file-browser/README.md

Nextcloud + Elasticsearch Discovery File Explorer

A discovery-first file explorer built with Next.js (App Router, TypeScript, Tailwind, shadcn UI) that connects to Nextcloud via WebDAV and indexes metadata/content into Elasticsearch (BM25 baseline, optional semantic hybrid search). Includes upload/download, folder tree browsing, global search, and Sentry instrumentation.

TL;DR (Quick Start)

Prereqs:

• Node 18+ and npm
• Docker (for Elasticsearch/Kibana/Tika services)

Setup:

1. Configure environment

   • Copy .env.example to .env.local and fill in your values (Nextcloud creds + Elasticsearch endpoint).
   • A pre-populated .env.local is included for your provided Nextcloud host (update if needed).

2. Provision Elasticsearch + Tika (Docker sample below)

3. Create Elasticsearch index

   • npm run create:index

4. Ingest Nextcloud into ES (BM25 baseline)

   • npx tsx -r dotenv/config -r tsconfig-paths/register scripts/ingest-nextcloud.ts

5. Run the app

   • npm run dev then open the reported URL (e.g., http://localhost:3000)

Why this exists

Nextcloud is the system of record for files; this app provides a discovery UX (fast search, filters, previews later) by indexing normalized documents into Elasticsearch. Apache Tika can extract plain text for rich BM25 search, and optional OpenAI-compatible embeddings enable semantic hybrid search.

Architecture

• UI: Next.js App Router (TypeScript), Tailwind CSS, shadcn UI
• Data
  • Nextcloud WebDAV for browse/upload/download
  • Elasticsearch for indexing and search (BM25 baseline)
  • Apache Tika server for content extraction (optional but recommended)
  • OpenAI-compatible embeddings (optional) for dense vectors/hybrid queries
• Observability: Sentry (client/server/edge) with logs and spans

Features

• Browse Nextcloud directories via a lazy-loading sidebar tree
• View files with size/type and actions in a table
• Upload files into the current folder
• Download/proxy via Next.js route
• Global search box (BM25 baseline) with optional “Semantic” toggle for hybrid search (when embeddings are configured)
• Sentry logging/tracing sprinkled around WebDAV and Elasticsearch calls

Project Layout (highlights)

• src/lib
  • env.ts: zod-validated env loader with flags
  • paths.ts: normalization/helpers for DAV paths
  • elasticsearch.ts: ES client, ensureIndex, bm25Search, knnSearch, hybridSearch
  • webdav.ts: Nextcloud WebDAV wrapper (list/create/upload/download/stat) with spans
  • embeddings.ts: OpenAI-compatible embeddings client
• src/app/api
  • folders/list, folders/create
  • files/list, files/upload, files/download
  • search/query
• scripts
  • create-index.ts: creates ES index + alias
  • ingest-nextcloud.ts: crawl Nextcloud → optional Tika → index into ES
• docs/elasticsearch/mappings.json: canonical baseline mapping
• Sentry init
  • instrumentation-client.ts, sentry.server.config.ts, sentry.edge.config.ts

Environment Variables

Populate .env.local (not committed). See .env.example for full list.

Required:

• NEXTCLOUD_BASE_URL: e.g. https://your-nextcloud.example.com

• NEXTCLOUD_USERNAME: WebDAV user

• NEXTCLOUD_APP_PASSWORD: App password generated in Nextcloud (not login password)

• NEXTCLOUD_ROOT_PATH: e.g. /remote.php/dav/files/admin

• ELASTICSEARCH_URL: e.g. http://localhost:9200

• ELASTICSEARCH_INDEX: default files

• ELASTICSEARCH_ALIAS: default files_current

Optional:

• TIKA_BASE_URL: e.g. http://localhost:9998 (if using Apache Tika for extraction)
• SENTRY_DSN: if provided, Sentry is enabled
• OPENAI_API_BASE, OPENAI_API_KEY, OPENAI_EMBEDDING_MODEL, EMBEDDING_DIM: Enable embeddings + semantic hybrid

Dependencies and Local Services (Docker)

Below is a sample docker-compose for local development. Adjust versions for your environment. For TrueNAS Scale, translate this into an appropriate app configuration.

version: "3.9"
services:
  elasticsearch:
    image: docker.elastic.co/elasticsearch/elasticsearch:8.12.2
    container_name: es
    environment:
      - discovery.type=single-node
      - xpack.security.enabled=false
      - ES_JAVA_OPTS=-Xms1g -Xmx1g
    ports:
      - "9200:9200"
    healthcheck:
      test: ["CMD", "curl", "-f", "http://localhost:9200/_cluster/health"]
      interval: 10s
      timeout: 5s
      retries: 10

  kibana:
    image: docker.elastic.co/kibana/kibana:8.12.2
    container_name: kibana
    environment:
      - ELASTICSEARCH_HOSTS=http://elasticsearch:9200
    ports:
      - "5601:5601"
    depends_on:
      elasticsearch:
        condition: service_healthy

  tika:
    image: apache/tika:latest-full
    container_name: tika
    ports:
      - "9998:9998"
    healthcheck:
      test: ["CMD", "curl", "-f", "http://localhost:9998"]
      interval: 10s
      timeout: 5s
      retries: 10

Notes:

• Security is relaxed in this dev config (xpack security disabled). Harden for production.
• Set TIKA_BASE_URL=http://localhost:9998 to enable content extraction.

