📤 Dropzone File Explorer

Dropzone File Explorer is a simple, self-hosted file manager designed for performance, usability and security. It allows you to browse, upload, manage and share files directly in the browser – without a database and without external dependencies. Version 1.1 – developed by Kevin Tobler 🌐 www.kevintobler.ch – 🌐 github.com/KeepCoolCH/DropzoneFileExplorer – 🌐 hub.docker.com/r/keepcoolch/dropzonefileexplorer

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🔄 Changelog

🆕 Version 1.x

• 1.1
  • 📦 Improved ZIP creation & extraction (more reliable, faster, better edge-case handling)
  • 📊 File & folder size calculation with automatic total size display
  • 👥 User management with per-folder access rights
  • 🔗 Share links with dedicated share page
  • 👁️ File preview directly inside share page
  • 🎨 Multiple UI / UX improvements
  • 🔧 API improvements & internal refactoring
  • 🐞 Various bug fixes and stability improvements
• 1.0
  • First Release, details below

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🚀 Features

• 📂 File & folder browser with tree navigation
• 🖱️ Drag & drop upload (files & entire folders)
• 📦 Automatic chunked uploads (large files supported)
• ⏸️ Pause & resume uploads
• 📊 Upload progress with speed indicator
• 📏 File & folder size display (including total folder size)
• 🔍 Live search (search in folders, name contains)
• 🗂️ Create, rename, move, copy and delete files & folders
• 📎 ZIP creation & extraction
• 👁️ Preview support (Images, Videos, Audio, PDF, Text files)
• ✏️ Inline text editor with save support
• 🔗 Share links for files & folders
• 📄 Dedicated share page with preview support
• 👥 Optional login & user management
• 🔐 Per-user folder permissions
• 🚫 No database required – pure PHP
• ⚡ Optimized for modern browsers
• 📱 Responsive UI

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📸 Screenshot

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🐳 Docker Installation (Version 1.1)

Dropzone File Explorer V.1.1 is available as a Docker image:

docker pull keepcoolch/dropzonefileexplorer:latest

Start the container:

docker run -d \
  --name dropzonefileexplorer \
  --restart=unless-stopped \
  -p 8080:80 \
  keepcoolch/dropzonefileexplorer:latest

Then open: 👉 http://localhost:8080

Uploads, settings, JSON files etc. are stored inside the container.

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📁 Optional: Volume mount - Map the directories to a folder on your host (Mac, Linux, NAS):

You can store all files and data outside the container (persistent on your host system). This is useful for:

• keeping files and configuration when recreating/updating the container
• mounting external storage

-v ~/dropzonefileexplorer/files:/var/www/files
-v ~/dropzonefileexplorer/data:/var/www/data

Full docker run example:

docker run -d \
  --name dropzonefileexplorer \
  --restart unless-stopped \
  -p 8080:80 \
  -v ~/dropzonefileexplorer/files:/var/www/files \
  -v ~/dropzonefileexplorer/data:/var/www/data \
  keepcoolch/dropzonefileexplorer:latest

Full docker-compose.yml example:

services:
  dropzonefileexplorer:
    image: keepcoolch/dropzonefileexplorer:latest
    container_name: dropzonefileexplorer
    restart: unless-stopped
    ports:
      - "8080:80"
    volumes:
      - ~/dropzonefileexplorer/files:/var/www/files
      - ~/dropzonefileexplorer/data:/var/www/data

Run docker compose:

docker compose up -d

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🔧 Manual Installation (non-Docker)

1. Upload all files to your web server
2. Open the application in your browser
3. Create Admin Account

⚠️ Requires PHP 8.0 or higher. No database needed.

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🧩 Architecture

• Backend: PHP (no database)
• Storage: Filesystem + JSON metadata
• Frontend: Vanilla JavaScript (no framework)
• Security: Session-based auth, path validation, controlled API endpoints

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📦 Upload Handling

• Chunked uploads for large files
• Automatic resume if upload is interrupted
• Parallel upload queue
• Optional overwrite / rename handling
• Folder uploads supported via browser APIs

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🔎 Search

• Search files and folders by name
• Live filtering while typing

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👁️ Preview & Editor

Supported previews

• 🖼️ Images (PNG, JPG, WebP, SVG, HEIC, …)
• 🎥 Videos (MP4, WebM, MOV, …)
• 🎧 Audio (MP3, WAV, AAC, …)
• 📄 PDF
• 📝 Text files (code & config files supported)

Text Editor

• Edit text files directly in the browser
• Save changes back to disk

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🔗 Sharing

Generate share links for:

• files
• folders

Share links can be:

• copied to clipboard
• opened directly

Shares can be revoked at any time

• Central overview of all active share links

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🔐 Authentication

• Session-based login
• Passwords are securely hashed
• Supports: admin account, additional users
• User management via UI
• Change passwords via UI

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🧑‍💻 Developer

Kevin Tobler
🌐 www.kevintobler.ch

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📜 License

This project is licensed under the MIT License – feel free to use, modify, and distribute.