Pydio Cells, previously known as just Pydio and formerly known as AjaXplorer, is an
open-sourcefile-sharing and synchronisation software that runs on the user's own
server[2] or in the
cloud.[3]
Presentation
The project was created by musician Charles Du Jeu[4] (current
CEO and
CTO) in 2007 under the name AjaXplorer.[5] The name was changed in 2013 and became Pydio (an acronym for Put Your Data in Orbit).[6] In May 2018, Pydio switched from
PHP to
Go with the release of Pydio Cells.[7] The PHP version reached end-of-life state on 31 December 2019.[8]
Pydio Cells runs on any server supporting a recent Go version. Windows/Linux/macOS on
the Intel architecture are directly supported; a fully functional working
ARM implementation is under active development.[9]
Pydio Cells has been developed from scratch using the
Go programming language;[10] release 4.0.0 introduced
code refactoring to fully support the
Go modular structure[11] as well as
grid computing. Nevertheless, the web-based interface of Cells is very similar to the one from Pydio 8 (in
PHP), and it successfully replicates most of its features, while adding a few more. There is also a new synchronisation client (also written in Go).[12] The PHP version has been phased out as the company's focus is moving to Pydio Cells, with community feedback on the new features.[13] According to the company, the switch to the new environment was made "to overcome inherent PHP limitations and provide you with a future-proof and modern solution for collaborating on documents".[14]
The software is built in a modular perspective; up to Pydio 8, various plugins[19] allowed administrators to implement extra features.[20]
On the server side, Pydio Cells is deployed as a collection of independent
microservices[21] communicating among themselves using
gRPC and logging user actions via
Activity Streams 2.0 (AS2).[22] Pydio Cells microservices are built with the
Go Micro framework (using an embedded
NATS server).[23] A standard installation will deploy all required services on the same physical server, but for the purposes of performance, reliability and high availability, these can now be spread across several different servers (even in geographically separate locations) according to the
12-factors architecture pattern.
Pydio Cells is available either through a free and open-source community distribution (Pydio Cells Home),[2] or a commercially-licensed enterprise distribution[24] (in two variants, Pydio Cells Connect and Pydio Cells Enterprise),[25] which add features not available in the community distribution as well as additional levels of support beyond the community forums.
Features
File sharing between different internal users and across other Pydio instances[26]