owncloud://links that can be handled by desktop clients

[nommaz]

This is an enchancement request to be able to share url which would be handled directly by the owncloud desktop app on the recepient side (without having to download a duplicate) in my organization often times we tell each other to look at or modify a document under owncloud/folder x / folder y named document z .docx. not practical for either send or receiver..

[danimo]

Why not simply look it up on the client side?

[nommaz]

On popular collaboration systems like trello and slack, if you paste a
google doc link, your team member can just click it and start working on
the document. You don’t need to manually the entire path of of where the
file should be .

Right now I have to literally type something like "own cloud –> my company
-> software dev -> project x –> subfolder y -> document z.docx” and your
coworker won’t have to manually navigate several folders to find the right
file. Saves a lot of time and lets systems like trello help become
bookmarks to project related files/documents.

Owncloud clients could do the same for desktop office files. Either right
click the file and copy “own cloud link to clipboard” which when pasted to
chat systems etc.. and clicked by your teammate, simply opens the actual
document (not a downlload copy) for viewing/editing.

From: Daniel Molkentin notifications@github.com
Reply-To: owncloud/mirall
<reply+009a5d7ef36f0a0b46c101ddf89ed4351eb8fa789149ecd492cf00000001109d77ab
92a169ce030ed08c@reply.github.com>
Date: Monday, December 8, 2014 at 4:28 PM
To: owncloud/mirall mirall@noreply.github.com
Cc: Vedat Nommaz vedat@nommaz.com
Subject: Re: [mirall] owncloud://links that can be handled by desktop
clients (#2596)

Why not simply look it up on the client side?

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[scolebrook]

My first thought is that this would be a great thing to have but it would require the client to ask the server for a link, similar to a public link. This is because the paths to the same content are most likely different between different accounts. When the recipient follows that link in their browser the server finds that destination within their account and redirects to that.

When sharing, the path to an item is going to be different between the sharer and the sharee. In 7, it is possible for the path to be the same (provided the sharee makes it the same), but the system would have to assume that the path is different. So an intermediate url would be necessary to overcome this path difference.

Perhaps this could be worked on together with adding public link sharing to the desktop client. Both require back and forth between the server and client. However this would require an addition to the Share API. Public links are already there.

[nommaz]

Good point.

Sharing can be from web as long as the link points to local file for all that can access it and not download copy. I don't think this would take away much from the experience. (Vs right click to share link on desktop)

In my organization only part of the path that differs across users is home directory. (C:\Users\userx\owncloud vs /users/userx/owncloud) rest is always the same, but this solution should probably not make that assumption to be more elegant as u say.

I am a newbie but if there is a local Lookup table of ETag to path, perhaps ETag can be used instead of path to locate the local file?

Can this be a 3rd party plugin or should it be a core function? We can sponsor or try to help develop a plugin.

Vedat

On Dec 10, 2014, at 1:39 AM, Stephen Colebrook notifications@github.com wrote:

My first thought is that this would be a great thing to have but it would require the client to ask the server for a link, similar to a public link. This is because the paths to the same content are most likely different between different accounts. When the recipient follows that link in their browser the server finds that destination within their account and redirects to that.

When sharing, the path to an item is going to be different between the sharer and the sharee. In 7, it is possible for the path to be the same (provided the sharee makes it the same), but the system would have to assume that the path is different. So an intermediate url would be necessary to overcome this path difference.

Perhaps this could be worked on together with adding public link sharing to the desktop client. Both require back and forth between the server and client. However this would require an addition to the Share API. Public links are already there.

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[rullzer]

I had some time this morning.... so here it comes.

This is probably a nice feature to have. Just pasting links around makes it easier. Having said that there are multiple scenarios.

Already shared files

This is probably the most used case. So two people share some files. Lets call them A and B. Now A wants to let B work on file F. Now in this case we could probably best use etags. However we would want an url of the form owncloud://USER@HOSTNAME/path/to/file/F. This would all be fine. A asks the server give me an url. A gets an url sends it to B. B now opens the link and the owncloud client asks the server to translate the url into a local file.

Already in this "simple" scenario where the users have the file shared already there are several issues that can arise.

-- What happens is user B does not have the file synced?

Non shared file

Now the client does not know who you want to share your file with. So it will happily create a link. A sends this link to B. Now what happens? B cannot resolve the file.

-- Should we automatically create a public sharing link for F? Which is resolved by B. So B tells the server I want this file as well. But it is still not guaranteed that B will have the file synced after that on his desktop.

Federation

Well this is just the problems above but worse....

It would take some new code on the client and server side to get this to work. However, I think the main issue is how to deal with the cases I described and the other cases I did not yet think off.

[nommaz]

Sounds like Dropbox just launched a similar feature:

https://blogs.dropbox.com/dropbox/2015/02/new-way-to-open-dropbox-files/

I guess a link could be based on md5 or other hash of the file and owncloud desktop client would just search for its existence on B's desktop rather than trying to map paths. I believe most of the time the file would be found. Other times an error message may be appropriate.

On Jan 30, 2015, at 4:22 PM, Roeland Douma notifications@github.com wrote:

I had some time this morning.... so here it comes.

This is probably a nice feature to have. Just pasting links around makes it easier. Having said that there are multiple scenarios.

Already shared files

This is probably the most used case. So two people share some files. Lets call them A and B. Now A wants to let B work on file F. Now in this case we could probably best use etags. However we would want an url of the form owncloud://USER@HOSTNAME/path/to/file/F. This would all be fine. A asks the server give me an url. A gets an url sends it to B. B now opens the link and the owncloud client asks the server to translate the url into a local file.

Already in this "simple" scenario where the users have the file shared already there are several issues that can arise.

-- What happens is user B does not have the file synced?

Non shared file

Now the client does not know who you want to share your file with. So it will happily create a link. A sends this link to B. Now what happens? B cannot resolve the file.

-- Should we automatically create a public sharing link for F? Which is resolved by B. So B tells the server I want this file as well. But it is still not guaranteed that B will have the file synced after that on his desktop.

Federation

Well this is just the problems above but worse....

It would take some new code on the client and server side to get this to work. However, I think the main issue is how to deal with the cases I described and the other cases I did not yet think off.

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[nommaz]

Hello
Ideally in addition to right click copy owncloud:// link to clipboard, I would also like to be able to drag n drop /upload a file from a local own cloud folder to Slack application and have it post a nicely formatted owncloud:// link automatically. Trello integration would be great as well :)

What would be the best way to sponsor/offer reward for this feature?

Vedat