After the kiwi6 incident which temporarily caused many users to lose access to their files, it's become apparent that AAO users need another option for hosting their music files. Having recently been introduced to using GitHub for hosting MP3's, I thought I'd share exactly how to go about making your own GitHub account for hosting your own music files.
Why should you do this? Well, for starters...
- There's no bandwidth limits.
- In my experience, the loading speed of a trial that uses GitHub hosted files tends to be faster than one that uses Dropbox or kiwi6.
- You aren't limited to hosting MP3's. You can use this to host SVG's as well, if you're into that.
- Did I mention no bandwidth limits?
So without further ado, your list of instructions.
- Go to GitHub.com and create an account.
- For a little extra security, after creating your account, you may want to go to your profile page and make your email address private. First, set the dropdown box under "public email" to "don't show my email address." After that, click on "personal email settings." Towards the bottom of the page, you'll see the alternate email address they give you to use. Copy this, as you'll need it shortly.
- Download GitHub for Windows/Mac and set it up. Log in with your newly created GitHub username and password. When it asks you for the email address you'd like to use when uploading files, paste the email address you copied in step 2.
- Go back to github.com and click the green "+repository" button on the right hand side, then name your new repository "<username>.github.io" without quotes or angle brackets. Username in this case refers to your GitHub username. It's important that the username match your GitHub username exactly, or it will not work.
- Now click the "Set up in Desktop" button up in the top left hand section. When the GitHub desktop app opens, save the project.
- Now, you'll need to locate your "GitHub" folder. The default location in Windows is in documents. Once you've found the GitHub folder, you'll need to open the <username>.github.io subfolder located inside.
- Open your favorite text editor (like notepad, for instance) and copy the following into the document...
Code: Select all
<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<body>
<h1>Hello World</h1>
<p>I'm hosted with GitHub Pages.</p>
</body>
</html>
- Save the document as "index.html" into your "<username>.github.io" folder (Make sure the file has the .html extension and not the .txt extension).
- Using the GitHub client, you'll need to commit your changes, so enter a "commit message" in the summary textbox (If you're not a programmer, it doesn't really matter what you type here, so type gibberish if you want), then sync the changes to your site.
- Now, all that's left to do is grab your sound files, place them in the same folder, commit, then sync. (NOTE: you may want to name your files something concise, yet descriptive, just so it's easier to access them later).
- Once you've synced the files, you can add them to your case by typing http://<username>.github.io/<filename>.<filetype> into the file URL box in the sound/music section of the trial manager.
Here's an example:
Let's say this guy --> <-- wants to make his own GitHub account. Being a rather forgetful sort, he wants a username that's easy for him to remember, so he goes with "udgey."
After setting up the GitHub client, he places his favorite music track, "Courtroom Lobby.mp3," and sound effect, "Gavel Slam.mp3" into the udgey.github.io folder, then commits and syncs the changes.
So, if he wants to use those files in a case, the URL's he needs are http://udgey.github.io/Courtroom Lobby.mp3 and http://udgey.github.io/Gavel Slam.mp3.
So, there you have it. A little difficult to set up, but once you get it running, it'll be second nature to you. I hope this helps. Let me know if I missed something though, because it's been a little while since I set my own account up, so I may have forgotten something.