Where is the source code?

[craxal]

Source code isn't open yet, I'm afraid. But we may plan to open it up in the future. We're only using GitHub for issue tracking for the time being.

[JakeRadMSFT]

Leaving issue open to gauge interest.

[MRayermannMSFT]

For people thumbs upping this issue, feel free to comment with why you're interested in seeing the source code (you want to contribute, you're interested in seeing the inner workings, you want to be able to fork it, etc.)!

[xt0rted]

Here's the reasons I'd like to see the code made available:

• Allows the community to review the code & dependencies
• Allows the community to make minor changes
• Allows the community to contribute features that aren't as high of a priority for the team
• Gives a good reference for doing auth with 2fa
• Gives a good reference for using the node storage sdk

I'd definitely look through the code, not sure what else I'd personally do with it right now though.

[JakeRadMSFT]

@xt0rted Thanks! Comments like these are highly appreciated and can help us prioritize open sourcing with enough interest!

[GarrettDavis]

I'm very interested in contributing. I've already fixed a couple of bugs in the Javascript so I can connect to my local Cosmos DB Emulator because I'm using a different port. I would like to be able to submit PRs to fix these bugs so I, and others that are experiencing the same problem, don't have to keep figuring out how to hack a fix for them with the next version.

To second what @xt0rted said above, open sourcing this code provides a great reference for using all the Azure SDKs that this tool uses (in which our company is quite interested). Also, it would be very nice if the community could contribute to the fixes that aren't a priority to the Azure Storage Explorer team but are definitely a priority to their own company.

Thanks for the tool! We're pretty much an Azure shop, so it's quite helpful to us. Keep up the good work.

[darrengillis]

It's a great tool and I was surprised from the beginning that it wasn't open source. I would like to see how the code is organized and how the SDKs are managed/used. Would be good to contribute directly to fixing bugs and adding features.

[manuelvalenzuela]

Hi @craxal, we are in the future of your 3-may-2018 comment! :D Are any update in the planes to open the source code?

best regards.

[craxal]

@manuelvalenzuela Thanks for your interest! Afraid I don't have any updates as of yet. But this is still on our radar.

Keep the comments coming! If our users keep asking for this, we can bump it up our priority list.

[kkbandaru]

in storage explorer i see paging is implemented for azure table storage. i want to understand the code to see how the paging is implemented in the explorer, like wise many features are there in the explorer which developers want to implement in their projects. please make the code as open source, developers will have understand best practices and to be followed by seeing your code as reference for accessing the azure storage, this will help all the developers

[jinglouMSFT]

@kkbandaru thanks for your interest. As Craig has mentioned above open source is on our long term plan. We haven't had the time to work on it yet.

[craxal]

Reopening. Not sure why this was closed, even though this is a long-term plan. We should close only when Storage Explorer has actually been open sourced.

[aschechter88]

Looking to be able to perform source mirroring and some update control for enterprise deployment

[itinfosystems]

Really useful tool, would be very interested in looking through the source code.

[tsubasaxZZZ]

I want to contribute translate to Japanese.

[jinglouMSFT]

@tsubasaxZZZ Thanks for the offer. We are in the process of making the code base localizable. JPN will be one of the languages to be localized to. Stay tuned.

[godlikesme-zz]

I would like to see this open sourced because I'd like to help contribute.

[rickvdbosch]

I've been working with Azure Storage Explorer since one of its earliest versions somewhere in 2015. I would like to see this open sourced because I would like to ...

• help contribute technically
• help contribute translate into Dutch
• see the inner workings of Azure Storage Explorer

[alexgman]

Where is the open source version?

[craxal]

@alexgman As stated in the comments above, Storage Explorer source code is not yet open, but we have log-term plans for making it so.

[kasuteru]

Just want to chime in that I would appreciate open-sourcing the code as well. Right now, most people in our company cannot use the explorer since you need admin rights to install - and we can't do anything about it.

We haven't had the time to work on it yet.

Wouldn't open-sourcing this actually save you time? People waiting desperately for you to implement some function might just decide to implement it for you ;-)

[manuelvalenzuela]

here is a happy volunteer 🙋🏻‍♂️

[craxal]

@kasuteru FYI, #1108 is tracking the issue you mentioned.

[kasuteru]

@craxal thanks for the update on that issue, I knew about #1108 but forgot to follow it.

[KristianJakubik]

I would like to see this open sourced:

• I would definitely contribute by fixing bugs or implementing small features.
• I think it is useful to see master branch and what to expect in next releases.
• I found it very useful several times when I was able to go through Devs discussion on PRs. Makes thinks much more clearer and more easily understandable.

[theelderwand]

https://github.com/microsoft/AzureStorageExplorer/issues/626 The motivator for me to contribute to the source code.

[jusso-dev]

I'd like the source code to be open due to issue #245 where-by the node module "request" does not support NTLM proxy authentication, so I may fork the code and replace "request" with a http library that is NTLM proxy aware.

[jinglouMSFT]

The code currently is not in the state to be open sourced unfortunately.

[craxal]

@jusso-dev We actually have some plans in the works to get this fixed. The problem is more than just switching to an NTLM-aware networking library. We also have to make sure other libraries we use that make network calls will still work (for example, the Azure Storage client library). We asked them about this, and new versions allow us to effectively inject our own networking library into their pipeline.

