Messages

1

HFS ~ HTTP File Server / Re: How can we edit and save back existing files

« on: December 14, 2015, 06:07:00 PM »

Thanks for you replies, much appreciated.

Yes, LeoNeeson has exactly captured what we are trying to do.

To elaborate, we have a large collection of files that are used as part of an application. In the current legacy application that is prototypical Windows desktop executable, the metadata for the files is stored in a database but the files themselves are in CIFS share that each desktop is mounting. When a user clicks on a file listed in the application, the appropriate desktop application - MS Word, MS Excel, MS Outlook, Adobe, Notepad, etc. - is launched with a UNC reference to the file share location as an argument. The user can then of course edit the document in that application 'live' and save the changes.

However this only works - both in terms of how the main legacy app accesses data directly from the database and how the user's PC mounts the CIFS share for the documents - within the office. We are now completely rebuilding/replacing the legacy application to be a mobile application that can run in remote locations and does so within a browser. The database is no longer directly accessed; data is retrieved via a RESTful web service API. Similarly we want to be able to access and edit the files from a server without having to mount them. To access them on a read-only basis, HFS seems to work fine for: we can program our web-app to provide the proper HREF reference to the launched editor application instead of the UNC, and it will properly open and display the file contents, but only read-only  . The users need to be able make changes and save them back, which it just doesn't seem to do. We have found the Sharepoint can do this, but their API interface is horrific. We can likely accomplish the goal with it, but with significant complexity and contamination of our code, so if there was a cleaner solution we'd be eager to use it.

bmartino1, you mentioned 2 possible directions to look
1) "iss stuff": could you elaborate on what / where that is?
2) fhfs: would that be able to supply the needed functionality and transparency to users?, i.e. serve out a file based for r/w based on a HREF argument passed to and used by a Windows desktop program?

Of course would be extra cool if HFS could do this out of the box... but I am assuming that even if that was a direction HFS was going in, delivery of this functionality would be a ways off.

Thanks again for your attention.

2

HFS ~ HTTP File Server / How can we edit and save back existing files

« on: December 10, 2015, 11:32:33 PM »

Hi,

Very interested in the concept here of HFS, but struggling a bit with what would be a critical feature for us: editing existing files in a desktop application.

So, we see that we can take the HREF URL from the HFS console and use that within a desktop application (e.g. MS Word for .docx, Notepad for .txt, etc.) to open the file. However, the file opens up read only. Is there any way to open the file with read/write permission? I.e. after the user has edited the text file in Notepad, to save it back to the same file on HFS?

Obviously HFS can write files as it can upload new files... but we don't see how to re-write the existing ones. Is there a way to do this now? If not, is this something that could be readily added (assuming this is a feature that many folks would want) or is there something fundamental in the design that makes this difficult to achieve? And if so, does anyone know of a product that could support that (other than Sharepoint please).

Thanks for your attention; appreciate any replies.