Creating a simple public file repository on Amazon S3

Abstract

Organizations often need to store and serve various types of static content, such as data sets, archives, and file repositories, on the web. This content is typically accessed by end-users for research and analysis purposes or general content distribution. However, presenting this content in a user-friendly and easily browsable manner can be a significant challenge, particularly when dealing with large volumes of data, high traffic, or complex file structures.

Previously, organizations had to set up FTP servers or configure web server features like Apache’s DirectoryIndex or Nginx’s Autoindex to create browsable directory listings for their static content. Many have now chosen Amazon Simple Storage Service (S3) as their preferred storage solution for static web content combined with Amazon CloudFront for a highly scalable, cost-optimized, and serverless solution to publish content on the web.

In this post, I walk through deploying a simple web-based file browser solution for publishing files in an Amazon S3 bucket. This approach utilizes S3 and CloudFront to provide a user-friendly interface for browsing your bucket’s contents, eliminating the need to deploy and maintain additional web server infrastructure. I’ll also review ways to quickly move data into the public S3 bucket, customize the solution with your own domain, and tailor the appearance to match your organization’s branding requirements.