Is it possible to make user open a file on network BUT DON'T ALLOW them to save it?
When I Filenmae, i get options to Save or Open a file. I don't want users to save that file, they can only OPEN them and read/edit them.
Regards
This is handled by the web browser, not by code. In this case they're hitting the file system directly rather than a web server (so there's no place to override headers or anything like that) and the browser is acting accordingly. I'm thinking the only way to achieve what you seek is to configure the browser to always open the file in the associated program rather than prompt the user. If you're talking about a lot of web browsers, that could be a pain.
Also, since it's opening the file from the user's local file system, they can still save it. Once it's open in the associated program (in this case I'm assuming MS Word), they can save it from there. The only way to "not allow" them to save it in this case would be to remove their write access to the file at the OS level (I'm assuming Windows). This also assumes they don't have administrative rights. Otherwise, you'll want it on a file share on a server or something where you can control access.
But even then, they can just save it locally somewhere else.
It's not possible, unless you also make them open some other program that hijacks the basic saving/opening functionality on their computer.
Related
In a web application I am working on I would like to be able to download files, modify them localy and reupload them to the server.
To make it as easy as possible for the users, I would like them to choose the download location and use a single button to upload the changes afterwards.
My current apporach is the following:
Use window.showSaveFilePicker to choose location and get a FileSystemFileHandle
Download the content and write it to the FileSystemFileHandle
Show a button which allows to upload the changes using FileSystemFileHandle#getFile to get the modified content.
This approach works pretty well but the user has to manually search and open the file after the download and I would like to support them in this step and make it as simple as possible.
Ideally the file should automatically be opened with the default application after the download but I couldn't find a way to do that.
One idea was to open the file in a new tab using the file://-URL, allowing the browser to decide what to do but the FileSystemFileHandle does not seem to expose the absoulte path.
Is there any way to open the downloaded file with the default application? If not, what other possibilities are there to make the mentioned use case as simple as possible?
Thanks in advance
EDIT:
I found that you can open certain applications using special urls like ms-excel:ofe|u|file://path/to/file.xls.
This would be enough for most use cases but for this to work I would need to get the file url from a FileSystemFileHandle.
For security reasons, there is no way for a Web app to open local apps. In the future, though, once file change events are implemented, you can await changes to the file, and then re-open it. This should solve your use case.
I need to open an "Save As" dialog box where the user clicks on a link in the browser. The save as dialog needs to display the client system folder structure (Dialog similar to save as in word, excel, etc)
I did refer some similar question related to it. But often the downloaded file gets save in the Download path set by the client.
I don't want to use ActiveX control and looking to do the same using Javascript
Is it possible to open a "Save as" dialog using javascript and save the download file to that specific path in the local client system.?
If this is not possible, which most of the article has pointed out. They state that its not possible due to security. But they don't clearly point the reason (what is the security problem that would arise by doing so, If there is a restriction to browsers to not perform such operation etc.,)
Is it possible to open a "Save as" dialog using javascript and save the download file to that specific path in the local client system.?
No. You can suggest to the browser that it open the dialog, but you cannot tell it where to default to.
If this is not possible, which most of the article has pointed out. They state that its not possible due to security. But they don't clearly point the reason...
Because people don't read things before they click them. So if I give you a link to a file and want to put is on your drive at C:\Windows\System32\blahblah and I set that as the default in the file save dialog, sadly a significant percentage of people are going to just blindly click Save without thinking through the implications. Modern operating systems (and old *nix ones) try to protect users from themselves by making certain operations privileged, but still, at least on Windows that's usually just another Yes/No popup users frequently say Yes to without thinking.
So best if the browser picks the user's standard document folder, or one they've specifically, intentionally configured, rather than let the web page say where to default to.
I am using ExtJs for front end development and I am looking for a way to set the destination for a file to be downloaded. I know I can use xtype:filefield to browse files, but that requires me to select an actual file, I just need to select a folder for the file destination and then send that path elsewhere. Any way I can do that?
You will not be able to choose the user's download location with javascript. This can only be set from the user's end, otherwise it would violate user's security.
