RepositoryHosting

Introduction

To host your own repository you would need an HTTP server or a shared folder and the repository XML file. It is also possible to use a local XML file as a repository, but in this case the repository will only be visible from the same computer.

Default Npackd repository

Everybody with a Google account can create packages at http://npackd.appspot.com/package/new

Getting an HTTP server

There are different ways to get an HTTP server:

on many Windows server systems IIS is already installed. All you need is to put your XML file under C:\InetPub\wwwroot\MyRepository.xml and access it via http://localhost/MyRepository.xml
you could host your public repository on http://github.com as a gist. Example: https://gist.github.com/4132983 Please note that you should access this repository using the "raw" link: https://gist.github.com/raw/4132983/dabecde48c796d4fdfa2f645bb744ac58640572c/TestRepository.xml
install Apache via Npackd, start it from the Windows services control panel, put your XML repository under C:\Program Files (x86)\Apache_HTTP_Server\htdocs\MyRepository.xml and access it via http://localhost:8083/MyRepository.xml
install npackd-gae-web (https://github.com/tim-lebedkov/npackd-gae-web) on GAE (https://developers.google.com/appengine/) and host your packages there. Example: http://npackd.appspot.com

Windows shares

Just place your repository file on a share and use the following URL syntax to refer to it:

file://myserver/myshare/MyRepository.xml

Cloud based solutions

Dropbox

For testing purpose or limited sharing, you may use Dropbox. To do so, simply copy your repository XML in a folder and share this file. In this case, you will be using the web server provided by Dropbox.

Google Drive

Upload a file to your Google Drive folder, share it with everybody and use the URL in the form https://drive.google.com/uc?export=download&id=ID . ID is here the ID of your file. To find the ID of a file press the right mouse button over a file and choose "Share.../Share...". The shown URL will look like this one: https://docs.google.com/file/d/0Bzt53EW9ybrwTFFUM0NwN2xtaHM/edit?usp=sharing. 0Bzt53EW9ybrwTFFUM0NwN2xtaHM is the ID of the file. Although https://drive.google.com/uc?export=download&confirm=no_antivirus&id=ID can be used for large files that cannot be scanned for viruses by Google, a warning will be shown. This makes it impossible to host binaries over 25 MB on Google Drive. Additional difficulty is that the URL does not contain the file name and the files downloaded by Npackd would be always named "uc".

Microsoft SkyDrive

Microsoft SkyDrive unfortunately does not provide stable URLs to the public files.

Local repository

Just place your repository somewhere on the disk use the following URL syntax to refer to it:

file:///C:/myDirectory/MyRepository.xml