jArchive

A simple file store.

This lightweight api and ui provides a great solution for ad hoc file sharing. While ideal for collaboration inside a single authentication domain, it can also host public folders that can be accessed by anyone.

Access Control

Access permissions are applied per folder and can be designated:

• public: everyone can access
• internal: all authenticated users can access
• specified: only specified users can access

Only users specified as Owner or Writer can upload files to a folder.

Configuration

This app leverages an OIDC identity provider for authentication, settings for which need to be provided to both the api and ui.

API

API settings can be provided in the standard ASPNETCORE manner; a json file, environment args, and command-line args. The defaults can be found at appsettings.json.

Most likely, only the following need to be set:

• OpenId__Audience
• OpenId__Authority
• MaxFileSize

And optionally configure the following:

• PathBase: if hosting in a virtual directory
• Cache: if using redis to persist sharing invitations across restarts
• Cors: if allowing other sites to make XHR requests to the app

UI

The user interface requires the configuration of the OIDC client. After registering a client with an identity provider, provide a file in wwwroot/assets/settings.json like so:

{
  "appname": "jArchive",
  "apphost": "",
  "oidc": {
    "client_id": "client_id",
    "authority": "https://identity_url",
    "redirect_uri": "https://app_url/oidc",
    "silent_redirect_uri": "https://app_url/assets/oidc-silent.html",
    "response_type": "code",
    "scope": "openid profile jarchive-api",
    "automaticSilentRenew": true,
    "monitorSession": false,
    "loadUserInfo": false,
    "useLocalStorage": true,
    "debug": false
  }
}

Be sure to change client_id, identity_url, and app_url to match your deployment. Also requested scope jarchive-api represents the api resource registered with the identity provider. It should match the api's OpenId__Audience value.

Deployment

The included docker file produces an production image which should be run as a single container. The current implementation lacks synchronization for multiple replicas, so stick with a single instance for now.

With likely few settings needed for the api, environment variables are the easiest to set. However, if desired, mount a settings file to /app/appsettings.json or /app/appsettings.Production.json.

The ui settings file should be mounted to /app/wwwroot/assets/settings.json.

Dev

Both the api and ui apps are in the repository. They only get merged when building the Docker container, where the build ui files are dropped into /app/wwwroot.

For dev using VSCode, one generally runs/debugs the api with vscode tasks/launch, and runs the angular ui in an integrated terminal with ng serve.

The jarchive-ui/src/environments/environment.ts and the jarchive-api/appsettings.Development.json files will need to be set with appropriate ports to ensure the ui is talking to the api, and both are talking to the identity provider.