What is this about? = File-sharing from GUI
I’ve always liked the idea of generating file download link from file explorer. I had initially though about a need for another native app (ElectronJS), but I realized, console app will also do, as I wont need to expose additional GUI-needing features for this feature – Any features I might need, I can actually provide via short ExpressJS link in the notification, to modify newly created file share.
Enter the mad scientist
My POC idea was to test creating an ad-hoc ”burner” storage-account in Azure, and generate SAS token embedded file download links from explorer with the help of NodeJS. So instead of any established solution, I wanted to create light solution which is not running in the backround, and in terms of code is really lightweight
Disclaimer: If you are serious about functionality like this, OneDrive, Azure Information Protection Client, and many other solutions are the right way to go, and do the heavy lifting for you securely // Just saying it 🙂
How it works?
- I created example ”burner” storage account, and created publicly accessible file upload in the example (with the SAS token in the video) – I plan to add expiration option there, but for now its 1h per link (can be basically anything)
- Right click file and select send to AzStorage
- Copy the URL from the Node Process
Deployment
- deployment guide available at https://github.com/jsa2/azstoragewin
pre-reqs
- Windows desktop
- Azure Storage Account
- Create registry entry for context handler (will add guide here later if there is any interest) example here
NodeJS and Azure Storage dependencies
- I am using additional dependencies to at some point provide additional functionalities via small localhost expressJS server. Thats why there is express. * Chalk is just used to highlight console colors
"dependencies": {
"azure-storage": "^2.10.3",
"chalk": "^4.1.0",
"express": "^4.17.1"
}
Till next time!
This ends part 0 of the project log, stay tuned for more!
- Azure Storage https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/storage/common/storage-introduction
- Cool logo generator used in NodeJS http://patorjk.com/software/taag/
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