Document mangment in .net

[Guest]

Hi,

I am in the process of desgning a document managment program in .net and
there are gong to be two part to it
a. winforms application : user will upload the document form here.
User will select a file from this local machine and this file will be
uploaded from the client to the webserver server over a webservice.

b. Webforms : internet users will view the documents uploaded from
winforms from here.

This is the first time i am worknig on document managment or anything to do
with document handling i.e upoading document. Sql server is the database and
the uploaded files can be documents or images.

Follownig are my questions

1. Scanning the document for viruses : if the file which is being uploaded
is a document then i want to scan it for viruses, can any one tell my how i
can programatically scan this file being uploaded form the win forms
appilcation for viruses? Is there any webservice out there from Trend or
Symatec which will let me scan this document before uploading it over to the
server OR can i make use of the API on the server machine to scan this
document for viruses ?

2. Saving a document ( in Sql server or in a folder on webserver)

My application is a distriibtured application with the client sitting on
the user machine and database sitting on the webserver and webservices being
used to connect the server to the client. Sql server is being used as the
database behind the server. Question is what is the best way to store
documents on the server? the two options that i can think of

a. Should i save them to the databse : i want to show this document to
the user in the browser as well, if i am saving it to the database how will i
show it to the user in the browser? also space wise is it better to save it
in sql server or in the databse. I think security wise this option is better,
user can no way pull the document from the database with the secure procedure.

OR


b. should i uploaded them to a folder on the webserver : and give the web
users the url to access the document but if this is the case then there is no
security to the documents? also how good is this option with space?

Please suggest!
Sameer

 

[Dmytro Lapshyn [MVP]]

Hi,

Regarding your question #1: You should rather find out which anti-virus
system is going to be used on the target environment (where your document
mgmt app. will be deployed) and look for SDK docs on the anti-virus vendor's
website.

Regarding your question #2: I personally would store all docs in a file
system folder with tighened up security. SharePoint stores document this
way, and that's probably for a reason - MS guys know what they're doing.

 

[Nick Malik [Microsoft]]

Hello sameer,

quick correction

Hi,

Regarding your question #2: I personally would store all docs in a file
system folder with tighened up security. SharePoint stores document this
way, and that's probably for a reason - MS guys know what they're doing.

actually Sharepoint 2003 and 2007 both store 'uploaded' documents in blobs
in the SQL Server database. This makes it easier to manage the act of
taking a backup and restoring it, as well as the problem of seperating two
Sharepoint web sites so that one is hosted on a different server, while the
second remains where it is.

At first I had the same questions, but I tend to follow suit to this choice
in my current apps.

Put your doc into a db column.




--
--- Nick Malik [Microsoft]
MCSD, CFPS, Certified Scrummaster
http://blogs.msdn.com/nickmalik

Disclaimer: Opinions expressed in this forum are my own, and not
representative of my employer.
I do not answer questions on behalf of my employer. I'm just a
programmer helping programmers.
--

 

[Guest]

guys, thanks for your response.

Dmytro : lets say i store all the documents in a folder on the machine and
the only way i want users to view these documents is either through my
distributed win forms application which conencts to the webserver over
webservices or Remoting OR through the browser but even for this i have to
make the folder accessible to the IIS user, right? so what i mean to say is
that if IIS user is able to view them then any body can use a URL to browse
to these documents. so the question again becomes how can i restrict the
access to these documents from the internet.

Btw does any one know about Sharepoint server or windows sharepoint
services, coudl i use these in my scenario in any way?

thanks in advance.
sameer

 

[Guest]

guys, thanks for your response.

Dmytro : lets say i store all the documents in a folder on the machine and
the only way i want users to view these documents is either through my
distributed win forms application which conencts to the webserver over
webservices or Remoting OR through the browser but even for this i have to
make the folder accessible to the IIS user, right? so what i mean to say is
that if IIS user is able to view them then any body can use a URL to browse
to these documents. so the question again becomes how can i restrict the
access to these documents from the internet.

