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Show HN: Drapache - serve a dynamic website from your dropbox

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Re: Show HN: Drapache - serve a dynamic website from your dropbox

#23
I'm trying to share my folder with some classmates so we have some collaboration without having to share our own server passwords. However, when I try to share the drapache folder I'm not allowed to share since it's in the Apps folder. I can't share the Apps folder either. Trying to move the drapache folder elsewhere has broken my drapache site. How can I share with classmates, and fix the broken site?

Re: Show HN: Drapache - serve a dynamic website from your dropbox

#24
post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Dropbox can't run anything, this is meant to be run on your own hardware/vps/ec2.

Mm yeah, that makes sense. It also makes this incredibly bad. Not only do you have to run your own server, you have to pay for bandwidth twice - once from your server, and once from Dropbox (files are served from your Dropbox to the server, then to the client)

Except Dropbox doesn't charge you for bandwidth. Imagine someone offering a service running this - plenty of other Dropbox hosting in the cloud services exist (such as to give you your own domain name tied to the Dropbox public folder)

Re: Show HN: Drapache - serve a dynamic website from your dropbox

#25
post #8

I have had some encoding issues with Dropbox public files — namely, I’ll create a UTF-8 .html file and use special characters like “educated quotes” without encoding them as HTML entities (as I should be allowed to do, in a properly encoded file). I’ll use the right meta tag. And yet sometimes, at least in Chrome, they’ll show up incorrectly. Would Drapache be susceptible to this, or could it it perhaps remedy it?

You say "at least in Chrome," but have you tried other browsers? This phrase leads me to believe it may be a browser problem and not a Dropbox problem.

Re: Show HN: Drapache - serve a dynamic website from your dropbox

#26
post #14

I don't think it's a good idea if you target developers : 1- Trading expensive bandwidth for a cheap storage isn't economically logical. 2- Any web developer should understand how web works and he should be comfortable with ftp, apache/nginx/iis, git(/mercurial), etc...

"It will not be particularly useful to a developer..."

Right there on the project page.

Re: Show HN: Drapache - serve a dynamic website from your dropbox

#27
post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don’t follow your (or your parent post’s) line of thinking. Apparently “dépêche means dispatch (or update, message or news),” and has a connotation of “fast.” I don’t see how this really applies to Drapache, which I thought of as “dr’apache,” a portmanteau of “drop(box)” and “apache.” I’m a Depeche Mode fan, but don’t see how it relates. Where’s the pun? :)

Depeche Mode is the name of band from the 80s. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Depeche_Mode

How you snip the name from another 80's band and let the name... "Mmmmmmmmm... DROP!" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LnPQdrPnCpE :)

Re: Show HN: Drapache - serve a dynamic website from your dropbox

#28
Having used it to build a bad link shortner, I suggest people give this a shot. It's a ton of fun to just edit a file in your dropbox with no setup and it's reflected online before you can refresh the page. it's definitely just a hack, for now but don't be surprised if this becomes something useful in te future

Link to what I built http://shorty.drapache.com/shorty/

Re: Show HN: Drapache - serve a dynamic website from your dropbox

#29
post #24
post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Mm yeah, that makes sense. It also makes this incredibly bad. Not only do you have to run your own server, you have to pay for bandwidth twice - once from your server, and once from Dropbox (files are served from your Dropbox to the server, then to the client)

Except Dropbox doesn't charge you for bandwidth. Imagine someone offering a service running this - plenty of other Dropbox hosting in the cloud services exist (such as to give you your own domain name tied to the Dropbox public folder)

They don't charge you for bandwidth, except as part of their normal charges.

You can be sure they would cut off downloads if you started serving any significant traffic.

(Mainly because of the crazy-long opened connections. Bandwidth is so cheap now this system would fall over long before Dropbox started caring about that cost)

Re: Show HN: Drapache - serve a dynamic website from your dropbox

#30
post #24
post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Mm yeah, that makes sense. It also makes this incredibly bad. Not only do you have to run your own server, you have to pay for bandwidth twice - once from your server, and once from Dropbox (files are served from your Dropbox to the server, then to the client)

Except Dropbox doesn't charge you for bandwidth. Imagine someone offering a service running this - plenty of other Dropbox hosting in the cloud services exist (such as to give you your own domain name tied to the Dropbox public folder)

Dropbox might not charge you for your bandwidth, but your server host will. Using something like this results in twice the bandwidth for every page served. You will be using your servers bandwidth to transfer the file from Dropbox to your server, and then from your server to the client.
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