My kingdom for a simple upload-file-to-URL script.

January 20, 2011 5:28 PM

There HAS to be a simple, free, file-to-URL script bangin' around out there somewhere. Please?

Forgive me for rehashing this question, but I'm hoping some new options have cropped up since this last hit the green:

I've been asked to deploy something akin to a 'branded YouSendit' for corporate use - self-hosted (no subscription services), hopefully for a LAMP environment and free/cheap. Must be browser based, can't just be an FTP site, and the more idiot-proof, the better.

In other words: I want to give people in company X a website where they can upload multiple files, and then have that website store these files and issue them a 'secure' URL they can email to their clients. The clients then just click that URL to download the file(s).

(I haven't hit upon an exact term for this kind of thing, but I've seen it referred to as "Yousendit clone" or "Rapidshare clone")

Yes, this question has been kicked around the green before, with varying results. Nothing in prior Askme's really hit the mark, though.

Hours of Googling have yeilded only two results:

a) Free projects that are close, yet still too rough to consider (I've evaluated both Xtraupload , OpenUpload )

b) Dodgy-looking 'clonescript' options ('RapidShare Clone' ) that seem to only exist in a network of 'clonescript-referral' websites whose copy-and-paste product descriptions feel like mad keyword spam.

So I'm stuck.

Are there any other options for this kind of thing out there that MeFi can point me towards?

posted by bhance to computers & internet (8 answers total)

I have no experience with this software, but it kinda sounds like what you're looking for:
http://xoda.org/article/features-of-xoda
posted by luckynerd at 5:48 PM on January 20, 2011

Same disclaimer as luckynerd offered, but this project might be [similar to] what you're looking for.
posted by The Winsome Parker Lewis at 5:53 PM on January 20, 2011

Maybe something like this would help? Or at least point in the right direction?

To me, the most idiot proof way to handle this would be harder to set up, but be slick as heck. You email a file to [e-mail], and it replies with a link to the the file on the website. I have no idea if this exists.
posted by gjc at 5:53 PM on January 20, 2011

I think the reason this might be hard to find is that it's so trivial to bang together a little php upload handler. Slap a clean style on the upload page, spit out the url on completion, and perhaps require a password to upload, and you're all set.

If you want to get a little fancier and avoid duplicate files, have it do a hash on the file and compare that to a database or even a just a flat file of previous uploads.

A quick google of "php upload" turns up a ton of simple examples like these ones. (First 2 results)
posted by jjb at 9:20 PM on January 20, 2011

Dropbox, with a public share?
posted by Simon_ at 11:32 PM on January 20, 2011

This is called SAMBA. File shares. You don't need any fancy PHP scripts for this. The whole "email a URL to clients" part is where you get into trouble. Set up a VPN and that solves that problem.
posted by Civil_Disobedient at 3:21 AM on January 21, 2011

This is called SAMBA. File shares. You don't need any fancy PHP scripts for this. The whole "email a URL to clients" part is where you get into trouble. Set up a VPN and that solves that problem.

I'm always surprised to hear SMB mentioned as a solution for anything except LAN file sharing because I've had terrible luck with this for, oh, a decade. The biggest problem is there's no progress indication during file browsing or clicking. The protocol doesn't seem designed for anything but high-speed connections, since it regularly freezes up Explorer during file and folder navigation.
posted by odinsdream at 5:38 AM on January 21, 2011

I've been looking for something like this as well. I use multiple installs of w2box [customized a bit] for something like this, but I'm going to check out what other folks mention in here, because it's definitely not ideal.
posted by yeahyeahyeahwhoo at 11:24 AM on February 1, 2011