Holding a file open in FTP?

[Julie]

We have a user who wants to share an editable spreadsheet on
their web server (IIS5) with others over the internet. So we placed
a spreadsheet file in the FTP directory, established FTP accounts for
the users, and they can open the spreadsheet by opening the FQDN
(ftp://domain.com/file.xls)

The problem is that when they open the file this way, the file is locked
only for the duration of the FTP data transfer to the client, after which
it is freed. A second person can come along and open, change, and
save the file while the first one has it open (on their remote machine)
and making changes.

Does anyone have any suggestions about how to deal with this?
Is there any way, short of changing to a VPN connection for the
clients, that would give us file locking during an FTP session?

Thanks.

 

[Dave Peterson]

Couldn't you just link to the excel workbook itself.

file:////server/sharename/file.xls

Be careful, though. When I use MS Internet Explorer, I open the file itself.
But when I use Netscape (4.7x), it would transfer the file to it's cache folder
and open a copy from there.

 

[Julie]

Couldn't you just link to the excel workbook itself.

file:////server/sharename/file.xls

Yes, that would work with a VPN, but not without. I decided to
simply limit the number of FTP sessions in IIS so only one person
can have the file open at a time (each editing session consumes
two connections.)

 

[GB]

Yes, that would work with a VPN, but not without. I decided to
simply limit the number of FTP sessions in IIS so only one person
can have the file open at a time (each editing session consumes
two connections.)

How does that help? I thought the file gets transferred down to excel then
the connection closes?

 

[Julie]

How does that help? I thought the file gets transferred down to excel then
the connection closes?

The connection remains open but the file is released.

 

[GB]

The connection remains open but the file is released.

That would do it remarkably simply then! Neat.