Nimbus
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Introduction

Nimbus is a Windows desktop application to manage containers and objects stored in Rackspace Cloud Files. The application uses a familar Windows Explorer appearance where you can list, sort, add and delete containers and objects, and you can transfer files to-and-from the local file system and cloud files.

In June 2011 I evaluated a few "cloud backup" products, but found them to be too expensive, too inflexible, too intrusive or to cumbersome due to their large install and runtime footprint. I then found that a lot of these backup products were simply application shells over someone else's cloud storage. So rather than waste time with these "resellers" of cloud space, I decided to purchase a Rackspace Cloud Files account and manage the space myself. As a developer I feel quite happy to purchase general purpose space with an API to use it, but it places a heavy burden up me to find (or write) something to manage my space and move files back-and-forth.

For a week or so I simply used the Rackspace Control Panel to upload files to my Cloud Files space, but a bug in their web UI prevented me uploading multiple files. I asked about this bug in the forums and via live chat, but I never received an answer and I had to abandon their control panel as little more than useless.

Then I discovered that a Mac application called Cyberduck which managed Could Files had been ported to Windows. I was really excited, but soon rather disappointed to find that the application was rather bland and over-generalised to work with different cloud space providers. Cyberduck has some lovely professional features such as drag-and-drop, synchronise, search, transfer progress displays and virtual container sub-folders, but overall the UI is surprisingly dull. It seems that the majority of the fine software engineering work from the many contributors to Cyberduck has gone into making it a general purpose file-transfer utility for different protocols with support for a variety of vendors (Amazon, Rackspace, Google, Azure, etc).

Nimbus

On a long weekend in early July 2011 I decided to write my own application over the Rackspace Cloud Files API. The application named Nimbus is written in C# using Visual Studio 2010 and the .NET Framework 4.0. It it my intention that Nimbus be specifically designed to work with the Rackspace Cloud Files REST API. This design decision simplifies the overall design and reduces the coding effort. I have no intention of trying to complete with general purpose products like Cyberduck.

After 2 weekends and some evenings of hobby coding I have reached a point where Nimbus is working well enough for me to have displaced use of Cyberduck. I now use Nimbus as the sole means of moving files to-and-from my local computers and the Rackspace Cloud Files storage.

In the spirit of open source I am making the Nimbus application binaries, Windows MSI installer and complete source code projects available for free download. No warranties, guarantees, licences or copyrights are involved in any way. I am simply giving the whole application and the source code away as a gift to other developers who might find it useful as a learning exercise. I am happy to receive feedback with bug reports or suggestions about how to improve Nimbus. Remember that Nimbus is simply a hobby project of mine, so I can only reply to correspondence and release improved versions as my spare time permits.

Screen Shots

Nimbus login screen (931 x 687)	Nimbus navigation screen (1100 x 756)

Development Status (01-Apr-2012)

Working

• Login authentication.
• Application settings dialog.
• Container and object lists.
• Context menus on the container and object lists.
• Context menus on the toolbar to change appearance.
• Asynchronous upload of folder(s) and file(s) to a container.
• Asynchronous download of object(s) and container(s).
• Drag and drop from Windows Explorer into the container list for upload.
• Scrolling log pane.
• Scrolling Transfers pane showing coloured states.
• Synchronise upload from local folder to a container (mirror option not working yet)
• Editing of container and object metadata properties (the API does not support container property delete).

Not working yet (and known bugs)

• Support for pseudo-hierarchical folders (Cyberduck uses the / separator for this)
• Progress and cancellation of transfers. This is a temporary limitation of the libraries used to perform the REST calls.
• Synchronise folders mirror option which deletes storage objects not in the local folder.
• A separate window to show transfers.
• Scalability ... This is difficult to test, as I only have a moderate number of personal containers and objects stored in Cloud Files. If you run Nimbus against very large numbers of containers and objects then I'm sure it will be sluggish, or perhaps even crash. I am familiar with multi-threaded programming techniques and ways of virtualising the contents of grids and trees to improve UI performance, but I won't embark upon these time-consuming coding exercises until I know it's necessary.

Download

	MSI installer (nimbus_1_0_0_8.msi) This is a standard Windows installer file that will cleanly install and uninstall the application. This file is suitable for non-technical people who want to try Nimbus. An unfinished but working command line project has been added to provide a tool for using the Rackspace API from the console or scripts.
	Source code ZIP (nimbus_1_0_0_8.zip) A zip of the complete Visual Studio 2010 solution. You should be able to unzip the contents into a folder, then load, build and run the solution.
	rackutil ZIP (rackutil.zip) A command line utility over the Rackspace API. Run the common with no parameters (or /?) to display detailed command help.

I'm happy for anyone to evaluate these files and give me feedback on ideas or bugs. Send correspondence to Greg Keogh <nimbus@orthogonal.com.au>. I know that testing an app outside of the author's home development environment usually produces weird unexpected errors.

Change History