Title: mat2 for the web
Date: 2019-02-01 11:30

Since its beginning, mat's interface has always been horrible. Despite being a
window with 4 buttons, nobody managed to use it properly. So for
[mat2](https://mat.boum.org), based on a suggestion of
[intrigeri](http://gaffer.ptitcanardnoir.org/intrigeri/) the choice was made to
do a file-manager extension instead, and so far the feedback has been
overwhelmingly positive!

But not everyone is using <s>Nautilus</s>
[Files](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GNOME_Files), let alone a Linux distribution;
and __nope__, I'm not crazy enough to try to package mat2 and all its
dependencies for Windows, nor OSX.
So I went for the easiest solution: a [web application](https://mat2-web.dustri.org),
using [flask](http://flask.pocoo.org/) for the backend and
[skeleton](http://getskeleton.com/) for the frontend, released under [MIT
license](https://opensource.org/licenses/MIT), with a [comprehensive
testsuite](https://0xacab.org/jvoisin/mat2-web/-/jobs).

It looks like this:

[![Welcome screen of mat2-web]({static}/images/mat2-web-one.png)]({static}/images/mat2-web-one.png)
[![Successful cleaning]({static}/images/mat2-web-two.png)]({static}/images/mat2-web-two.png)

While it might look pretty due to the usage of Skeleton, it still feels a bit
clunky, so if you know some web-fu, you're more than welcome if [you want to
help]( https://0xacab.org/jvoisin/mat2-web ) ♥ 

And now, the obvious question: Why should anyone trust me with their data?
The answer is equally obvious: they shouldn't. While I promise that I don't
keep a copy of them (or am I?), there is no way for me to prove it.  This is why the
instance on [mat2-web.dustri.org](https://mat2-web.dustri.org) is only meant to
be used as a demo; you should deploy your own!

I was told that there is already a French newspaper with an internal instance ;)