Share multiple large local files via nextcloud using android as a single operation

share files via nextcloud using android using a single operation

Is this possible? i.e. you have several LARGE files, you want to share them to someone, so, in some android file explorer, you share to nextcloud, it asks for an email address, and then, in the background, persistently, it uploads ALL of those files, and generates a sharing like that gets emailed/texted/messaged/whatever to the recipient…

How can this be done?

I think you can better copy all directorys/files in a top directory in the Nextcloud (with the Nextcloud App) and then share only the top directory (including the substructure).

To nextcloud you have to upload it anyway to be able to share it.

this doesn’t meet the spirit of the operation. This also requires reorganizing my files just to share. If i have 3 files visible/selected in a android file explorer search result, it should be possible [it’s 2022] to, with those files selected, use the system’s Share function to send those objects [references to them] to the Nextcloud app, which would start a persistent job of uploading the selection to say, Drop it, and Nextcloud would create that upload process, and get a url back from the Nextcloud server which it could either put in the system Clipboard, and or open a new Email, or MMS/SMS message, or any other message client that can accept text with that LINK in the newly composed message and allow the selection of one or more recipients. In the Nextcloud Drop It preferences there could be a function to set a default timeout for these links/files.

On Thu, Mar 31, 2022 at 2:33 AM devnull via Nextcloud community noreply@nextcloud.com wrote:

45x45 devnull
March 31

I think you can better copy all directorys/files in a top directory in the Nextcloud (with the Nextcloud App) and then share only the top directory (including the substructure).

To nextcloud you have to upload it anyway to be able to share it.

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another point is, if these files are hundreds of megabytes, one might have to sit there waiting for quite a while for these to finish uploading before one can even share them – which means the user is babysitting the process and proceeding in a very hands-on manner. This completely defeats the spirit f what Nextcloud is. We could just as easily argue that Nextcloud itself isn’t needed since we could get a lot of it’s functionality using several different types of installed servers and protocols.

In a product like Dropbox, i can chare a file in a single operation. The complexities of it are handled in the background,

That is the point of a platform like Nextcloud – to handle the complexities in the background. No?

The whole point of Nc is to take a whole bunch of complexity and integrate it into one cohesive platform to solve a bunch of networked computing convenience issues.

So, yes, say i’m at an event, a friend asks me to record two videos for them of the event, and after these two videos are recorded, they ask me to send them to their email address, including the video i recorded for them last week. So we have multiple 100+ megabyte files that need to be sent. I can go through the manual process of creating folders in Nc, uploading, waiting, getting link, composing email, pasteing in address/link, etc…

But if the combination of the Nc server and it’s android app could, in a single user interaction:

  1. Take the handoff of the pathnames/objectnames from the android file explorer, or photo album selection for multiple LARGE files, from various locations…
  2. ask the user the recipient(s)
  3. Create a folder in the Nc Drop It app’s Drop It folder called …
  4. Get the Drop It sharing link for that created folder
  5. hand that link back to the Nc android app…
  6. be persistent in uploading those files to that Drop It folder created and do so in the background in the background – even resuming through sleep/standby/loss of internet, powercycle…
  7. put that Drop It link in the android system’s clipboard
  8. ask the user which android app they want to use to share the message/link
  9. open that sharing vector, in the process handing the link and recipient name …
  10. If the recipient tries to access the link before the upload is completed, they’d see a message that the content is still uploading, and to try back later. If the process knew the approximate upload finish time/date it could inform them.

Yes there is complexity. But if we’re not going to use the technologies made possible by the platform to handle these complexities, it kind of creates an argument against the existence of the platform in the firstplace – afterall, we could have all just installed ftp servers, and php bulletin boards.

It obviously could be done, and could be done gracefully in a minimal user interaction process.

The idea of manually doing all of this makes zero sense in 2022. All of this could have been possible 10 years ago or more. =)

this doesn’t meet the spirit of the operation. This also requires reorganizing my files just to share. If i have 3 files visible/selected in a android file explorer search result, it should be possible [it’s 2022] to, with those files selected, use the system’s Share function to send those objects [references to them] to the Nextcloud app, which would start a persistent job of uploading the selection to say, Drop it, and Nextcloud would create that upload process, and get a url back from the Nextcloud server which it could either put in the system Clipboard, and or open a new Email, or MMS/SMS message, or any other message client that can accept text with that LINK in the newly composed message and allow the selection of one or more recipients. In the Nextcloud Drop It preferences there could be a function to set a default timeout for these links/files.