Sync In : Your data belongs to you
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Eventually .... I have a custom package for Sync-in
Repo : https://git.cloudron.io/timconsidine/cloudron-sync-in
Installation : Manual clone/build/install -OR- use the custom app installer https://ccai.appx.uk (first app listed)
It was not an easy packaging exercise, but that may be down to my lack of expertise. Very happy for a more experienced packager to tidy it up. But it works.
POINTS TO NOTE
- lots of problems using the cloudron MySQL add-on, so was forced to ditch this and install MariaDB into the container. Yes, this adds some size to the image, but it's not too bad.
- ditched packaging from source or from release, and using npm installation instead (released during the packaging process)
- ensure you change admin credentials !! (in the app, no restart needed)
- but do not change admin username (breaks the admin file space) : create a new admin user
- ensure you set OnlyOffice settings in environment.yaml, then RESTART !
- READ AND ACTION THE APP CHECKLIST !!!
- during packaging and testing, I had problems with Safari in normal mode (maybe some local cache issue which I could not clear, or some Safari peculiarity), but it does work. I got more reliable performance from using Safari Private mode (incognito) or Firefox.
It's a little slow to start and pass health check, but it's not too bad.
I packaged Sync-in because I love the concept and hate Nextcloud bloat. In the process of packaging Sync-in, I deepened my understanding and came to realise how good an app it is. Definitely worthy of being on Cloudron.
The app is on v1.3.8 so ready for active use, but note that it is under active development, so expect changes.
But hey, that doesn't stop Immich being used and considered stable.Enjoy !
Let me know any issues. -
Oh, the Sync-in desktop client is excellent.
You can download from inside the running app.
Go to bottom left of screen, click the person avatar, click Applications in the panel which appears.I don't use Windows, so this is untested, but the Mac client is excellent, so I hope/expect the Windows one to be so also. Volunteers needed to test it !
Reminder : if accessing your installation through a browser on a mobile device, set the browser to request the Desktop site (better UI performance).
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Darn! Just realised I haven't tested email integration, although it is packaged. I don't use this kind of feature, but will try to test.
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Hi @timconsidine - in passing, just wanted to thank you for your tenacity and willingness to get this packaged.
much appreciated. -
Hi @timconsidine - in passing, just wanted to thank you for your tenacity and willingness to get this packaged.
much appreciated.@Neiluj thank you.
I sure hope it can be useful to others, but of course Iām scratching my own itch as well.
Looking forward to closing down Nextcloud and being independent of Seafile, which I like and use heavily, but somehow causes me some dependency concerns.Indie app dev, scratching my itches, lover of Cloudron PaaS
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@Neiluj thank you.
I sure hope it can be useful to others, but of course Iām scratching my own itch as well.
Looking forward to closing down Nextcloud and being independent of Seafile, which I like and use heavily, but somehow causes me some dependency concerns.@timconsidine the UI suggests there is a chat function just underneath the notifications bell on the right, but it doesn't look functional.
MacOS Client looks exactly like the web interface, so what's the benefit?
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@timconsidine the UI suggests there is a chat function just underneath the notifications bell on the right, but it doesn't look functional.
MacOS Client looks exactly like the web interface, so what's the benefit?
@robi good questions
The right panel changes a little depending on what main panel is displayed.
The 'chat' type icon is more of a comments function, allowing users to add a comment to a file for their own reference later, or to alert co-workers to some info.
It might not seem functional because a file needs to be selected in the central pane, as a comment is related to a specific file.
About the client, yes, it's very similar to the web UI. I think this is good, but can raise the question you did.
The specific features of the client over the web UI (apart from just a personal preference of a local client vs a web window amongst 50 other open web windows) are :- synchronisation : the local client allows you to set a link (one-way or bi-directional) between a folder on the local computer and the app's server-side storage
- the local client allows you to have multiple Sync-in sites live and quickly switch between them (business vs personal ?)
Indie app dev, scratching my itches, lover of Cloudron PaaS
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@robi good questions
The right panel changes a little depending on what main panel is displayed.
The 'chat' type icon is more of a comments function, allowing users to add a comment to a file for their own reference later, or to alert co-workers to some info.
It might not seem functional because a file needs to be selected in the central pane, as a comment is related to a specific file.
About the client, yes, it's very similar to the web UI. I think this is good, but can raise the question you did.
The specific features of the client over the web UI (apart from just a personal preference of a local client vs a web window amongst 50 other open web windows) are :- synchronisation : the local client allows you to set a link (one-way or bi-directional) between a folder on the local computer and the app's server-side storage
- the local client allows you to have multiple Sync-in sites live and quickly switch between them (business vs personal ?)
@timconsidine thanks for the screen shots, however I didn't see you open the chat icon as mentioned.
I happened to create a second user in addition to the admin and could see each in that side window. There were no actions possible from it.
Also I noticed that the client hijacked my command button away from the Brave browser I am typing this on. I use it command-<- to navigate back in the forum, and strangely it only navigated back in the sync-in client, even though it didn't have window focus! Insane.
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Yes, I am agreeing there is no chat.
I'm not meeting that command button issue, but maybe I don't have the same setup.
@timconsidine that button seems to be a list of tasks, instead of a chat.
Relaunching the app still steals my command button, so off it goes ;-/
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Hi @timconsidine - in passing, just wanted to thank you for your tenacity and willingness to get this packaged.
much appreciated.@Neiluj @timconsidine
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@timconsidine that button seems to be a list of tasks, instead of a chat.
