Studio setup for web developers

Get the Studio download

Sign in to Maxisnap with the account that has Studio, then:

• On Windows: in Maxisnap, open Settings → Account → Maxisnap Studio setup wizard, click “Get started”, then “Download dashboard”. Maxisnap saves the Studio ZIP to your Downloads folder and opens that folder.
• On a Mac: in Maxisnap, open Settings → Welcome & Help → Studio Setup Guide, click “Get Started”, then “Download Dashboard”. Maxisnap saves the Studio ZIP to your Downloads folder.

Extract the ZIP. On Windows, right-click it and choose “Extract All”. On a Mac, double-click it.

Maxisnap-Studio-v<version>/
  Maxisnap Studio - Start Here.html   guided setup (branding + every route)
  snaps/                              PHP edition: upload this folder to a web host
  cloudflare/                         Cloudflare Workers edition (Worker + R2 + D1)
    deploy/cli.mjs                    deploys it through the Cloudflare API (Node 20+)
  docs/Developer guide.html           architecture, upload API, security, updates
  docs/Cloudflare setup - technical brief.html
  AGENTS.md                           instructions for AI coding assistants

The full Developer guide covers the architecture, the upload API, keys and roles, the security model and troubleshooting. It is docs/Developer guide.html in the download.

PHP edition: upload and finish setup

1. Upload the snaps folder to the web root, including its hidden .htaccess files, so that the result is public_html/snaps/index.php. A branded snaps.zip from the Start Here page works the same way; extract it in place and don’t nest snaps/snaps.
2. Open https://yourcompany.com/snaps/ once. The setup page checks PHP and the folder permissions and suggests an Admin key of 40 characters; the key must have at least 16. Copy it, then click “Create my dashboard”.
3. On nginx, reproduce the routing and deny rules from snaps/.htaccess. Keep uploads, data and branding private.

The setup page writes your-settings.php, which is kept across updates:

'dashboard_key' => '…',          // the Admin key; the setup page writes it
'base_url'      => 'https://yourcompany.com/snaps',  // the address setup was opened at; fix it here if share links come out wrong
'max_upload_mb' => 500,          // your host's PHP limits still apply

Cloudflare edition: deploy from a terminal

The bundled CLI reads the account first, shows a plan of what it will create and what it will not touch, and refuses names that are already in use. If a deploy stops part-way, running the same command again continues without creating anything twice.

cd cloudflare
# Option 1: the bundled CLI (Node 20+; plan first, then --yes). PowerShell:
$env:CLOUDFLARE_API_TOKEN = "<token: Account Settings Read; Workers Scripts, R2 and D1 Edit;
                              for --zone/--hostname also Zone Read, DNS Read, Workers Routes Read>"
node deploy/cli.mjs whoami
node deploy/cli.mjs plan --account <account id> --name snaps
#   no workers.dev name on the account yet? The plan asks you to "Choose your free
#   workers.dev name": add --subdomain <your-company> to both commands (account-wide).
#   A subdomain of your domain as well: add --zone <zone id> --hostname snaps.example.com
node deploy/cli.mjs deploy --account <account id> --name snaps --yes
#   prints the Studio address and the Admin key once, and writes deployment.json here

# Option 2: plain Wrangler (create the bucket and database, set their ids in wrangler.jsonc)
npm install
npx wrangler r2 bucket create maxisnap-studio-media
npx wrangler d1 create maxisnap-studio
npx wrangler secret put ADMIN_KEY
npm run sync
npx wrangler deploy

The deploy prints the Studio address and the Admin key once, and writes deployment.json in the folder it runs from. Keep that file: update and remove use it.

Check that it works

curl.exe -s -H "X-Dashboard-Key: <Admin key>" https://<studio address>/api/health.php
# {"ok":true,"app":"Maxisnap Studio","version":"…"}   the Cloudflare edition adds "edition":"cloudflare"

Then open the Studio address in a browser and sign in with the Admin key. 401 means a wrong key; 404 means a wrong address or folder.

Connect Maxisnap

• Maxisnap for Windows: open Settings → Account → Maxisnap Studio setup wizard, click “Get started”, then “Next” until step 4, “Connect Maxisnap”. Paste your Studio’s address and key, click “Test connection”, then “Next”, then “Finish & Save” on the last page. The Admin key from setup works, and so does an upload code from People & access in your dashboard.
• Maxisnap for Mac: open Settings → Welcome & Help → Studio Setup Guide and choose “I already have a dashboard”. Paste your Studio’s address and key, click “Test Connection”, then “Next”, then “Finish & Save”.

Know the upload API

• The Maxisnap apps upload with an X-Dashboard-Key header to api/upload.php. Images (PNG, JPG, GIF and WebP) and videos (MP4, WebM and MOV) are accepted.
• Maxisnap for Windows and Maxisnap for Mac send each upload to a Cloudflare Studio in one request, which it accepts up to 25 MB per file.
• The Cloudflare edition also has a chunked upload API for larger files, described in the Developer guide: api/upload/start, part and complete.
• Share pages and their media files use these paths; every other path is internal: /<slug> /<slug>.<ext>

Update or remove it later

PHP: replace only the files listed in snaps/How to update.txt, then clear the host and CDN caches. Captures, people, branding and settings stay.

Cloudflare: run these from the cloudflare folder of the newer package, with the old deployment.json copied in.

# Update: from a newer package's cloudflare folder, with the old deployment.json copied in
node deploy/cli.mjs update --record deployment.json --yes
# New Admin key (shown once):
node deploy/cli.mjs update --record deployment.json --yes --new-admin-key
# Remove the custom domain and the Worker; the bucket and database (the captures) stay
node deploy/cli.mjs remove --record deployment.json --yes
# Also delete every capture: cannot be undone
node deploy/cli.mjs remove --record deployment.json --yes --delete-data

Read the Cloudflare technical brief: every resource, permission and API call.