A Proposed Use For Btsync - Feasible?

[endor2014]

Hello all - 

 

Briefly, this is what I am looking at BTSync to do and I would appreciate any comments on feasibility and issues - thanks.

 

Our platform has two different groups of users, suppliers and retailers. We host our suppliers product catalogs and share that will the retailers that our suppliers have granted access to. We have an API, file upload and all the other usual channels for sharing files and media.

 

However, we're starting work on a method for our suppliers to be able to remote upload files to our servers. FTP is the obvious but I was hoping to go a bit beyond that and started looking at Dropbox type solutions, where my Supplier can register on our platform and download the client and share a folder where they will start dumping their product catalog spreadsheets which will then sync to us.

 

Is this something we could do with BTSync? We would need to keep our suppliers files separate from each other using folders or similar. And we'd like to implement all of this using the API. Also, can the client be customized or white labelled?

 

So the process would go;

 

1. Suppliers registers on our platform

2. Supplier downloads the client

3. Suppliers adds spreadsheets and image files, video etc. to their local folder

4. Files are synced to a folder for that supplier on our server (AWS)

 

Thank you for any feedback =)

 

 

 

 

[delegatevoid]

Hi,

 

It's perfectly possible with BTSync, you will have to do some custom development though.

Simplified workflow example:

 

1. You have a server with BTSync and API enabled
2. You create a website which will interact with BTSync
3. Your registered users can then download the BTSync client or your own app (more on this later)
4. They choose one ore more folders on their system and submit the keys for those folders to your website
5. The website uses the API to add those keys to the BTsync instance

API methods such as GetFolders and AddFolders should be more than enough to get you started.

 

As for customizing the BTSync client. Since it's closed source, you cannot.

However, here's what you can do:

 

• You create your own application that implements all the API features required to for the functionality you want your client to provide
• You then ship BTSync with your application (either as an embedded resource or as part of the installation package)
• Your client starts BTSync without a UI and controls it using the API
• The only piece of software your users will see and interact with is your own.

This is also fairly simple to set up.

 

As for syncing back to AWS. That shouldn't be to hard. I assume you already have backup procedures to AWS in place

you could just keep using them.

 

 

Hope this helps.

[Magnetic_dud]

Your client starts BTSync without a UI and controls it using the API

 

I'm thinking to make a custom solution like the OP, is this possible on Windows or only Linux?

[delegatevoid]

It's possible on Windows, Linux and MacOS.

Only the mobile versions are different.

[jqs]

 

As for customizing the BTSync client. Since it's closed source, you cannot.

However, here's what you can do:

 

• You create your own application that implements all the API features required to for the functionality you want your client to provide
• You then ship BTSync with your application (either as an embedded resource or as part of the installation package)
• Your client starts BTSync without a UI and controls it using the API
• The only piece of software your users will see and interact with is your own.

This is also fairly simple to set up.

 

That's exactly what I'm doing right now, except that I'm also wrapping the key exchange so it is seamless for the end user. Allows for sharing of projects online and allowing them to be automatically added to the sync client of the user.

 

And I can confirm that this, as described, is easy to do. Have a nearly (~80%) completed app on OS X after a couple of days work.

[nibzo1]

A quick question on this part.

 

 

 

1. They choose one ore more folders on their system and submit the keys for those folders to your website
2. The website uses the API to add those keys to the BTsync instance

API methods such as GetFolders and AddFolders should be more than enough to get you started.

 

 

Does addFolders() need to have a folder on the server that already exists?

 

From the api documentation

 

 

 

the folder will have to pre-exist on the disk and Sync will add it into a list of syncing folders.

[delegatevoid]

You will have to create the folder prior to adding it to BTSync,

that of course is easy enough to do

 

 - If the specified folder does not exist create it

 - Add the newly created folder to BTSync

I'm thinking to make a custom solution like the OP, is this possible on Windows or only Linux?

 

Windows, MacOS, Linux, basically any desktop platform on which BTSync works,

just not the mobile versions, since they don't currently expose an API

[nibzo1]

Ok so for a web app my application would have to have the necessary functionality and permissions to create a folder before the addFolders() method can be called.

 

Interesting I will have to figure out how to do this elegantly  

[delegatevoid]

What are you using on the server side?

[nibzo1]

i will be using nodejs, with an angular front end. so should be fairly straight forward. The file system module should do the job, although I will need to develop a nice file search api for my angular controllers to query.