Best Methods/Practices for Photo Upload/Backup and easy access

[mike360x1]

Hello,

My purpose is to set up a method of uploading photos for (non-tech-savvy) people to the FreeNAS server. Namely, everyone in my household.

The solution I'm thinking of using is Owncloud (as opposed to Syncthing because of both IOS/Android compatibility) to upload to the server and then have it cut/paste over to the media folder. From here, I can easily view using plex media server.

One way I thought of going about this is to setup a Cron job and a nightly script to cut/paste all the pictures over from Owncloud to my media folder. This method is very tedious and very specific. If I were to change/add user or end up doing a fresh install, i would need to setup a new script. And also due to the fact that it's not fool proof. (If I change my media or Owncloud directory for some strange reason) If those variables somehow were to change, the script would end up copying something entirely different to a completely different location. That is a risk I would not want to take.

Another reason why I shouldn't do this with Owncloud is because (I'm guessing) it will not like it if I modify files behind its back (kinda like how FreeNAS doesn't like me doing the same with its settings).
The program is not designed simply for a medium to upload photos with and some Owncloud folks will say that I'm using it in a way it's not intended to be used.

So, with that said, Are there any ways one can go about uploading photos to their media server for simple access and photo sharing?

I would be grateful for your help. :)

Sincerely,
Michael L.

 

[Kevin Horton]

You may be able to do what you want using the Gallery+ app for ownCloud. I've never used it, so I don't know any more than what it says in the docs. I think it would show all photos found in a particular ownCloud user account, with no need to manually copy files around.

 

[anodos]

For me, I like to keep things as simple as possible from an administrative standpoint, and this usually means NFS or samba. Then let end users figure out how to actually use it.

Then again, it seems like people are always having permissions problems with samba so
\_(ツ)_/¯

 

[mike360x1]

You may be able to do what you want using the Gallery+ app for ownCloud. I've never used it, so I don't know any more than what it says in the docs. I think it would show all photos found in a particular ownCloud user account, with no need to manually copy files around.

Hmm, while that may work for viewing photos in Owncloud, I would like to manage my photos using SMB. With the way Owncloud is setup, it's managed using user www. I'm not entirely sure how to get around that.

For me, I like to keep things as simple as possible from an administrative standpoint, and this usually means NFS or samba. Then let end users figure out how to actually use it.

Then again, it seems like people are always having permissions problems with samba so
\_(ツ)_/¯

Mhm, if only it was that simple. :) Unfortunately, life is sometimes too busy to go sorting through photos by hand. It would make life much easier if it could be set and forget.

 

[Kevin Horton]

Hmm, while that may work for viewing photos in Owncloud, I would like to manage my photos using SMB. With the way Owncloud is setup, it's managed using user www. I'm not entirely sure how to get around that.

Well, if you install the ownCloud client application on your PC, you could set it up to sync photos between a folder on your PC and a specified folder on the ownCloud server. Thus you could manage the photos on your PC, and let ownCloud automagically move them to the server and display them.

Another option - use ownCloud syncing to get photos from PCs to the server, and set up periodic cron jobs using rsync to copy them to the Plex Media folder.

 

[mike360x1]

That's what I thought too. Unfortunately, that solution isn't fool-proof. If directories ever change, I'll end up copying the wrong files to the wrong place. : (

 

[Kevin Horton]

That's what I thought too. Unfortunately, that solution isn't fool-proof. If directories ever change, I'll end up copying the wrong files to the wrong place. : (

It is hard to imagine a computer-based solution to your problem that wouldn't be affected if directories change without also changing the workflow to match.