Show HN: Never search for email attachments again

filefern.com

4 points·Beefin··4 comments

A solution to a real problem.

It turns me off that there is nothing said about pricing up front, it makes me hesitant to sign up for the service.

I have been daydreaming about a system that scans a POP or IMAP web server, maybe even a Maildir, and detaches the attachments and stores them in an object store and makes them searchable. One problem with FileFern is that it is active instead of passive, that is, you have to remember to send files to FileFern and the people who send you emails have to do so too. If you just scanned your own mail spool you would just be able to find your emails and that is that.

That's an interesting point regarding inbox scanning. Problem is it would require access to your email account which is arguably the most sensitive thing about your business. Of these two options which would you prefer/trust more:

1. Entering your email credentials for a bot to login and scan 2. OAuth SSO (limited to Gmail)

It's free for now (which I'll indicate more clearly) as I build a "beta user base".

I don't use GMail.

My email provider (Fastmail) lets me make credentials that are specific to an application so I can make a set for a bot and be able to revoke them later.

I have a rough draft that does this. It uploads the attachments to a local service. I'm not sure how hard it would be to bolt in object storage. It also parses the headers. I imagine it could be used for spam scores, subject/recipient search, and whatever other useful headers there are.

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