WebIF Feature Request: Upload Facility

Black Hole

May contain traces of nut
How about a drag-n-drop / click-to-select upload facility for the WebIF media browser, to compliment the download facility?

I envisage a button (or something) available on each media browser page (ie for every folder, including My Video) which opens a normal file navigator for files on the computer (I presume that is handled automatically by the browser in combination with the local file manager), and/or allows a file to be drag-n-dropped.

One wrinkle could be whether/how to treat sidecars. Is it possible to automatically pull any existing sidecar files? Don't know.

Background

A couple of years ago I set a friend up with a HDR-FOX when her DVD recorder failed. She's quite tech savvy and likes to "collect", so the CF ability to pull decrypted recordings onto PC and then store on multiple portable drives came into use. However, occasionally she wanted to put one back and couldn't. I had told her that if all else fails, use a UPD in the front socket and OPT+ Copy, but she seemed to be having trouble with even that.

Yesterday I paid a visit, the first time possible since Feb last year (not just because of the various lockdowns), and while I was there had a "service" session with the HDR-FOX (including swapping out the HDD because of increasing errors). "Please show me how to put recordings onto the Humax". I couldn't, I discovered the front USB wasn't working (which also hampered my drive swap, trying to copy across to the replacement drive – the rear USB being occupied by a WiFi dongle).

I pinned down the problem to the cable from the USB socket assembly in the front panel module to the main board: it has to bend back tightly behind the facia and a conductor seemed to have broken, and I hadn't got a spare one with me so effected a "cure" simply by reversing the cable so the broken bit is no longer under strain. It would be better if the cable termination had been fitted on the other side of the PCB, so it faces the main board rather than facing away from it – this is a possible mod, although it might require a little metalwork to provide chassis clearance.

Having got the socket working I turned attention to demonstrating the use of OPT+ Copy, and of course it was very tedious. "This would be a lot quicker by network." "How do I do that?" "By SMB or FTP." So I tried, but it being Win10 I couldn't without having to dig into the computer to enable SMB1 (which I didn't immediately know how to do), and although I managed to get an FTP prompt I didn't know how to use it.

Now, this morning, I realise there could be a better way for unsophisticated CF/WebIF users, which avoids having to use esoteric manipulations of the operating system: WebIF upload. Vote here to indicate interest and motivate those who might be able to provide it.
 
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While such a facility could be created, eg a button alongside "New Folder", wouldn't it be better to get a less antique version of Samba working so that non-NFS clients can more easily connect to a Fox-y file server and thus bypass considerations like what to do with sidecars? This, in addition to @xyz321's recent patch, would solve a lot of file networking problems reported in the forum. Because of the convoluted build system used in Samba, only cross-compiling is practical, which infrastructure I don't have running ATM, whereas the "Upload File" button would just require some new Jim/JS files.

Or perhaps investigate this https://sourceforge.net/projects/nfsclient/ package, or enable the built-in NFS client if the user has Pro or greater Windows 10?

Or migrate the user to Linux?
 
wouldn't it be better to get a less antique version of Samba working
IIRC that has been ruled out, but it would be good if it were possible. Nonetheless I regard it as complementary rather than a solution in itself.

Or perhaps investigate this https://sourceforge.net/projects/nfsclient/ package, or enable the built-in NFS client if the user has Pro or greater Windows 10?
If I had more time to spend I could maybe have enabled SMB1.

Or migrate the user to Linux?
That would be like painting the Forth Bridge. Having invested a lot of time in trying to commit to Linux, I'm still using Windows. The idea of trying to get somebody to use Linux, who just wants to use a computer rather than wrestle with it, is a fool's errand (and a rod for one's own back).

Neither of those propositions is helpful. The suggestion for an upload facility sidesteps the issues without having to explain to users how to modify their operating systems, and I wouldn't have suggested it if I didn't think it might be generally useful.
 
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Without wishing to hijack the thread, an internet search shows that Samba 3 and 4 have been built for OpenWRT and Samba 3 for DLINK DNS-320. These targets are similar in capability to the HD/HDR-Fox T2, so a Samba build that is less than 15 years old should be possible on our platforms too.

Supposing that almost all HDR-Fox T2 users do have a working front USB slot, that is surely the solution for occasional requirements, and networking should be the solution for more frequent or regular cases, since the obvious implementation of an upload function would only handle one file at a time.
 
Without wishing to hijack the thread, an internet search shows that Samba 3 and 4 have been built for OpenWRT and Samba 3 for DLINK DNS-320. These targets are similar in capability to the HD/HDR-Fox T2, so a Samba build that is less than 15 years old should be possible on our platforms too.
My recollection is that the problem was the size of the binary. How much spare flash ram does a DLink -DNS-320 have?
 
My recollection is that the problem was the size of the binary.
Why? None of it (Samba server) lives in flash on the T2. The same applies to the client (cifs).
It would probably be useful if the existing sources/patches/build system could be shared, rather than relying on one person (who appears to be largely unavailable), to at least give others a start.
 
The v3 and v4 Samba source packages are much bigger than v2, but then they do contain an entire Active Directory implementation. When building for the Fox T2 target, you would skip enormous chunks of functionality and with luck arrive at a binary that can coexist in RAM with the rest of the system; the size on "disk" is of less concern. The DNS-320 is a 128MB+128MB (FLASH+SDRAM) ARM box. OpenWRT targets home router/modems that may be even less beefy.
 
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