If your app is for an intranet only there are various ways you can push a config onto the user's browsers (depending on which web browser they are running in the intranet). But that would make ALL downloads go to that location.
Most browsers also have a configuration that allow the user to define a location for every download as covered here and here's more specifics for different browsers. The user would be able to (and have to) select the download location for every download.
If this is for an intranet app, and if your intranet is running Firefox, there is also this add-on. You would have to push it out to all your user's computers (or manually install it on them all). I haven't tried it yet but I was planning on using it should a situation like yours arise (all my ExtJS work is for an intranet running Firefox - I push out things like this using a logon script whenever a user logs into the network to automatically install them).
I am trying to do a simple thing:
Let the user choose a txt file, and save its context to be used on the client side only.
no server side needed.
Is it possible ?
Thanks.
It is possible to do so with HTML5 Files API as explained in these resources:
https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Using_files_from_web_applications
http://www.html5rocks.com/en/tutorials/file/dndfiles/
I guess you mean "save its content" and conclude you want to do anything with this content on the client side, e.g. extract some parts to fill a form. Anyway saving the whole file unchanged, on the same machine where it comes from, does not make sense.
So the problem is not how to upload, but how to open/read a file. You can do this with a Java Applet, Flash, Silverlight, ActiveX ... just to name a few.
JavaScript is not an option. It cannot access the file system.
If the html page, that is hosting your javascript, is from a remote server. This script is not trusted to do actions on your local filesystem.
<Obscure solution mode level = 1>
You can give more trust to a page, but this is something your user has to do. If this is an app/web only for use within an enterprise, you can probably do this centrally. And every browser handles this differently. So it is not something you can rely on, when you do not have a limited userbase.
<Obscure solution mode level = high>
If your (enterprise) users are using Internet Explorer, you could also create a HTML Application (simply give your html page an hta extension). These pages have full trust, but can only be started from a trusted location, or require confirmation from the user.
The only way you can acheive this successfully is to build an ActiveX type plugin/component (or java applet) you will have much more control of the client machine.
No. JavaScript cannot access the local filesystem.
However, you could install a webserver on your machine and e.g. run PHP on that one. Then you could do it without ever sending your data over a network connection. That would require you to do your data processing in PHP though.. probably not what you want. Or you could simply send back the data to your javascript.. but that'd be pretty awful to run an upload just to make the data available to JavaScript.
In my application I want to open some files with the correct default programmes, like .doc file should be open with WORD and .psd files should be opened with Photoshop if it is installed, and this should be done under html or java script.
Please tell me how to do it.
JavaScript cannot run programs, but if you have a file on your server you can simply link to it:
<a href='image.psd'>Download File</a>
Users will be promped to download the file or open it using the default program (for most files). Again - as others have said - this is determined by the browser. IE can open doc files on the browsers, and PDF documents can be opened that way too.
There is no way for you to choose which application will be used to open your files with javascript...It just doesn't have that power.
I don't think this is possible in JavaScript without using any activeX or something like that. Js has no access to locally installed applications.
Browsers typically don't have access to the computer's filesystem for security reasons. If you know the exact path to a file you can point the browser at it using a file: URI, e.g.
file:///C:/path/to/file.ext
You may also be able to do this with a plugin, eg ActiveX, however I am unsure as to what security measures that would have.
Invoke the system command 'open'. Works on Windows and Unix based clients.
Depending on where your script runs, you might not be able to invoke system commands though, for instance in a browser sandbox.
If you provide a link to a file on the local file system (eg: <a href="file:///C:/mydoc.doc">) then the browser will open it - however this is not a great way to do it since the browser will first show a dialog ("Do you wish to Save or Open") and then it will "download" it into temporary files as it would if the file were remote. In this case, if you edit and save the file, it'll be the version now in your temp folder. This might not be a problem if your files are read-only, but generally it's not a great user experience.
The only other method is to use ActiveX, which is actually rather easy (though I don't have the exact code on me now - write a comment if you're interested in a snippet and I'll update). Of course this comes with the giant flashing caveats of:
It only works in Internet Explorer.
You need the user to fiddle with their security settings for the ActiveX scripts to run.