Hello,

I am trying to set up a web portal system on my server so that my users can have access to their home directories served out via http. Novell has a solution that they call portal, but I don't really need all the bells and whistles of a Novell product. I basically want my users to be able to access their home directory via an http interface and have basic options for manipulating the files (upload, download, rename, delete, move, etc). Any suggestions for an open source solution?

I've googled "web portals" and some other terms, but the problem I am running into is that apparently web portal is a buzz word and not an accurate description of what I want.

- Jim

An extremely simple solution would be to move or create the user home directories within the httpd webroot (on Fedora /var/www/html), so all home directories and their contents will be available via http. You should set up .htaccess files to protect access to those directories. It's up to you to allow directory listings on the web browsers by default. This would be a very plain olution, of course. For anything more sophisticated you need something like cpanel.

Linux Archive

Sounds to me like you want to enable Webdav in apache to be honest I did this a few years ago and it worked really well - Sadly it's been so long I can't remember much. I know you need to build or install the mod_dav module for apache - give it a google and I am sure you will find loads of how to's - just take your time and make sure you secure it well

Thank you for your responses. I've tried webdav, but I would rather have a solution via a website for consistency.

As far as simply having apache serve out a home directory, this would not allow the uploading.

I'll look into the cpanel, but please keep the ideas coming

Not sure if something Like OWL would help you? It's more of a Doc management system and KB. But then again it's all web front ended and done over PHP and Mysql but I know you can set the file repo's as flat folders as that was how I used it to make my backup's quicker and more simple.

http://owl.anytimecomm.com/

Owl seems more community collaborative, whereas I am looking for something that still keeps individual users information private and separate.

Hi Jimbo,

I know from experience OWL can be configured in both fashions my advise would be to give it a try if you can afford the time. I used to have different users logging in but then there access past the initial sign-in was totally locked down.

again, thanks sm1ler,

I am not looking for users to fully use the portal for all their interaction with their network drives. I just want them to be able to have a quick way to access their files from home or whereever they are via a secure website. Locally on the network, they will have access to their network drives, but I can't let them map the drives from home or VPN in. A web portal seems like the best choice.

correction...

Actually. I've been playing with the owl demo and it is close to what I want, but I think it is still too collaborative for what I need, I want each user to be completely separate.

- Jim

Assuming your users are running linux, then if you know how to set up ssh properly (no root logins, only allow public/private key-based logins etc) then you can use konqueror's fish://user@server protocol.

If UIDs and GIDs for users are the same on both machines, they don't even have to specify their username, so to see my ~ on server I just put fish://server into konqueror's location box and my home files and directories (on my server) appear.

Because the security is set with the user's keys, they don't have to enter any passwords, the connection is almost-instant, secure, and they can drag & drop, from their PC, to and from any directories on the server that they are allowed access to.

I use this all the time. It's great.
Note: I am running KDE 3.5.x.y

Hi Tredegar,

I am really looking for an internet portal. I want users to have access to their files from any platform that has internet. I don't want to use any protocols like ftp, fish, samba, webdav, etc. Just simply a web portal.

- Jim

You might want to take a look at Usermin. www.webmin.com/usermin.html

It has an upload and download function. Probably a bit more than what you're looking for, but it works over just about any browser.

Thanks Chuck,
webmin seems closer to what I am looking for. I am going to install tomorrow. Thanks.