Relaunching the app still steals my command button, so off it goes ;-/
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Whoop, whoop, whoop
Breakthrough !After spending X hours on packaging the release, Y hours on building from source and Z hours on alternative implementations of building from source,
- where X is too long,
- where Y is X * 2, and
- where Z is Y * 3,
... I gave up and changed approach again, and now have Sync-in packaged and installing and running on my Cloudron !
TBH, there is still a bunch of work to do, but having cracked baseline minimal function deployment, I'm hopeful (well, praying) that I can get the rest of it done.
WORKING :
- builds, installs and runs
- login and basic file storage operations working
TO-DO / TO-TEST :
- desktop client downloading and synchronisation (now
) - OnlyOffice integration
- file storage "in app" and by volume mount
- backups
- WebDAV (now )
- automated install by CCAI (Custom App Installer)
I will of course make a repo on git.cloudron.io, but want to do so when I have ironed out some things (had to be a bit naughty to get to here) and completed more of the o/s work.
I don't use Windows so will need some help testing desktop sync on that platform; when the time comes, volunteers appreciated.
(grinning like a Cheshire one)@timconsidine said in Sync In : Your data belongs to you:
Whoop, whoop, whoop
Breakthrough !After spending X hours on packaging the release, Y hours on building from source and Z hours on alternative implementations of building from source,
- where X is too long,
- where Y is X * 2, and
- where Z is Y * 3,
... I gave up and changed approach again, and now have Sync-in packaged and installing and running on my Cloudron !
TBH, there is still a bunch of work to do, but having cracked baseline minimal function deployment, I'm hopeful (well, praying) that I can get the rest of it done.
WORKING :
- builds, installs and runs
- login and basic file storage operations working
TO-DO / TO-TEST :
- desktop client downloading and synchronisation (now)
- OnlyOffice integration
- file storage "in app" and by volume mount
- backups
- WebDAV (now )
- automated install by CCAI (Custom App Installer)
I will of course make a repo on git.cloudron.io, but want to do so when I have ironed out some things (had to be a bit naughty to get to here) and completed more of the o/s work.
I don't use Windows so will need some help testing desktop sync on that platform; when the time comes, volunteers appreciated.
(grinning like a Cheshire one)Awesome! I just discovered Sync-in this morning and my first thought was "does it exist on Cloudron?". Gonna give it a try real soon, I'm really unhappy with all other drive-like softwares (google, microsoft, and the likes).
But, without Cloudron to cover backups and help me handle all the things I don't know, I'm not confident moving my company's files anywhere else, too much risk involved.
I'll start small and personal, hopefully it's a great fit! -
@timconsidine How would you recommend using Sync-in, considering the need of 1TB of data storage, I'm not sure what hosting provider to use, I usually use Hetzner, but with that much data I'm not sure how to handle "Volumes" (extra disk space on top of the main drive) and related-volume stuff (backups, etc.)
If you have some recommandation, that'd be interesting.
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Big new release of upstream Sync-in
Updating the cloudron repo to support it
Please stand by ... -
Sync-in updated to v1.10
my git repo : https://git.cloudron.io/timconsidine/cloudron-sync-in
https://ccai.appx.uk should now deploy this version
OR manually :- clone repo
- do the docker build and push to your registry
- use cloudron CLI to install
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@timconsidine How would you recommend using Sync-in, considering the need of 1TB of data storage, I'm not sure what hosting provider to use, I usually use Hetzner, but with that much data I'm not sure how to handle "Volumes" (extra disk space on top of the main drive) and related-volume stuff (backups, etc.)
If you have some recommandation, that'd be interesting.
@DNA-PC hmmm, 1Tb of files is certainly large - power user !
I am still testing Sync-in with bigger storage volumes, but haven't reached 1Tb !
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does your Cloudron have 1Tb of space for files ?
If not, external storage is needed, which is implied in your question -
if you do have space on your Cloudron instance, I would definitely use a volume to make cloudron backups easier, OR use rsync in preference to tar.gz.
I use Hetzner Storage Box as a backup destination with rsync
- Sync-in should not be any different to any other Cloudron app which needs external storage via a volume.
I haven't tested this yet, but will add it to my testing tasks.
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@DNA-PC hmmm, 1Tb of files is certainly large - power user !
I am still testing Sync-in with bigger storage volumes, but haven't reached 1Tb !
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does your Cloudron have 1Tb of space for files ?
If not, external storage is needed, which is implied in your question -
if you do have space on your Cloudron instance, I would definitely use a volume to make cloudron backups easier, OR use rsync in preference to tar.gz.
I use Hetzner Storage Box as a backup destination with rsync
- Sync-in should not be any different to any other Cloudron app which needs external storage via a volume.
I haven't tested this yet, but will add it to my testing tasks.
@timconsidine That's my wife's request, I'm merely a servant
"We need at least that much" she said.
It gets very expensive with such volumes IMHO, with costs around 50$/month, so I'm also considering having a NAS home, such as https://nas-fr.ugreen.com/products/ugreen-nasync-dxp2800-serveur-nasBut sync-in interests me for work and for my (small) companies and non-profit, too. Can't have everything sitting at home.
I've never configured backups for Volumes, I understand you can use Hetzner Storage Box as storage and rsync as utility to perform the actual sync, interesting.
I don't currently have anything (just a server sitting there to run some tests and get familiar with all of this), my ~1TB files are currently living in OneDrive. No hurry to change.
Just to share a bit of my situation
Thanks! -
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I may need to update Sync-in for cloudron better support of a volume for files. Investigating ...
@timconsidine I tried the demo and like it, but to make it even better (not at least in comparision with Nextcloud) it should have full text search. Not sure if that is doable?
