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javawebdavmilton

Remote file edit and saving without downloading/editing/uploading?

This is a problem I've faced recently. I have a Java application which give the facility to create user accounts and then the user can upload files to the remote server which the application is hosted.

At some point the user can do the followings to edit that file.

  1. Download the file
  2. do the editing
  3. upload the file (and it will replace the existing file or keep both)

The problem is the user have to upload it to the server again. How can I avoid that. I mean to simplify the user experience. I think below will be a good solution.

  1. User click the file and it will open in the relevant file editor (MS Word, Note Pad, MS PowerPoint - assume the editors are installed already )
  2. User do the editing and just click the save in the relevant editor. (say in MS word user edit the file and click save) - then the file in the remote server will automatically updated to the edited one.

I know this is not a programming code error or something , I'm just wondering how can we achieve this ? Is there any library or a technology for this.

I heard about webDav , and its implementation like Milton. Is these can solve this ? or any of you know a way to achieve this. I need some ideas and thoughts how i can do this. please give your kind help.

Solution

  • Yes, you can do this by implementing webdav support in your webapp, and Milton.io is designed specifically to allow that.

    There are tutorials on the milton website showing how to do it. Takes about 20 mins

    http://milton.io/

    To integrate click to edit into the web browser you need to use IE. Its possible to do the same in FF and Chrome, but requires addons to be installed.