael Gapczynski <mtgap at owncloud.com> wrote:
> >
> > > I've been thinking about mounting external storage to ownCloud and
> I've had a
> > > few discussions with Robin about it. Now I'm looking for some feedback
> from
> > > the community.
> >
> > Cool :-)
> >
> >
> > > The general idea is to add support for mounting FTP and SMB to use as
> storage.
> > > Writing a backend with PHP is possible for these, but they won't
> perform as
> > > well as the native OS implementations. I think the best solution would
> be to
> > > recommend to sys admins to mount natively and provide a fallback to a
> PHP
> > > backend if this isn't possible.
> >
> > Yes. Protocols that are better supported by the OS should be handled by
> the OS.
> > We could still try to do a mount command and see what happens :-)
> >
> >
> > > The other thing I need feedback on is deciding if normal users can
> mount
> > > external storage. I see the need for enabling users to link ownCloud to
> > > services such as Dropbox, and Google Docs (Google Drive),
> i think mounting gdocs, dropbox etc. we should use mounting them as
> unhosted/remote storage so unhosted and owncloud won't solve the proxy
> problem in two projects.
> but I'm not sure if
> > > FTP and SMB should fit in with these. I'm also debating what is the
> best way
> > > to integrate these into the filesystem. The simple way would be to
> mount it as
> > > a directory and each service would be self contained. However, I can
> also
> > > invision having the files from Dropbox and Google Docs showing up in
> the root
> > > of the filesystem with an indicator of their respective external
> locations.
> > > During the upload or file creation process the user would be presented
> with a
> > > choice of where to store the file. This feels more natural to me than a
> > > directory system and could prevent problems with locating files.
> >
> > Hmm. I would use the OS tool for protocols like FTP, S3 or SMB
> >
> > Stuff like Dropbox. Google Docs/Drive, and other user services should be
> handled on a user level.
> > So every user can mount their Google Docs and move their files around.
> >
> > I don´t really know what you mean regarding the location of the files.
> Let´s say a user is using ownCloud and has already some files and folder
> uploaded. Than the users connect the ownCloud with an existing dropbox or
> Google Drive. Where do all the files show up that are already in dropbox or
> on Google? I think it is confusing if they all appear in the root
> directory. And what happens when a user has the same file or folder in
> ownCloud and dropbox?
> >
> > For me it makes more sense to mount a dropbox account into a folder, for
> example /dropbox.  But perhaps thats only me :-)
> >
> >
> >
> > > My main concern is creating a confusing environment for users with so
> many
> > > options for adding storage and a cluttered filesystem. Any thoughts?
> >
> > Thats a good point. Mounting external filesystems is definitely an
> advanced option that shouldn´t be the first option on the settings page. :-)
> >
> >
> > Cheers
> > Frank
> >
> >
> >
> > Frank Karlitschek
> > karlitschek at kde.org
> >
> >
> > _______________________________________________
> > Owncloud mailing list
> > Owncloud at kde.org
> > https://mail.kde.org/mailman/listinfo/owncloud
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> Michael - I was under the impression that Unhosted could use any of the
> storage providers with ownCloud.
>

Unhosted is targetting Couch and DAV for the initial roll out.  GDocs,
Amazon, Dropbox support is still experimental, but if anyone would like to
volunteer to write a 'driver' that'd be helpful.  I think we'll get the
major ones in the end.

WRT to storage, the main requirement at the moment is to be able to store
and retrieve documents.  JSON format is a plus.  CORS headers are a plus.
RESTful API is a plus.


>
>
> Frank - I understand that it may be confusing when a bunch of files appear
> in your root directory and it may just add to the clutter I'm trying to
> avoid. My main reasoning for this is that it lets the user organize the
> files based on their own preference. Mounting it in one directory locks
> those files to that location and I feel that we aren't using ownCloud's
> potential in terms of filesystem abstraction. This also applies to sharing.
> I actually don't like the folder 'Shared' (the name choice isn't the best
> either) and would like to get rid of it in favor of putting files shared
> with you in the root directory. Of course, I think we should add a setting
> for the default location that these files end up, but allow some freedom
> for where they can be moved.
>
>
>
>
>
> Michael
>
>
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> https://mail.kde.org/mailman/listinfo/owncloud
>
>
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