Hosting a Word Doc in a Web Form,and saving the results on the server

[Paul Louth]

Hi, I'm looking for a bit of advice. I have word-docs saved in a SQL Server
database on my web-server. I would like to either stream this to a web-form
directly or open it from a temporary file on the server for the client to
edit. Then once the client has finished editing the document, I want the
results to be sent back to the server.

Is this possible? And what would the best method be of achieving this?

Kind Regards,

Paul Louth.

 

[Kevin Spencer]

Hi Paul,

You must understand that a web server doesn't serve files. It serves COPIES
of files. So, you can't open a file from the web server, edit it on the
client, and then save it back to the server. What you need to do is to give
the client a copy of the file, allow them to edit the copy in Word, and then
upload it to the server. This is tricky, as it will require some client-side
object(s) to achieve. You might want to take a look at how Sharepoint Portal
Server does it. Your solution will have to lie along similar lines.

--
HTH,

Kevin Spencer
Microsoft MVP
..Net Developer
Neither a follower nor a lender be.

 

[Paul Louth]

Sorry, yes I understand that, just realised my terminology was all over the
place there. Effectively I want the file served to the client, then I want
to watch that file on the client side to find out whether the user saved or
not, and if they did push the file back to the server for storage.

I will look into the Sharepoint Portal Server. Thanks,

Paul

 

[John Timney \(ASP.NET MVP\)]

You cant automatically upload a file back to the server, even if you could
monitor if it had been changed. It would breach sandboxing. Also bear in
mind that technically the client and server are disconnected once the word
doc is served.

What Kevin is suggesting for SPS is something to consider, but its likely
that only the enhanced webdav features tied into office 2003 will provide
this feature to an SPS server in the way your probably looking to do it.
From a traditional application standpoint you need to rely on the end user
doing an upload.

--
Regards

John Timney
ASP.NET MVP
Microsoft Regional Director