Opening Files as Read-Only

If they open it in a browser, it IS read only unless they have write permissions on that folder.

Easy solution -- don't give them write permissions.

ok, I see what you are saying, but after looking back at my site, and logging in as a normal user I have found the actual problem.  Here is what is happening:

The intranet site opens various files on the server such as Word or Excel documents (the server where the intranet lies is a different server than our file server but they are both on the same LAN).  Originally I was just linking to the documents using the full path, but now I see that if a user does not have a drive mapped that a file points to, they cannot open the page.

Example:

I have a link that points to a file "G:/Staff List.doc"

This always opened fine for me because I always had the G: drive mapped, but when I logged into our network as another user who did not have access to the G: drive, they could not open the page.  What I thought would happen, is our intranet server (which is mapped to this drive) would locate the file and display it in a browser.  Why is the intranet using the user's own local drive mappings to find files and how can I correct this?

Exactaly as Webwoman mentioned. Dont give them Write permission.

To make more sense.

Right Click on File/Folder, Choose Properties and choose General Tab.

from the Attributes check "Read Only". and hit ok

adilkhan,

I don't know if you posted before seeing my first response, but just in case please see above.  I want my site to fetch the pages and display them without having to worry about the user having the drives available.  Therefore read/write access should not be an issue.

Or am I totally wrong?

can u not move the doc onto the other sever...

Then change the permission as : webwoman and asikhan said ?

g

Moving the files onto the other server doesn't make much sense to me.  There must be a way for this to happen.  Isn't that the basis for a website?  That you tell it what files you want to see, and it gets them and displays them?  Is there something wrong with the way I am hyperlinking it?  Should I not be using the full path with drive letter or something like that?  I've tried most combinations that I can think of but maybe there is something I am missing.

So I guess, the main question is "Is it possible to link to a file that is not in the root of your site?"

OK, in case anybody cares, I figured it out.  In IIS you can create a "Virtual Directory" in the root of your site which actually points to another drive, or folder, or network location.  And when you create this directory you can also specify that it is read-only or whatever access you desire.  I'm not sure how this is done under different systems such as Tomcat, but I'm guessing there is probably a way.

so there you go.  Thanks for your help anyways.