online file storage/sharing

[smcmahon]

While we have a succesful website for our team, I'm looking at a few new options for the future. One is to host team files, photos, and videos somewhere online. I know Red Barons (team 63) use Google Picasa for their photos now, and YouTube for videos.

Basically what I'm looking for is a site where a user could log in, and have access to folders that then would contain files, photos (in more folders) and videos. Any suggestions/ideas are welcome.

Thank you.

-Team 2656

[HighLife]

We've always put our videos on Vimeo and embed them in our site. They have a much nicer interface than YouTube that you can customize to fit your site and they also have dowload links with the original video source.

All our pictures are on our site but we have a good amount of bandwidth and space. I'm not sure what you guys have but I would host pictures on your site otherwise use Flikr.

[Uberbots]

Originally Posted by HighLife

We've always put our videos on Vimeo and embed them in our site. They have a much nicer interface than YouTube that you can customize to fit your site and they also have dowload links with the original video source.

That and youtube has been getting painfully slow in recent months.

The uberbots simply store files on the webserver (bluehost, they are great), and we have enough bandwidth and speed to handle streaming video, so we do so (should our website by some miracle start getting more hits than it can handle per month then we will rethink this). Our files are accessable using a file tree (similar to windows explorer).

[Andrew Schreiber]

Originally Posted by HighLife

We've always put our videos on Vimeo and embed them in our site. They have a much nicer interface than YouTube that you can customize to fit your site and they also have dowload links with the original video source.

All our pictures are on our site but we have a good amount of bandwidth and space. I'm not sure what you guys have but I would host pictures on your site otherwise use Flikr.

I second this, I know I host all of my photos through Flickr, can't beat the price. I would also suggest Vimeo for team videos, I have always preferred Vimeo, it just has a cleaner interface.

[lynca]

Videos - Vimeo (definitely the best but they take more time to upload your video unless you pay for premium) !

Pictures - Picasa, we decided to integrate picasa into our site with great results. Check out our webinfo for more details.
http://2009.discobots.org/node/27

Snycing with Online picture Host really makes life easy because the scripts automatically update the site.

[smcmahon]

HighLife - thanks for the tip on Vimeo. I'd heard of it, but never paid it much mind. I will look into it this evening. We don't have much in the way of videos and they're all generally small.

UberBots - I'd like to hear more about this online 'file tree'. Does it work like FTP? Link? If it's not public, I understand. I'd love to see a screen cap though.

Andrew - again, thanks on Vimeo. I was never a big fan of Flickr, but I'll give them another look.

lynca - your team's website is interesting and very nicely done. I've seen some very poor Picasa intergrations on other sites, but yours looks great. I'll read the rest of your webinfo page this evening.

Thanks everyone. Hopefully this will get me on the right path here. ChiefDelphi rules!

[Uberbots]

Originally Posted by smcmahon

UberBots - I'd like to hear more about this online 'file tree'. Does it work like FTP? Link? If it's not public, I understand. I'd love to see a screen cap though.

At the moment its database fed... its really not that user friendly on the admin side, but i have plans to make it better if i ever get the time to.

http://uberbots.org/2008/resources.php#

[Rosiebotboss]

You all need to look at Windchill from PTC.

It will handle anything you put into it, documents, pictures, video, CAD files...and they are a sponsor of FIRST. Use the tools available to you. Rosie does.

[basicxman]

Originally Posted by Rosiebotboss

You all need to look at Windchill from PTC.

It will handle anything you put into it, documents, pictures, video, CAD files...and they are a sponsor of FIRST. Use the tools available to you. Rosie does.

Windchill is a great organizing tool but it REALLY needs an update. The user interface is ugly as sin and every action requires page reloading, etc... It needs to be taken to the next level with some Web 2.0 concepts like AJAX data submission!

I know some teams (including me) which use Dropbox, it's a great free (or upgrade) service that works flawlessly with linux, mac, and windows. https://www.getdropbox.com/referrals/NTk2ODU2OQ

[smcmahon]

I registered our team account with PTC. That sounds really interesting on the whole, and dealing with another FRC sponsor is always nice. I also registered a Dropbox account for us. I'm going to check that out too. Thanks for the further ideas ya'll.

[Mr. Freeman]

Originally Posted by basicxman

Windchill is a great organizing tool but it REALLY needs an update. The user interface is ugly as sin and every action requires page reloading, etc...

Agreed. Not to mention the absence of a "logout" button. I stay away from windchill as much as I possibly can. I cannot stand using it.

I also don't think that other teams can see what gets uploaded to it, so it wouldn't be useful for displaying team pictures/videos.

[basicxman]

Originally Posted by Mr. Freeman

Agreed. Not to mention the absence of a "logout" button.

I believe it uses sessions, not cookies, therefore you're logged out when your session ends (website/browser exits)

[keehun]

Originally Posted by basicxman

I believe it uses sessions, not cookies, therefore you're logged out when your session ends (website/browser exits)

That doesn't justify the inability to log off without inconveniently closing the browser window.

[basicxman]

Originally Posted by keehun

That doesn't justify the inability to log off without inconveniently closing the browser window.

True, poorly developed on PTC's part.

[benoto]

Originally Posted by basicxman

Windchill is a great organizing tool but it REALLY needs an update. The user interface is ugly as sin and every action requires page reloading, etc... It needs to be taken to the next level with some Web 2.0 concepts like AJAX data submission!

I know some teams (including me) which use Dropbox, it's a great free (or upgrade) service that works flawlessly with linux, mac, and windows. https://www.getdropbox.com/referrals/NTk2ODU2OQ

Don't diss rosiebots idea of windchill. I think it was great.