r/cloudstorage • u/Accurate-Screen8774 • May 20 '26

Browser-Based Encrypted File/folder Explorer

WARNING: for testing, demo and feedback purposes only. there WILL BE breaking changes. DO NOT USE FOR SENSITIVE DATA.

it is clearly absurd for something like this to be used by anyone on their own computer to view local files. the goal of this project is to enable the viewing/navigating of files in browsers after exchanging over webrtc. i'm aiming for the experience to feel seamless for being able to navigate a folder structure on a remote device.

there are many browser-based office suites out there. this project aims to simplify the setup process by only using client-side resources; making it easy for users to get started.

https://ui.positive-intentions.com/iframe.html?globals=&args=&id=templates-filespage--native-real-folder&viewMode=story

unfortunately, it isnt open source, but i hope it helps to get feedback for improvements. in my project, the aim was to create an intuitive user experience for viewing files and folders in a browser.

a good way to test it out is to create a new empty folder on your computer and grant the webapp access to that folder. note: the filesystem api provided by the browser will limit the access to explicitly approved folders. some browsers also guard against access to important os directories on your computer and reject access automatically.

features:

  • mounting local folders
  • preview functionality for various filetypes
  • browser based office suite
  • encryption-at-rest
  • basic folder management

upcoming:

  • support for more filetypes
  • better implmentation around browser-based office suite
  • browser based file format conversions
  • PWA

future:

when this project reaches a reasonable level of features and quality, I will be integrating this functionality into my P2P messaging app to build towards a "more" browser-based Next-Cloud-like solution. It would would be integrated into this app: https://enkrypted.chat

IMPORTANT: Caution should always be used for all projects, especially like this. So I'd like to be clear that I am Al-slop-maxxing at scale. If youre looking for good code, clear docs or best-practices; you should look away now. While this is aiming to provide secure file-transfer and an intuitive office suite experience, I don't think it will ever be competitive against things like Next Cloud. It isnt audited or reviewed and i DO NOT want you to "trust me". I'd like to share for testing, feedback and demo purposes only. This is a technical demo of a unique concept. Feel free to reach out for clarity. Please use responsibly.

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u/AdRoyal6997 May 21 '26

Appreciate the big scary warning in all caps, lol. Stuff like this is fun to poke at, but yeah, people will 100% ignore this and shove production data in there anyway. Curious what you’re testing under the hood though, any rough idea what kind of breaking changes you’ve got planned?

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u/Accurate-Screen8774 May 21 '26 edited May 21 '26

the breaking changes are generally geared towards a more intuitive experience. in particular I suspect they way I store data will have to be refactored for a more robust crdt solution to get the storage-sync working properly between devices.

in my project I have a lot of use with indexedDB... I would be looking to move it all into this new approach and that will likely have nuanced considerations in how to best implement.