[Ratomir]

One of the new features may be a page with properties where users can set the behavior of Storage Explorer. Now, I see the one where I can mark that I want to upload files always with overwrite option, but without to be prompted every time.

[AlexJPawlak]

I'm doing bulk Table import / export services and was interested in how did you handle the "Import/Export" option of Table from/to CSV. Quite disappointing not to be able to find out how it's been implemented so I'd have to spend a lot of time redoing it myself

[stroborobo]

So how long-term are those plans to publish the code exactly?

[jinglouMSFT]

We don't have a date on this. We are currently working on trying to make SE extensible.

[DennesTorres]

For people thumbs upping this issue, feel free to comment with why you're interested in seeing the source code (you want to contribute, you're interested in seeing the inner workings, you want to be able to fork it, etc.)!

If I'm not mistaken, Azure Storage Explorer can't use rest API over a storage open to the public, with no authentication. I was looking for the source code to check if I could add this feature.

[nh43de]

Would also be curious to look at the code from a personal educational perspective as well

[06needhamt]

For people thumbs upping this issue, feel free to comment with why you're interested in seeing the source code (you want to contribute, you're interested in seeing the inner workings, you want to be able to fork it, etc.)!

Personally I would like to see the source code both to contribute and get a better idea how applications are developed for the Azure Platform.

[perjahn]

Would have been nice to be able to audit the source code for security purposes, b/c tools for managing infra have a higher risk than ordinary applications.

[AlexUrbanAc]

I have so much spare time while waiting for SE to find my storage containers, that issue #1790 would already be fixed twice over if I had access to the source code.

[JCKodel]

Here's the reasons I'd like to see the code made available:

• Gives a good reference for doing auth with 2fa

Please, don't! The authentication process is a living hell, it barely works. Most of the time I'm forced to use Storage Explorer in Azure Portal because MASE in MacOS is VERY unstable (and most of the issues are on authentication)

This is a fracking joke: https://github.com/microsoft/AzureStorageExplorer/issues/3605#issuecomment-696458017

[jbouduin]

Please, don't! The authentication process is a living hell, it barely works. Most of the time I'm forced to use Storage Explorer in Azure Portal because MASE in MacOS is VERY unstable (and most of the issues are on authentication)

Same issue on Windows. #3911

[craxal]

@JCKodel @jbouduin Have you tried switching to MSAL (Application → Sign-in → Microsoft Authentication Library in Settings)? If you're experiencing issues, please open a separate bug so that we can look into it.

[jbouduin]

@craxal yeah that worked fine.

[roboter]

Hi, Microsoft, here is my interest!

[craxal]

@roboter Sounds more like a specific bug we ought to look into. Can you file a new bug?

[roboter]

@roboter Sounds more like a specific bug we ought to look into. Can you file a new bug?

https://github.com/microsoft/AzureStorageExplorer/issues/3950

[JonasBr68]

Even if not ready for contributions, sharing the source code would help. I get the impression by the time the sources are available azure storage probably doesn't exist anymore. Tables are moving to Cosmo... Etc...

[JeffOkaki]

If this were open source it could provide a great example of how to interact with Azure and azurite. I am sure there are other resources but the explorer itself seems very well featured and such a useful tool. All those uses could be integrated into many apps.

That alone is worth the effort of opening up to make it easier for devs to use Azure services.

[daiplusplus]

If this were open source it could provide a great example of how to interact with Azure and azurite

Hold on, do we really want to imply Electron is a "great" way to build desktop apps?

(shots-fired)

[craxal]

Hold on, do we really want to imply Electron is a "great" way to build desktop apps?

(shots-fired)

@Jehoel A good point. Cross-platform (desktop) UI is tricky, and Electron was the only real option we had at the time. It's clear that Electron has some significant pain points; we've found ourselves having to reinvent certain facilities, such as globalization and accessibility, that .NET supports out of the box quite elegantly. Comments have been made in other issues about Xamarin, but that was mobile-only at the time. Personally, I have high hopes for .NET MAUI. 🤞

That being said, I don't consider open-sourcing Storage Explorer to imply an endorsement for Electron.

[daiplusplus]

@craxal I don't consider open-sourcing Storage Explorer to imply an endorsement for Electron.

If Microsoft did that, my interpretation would be "Here it is, now help us migrate this to a platform that doesn't require a machine with more RAM than a 1990s supercomputer."

---

Off-topic feature request to Microsoft's desktop app story PMs:

At this point in 2021, HTML and CSS (without JavaScript) are far, far, far more capable than WPF/Jupiter/MAUI/XAML/etc (let alone WinForms) when it comes to expressing and implementing how a UI should look, act and feel. Electron's popularity proves this - but Electron is built on Chromium which is optimized for the web, which compromises its applicability and suitability for the desktop. It should be possible to build a modern 2D-only HTML+CSS layout and rendering engine that uses minimal RAM, with interaction handled by DOM bindings to application code which could be written in any language. No JavaScript support or process-separation required. Build this into Windows and I'll marry you.

Hmmm, anyone fancy starting a new startup company around something like this? <_<