Install & Run

Install dependencies:

npm install

Run development server:

npm run dev
# Next.js will print the URL, for example http://localhost:3000

Build and start:

npm run build
npm start

Initialize Elasticsearch

Create the index and alias (files/files_current):

npm run create:index
# internally: tsx -r dotenv/config -r tsconfig-paths/register scripts/create-index.ts

To recreate:

npm run create:index -- --recreate

Ingest Nextcloud → Elasticsearch

Crawl Nextcloud via WebDAV, optionally extract content with Tika, index into ES:

npx tsx -r dotenv/config -r tsconfig-paths/register scripts/ingest-nextcloud.ts

Restrict to a subtree:

npx tsx -r dotenv/config -r tsconfig-paths/register scripts/ingest-nextcloud.ts -- --root=/remote.php/dav/files/admin/SomeFolder

After ingestion, try searching in the UI (BM25).

Optional: Semantic Hybrid Search

To enable, configure embeddings:

• OPENAI_API_BASE (e.g., https://api.openai.com/v1 or your compatible endpoint)
• OPENAI_API_KEY
• OPENAI_EMBEDDING_MODEL (e.g., text-embedding-3-large)
• EMBEDDING_DIM (e.g., 1536)

Current code path supports:

• Hybrid search in API when semantic: true in requests; UI has a “Semantic” toggle.
• A future backfill script can be added to compute vectors for existing docs (planned).

Sentry

• Files:
  • instrumentation-client.ts (client init)
  • sentry.server.config.ts (node runtime)
  • sentry.edge.config.ts (edge runtime)
• Enable by setting SENTRY_DSN in .env.local.
• Logging enabled (consoleLoggingIntegration), capturing console.log/warn/error.
• Spans instrument WebDAV and ES operations with meaningful op/name and attributes.

API Endpoints

• GET /api/folders/list?path=/abs/path → { folders[], files[] }
• POST /api/folders/create body: { path: "/abs/path" } → { ok: true }
• GET /api/files/list?path=/abs/path&page=1&perPage=50 → { total, page, perPage, items[] }
• POST /api/files/upload (multipart) form-data: file, destPath
• GET /api/files/download?path=/abs/path → stream download
• POST /api/search/query → body: { q, filters?, sort?, page?, perPage?, semantic? }

UI Usage

• Navigate folders via the left sidebar. Root defaults to NEXTCLOUD_ROOT_PATH.
• Breadcrumbs show the current path; click to navigate.
• Global search queries ES (BM25). Toggle “Semantic” to blend vector similarity (when enabled).
• Use “Upload” to send a file to the current folder.
• Click a file name or download action to retrieve it.

Known Caveats / TODO

• When starting from NEXTCLOUD_ROOT_PATH, breadcrumb segments may include technical path prefixes (e.g., /remote.php, /dav) that aren’t browsable independently. This can be adjusted to start breadcrumbs from the user root only.
• Embeddings backfill script & “Find similar” API/UI are planned.
• Tests (unit/integration/E2E) and TrueNAS-specific compose notes can be added next.

Development Notes

• Code style: TypeScript, ESLint (Next config), Tailwind v4.
• shadcn components added (Slate), most primitives included.
• ES Types via @elastic/elasticsearch estypes.
• Stream interop handled for Node → Web streams in downloads and uploads.
• Zod-based env loader normalizes URLs and validates required vars.

Troubleshooting

• Search 500s:
  • Ensure Elasticsearch is running and reachable at ELASTICSEARCH_URL.
  • Run npm run create:index to create the index and alias.
  • If using Tika for content, ensure TIKA_BASE_URL is set and service is healthy (optional).
• WebDAV failures:
  • Verify NEXTCLOUD_BASE_URL, NEXTCLOUD_USERNAME, NEXTCLOUD_APP_PASSWORD, and NEXTCLOUD_ROOT_PATH.
  • Confirm the user has permission for the target path.
• Sentry issues:
  • Ensure SENTRY_DSN is set; check networking/outbound restrictions.

Scripts

• npm run create:index: Create/recreate Elasticsearch index and alias
• scripts/ingest-nextcloud.ts: Crawl Nextcloud → Tika (optional) → Elasticsearch

Security

• Keep .env.local out of source control (already in .gitignore).
• Use Nextcloud App Passwords, not login passwords.
• Harden Elasticsearch/Kibana/Tika for production (auth, TLS, resource limits).

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Built per implementation_plan.md with a deterministic order of rollout and Sentry instrumentation aligned to organizational rules.