Is it possible to add a folder that holds our documents to a sharepoint site on another server?

Question

Ok, so we have two servers. One with Sharepoint on (amongst other things) and one with our company documents on. Is it possible to link the two together so the documents get stored on the file server but can be displayed through sharepoint on the other server?

We want to be able to access the files through sharepoint when outside the office, but through the windows network when in the office, without having more than one copy of the same document.

Both servers are running windows 2003.

Many thanks in advance

Answer 1

You'll need to code some webpart which gets a file list from your file server. When user click that link you must to get that file, by using System.IO, and download it.

Or you could to add that files on your Sharepoint box and to give appropriate rights to users coming from outside.

Answer 2

Hi.

I would suggest the other way around. Place the documents in a SharePoint document library.

You can still access (and manage, update/move/delete/rename) them from a standard Windows Explorer using the WebDav protocol by simply browse to \YourSharePointServer\DocLib

You will benefit from SharePoint access when not in the office (or, by all means, when you are in the office), access them from an Explorer window internally, and have only one copy stored without redundancy.

Plus, version control of the documents (if needed).

Answer 3

Sharepoint allows you to save BLOBS (and documents) externally through the ISPExternalBinaryProvider interface which was added in SP1. Unfortunately, no provider implementation is provider so you have to write your own. Check the Creating an External Storage Solution for Sharepoint article from the June 2009 issue of Technet Magazine for a very good explanation and a sample implementation.

A possible drawback of external storage is that it affects the whole farm. All BLOBs from all sites will be stored outside Sharepoint.

Answer 4

I could suggest to look into using links to the external files that are outside WSS. The links could be stored in a list for example. I think this should solve your dilema of not having duplicate versions or copies.