elementary
Viewing photos from network storage
Problem
Would like to view photos from a network storage
As I store photos on a NAS, I wouldn't want to have them locally.
Proposal
Maybe a screen for selecting storage devices from the local network All images from the selected directory and it's sub-folders would be in a tab named after the server.
Prior Art (Optional)
I use this app on my phone and like the look of folders
F-Droid
like the look of folders
A toggle to switch between a folder view and a grid view. Folder view: Show folders according to the directory's structure, Click to open folder and show a breadcrumb bar for navigation. Grid view: Show all images in a grid view
You can currently import into the library from a remote server and that does not necessarily copy the photos onto the local machine - you get a choice. If you choose not to copy the photos then only some metadata and the address get imported which takes up less local space.
Is it that you want to browse/slideshow from a (remote) folder without changing the library at all? (i.e. the photos will not appear in the sidebar etc). That would require quite a lot of work.
For just browsing images on a remote server you could use Files to mount and browse the folders, although the thumbnails are limited resolution (max 256px) and Files has performance issues with large numbers of images in one folder (which are being worked on).
Files should be able to mount SMB shares but you may have to configure them to use the old version of the protocol - I havent looked into it for a while. It is really the job of gvfs rather than Files to mount network shares.
The underlying system has gvfs, which Files relies on to present mounts as directories.