On Tue, Oct 28, 2008 at 11:15:39PM +0200, Alan McKinnon wrote:
> On Tuesday 28 October 2008 22:10:37 Momesso Andrea wrote:
> > > Why not just have them view the ftp site in the browser?
> > >
> > > User's aren't stupid and can cope with stuff - they will see a hierarchy
> > > of folders just like what they see in My Computer and might be asked for
> > > a username and password - just like in gmail.
> > >
> > > What's the problem with such an arrangement?
> >
> > Hmmm... And how do they upload?
> 
> Ahem. 
> 
> Allow me to introduce you to my good friend drag and his charming wife drop.

Nice to meet them :P

> 
> Browsers ARE ftp clients and know about ftp put and get just like they know 
> about http GET, PUT and POST. Caveat: Firefox needs a plugin and those 
> wonderful chaps who write IE7 helpfully removed this feature. Konqueror and 
> Nautilus JustDoIt(tm).
> 
Most of the users I'm serving don't even know about about Konqueror and
Nautilus... And if they have ever installed a firefox plugin, that is
the one called "Bring The Porn".

By they way I cannot cut away such a big part of the audience just
because they don't have a compliant browser.

> Your other option is that insanely convoluted method that phpBB forums use for 
> file uploads. Aunt Tillie has never yet been observed to understand what the 
> forum wants her to do with that function.
> 

Egroupware has something similar to what I need, the just call it
FileManager:
"Managing files stored in the (VFS)? (virtual file system) based on
files, sql-db or webdav."

It gives the ability to upload files and stores in the database a lot of
useful metadata (date of upload, name of uploader, short description,
wether it is updated or not etc...).