Storage Zimlet Contest

[mmorse]

Our Briefcase app mixed with WebDAV (some notes recently added to that wiki for windows users) or our DnD plugin (for which we do have cross-browser/platform plans) is awesome, but some out there might have smaller quotas, don't have their own NAS, or other setup for anywhere access (too many methods to list). And some of those auto-sync solutions are just handy.

So Zimbra gear to the first Zimlet for interaction with one of the major storage sites out there.

Some ideas:
-Adding files a-la Flickr/Snapfish Zimlet style as email attachments.
-Dragging messages to the Zimlet would upload any attachments contained within to your storage site.
-Heck even dragging from briefcase folder to the Zimlet.

Dropbox
Syncplicity
Amazon S3 (if you beat Bug 4693 - Mount S3 bucket as Briefcase item & actually many of those sites use that for a backend)
Yahoo! Briefcase
Box.net
The Linkup
Xdrive
Avvenu
Jungle Disk
Could list these for days, so you're obviously welcome to suggest other services to mash-up with, as there's tons of these out there. We don't discriminate so even Foldershare - but obviously some (ok most) don't have easy APIs or even open APIs at all so I imagine some serious examination of their communication methods will be in-order.

---

Should there be some kinda 'flood' of submissions, preference goes to those that have at least some sort of perpetual free storage & the bigger the 'max file upload size' the better. ie: Amazon's S3 or SugarSync's 45day free accounts loose to Syncplicity's unlimited free storage (for now) or Dropbox's 2 gig, or whatever's 5gig etc.)

(Of course being a Zimlet, admins can obviously choose to not install because of offsite security concerns, personal/work mix issues, or ISP's who price by mailbox quota - so let's not circle the drain on those reasons if you're asking 'why this contest?' - it's for endusers.)

No end date (till this post becomes several years old - then ask) as I did say first person to make one, but you can always impress us anytime and we might just cave!

Not the Zimlet Dev type? You can still suggest your favorite service below.

Yes there's Bug 22080 - Access SMB shares via Briefcase - but again, not everyone can offer unlimited quotas.

[tdesorbaix]

I just installed "Syncplicity" to look how it works.
It use local hard drive folders.
Then one solution is to use the StarXpert:Save zimlet :
http://www.zimbra.com/forums/zimlets...-txt-file.html

The last version save the mails AND the attachements of the mails.
Then you just have to save them into your folder connected with syncplicity.

To save the Briefcase folders, adding this :

	<dragSource type="ZmBriefcase">
		<canvas type="window" width="100" height="100"/>
		<actionUrl target="/service/home/~/">
			<param name="id">${obj.id}</param>
			<param name="fmt">zip</param>
		</actionUrl>
	</dragSource>

Into the com_starxpert_save.xml file should to the trick. It will allow to drag'n'drop a briefcase folder on the zimlet and save it in a items.zip file.
It seems it work on version 5.0.5 but not on version 5.0.4

[tdesorbaix]

For the update of the zimlet for briefcase folders :
-Download the attachment of this post (file.zip)
-Unzip it
-put the com_starxpert_save.xml into the zimlet file : com_starxpert_save.zip

[mmorse]

Ok so I was thinking more direct (well via proxy servlet) communication approach (say you were at a machine that you didn't have their thick-client installed on / rather than open their web interface, download, upload to Zimbra OR straight from Zimbra > service for later use of the files) but yours is a very good use scenario that does cover lots more products.

Tell ya what, if you add some of the below make sure you PM me your address/size - it would be unfair to be negative about that method when I was just unclear - I'd still love to see some direct two-way submissions

Enhancement Thoughts:

-Ability for the user to change the location during a session from the default (but yes deploying to an entire organization you would most likely ensure similar setup).

-How about having it apply to message drags as as well? (like it does for the the briefcase)

(A toggle option in preferences to choose between Messages.zip or target for ZmFolder/ZmMailMsg/ZmConv - ZmBriefcase always set to 'target' achieves it's purpose - actually combining points 1 & 2 would be a cool enhancement anyways.)

-Pulling those files into attachments when composing new messages like the com_zimbra_flicker & com_zimbra_snapfish (on older setups/we removed this in newer builds because it's comcast specific) a tab that has a default browser pointing at the previously specified 'target' - auto populating the tab would be cool, but a manual link to visit the target would do the job. (Though normal attachments or DnD do the job for me there's always room to push the usability envelope.)

-Way to do recursive to sub-folders

-As you can't drag the Chats folder either, a menuItem for that might be good.

-And I meant to ask in the other thread: I know you take a totally different approach in the save.jsp of grabbing content instead of REST, but how about combining tracks & having an option to store as original/.eml? (Iframes were used in the other zimlet as recursive=1 needs some fixing.)

I do like the variety of preferences (double-click) that you present - your save as html or txt option was well thought out.

[tdesorbaix]

Re. your enhancement thoughts, I'm not entirely sure what you mean:

-Ability for the user to change the location during a session from the default (but yes deploying to an entire organization you would most likely ensure similar setup).

it is a simple file download. Unless configured otherwise, the browser will ask every time where the file should be saved

-How about having it apply to message drags as as well? (like it does for the the briefcase)

- message drags: can you explain what you mean by that? You want the ability to specify, say, the briefcase as a save location for the messages as opposed to downloading them?

-Pulling those files into attachments when composing new messages like the com_zimbra_flicker & com_zimbra_snapfish (on older setups/we removed this in newer builds because it's comcast specific) a tab that has a default browser pointing at the previously specified 'target' - auto populating the tab would be cool, but a manual link to visit the target would do the job. (Though normal attachments or DnD do the job for me there's always room to push the usability envelope.)

I don't understand that too. Maybe I will if you send me those versions of com_zimbra_flicker & com_zimbra_snapfish.

-Way to do recursive to sub-folders

Yeah, I was already planning to search a way to do that someday.

-As you can't drag the Chats folder either, a menuItem for that might be good.

I did'nt add it on purpose, since the folder doesn't exist if the IM feature is not active. But you can add it by adding this in the com_starxpert_save.xml file :

<menuItem label="Save Chats" icon="ChatFolder" id="CHAT">
				<canvas type="window" width="100" height="100"/>
				<actionUrl target="/service/zimlet/com_starxpert_save/save.jsp">
					<param name="id">14</param>
					<param name="type">ZmFolder</param>
					<param name="pref">${prop.pref}</param>
					<param name="conv">${prop.conv}</param>
					<param name="trash">${prop.trash}</param>
					<param name="from">${prop.from}</param>
					<param name="to">${prop.to}</param>
					<param name="cc">${prop.cc}</param>
					<param name="bcc">${prop.bcc}</param>
					<param name="date">${prop.date}</param>
					<param name="subject">${prop.subject}</param>
				</actionUrl>
			</menuItem>

-And I meant to ask in the other thread: I know you take a totally different approach in the save.jsp of grabbing content instead of REST, but how about combining tracks & having an option to store as original/.eml?

-Yeah, I doesn't use REST since it doesn't offer the format I wanted and it doesn't work with conv and multiples item dnd.
But I definitely intend to add someday an option to allow the save in .eml

[peng1can]

Is there actual code being developed for the bug related to S3 being accessible in the briefcase? That bug is private, but if something is being actively developed, it seems like it would be easiest (both for development and long-term maintenance) to use that as a prototype for making the SMB->Briefcase gateway that seems to genuinely be in demand.