Filesharing...advanced...

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ajlisowski
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Filesharing...advanced...

Post by ajlisowski »

So I am working on an intranet application for a company and right now one can upload files to share with other users. The following request was just submitted by my boss...

"Marketing would like to use the project system to attach media files for unified storage. The linux box is not a good place for holding that amount of data. Need to add an option to document function to choose a storage folder. The folder could be a physical drive on the machine running the browser or a network share the user has access to. If this option is chosen, then instead of uploading the files, it would display the contents of the selected folder."

So basically, he wants instead of uploading, to allow users to select a folder locally and have the intranet system somehow display this to other members.

I am 90 percent sure this is not possible with PHP. I dont see how it would be. Unless I could grab the users IP and then connect to that IP somehow and crawl for folders if its shared. I have no idea how I would do this though, and I still doubt its possible.

Any advice? Any alternative ideas if this isnt possible? Also what is a good way to explain to my boss this is not possible without sounding like I dont know what Im talking about? Since, really I dont know much about networks so I dont know if theres some fancy way I can grab said information.

Any help would be grand.
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requinix
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Re: Filesharing...advanced...

Post by requinix »

ajlisowski wrote:I am 90 percent sure this is not possible with PHP.
Agreed.

Try Java or Flash.
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Zlobcho
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Re: Filesharing...advanced...

Post by Zlobcho »

I would go for adobe air application, you can build it with ease and you'll have it to connect to your main server. There is no way to browse local content with php, because it's running on your server not on client computer. You can try to explain this to your boss.

By the way, why not using samba or windows share instead?
cpetercarter
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Re: Filesharing...advanced...

Post by cpetercarter »

By the time you and your client have worked out how to do this, it would be cheaper either to get a bigger Linux box or store your media files in the cloud (eg Amazon SSS).
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Sindarin
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Re: Filesharing...advanced...

Post by Sindarin »

Java has local filesystem functions. Try if those can help you.

Also that,
By the way, why not using samba or windows share instead?
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timWebUK
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Re: Filesharing...advanced...

Post by timWebUK »

I don't understand the need for an application, operating systems have this functionality built in.

Set up a fileserver running the Linux, allow people to connect to it (through mapping a network drive), or allow people to FTP to it through a client and server.
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ajlisowski
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Re: Filesharing...advanced...

Post by ajlisowski »

Hey all, thanks for the advice. I spoke with my boss yesterday and we are just going to use one of the windows shares and mount it as a drive on the linux box.

The only other option I could think of would be that the user would have to share credentials with the machine and we could dynamically mount to their folder when they wanted to share it. But that would just be silly, unsafe and would break as soon as they shut down their PC.

As for the need, I am not sure either. Its part of a project management system, so it would be used to share documents related to projects without having to upload them. The main issue is that the docs the marketing team would use would be far too large to be hosted on our linux box. However, this is resolved by mounting a window share to it, so that will likely be the route we will take.

Thanks again.
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