file commander

Copy, move, delete and rename files on your server from your web browser.

• Easy, single binary installation
• Multiple platforms (Windows, Linux, OSX)
• Predefined folder access only
• Files cannot be uploaded nor downloaded

About

A simple, portable web file commander implemented in the Go language. It compiles into one single binary which bundles all HTML, javascript etc. The protocol for the API is JSON RPC 2.0 through HTTP posts. You can define virtual file system roots to make certain parts of the file system accessible.

Download

https://github.com/alphapeter/filecommander/releases

Compatibility

The front end will only run on modern browsers, such as chrome, firefox, opera or edge, internet explorer will not work

Dependencies

The only dependency required to build the application is the go framework https://golang.org/

Building the application

1. Install, (if not already installed), the go framework https://golang.org/dl/
2. run go build in the source directory
3. (optional) rename the main binary to filecommander (or main.exe to filecommander if on windows)

Configuration

Before you can utilize the file commander, you have to define your (virtual) file system roots. example of settings.json

{
  "roots": [
    {
      "name": "temp",
      "path": "/tmp"
    },
    {
      "name": "incoming",
      "path": "/var/incoming"
    }
  ],
  "binding": "0.0.0.0:8080"
}

example of settings.json for windows

{
  "roots": [
    {
      "name": "temp",
      "path": "c:/temp"
    },
    {
      "name": "incoming",
      "path": "c:/incoming"
    }
  ],
  "binding": "0.0.0.0:8080"
}

if binding is specified as 0.0.0.0:8080 it will listen to all addresses
if binding is specified as 192.168.0.100:80 it will listen to 192.168.0.100 at port 80

file location

• the default search path is './settings.json'
• to load settings file from another location, use the argument --settings <path-to-settings>/<filename>.json when starting the application

Protocol

JSON RPC 2.0

For complete specification of the JSON RPC protocol, please visit http://www.jsonrpc.org/specification

Copy (cp)

Copy a file to an other file

Example of command:

{
  "jsonrpc":"2.0",
  "method": "cp",
  "params": ["private/animals/cat.jpg", "public/animals/cat.jpg"],
  "id": "3"
}

Example of successful response:

{
    "jsonrpc":"2.0",
    "result":null,
    "id":"3"
}

Example of unsuccessful response:

{
    "jsonrpc":"2.0",
    "id":"3",
    "error":
    {
        "code":-32603,
        "message":"open /temp/animals/cat.jpg: The system cannot find the file specified."
    }
}

List roots (df)

Lists available (virtual) file system roots by name

Example of command:

{ 
  "jsonrpc":"2.0",
  "method": "df",
  "params": [],
  "id": "3"
}

Example of successful response:

{
    "jsonrpc":"2.0",
    "result":["incoming","temp"],
    "id":"3"
}

List files (ls)

Lists all files and directories for a certain path

Example of command:

{
  "jsonrpc":"2.0",
  "method": "ls",
  "params": ["incoming/public"],
  "id": "3"
}

Example of successful response: Note: Type d: Directory, Type f: File

{
    "jsonrpc":"2.0",
    "result":[{"Type":"d","Name":"dir1"},{"Type":"f","Name":"file1.txt"},{"Type":"f","Name":"file2.txt"}]
}

Make directory (mkdir)

Creates a directory

Example of command:

{
  "jsonrpc":"2.0",
  "method": "mkdir",
  "params": ["incoming/animals", "cats"],
  "id": "3"
}

Example of successful response:

{
    "jsonrpc":"2.0",
    "result":null,
    "id":"3"
}

Move (mv)

Moves/renames a file or directory Note. A file cannot be moved between two phycically different drives

Example of command:

{
  "jsonrpc":"2.0",
  "method": "mv",
  "params": ["incoming/public/dog.jpg", "public/animals/dog.jpg"],
  "id": "3"
}

Example of successful response:

{
    "jsonrpc":"2.0",
    "result":null,
    "id":"3"
}

Delete (rm)

Deletes a file

Example of command:

{ 
  "jsonrpc":"2.0",
  "method": "rm",
  "params": ["incoming/public/dog.jpg"],
  "id": "3"
}

Example of successful response:

{
    "jsonrpc":"2.0",
    "result":null,
    "id":"3"
}

Rebuild the front-end

Preparations

1. Download and install nodejs from https://nodejs.org (go for the LTS release if you are unsure which version to choose)
2. Install webpack npm install webpack -g
3. Install webpack development server npm install webpack-dev-server -g
4. Install the additional dependencies run npm install in the frontend directory

Developement

The front end is written using vue.js, vuex and webpack. There's no need to recompile the backend during development. The webpack development server will proxy the api calls to the backend once it is started.

1. Compile and start the backend application, let it listen to port 8080
2. Start webpack-dev-server run npm run dev in the frontend directory
3. browse to localhost:8080 with your favourite browser
4. make your changes to the code and it will update in the browser as you save
5. press ctrl + c to stop the dev server

Compile the front end code

• Run npm run build to run webpack en embed the content into go
• Compile the go source with the updated front end code

Work in progress (whats next)

TODO

• implement key navigation
• implement demo
• make precompile binaries available
• code cleanup