Open any type of document from the server file system

Hi,

Could you please tell me how I can open any type of document (say word, Excel, PDF, Notepad and etc) from the server file system, but not in an internet explorer?

Just to brief you my project, I am working on a centralised manuals management intranet project. There are loads of manuals on server file system, and I am providing a front end to show the categorised manual list. On click of any hyperlink from the manual list I want to open the requested document, and the user can read/edit and save the changes.

Thanks very much,

Tuntoo

If you just point a hyperlink toward any of these items, e.g. <a href="http://links.10026.com/?link=aworddoc.doc">link</a>, then it should open in a separate word window.

Thanks for your reply. However this doesn't work for the following reasons,

*The documents are in a filesystem of server,

e.g.

D:/Manuals/Word Documents/Test.doc,

E:/Manuals/Excel Documents/Test.xls

Any other suggestions are appreciated.

Regards,

Tuntoo

Use an HttpHandler to read the files from the filesystem server, then use Response.WriteFile to write the file's binary contents to the Repsonse stream.

Thanks for your reply.

I want to open the file in its own application (e.g. .txt in a notepad, .doc in MS Word, .xls in MS Excel) but not in IE.

Please read my initial posting for better understanding of my requirement.

Regards,

Tuntoo

You have no control over that. The only think you can do is offer a file. A client's computer determines what to open a file with based on the client's MIME settings. MIME settings will usually open a Word Document in Word or a ActiveX version of Word, same with Excel, Text Documents open in IE or whatever browser they are using. A file without MIME setting telling what to open it with will just be treated as x-application and let the user Open it or Save it.

vcsjones,

Thank you very much for your reply.

I shall start setting mime types, by reading the extension of the documents.

Regards,

Tuntoo