MakeDrive

An offline-first, always available, syncing filesystem for the web. MakeDrive gives web pages and apps a complete filesystem that can be used offline, and also synced with the cloud.

MakeDrive is designed for use with Mozilla Webmaker tools and services, but could be adapted to any use.

See the Mozilla MakeDrive Wiki page for background info.

Compatibility

Desktop Browsers

   Google Chrome: 31+ (IndexedDB, WebSQL)

   Mozilla Firefox: 26+ (IndexedDB)

   Opera: 19+ (IndexedDB, WebSQL)

   Safari: 7.0+ (WebSQL)

   Internet Explorer: 10+ (IndexedDB)

Engines/Platforms

• Node.js: v0.10+

Installation and Use

1. Install and run redis, which MakeDrive uses for distributed locks.

2. Clone the MakeDrive repository.

$ git clone https://github.com/mozilla/makedrive.git

1. In your MakeDrive directory, install all of the necessary MakeDrive dependencies:

If you don't already have grunt-cli and bower installed globally, here is the console command using npm -

$ sudo npm install bower -g

$ sudo npm install grunt-cli -g

The server's log level can be set in the environment or the .env file using LOG_LEVEL=* with one of fatal, error, warn, info, debug, trace. If none is given info is used.

Afterwards, install the npm modules -

$ npm install

Next, install dependencies -

$ bower install

1. Copy the distributed environment file via command line, or manually using a code editor:

$ cp env.dist .env

1. Run the MakeDrive server at the default log level:

$ npm start

You will now have MakeDrive running on localhost via port 9090 - http://localhost:9090

Developer Demo

An independent and lightweight front-end instance has been added to test MakeDrive's functionality on its own. The NODE_ENV variable must be set to development in your .env file for this page to be enabled. It currently resides on and can be visited at localhost:9090/demo/?makedrive=ws://localhost:9090.

NOTE: For connecting the demo with another MakeDrive server, the localhost address and port of the above demo page must be added to the ALLOWED_CORS_DOMAINS variable in the .env file of the instance you are trying to connect to in order to avoid cross-origin resource errors.

Overview

Built on top of the Filer filesystem interface, MakeDrive adds cloud-like syncing functionality that allows for multiple clients to share and interact with an active project directory from different browsers or platforms. There are features and options for both manual and auto syncing.

Below is a simple way to create and initiate a MakeDrive instance on client-side code:

var fs = MakeDrive.fs();

Multiple calls to MakeDrive.fs() will return the same instance.

Routes

MakeDrive has three HTTP REST endpoints for retrieving user filesystem data in various formats. All of these routes require authentication and are not meant for public use, but for users and apps to allow easy access to data when logged in. Each one is accessed by simply being appended to the URL that presently hosts MakeDrive
(eg. https://makedrive.mofostaging.net/p/):

  /p/ - Serves as a path for a user's Filer filesystem. You can currently view anything that has been synced inside of the user's project directory tree.
  /j/ - Similar to the /p/ route, but serves the path information in JSON format for APIs.
  /z/ - Used to export the current user's project data in compressed ZIP format.

There is also an optional /s/:username/:path route for server-to-server requests. This route requires HTTP Basic AUTH, and is disabled by default. It is designed for servers vs. users to be able to get file and folder data for a user. It is not meant for user access. It can be enabled by adding a username:password pair to the .env file for the BASIC_AUTH_USERS variable.

Authentication

MakeDrive uses Passport.js for authentication middleware. Currently MakeDrive supports 4 providers:

provider	description
passport-github	Passport strategy for authenticating with GitHub using the OAuth 2.0 API.
passport-env	Passport strategy for authenticating using environment configuration.
passport-zeroconfig (default)	Passport strategy for always authenticated root user.
passport-query-string	Passport strategy for authenticating with a username and password provided on the query string.
passport-webmaker	Passport strategy for authenticating with Webmaker session.

To use one of the above provider you can set the environment configuration AUTHENTICATION_PROVIDER.

Example using passport-github:

Set the environment configurations in your .env file.

export AUTHENTICATION_PROVIDER="passport-github"
export GITHUB_CLIENTID="clientId"
export GITHUB_CLIENTSECRET="clientSecret"
export GITHUB_CALLBACKURL="http://callbackurl"

You can also check other providers listed in the providers directory for more information.

