Expose Drambo to “On My iPhone” so File Explorers can see files

Hi,

it would be good to expose the file system so that file explorers like the iOS “Files” app and apps like “FE File Explorer” can manage the files for organisation, moving, zipping etc

I’ve called the folder “Test” here but obviously it would appear as “Drambo”

I think it would maybe need a separate tab on the Drambo file dialog eg “My Device” or I guess it could replace “Local” but that would give some issues getting access to older files

i don’t know if there’s any way to just expose the existing “Local” Drambo folder to the file system?

thanks

J

Comments

  • Part of the problem is that Drambo is also an AUv3 thus it (for now) needs to keep its files in its own container.

    Sure it could be possible to manually grant the AUv3 access to the files visible in Files.app but that's upto @giku to decide.

  • You can already do this using Drambo's WebDAV server in the main (hamburger) menu. I cannot get the Files app to connect to it, but FileExplorer Pro handles it with no problem. And FileExplorer Pro appears as a File Provider in the Files app sidebar, so you can access Drambo files that way.

    I see you mentioned FE FileExplorer Pro, so you're all set. Just add Drambo to the FileExplorer menu as WebDAV. The URL I use is http://name.local:8080/ where "name" is the iPad name. Note that this actually connects to any WebDAV server running on the device; there can only be one at a time. The connection only works while Drambo is running, open to the WebDAV menu page; it doesn't give you full-time access. And you can actually connect to this server from any computer, not only the device running Drambo.

  • Somebody should really write a generic WebDAV plugin for the Files.app.

    Such apps are available from different cloud storage providers but they're always locked to their own services.

  • But having to use WebDaw to manage files that are already on the device is honestly meh.

    ...especially when it can already be done with file-permissions (ie. AUv3 can access everything visible to Files.app) as demonstrated by both Sitala and Koala, Luma Fusion and many 'non music' apps). Sure it requires a fairly modern iOS version...

  • edited August 2022

    FE File Explorer Pro does the job, as I explained above. And it's not locked to any service.


  • Who knows maybe iOS16/iPadOS16 will support WebDaw natively in Files.app...

    ...I mean the Finder on the Mac does that already.

  • @uncleDave Hey that's great, thanks!

  • thanks for the info @uncleDave . I'm just using my PC for now with WinSCP, as Windows 10/11 don't seem to connect via the file/network explorer

  • So, I'm trying to use WebDAV with FE File Explorer and also tried this with Documents by Readdle, but WebDAV is not staying connected.

    When I switch from Drambo to Explorer or Documents, WebDAV is disconnected. Each time, I click a folder in Drambo's directory, I have to have Drambo open in foreground. Switching apps turns off WebDAV.

    It would be helpful if WebDAV remained active without needing to have that menu in Drambo open.

  • You have to have Drambo running, with the WebDAV menu item opened. That activates the WebDAV server, temporarily converting Drambo into a network file server. But you can switch to another app, with Drambo in the background, and still access the WebDAV server. See my screenshot up-thread. That wasn't possible when WebDAV was first added to Drambo (version 1.20), but it was added relatively soon after (1.21), and has been the case for quite a while now. The current version is 2.10. If this doesn't work as I described, you may have an old version.

    What URL are you using to access the Drambo server? I use http://name.local:8080/ where "name" is the iPad name.

  • Oh interesting, probably not, checking...

  • That was it, thanks @gravitas! Never thought of that, plus switched iPads last year and never enabled it on this one. @uncleDave on beta :)

  • edited September 2022

    As far as I remember, there's no easy solution on iOS that works with apps that share the same file repository for both standalone and AUv3 plugin. And people want to use their projects both on the standalone and the AUv3 plugin.


  • It is currently possible to grant the AUv3's access to any folder visible in Files.app so in theory Drambo AUv3 could on first launch ask the user to select the Drambo Root folder using the Document picker.

    This does require a fairly recent iOS version (iOS14+ if I recall correctly) so those hanging on to older iOS version would have to update for this feature. (Adding this functionality to Drambo could give it similar in-line file-browse capabilities as Sitala or Koala even in the AUv3).

    As always with iOS it takes 2-3 years before apps start to fully take advantage of the additions made to iOS...

    If/when added it will take some time to verify that everything works as expected and it's fully up to @giku to decide.

    Cheers!

  • Sitala does this sooooo well, especially with its iCloud support. It’s basically perfect.

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