[wplug] web file sharing systems

[Patrick Wagstrom]

Chris Thomas wrote:
> How about WebDAV?

WebDav is a no go.  I've got the modules on the server, but there was
issue with explaining to all the researchers that they needed to mount
the filesystem or use a client to interact with it.

For the time being, I'm using Online File Browser[1], which seems to fit
my needs pretty well.  It's simple to install, all ajaxy, and allows for
multiple users, although not with a great deal of complexity -- for
example, you can't choose which user gets to see which file.  Everyone
who can access the directory, or a directory above it, can utilize the
file.  Nothing big, as this will be for small scale sharing of research
project stuff.

I also cooked up a little python script to backup the data in the system
to a subversion repository, so we have version control.  Not too bad
overall.

Most of the other systems had the following shortcomings:
1. Tried to do way too much, I didn't need a complete groupware system.
2. Were overly complex -- I shouldn't need to install 5 additional PHP
libraries and setup a MySQL database for something like that.
3. Didn't work as advertised -- imagine that, stuff on SourceForge
didn't work.

Anyway, I'm happy with OFB for transferring files up to 30 megs between
researchers.

--Patrick

[1] http://www.filebrowser.mbsoftware.pl/