API Reference

Constructor

var fs = MakeDrive.fs({
  manual: true,
  memory: true,
  forceCreate: true
  // etc.
});

A number of configuration options can be passed to the fs() function. These include:

Option	Value	Definition
manual	true	by default the filesystem syncs automatically in the background. This disables it.
memory	<Boolean>	by default we use a persistent store (indexeddb or websql). Using memory=true overrides and uses a temporary ram disk.
autoReconnect	<Boolean>	'true' by default. When toggled to 'true', MakeDrive will automatically try to reconnect to the server if the WebSocket closed for any reason (e.g. no network connection or server crash).
reconnectAttempts	<Number>	By default, MakeDrive will try to reconnect forever. This sets a maximum number for attempts, after which a reconnect_failed event will be emitted.
reconnectionDelay	<Number>	Default to 1000 (ms). How long to wait before attempting a new reconnection.
reconnectionDelayMax	<Number>	Default to 5000 (ms). Maximum amount of time to wait between reconnections. Each attempt increases the reconnection by the amount specified by reconnectionDelay.
provider	<Object>	a Filer data provider to use instead of the default provider normally used. The provider given should already be instantiated (i.e., don't pass a constructor function).
forceCreate	<Boolean>	by default we return the same fs instance with every call to MakeDrive.fs(). In some cases it is necessary to have multiple instances. Using forceCreate=true does this.
interval	<Number>	by default, the filesystem syncs every 15 seconds if auto syncing is turned on, otherwise the interval between syncs can be specified in ms.
windowCloseWarning	<Boolean>	false by default. When toggled to true, prompts the user to confirm exiting the webpage when trying to close in the middle of a sync.

Various bits of Filer are available on MakeDrive, including:

MakeDrive.Buffer
MakeDrive.Path
MakeDrive.Errors

See Filer's docs for more information.

---

MakeDrive Instance Methods

Events

The filesystem instance returned by MakeDrive.fs() includes the property sync. The fs.sync property is an EventEmitter which emits the following events:

Event	Description
'error'	an error occurred while connecting/syncing. The error object is passed as the first arg to the event.
'connected'	a connection was established with the sync server
'reconnect_failed'	fired when the maximum reconnect attempts is reached and a connection could not be made.
'reconnecting'	fired every time a reconnect attempt is made.
'disconnected'	the connection to the sync server was lost, either due to the client or server.
'syncing'	a sync with the server has begun. A subsequent 'completed' or 'error' event should follow at some point, indicating whether or not the sync was successful.
'completed'	a sync has completed and was successful.

Sync

The sync property also exposes a number of methods, including:

Method	Purpose
connect(url, [token])	Try to connect to the specified sync server URL. An 'error' or 'connected' event will follow, depending on success. If the token parameter is provided, that authentication token will be used. Otherwise the client will try to obtain one from the server's /api/sync route. This requires the user to be authenticated.
disconnect()	Disconnect from the sync server.
request()	Request a sync with the server. The path is automatically tracked by any changes that occur within the filesystem. Such requests may or may not be processed.

Finally, the sync property also exposes a "state", which is the current sync state and can be one of:

 sync.SYNC_DISCONNECTED = "SYNC DISCONNECTED" /* also the initial state */
 sync.SYNC_CONNECTING = "SYNC CONNECTING"
 sync.SYNC_CONNECTED = "SYNC CONNECTED"
 sync.SYNC_SYNCING = "SYNC SYNCING"
 sync.SYNC_ERROR = "SYNC ERROR"

Logging

MakeDrive provides various levels of logging. By default it is disabled, but it can be enabled using MakeDrive.log.level():

// Use debug logging
MakeDrive.log.level('debug');
 
// Use info logging
MakeDrive.log.level('info');
 
// Disable logging after it was turned on
MakeDrive.log.level('disabled');

In addition to using level name strings, you can use MakeDrive.log.INFO, MakeDrive.log.DEBUG, MakeDrive.log.WARN, MakeDrive.log.ERROR, etc.

Testing and Contributing

Any assistance in adding new features or enhancing current ones, as well as resolving issues is greatly appreciated. Please refer to our CONTRIBUTING.md document for more information about internal MakeDrive implementations, git conventions and testing methodologies for aspiring developers.