Btw does any one know about Sharepoint server or windows sharepoint
services, coudl i use these in my scenario in any way?

thanks in advance.
sameer

 

[Guest]

guys, thanks for your response.

Dmytro : lets say i store all the documents in a folder on the machine and
the only way i want users to view these documents is either through my
distributed win forms application which conencts to the webserver over
webservices or Remoting OR through the browser but even for this i have to
make the folder accessible to the IIS user, right? so what i mean to say is
that if IIS user is able to view them then any body can use a URL to browse
to these documents. so the question again becomes how can i restrict the
access to these documents from the internet.

Btw does any one know about Sharepoint server or windows sharepoint
services, coudl i use these in my scenario in any way?

thanks in advance.
sameer

 

[Nick Malik [Microsoft]]

Hello Sameer,

Your entire scenario can be done out of the box using WSS (which is free).
Virus scanning will require a virus scanning package to be configured to
scan the documents in WSS. Many commercial packages do this as one of their
features, including Antigen, bitdefender, and PortalProtect.

Download WSS here
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/...cb-1161-46f2-a363-8e0c2250d990&DisplayLang=en

Look up Virus Scanning for Sharepoint
http://www.microsoft.com/resources/documentation/wss/2/all/adminguide/en-us/stse11.mspx?mfr=true


--
--- Nick Malik [Microsoft]
MCSD, CFPS, Certified Scrummaster
http://blogs.msdn.com/nickmalik

Disclaimer: Opinions expressed in this forum are my own, and not
representative of my employer.
I do not answer questions on behalf of my employer. I'm just a
programmer helping programmers.

 

[Guest]

Nick, thanks for your reply and need a little more info on it.

1. Is WSS same as Sharepoint server?
2. Do u mean i need to install Wss on the webserver, from my Winforms
application invoke the wss sdk api to store and retrieve the documents with
wss + also from my web application invoke the wss sdk to again retrive the
saved documents ?
what is the advantage of using wss in this process, can u point me to an
online resouce when i could get more info on wss.

thanks
sameer

 

[Nick Malik [Microsoft]]

WSS is Windows Sharepoint Services. It is a free component that you can
install on Windows Server 2003. It handles many basic requirements of
document management, include the features you mention.

Sharepoint server is a commercial portal product that sits on top of WSS and
provides additional features. It is really useful if you are setting up a
corporate Intranet or Extranet environment and you want an out-of-the-box
portal environment.

For more information on the difference, see:
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/830320

Yes, your winforms app can submit documents and retrieve documents directly
with Sharepoint. WSS provides a web service interface for this purpose.
Find out more in the Sharepoint 2003 SDK.
(Note that Sharepoint 2007 will be released soon, so if you want, navigate
through the site below and you can also see info on that product, which has
some really nice features as well.)
http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa155174.aspx

Advantage of using Sharepoint as your back end:
Not only do you get the document management stuff for 'free', but you also
get the ability to offer a web based interface to those customers who want
or need one. (You don't HAVE to offer the web based interface, but think
about it... do you have a customer who may want to get access to his or her
document outside of your front end tool on a browser?) It's free. Hard to
beat the price. And it's debugged, and it works. Hard to beat that either.

--
--- Nick Malik [Microsoft]
MCSD, CFPS, Certified Scrummaster
http://blogs.msdn.com/nickmalik

Disclaimer: Opinions expressed in this forum are my own, and not
representative of my employer.
I do not answer questions on behalf of my employer. I'm just a
programmer helping programmers.
--

Nick, thanks for your reply and need a little more info on it.

1. Is WSS same as Sharepoint server?
2. Do u mean i need to install Wss on the webserver, from my Winforms
application invoke the wss sdk api to store and retrieve the documents
with
wss + also from my web application invoke the wss sdk to again retrive the
saved documents ?
what is the advantage of using wss in this process, can u point me to an
online resouce when i could get more info on wss.

thanks
sameer