Opening/Editing files on a network

[gearoid]

I've designed a knowledge base web app which holds files like word docs, powerpoint presentations etc.

When a user clicks on a link to a file, the file is opened (say in Word) but the opened file is a temporary file downloaded from the intranet. As a result, when a user edits and saves a document, these changes are not applied to the file on the network.

I would like users to simply be able to open a document, make changes and then click save - thus applying these changes to the network file that other users can subsequently see. However, I would not like them to have to navigate to the network folder that holds all the documents as its undesirable to have people messing around with the contents (ie. deleting a file will mean that a resource on the knowledge base points to nothing).

Does anyone have a workaround for this? I am doubtful if its possible but thanks in advance anyway...

[gearoid]

bump......

any ideas?

[sicarie]

bump......

any ideas?

You just outlined the basic concept of Citrix. I'm not sure if there is anything else out there providing the same functionality, but are you sure that you want a random end-user to be able to execute the office suite on your server?

[gearoid]

You just outlined the basic concept of Citrix. I'm not sure if there is anything else out there providing the same functionality, but are you sure that you want a random end-user to be able to execute the office suite on your server?

Well the app is intranet based so theres no real security concern.

Don't suppose theres anyway of doing this without citrix?

[sicarie]

Well the app is intranet based so theres no real security concern.

A statement that every security practitioner will grimace at. There is no reason not to build something correctly.

Don't suppose theres anyway of doing this without citrix?

Not to my knowledge, but I haven't really looked into it.

I'd start at freshmeat.net or sourceforge.net .

[gearoid]

Alright,

thanks for your input anyhow.