Setup linux-apache server to access documents on NT server
 

I want to set up my Linux-Apache web-server to access files on a NT file server. Basically I want to use my web-server as a portal for users to access/edit/create/delete documents on the NT file server through their browser.

Are there any linux products that would help me accomplish this?
Any help would be a appreciated. Thanks.

Samba might do it.

I'm not sure whay you dont want to let users access shared files on the NT box since that is how it was designed. From what you say I think you want to use samba to mount shares within the apache DocumentRoot.

Okay this is what I want to do.
I have two servers.
One is a Apache web-server running on a linux box.
The other is a NT file server.
Now, when I am on the road I want to be able to still access and manage the files on my NT server but without having to copy all of the files to my web-server thus saving disk space and I would have all my files stored in a central location.

So the web-server would act as a go-between for the on-line users and the file server. Does this make sense?

Yes I can see your reasons now.

Like I said in post 2 "use samba to mount shares within the apache DocumentRoot."

Do you see where I am going?

Yes I understand. That would work but I would need something a little more fancy. I would not be the only user accessing files and therefore I want file permissions to apply. So I need a way to authenticate users and to have the NT file permissions apply to the individual users.

What sort of interface are you using on the web server side for creating documents?

There are a lot of file manager programs for PHP that you might use to control the files, once they are mounted via samba.

I'll get you a few links if you like.

The reason I was interested was that you may be able to use .htaccess files to protect the directories. This is how I have done it in the past. It just depends on the front end you are using. It doesn't matter how you protect the files at a system level - you will need to give the user that apache runs as full access anyway.

Links to PHP file manager programs would be much appreciated.

david_ross what type of front end would you recommend?
I want things to be as secure as possible.
Thanks.

I tend to write my own to suit my needs ;)

I create a password protected script using .htaccess. Then use perl to interprate the username that the user login with. Then use that as the dirname - eg /home/httpd/users/USERNAME/ Then using httpd.conf I can map the /home/httpd/users/ directory to http://myhost/users/

The security depends on how good your scripts are!

Zend has a list of commercial and GPLed file managers here.

http://www.zend.com/apps.php?CID=263


I've used

http://philex.sourceforge.net/


and


http://phpfm.zalon.dk/index.php

Before. Most of the ones I've used have really amazed me with their flexibility.