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  • pebble :pel:pebble@critters.gay
    Oct 30, 2026, 2:11 PM

    so i've been using my own nextcloud instance to host my art archive, which is basically just a bunch of folders with images and source files in them. i've been doing this by getting a public link for the folder and linking to it. i'm not rly the best w/ this kinda tech so the amount of errors in the logs that i don't know how to solve just kept growing, and honestly this is the only thing i use the nextcloud instance for, so i thought it'd be good to look around for a simpler replacement.

    what i need is like, something w/ a web interface that i could hook up to a specific directory on my server, which would then let anyone browse & download the files in said folder, and it'd need to have image previews.

    is there anything like this that isn't nextcloud or equally as complicated?

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Replies

  • pebble :pel:pebble@critters.gay
    Oct 31, 2026, 11:15 PM

    i ended up going with copyparty ; thanks for the suggestions everyone!!!

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  • Maniko, meowderator => NFCManikobunneh@meow.social
    Oct 30, 2026, 2:37 PM

    @pebble The most "low-tech" but also probably most secure way of doing that is just a web server with files on it that you put on there via ftp or ssh - there are ways to password-protect those files too, but then it's basically just direct linking and uploading.

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  • Dan Fixes Coin-Opsifixcoinops@retro.social
    Oct 30, 2026, 2:39 PM

    @pebble not exactly what you asked for, but possibly worth considering; I also hosted/admin'd nextcloud on a dedicated server and did all the looking-after and upgrades myself (and boy oh boy did it want CONSTANT upgrades) and I actually liked nextcloud but I found it taking up a big chunk of my time.

    Hetzner does managed nextcloud hosting for like four euros and change a month, and for that you get a terabyte of space and they handle all the upgrades and the worrying about it and it just works. I've been very happy with it.

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  • Space Catitude 🚀TerryHancock@realsocial.life
    Oct 30, 2026, 2:57 PM

    @pebble

    The very simplest thing is to set up a static "downloads" folder on the server in Apache or NGINX and just let the user browse it. This used to be the default behavior, and if there's no index.html, the user just sees a "folder view". Since the browser renders it, the exact appearance depends on the browser, but it typically just looks like your desktop file browser.

    I think some modern web server guides recommend blocking this kind of access, but I think it's fine, so long as it is restricted to a particular folder and you don't put anything in there you don't want people to see.

    There are also static "gallery" generators, although they have gone somewhat out of fashion and tend to look kind of dated, now. These will show the image content better, though.

    @toroidalcore

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  • nothackingnothacking@infosec.exchange
    Oct 30, 2026, 5:35 PM
    @pebble@critters.gay Simplest way? Any web server with auto-index available. Won't be pretty (just a page with links to images), but it's low maintenance, fast, and secure.

    Getting a bit more complex, if you are comfortable with a bit of programming, consider writing a script to script to generate thumbnails and put together a nice index.html page. That way, the code doesn't have to be terribly high quality since it's never exposed to the internet.
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  • nothackingnothacking@infosec.exchange
    Oct 30, 2026, 6:02 PM
    @pebble@critters.gay If you have access to a Linux/Unix box, here's a lightly modified version of the bash script I use for this: https://smallcrow.com/gallery.sh

    It requires imagemagick, and png source files. The gallery is in alphabetical order, so name files accordingly.

    UPDATE: Here's a version that supports both png and jpg sources, and uses reverse order: https://smallcrow.com/gallery2.sh
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  • bytebyte@chitter.xyz
    Oct 30, 2026, 5:35 PM

    @pebble how are you using zhis archive differently zhan zhe gallery on your site?

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  • pebble :pel:pebble@critters.gay
    Oct 30, 2026, 8:15 PM

    @byte@chitter.xyz

    the gallery on my site is one of the places i post my new art to (mirroring FA, itaku & here), it's easily browsable and the art there comes with the intended public title & description

    whereas the archive is a copy of my art folder, it has everything i've drawn since 2017, including the source files (.clip/.psd/.blend etc), but it's not easily browsable, it doesn't have the public descriptions & the titles are often not final.. it also has all the art others have drawn for me, though i wanna find a better spot for it

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  • bytebyte@chitter.xyz
    Oct 30, 2026, 8:44 PM

    @pebble well zhis looks like a good minimalist solution to allow browsing a folder: github.com/prasathmani/tinyfil

    it's literally one php file and it serves a folder (by default `$_SERVER['DOCUMENT_ROOT']` but you can set it to anyzhing)

    it has image previews but only when clicking on individual files, no zhumbnails as far as i can tell. it also supports arbitrary file types (unlike most gallery-focused servers i've seen) so zhe source files would be downloadable.

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  • foxyoreos (they/it) (🔞)foxyoreos@gulp.cafe
    Oct 30, 2026, 7:09 PM

    @pebble is a serverside component a requirement? Like do you need to be able to upload from multiple computers?

    I use a static site with obfuscated URLs for my commission deliverables, it's not currently in a state I could easily open source, but I wonder if I should start looking into it.

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  • pebble :pel:pebble@critters.gay
    Oct 30, 2026, 8:21 PM

    @foxyoreos@gulp.cafe my archive has ~2,600 files of a lot of different types spread across a ton of different folders, i don't think there's a user-friendly way to do this without a server-side program

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  • foxyoreos (they/it) (🔞)foxyoreos@gulp.cafe
    Oct 30, 2026, 8:31 PM

    @pebble fair. I'm pushing about 1100 pages in my public gallery (and way more for actual commissioners), but what makes it work is that they don't all need to have access to everything at the same time, each commissioner only sees a fraction of that.

    If I needed to support stuff like search or really extensive file browsing, it would probably need a server.

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  • foxyoreos (they/it) (🔞)foxyoreos@gulp.cafe
    Oct 30, 2026, 8:33 PM

    @pebble I also get away with basically using my local filesystem as my config, I typically don't write anything to send a file to commissioners, I just export from krita and hit a button, and my build handles resizing and thumbnails and it just shows up on their index page.

    BUT, that limits the information I can include and makes the filesystem very rigid.

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  • Minki the Avalimueller_minki@bitbang.social
    Oct 30, 2026, 7:25 PM

    @pebble copyparty exists, might work for this usecase but isnt exactly feature rich when it comes to things such as permissions. it does support basically any protocol under the sun though for file access so should be quite simple to get it going

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