Running Applications from our Local Intranet page only?

[Advo]

At the moment we have a simple intranet consisting of one page full of
webpage links, but we want to allow staff to be able to open up
applications they use a lot, such as Access or Excel, straight from this
page.

I know the concerns of running .exe's from website because of all the
exploits and such, but this is for Local users only, running from our
server.

Is there any way at all to do this?

Thanks

 

[mbstevens]

At the moment we have a simple intranet consisting of one page full of
webpage links, but we want to allow staff to be able to open up
applications they use a lot, such as Access or Excel, straight from this
page.

I know the concerns of running .exe's from website because of all the
exploits and such, but this is for Local users only, running from our
server.

Is there any way at all to do this?

Depends on the server. On Apache
you can use Perl/CGI or PHP scripts to run other scripts.

But for something like Excel, I suggest you set up something along
the line of remote desktops instead of just webpages or telnet.

You might google for 'remote desktop' 'ssh' 'VNC' 'NX' and
'NoMachine' for starters.

 

[mbstevens]

But for something like Excel, I suggest you set up something along
the line of remote desktops instead of just webpages or telnet.

You might google for 'remote desktop' 'ssh' 'VNC' 'NX' and
'NoMachine' for starters.

....and remote X applications are a possibility. Google Xauth.

 

[Advo]

...and remote X applications are a possibility. Google Xauth.

is that the only way? i didnt realise it would be that hard as such.

Our servers at work support ASP, JS and HTML etc, not sure about PHP.

Basically our intranet is a html page with a few hyperlinks, then we
have say a hyperlink to Excel

It was so the user can click Excel, which should just run the file
similar to: C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Excel.exe etc

 

[mbstevens]

is that the only way? i didnt realise it would be that hard as such.

Our servers at work support ASP, JS and HTML etc, not sure about PHP.

Basically our intranet is a html page with a few hyperlinks, then we
have say a hyperlink to Excel

It was so the user can click Excel, which should just run the file
similar to: C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Excel.exe etc

You may be able to do certain limited things with Excel from its command
line. But if you want the user to be able to actually interact with Excel
or Office in the _usual_ way, and from a remote machine, you need more
than an web server.

 

[Jonathan N. Little]

You may be able to do certain limited things with Excel from its command
line. But if you want the user to be able to actually interact with Excel
or Office in the _usual_ way, and from a remote machine, you need more
than an web server.

Or a shared folder Form Windows to Windows. Check you licensing
agreements with Ol' MS if you want to run as an Apps Server...We do one
a public library server that I manage, but the SW was purchased with
such a license.

 

[I V]

You may be able to do certain limited things with Excel from its command
line. But if you want the user to be able to actually interact with Excel
or Office in the _usual_ way, and from a remote machine, you need more
than an web server.

I'm not sure the OP wants to run Excel on the remote machine. If she
doesn't, and if all her users' machines have Excel in a predictable
location, a link to the Excel executable may do what she wants, if I
remember correctly.

Of course, that raises the question of why you would _want_ to have a link
on an intranet page that starts an app on the local machine; it would seem
simpler for the users to use a shortcut on their desktop.

 

[Advo]

I'm not sure the OP wants to run Excel on the remote machine. If she
doesn't, and if all her users' machines have Excel in a predictable
location, a link to the Excel executable may do what she wants, if I
remember correctly.

Of course, that raises the question of why you would _want_ to have a link
on an intranet page that starts an app on the local machine; it would seem
simpler for the users to use a shortcut on their desktop.

Correct really, we dont want to interact with Excel etc, just open the page.

Basically its because all the staff use that intranet for everything, ie
its always visible, everything they are doing comes from that, so the
idea is, having likes to applications makes things even easier for them.

All i want to be able to do is open the application, not do anything
with any data just run say C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Excel.exe
from a link, so when the user clicks on the link, that application loads

 

[Richard Cornford]

At the moment we have a simple intranet consisting of one
page full of webpage links, but we want to allow staff to
be able to open up applications they use a lot, such as
Access or Excel, straight from this page.

I know the concerns of running .exe's from website because
of all the exploits and such, but this is for Local users
only, running from our server.

Is there any way at all to do this?

With IE and with your domain added to the 'trusted sites' security zone,
in which the settings must allow the scripting of non-safe ActiveX
controls, you can script the instantiation of the Windows Scripting Host
COM object. With the WSH object you can do anything that you could do
from a command/DOS console in Windows, which includes starting other
applications.

Richard.

 

[Andrew Bailey]

Hi Richard,

I came across this the other day, I think it's exactly what you need

http://www.whirlywiryweb.com/q/launchinie.asp

Hope that helps

Andy

 

[Brian Cryer]

At the moment we have a simple intranet consisting of one page full of
webpage links, but we want to allow staff to be able to open up
applications they use a lot, such as Access or Excel, straight from this
page.

I know the concerns of running .exe's from website because of all the
exploits and such, but this is for Local users only, running from our
server.

Is there any way at all to do this?

Thanks

Are you trying to find a way around having Access and Excel loaded on each
pc?

Is what you are after a simple link to an access/excel file? So the user
clicks on a link and it opens up access/excel? No security concerns there.
Or have I totally misunderstood what you are after?

 

[Advo]

Are you trying to find a way around having Access and Excel loaded on each
pc?

Is what you are after a simple link to an access/excel file? So the user
clicks on a link and it opens up access/excel? No security concerns there.
Or have I totally misunderstood what you are after?

Well kind of, we have it to open certain files already, but the thing
is, they need to open new projects each time, so the idea was, just load
the actual access or excel, or word program and let them do what they
want from there