Nginx Fancy Index module

The Fancy Index module makes possible the generation of file listings, like the built-in autoindex module does, but adding a touch of style. This is possible because the module allows a certain degree of customization of the generated content:

• Custom headers, either local or stored remotely.
• Custom footers, either local or stored remotely.
• Add your own CSS style rules.
• Allow choosing to sort elements by name (default), modification time, or size; both ascending (default), or descending.

This module is designed to work with Nginx, a high performance open source web server written by Igor Sysoev.

Requirements

CentOS, RHEL, Fedora Linux

For users of the official stable Nginx repository, extra packages repository with dynamic modules is available and fancyindex is included.

Install repository configuration, then the module package:

yum -y install https://extras.getpagespeed.com/release-latest.rpm
yum -y install nginx-module-fancyindex

Then load the module in /etc/nginx/nginx.conf using:

load_module "modules/ngx_http_fancyindex_module.so";

macOS

Users can install Nginx on macOS with MacPorts; fancyindex is included:

sudo port install nginx

Other platforms

In most other cases you will need the sources for Nginx. Any version starting from the 0.8 series should work.

In order to use the fancyindex_header_ and fancyindex_footer_ directives you will also need the ngx_http_addition_module built into Nginx.

Building

1. Unpack the Nginx sources:

   $ gunzip -c nginx-?.?.?.tar.gz | tar -xvf -
   

2. Unpack the sources for the fancy indexing module:

   $ gunzip -c nginx-fancyindex-?.?.?.tar.gz | tar -xvf -
   

3. Change to the directory which contains the Nginx sources, run the configuration script with the desired options and be sure to put an --add-module flag pointing to the directory which contains the source of the fancy indexing module:

   $ cd nginx-?.?.?
   $ ./configure --add-module=../nginx-fancyindex-?.?.? \
      [--with-http_addition_module] [extra desired options]
   

   Since version 0.4.0, the module can also be built as a dynamic module, using --add-dynamic-module=… instead and load_module "modules/ngx_http_fancyindex_module.so"; in the configuration file

4. Build and install the software:

   $ make
   

   And then, as root:

   # make install
   

5. Configure Nginx by using the modules' configuration directives.

Example

You can test the default built-in style by adding the following lines into a server section in your Nginx configuration file:

location / {
  fancyindex on;              # Enable fancy indexes.
  fancyindex_exact_size off;  # Output human-readable file sizes.
}

Themes

The following themes demonstrate the level of customization which can be achieved using the module:

• Theme by @TheInsomniac. Uses custom header and footer.
• Theme by @Naereen. Uses custom header and footer. The header includes a search field to filter by file name using JavaScript.
• Theme by @fraoustin. Responsive theme using Material Design elements.
• Theme by @alehaa. Simple, flat theme based on Bootstrap 4 and FontAwesome.

Directives

fancyindex

fancyindex_default_sort

fancyindex_case_sensitive

fancyindex_directories_first

fancyindex_css_href

fancyindex_exact_size

fancyindex_footer

fancyindex_header

fancyindex_show_path

fancyindex_show_dotfiles

fancyindex_ignore

fancyindex_hide_symlinks

fancyindex_hide_parent_dir

fancyindex_localtime

fancyindex_time_format