Accessing Sharepoint File Server Search Results Externally

Question

We are currently implementing MOSS 2007 to replace an older portal system (Plumtree) and are currently looking at searching. We have 1000s of documents on a file server that we would like users to be able to search. This I can set up by adding a content source of "File Shares" and pointing it at the UNC of the file share. The issue is getting access to this data when you are not on the local network.

So, file share is \FileServer01\Files. This has a file called Wibble.txt containing the word Wibble.

When I search for Wibble it finds this document, BUT it points to file:\FileServer01\Files\Wibble.txt.

That is great if I am attached to the network, but what about when I am accessing Sharepoint via the Internet and I'm not on the LAN that knows about that server?

If I wrote something from scratch I would have a download page that I passed in the location of the file and it would stream it to my browser. Sharepoint does not seam to do anything like like.

Ideas? Suggestions? Have I missed something simple?

Answer 1

The only way to make that content accessible via HTTP would be to bring everything off the file server and into the SharePoint content database. You can then simply let SharePoint crawl that instead of the file server; and your users will be able to download content as well.

Edit: To make the migration task quicker and easier, you can ensure that the WebDav service is running on the sharepoint box, which will allow you to open a document library using the windows explorer interface.

Answer 2

Create an HttpModule that intercepts requests to documents in this file share, and presents them through an HttpHandler to the user. Deploy the module and handler to the web application.