is this possible

[iissa]

what i want it to open a file on the client machine, using a link on my internet site.

the thing is that i have created a intrenet site for the company,
which displays all the usual garbage about the company.

the thing is that now they want some how for the users to click on say test (link) and this will either run a batch file on the client computer , or better still run the program on the client computer.

There is not sercurity issues to consider as everybody in the company access the same stuff, and have the same data.

we have a database on the server, which is copied to each workstation when user logs in.
so on each wrkstation the data base is running locally.
but the tables are linked to the server.
so everyone has access to all the files.

so what i want is a link that will open
c:\test\tets.mdb.
just like double clicking on the short cut.

is there any solution to this problem
at all.

any suggestion would be much appreciated

[csammis]

Say I want to run the file "C:\monkey.bat" on the local computer. I'd make a hyperlink in my HTML page that looks like this:

<a href="file:///C:/monkey.bat">

BUT...
There is no guaruntee that this will automatically launch the program! It depends on how the user's browser is configured. If it thinks files ending with ".bat" are supposed to be displayed as text within the browser, that's what it will do. If you try it with a .mdb file, like you suggested, it would *probably* show one of the "Run this file from its current location/Save this file to disk" screens. Running it from its current location would launch it, and if you check the "Do not ask me again" box on the "Run/Save" dialog it shouldn't be a problem again.

[iissa]

yeh i tried that, it works fine, but the thing is that it is running the file from the server, i need it to run from the client machine.

[csammis]

Actually, using that method does *not* run it from the server. The "file://" protocol specifies that the client computer is the location of the file. I made a simple test page at www.public.iastate.edu/~csammis/test.html Clicking the link will attempt to launch "C:\monkey.bat" on *your* computer, but it will be unsuccessful if the file doesn't exist. Making a link to your locally downloaded copy of the DB will launch the local copy, not the server copy.