Running local programs from a webpage for internal users

[markvr]

I'd like a way to run a local program on the users system from a
webpage.

Obviously this is generally a VERY BAD IDEA (format c:\ -y anyone?)
but in this case it is internal and only a few people will be doing
it, so the website can be put into any relevant "trusted" containers
in the browser.

Basically what I want is a link like this:
<a href=.....>123.456.12.32</a>

and when the user clicks on the link it opens up their local copy of
vnc and attempts to vnc to the IP address supplied.

Is this likely to be at all possible?

Cheers,

Mark

 

[Craig Taylor]

I'd like a way to run a local program on the users system from a
webpage.

Obviously this is generally a VERY BAD IDEA (format c:\ -y anyone?)
but in this case it is internal and only a few people will be doing
it, so the website can be put into any relevant "trusted" containers
in the browser.

Basically what I want is a link like this:
<a href=.....>123.456.12.32</a>

and when the user clicks on the link it opens up their local copy of
vnc and attempts to vnc to the IP address supplied.

Is this likely to be at all possible?

Cheers,

Mark

I'd suggest looking at configuring their web browser to associate an
application with a given file extension. I'm fairly certain that
JavaScript is not useful in this situation.

- Craig Taylor
http://www.ctalkobt.net

 

[Evertjan.]

markvr wrote on 09 feb 2007 in comp.lang.javascript:

I'd like a way to run a local program on the users system from a
webpage.

Obviously this is generally a VERY BAD IDEA (format c:\ -y anyone?)
but in this case it is internal and only a few people will be doing
it, so the website can be put into any relevant "trusted" containers
in the browser.

Basically what I want is a link like this:
<a href=.....>123.456.12.32</a>

and when the user clicks on the link it opens up their local copy of
vnc and attempts to vnc to the IP address supplied.

Is this likely to be at all possible?

Look at .hta pages, they do not fall ounder the security of .html pages.
[IE only, but j[ava]script is very usable]

 

[VK]

I'd like a way to run a local program on the users system from a
webpage.
Is this likely to be at all possible?

Depends on what browser coverage do you need. It is fairly simple for
IE over ActiveX and Gecko browsers over XPCOM. You may take my
Application Launcher which is a small common interface atop of both:
<http://www.geocities.com/schools_ring/al.zip>
The archive contains HTML page with JavaScript code and link showing
the usage. No format c:\ - just a humble Notepad launch.

Theoretically one can extend it for Opera over Widget interfaces and
Safari over AppleScript bridging, but these would be two all separate
solutions to investigate and to add. So far no one was in need of this
- at least I never was asked.

 

[markvr]

Thanks for the answers, but this is clearly getting quite complicated
with JavaScript. I was hoping it might be simpler than this. It
looks like the users are going to have to cope with copying and
pasting the IP address into VNC!

I investigated something like vnc://123.456.789.123 but couldn't find
out how to add this as a protocol to browsers. It looked like you
need to write some sort of C++ handler which is beyond me.

From the vnc command line you can simply type:

c:\vnc.exe ip_address
and it will fire up ok.

Thanks for the answers, but I think it is going to be too complicated
for the benefits to pay off.

Cheers,

Mark