need help! how to open a shared folder thru web browser

[ivelson]

Hi to all LV'ers,

as the subject implies, i am trying to find a way to view the shared folder w/in the company network thru web browser. is this possible? is there a much easy way?? i never been used FTP vi's before or any other vi's to deal with this situation but i successfully used web publishing tool to make an access of LV front panel remotely using "web publishing tool". btw, im using LV 8.5.1.

my purpose for this is to let our boss to have a quick access of the data from excel files (w/ "s" because many excel file report is generated everyday for data updates) resided in remote computer (this computer runs the LV program and we can view its front panel remotely thru web publishing tool but i also need to view the folder of this computer that contains files). that is why im finding a way to have an access not only a specific excel file but a specific folder. ofcourse, we can access the shared folder thru "my network places>>entire network>>microsoft windows network" if the folder is shared but our boss is far more convenient if we LV programmers can create a button to automatically lead them to the folder containing files they needed.

I hope anyone already done dealing with this can shared their solutions.

deeply appreciate your help!!

regards,

ivel

[smercurio_fc]

Not sure how this is a LabVIEW question, or why you would want to do this with LabVIEW. Wouldn't it be simpler to just have a mapped drive to the folder? Or a shortcut?

[RavensFan]

If you put //TheRemoteComputerName/c$/SharedFolderName in the web browser, it should leave to that folder assuming they have sufficient rights.  You might have to work out the precise path down through subfolders.  C$ gets me to a remote C$ I have rights to but have not publicly shared.  You may need to use C, you may not have to list C at all.

[FraggerFox]

And you can also use IEExplorer ActiveX with property/invoke node to pass on the path to the web browser. But why would you want this to be done in LV with the Web Browser?

[ivelson]

i think what i told in my 1st msg makes things more complicated than what i really need, sorry for that.. but for sure, i need this to be done in LV because the data from excel files was generated by LV program and this LV program is displayed in our web (thru web publishing tool), see picture below.

what i want to do is to add a button here in front panel that when pushed, will show the folder consisting of several excel files. with this, i can choose what particular excel file to be opened. sorry guys i make you confused in my situation. here i attached i simple VI to let me open the excel file but unfortunately when i select the desired excel file, the dialog says "path not found". when i browse and open the excel file manually using "entire network>>microsoft windows network>>remote computer name>> shared folder>>excelfile", i can successfully opened it.

i dont know why i cannot make a valid path using my attached vi. maybe there's something wrong with my program,please let me know. the attached vi is LV 8.5.1. i will used this vi as a subvi later in the front panel shown above.

thanks in advanced for help..!

[RavensFan]

I don't know if we can help you figure out your file not found problem.

But one problem you'll have is that with a web browser application, you won't be able to get the file dialog box to come up.  One solution can be found at File dialog to use in Remote Panel applications

[ivelson]

i also tried "datasocket select URL.vi" to extract the URL from remote location but no success so far.. i will try to work with the link you've posted ravens fan. based on its title "File dialog to use in Remote Panel applications", it seems like it should work in my situation.. let you know the results later on...

thanks!...

[ivelson · Accepted solution]

problem solved...

just to share to others whom may encountered the same problem. the conflict is when opening a file from remote computer (chinese OS) w/ chinese characters in its filename with the computer that cannot recognized a chinese font (English OS). i tried my VI (attached in the 5th msg) in computer using chinese OS version (w/ LV installed in it) and it can open the excel file in remote location successfully.

So i may change the OS version of the remote computer into English version to avoid conflicts in the future... anyway, here is the picture of the conflicts. the VI attached before is OK...

thank you guys for dropping by... this LV forum helps me a lot to learn LV software very fast in a way i could never imagined...

Xiexie!...