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Re:Websrvr – Deploy your websites to a CDN using Dropbox by xg15 on Saturday September 06, 2014 @05:26AM (#8277914)
Some questions that come to my mind immediately:

- Does it share my whole Dropbox with the world? (It doesn't, but I only know this from reading this thread) If not, which parts of the Dropbox are shared?

- What kinds of files are published? What MIME types are supported? Can I somehow override MIME types?

- How are the files published? Do I get auto-generated URLs on the CDN's server? Do I have to update my DNS records? Some other way?

- Are the files cached somewhere? (Other than the CDN) Can I delete them quickly?

- How do I remove my account? Is all my data deleted as soon as I remove the Dropbox connection?

- And of course the pricing questions: Is it free, will it stay free? Are there usage restrictions? (Bandwidth, traffic, etc)

The idea of this service seems really cool, as well as the one-click signup. But I agree with the others that more information before signup is necessary. I think a tutorial or a FAQ page would be really useful.

(I don't have any experience with Cloudfront, so apologies if some questions are obvious if you know their service)

Re:Websrvr – Deploy your websites to a CDN using Dropbox by minhajuddin on Saturday September 06, 2014 @07:32AM (#8278073)
> Does it share my whole Dropbox with the world? (It doesn't, but I only know this from reading this thread) If not, which parts of the Dropbox are shared?

No. Even websrvr has access to just an app folder (a newly created folder inside your dropbox).

> What kinds of files are published? What MIME types are supported? Can I somehow override MIME types?

Any file whose name doesn't start with a '.' is published, so all non-hidden files. Right now, MIME types cannot be overridden, but it sounds like a good idea, I'll implement it soon.

> How are the files published? Do I get auto-generated URLs on the CDN's server? Do I have to update my DNS records? Some other way?

Every folder inside the websrvr app folder is published as an independent site. You get a unique host for each site. e.g. if you have a folder called 'foobar' with a file called 'index.html', this will be published to 'foobar.websrvr.in/index.html'. The cloudfront integration is not yet live, since I am still testing the demand for this kind of a product.

> Are the files cached somewhere? (Other than the CDN) Can I delete them quickly?

Yes these are cached on our servers, and whenever a file is created we update our cache, whenever you delete a file in your dropbox it will be deleted from our cache.

> How do I remove my account? Is all my data deleted as soon as I remove the Dropbox connection?

You can select and delete all folders from the websrvr app folder to delete the data from our servers. Once you do that, you can unlink your dropbox account from the dropbox website at https://www.dropbox.com/account#security

> And of course the pricing questions: Is it free, will it stay free? Are there usage restrictions? (Bandwidth, traffic, etc)

websrvr backed hosting: $1 per month - All the data would be served from our fast web servers

Amazon S3 backed hosting: $3 per month - All the data would be served from Amazon S3 servers.

Amazon Cloudfront backed hosting: $10 per month + overage charges - All the data would be served from the Amazon Cloudfront CDN. If your cloudfront usage goes above $10 we'll charge the difference in the next month's invoice.

There are more faqs at: https://app.websrvr.in/help

Re:Websrvr – Deploy your websites to a CDN using Dropbox by toomuchtodo on Saturday September 06, 2014 @03:03PM (#8279164)
Why the huge jump between S3 and Cloudfront served hosting? Just market segmentation?
Re:Websrvr – Deploy your websites to a CDN using Dropbox by tootie on Friday September 05, 2014 @10:10PM (#8277222)
Signup without explanation of features or cost?
Re:Websrvr – Deploy your websites to a CDN using Dropbox by minhajuddin on Friday September 05, 2014 @10:15PM (#8277238)
I wanted to make the signup process as simple as possible. I am looking for a good way to show the user the pricing and features. Maybe I should show it after the signup? Thanks for trying it out :)
Re:Websrvr – Deploy your websites to a CDN using Dropbox by ChristianBundy on Saturday September 06, 2014 @12:54AM (#8277574)
You should absolutely be up-front and transparent with your pricing and features, before requesting things from the user.
Re:Websrvr – Deploy your websites to a CDN using Dropbox by brewdad on Friday September 05, 2014 @11:49PM (#8277440)
Why not show it before signup? I'm not giving anyone access to my Dropbox just because they ask nicely.
Re:Websrvr – Deploy your websites to a CDN using Dropbox by asattarmd on Saturday September 06, 2014 @02:48AM (#8277721)
To be fair, it is asking for access to only a folder that itself creates.
Re:Websrvr – Deploy your websites to a CDN using Dropbox by khulat on Saturday September 06, 2014 @03:04AM (#8277753)
Yeah, but it doesn't tell you that.
Re:Websrvr – Deploy your websites to a CDN using Dropbox by asattarmd on Saturday September 06, 2014 @06:14AM (#8277968)
Dropbox tells you when asking for your permission.
Re:Websrvr – Deploy your websites to a CDN using Dropbox by brenschluss on Saturday September 06, 2014 @12:58AM (#8277576)
Simple signup != signup without info.
Re:Websrvr – Deploy your websites to a CDN using Dropbox by slashink on Saturday September 06, 2014 @12:07AM (#8277487)
Thinking the same thing, make it very clear why im linking my dropbox. The service seems great though :)
Re:Websrvr – Deploy your websites to a CDN using Dropbox by minhajuddin on Sunday September 07, 2014 @11:43AM (#8281458)
Guys, websrvr has been approved for production by the awesome folks at Dropbox. Signups are open again, woot :)
Re:Websrvr – Deploy your websites to a CDN using Dropbox by zuck9 on Saturday September 06, 2014 @12:30AM (#8277535)
How is it hosted currently? websrvr's host?
Re:Websrvr – Deploy your websites to a CDN using Dropbox by minhajuddin on Saturday September 06, 2014 @03:27AM (#8277772)
In beta, I am hosting it off of a single server. However in production I'll have a multi data center cluster, if the product is viable :)
Re:Websrvr – Deploy your websites to a CDN using Dropbox by zuck9 on Saturday September 06, 2014 @03:37AM (#8277784)
Hosting yourself? Or somewhere like DigitalOcean?
Re:Websrvr – Deploy your websites to a CDN using Dropbox by minhajuddin on Saturday September 06, 2014 @07:07AM (#8278038)
It's hosted on Digital Ocean.
Re:Websrvr – Deploy your websites to a CDN using Dropbox by zuck9 on Saturday September 06, 2014 @12:53PM (#8278769)
DO is pretty popular these days.
Re:Websrvr – Deploy your websites to a CDN using Dropbox by minhajuddin on Saturday September 06, 2014 @01:02PM (#8278791)
Yeah, I love them, their performance is good too :)