Sharing Files Too Large for Email Attachment

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Level 1

46 points

Sharing Files Too Large for Email Attachment

I would guess that this is a rather simple thing to execute/setup, but I have searched all around and found surprisingly little to help me so far (maybe I'm not using the right search terms).

As many people do, I frequently need to share files too large to send as an email attachment, either because it is actually too large to work or because it will be overly cumbersome for them to download the message as they receive it. To date, I have used MobileMe's sharing feature where I load the file to my iDisk and then send them a link to download it at their convenience.

However, it seems like there should be a simple way to do this very same thing using our Leopard Server. I'd also like to make it easy for the rest of our staff to send links to files on our server to other people via email. Hopefully, we could create a designated folder, like Public for example, that is the only "open" folder, leaving all of the other files we share within our office secure from outsiders. Is there a way to do this without having to add each person I am emailing the hyperlink to the user directory?

Obviously by my post, I am a novice, especially at things pertaining to Leopard Server. Anyone have a solution? Thanks in advance.

MacBook Pro, Mac OS X (10.5.8)

Posted on Dec 23, 2009 7:09 AM

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Answer 1

Douggo

Level 4

2,740 points

Dec 24, 2009 2:35 PM in response to tenaciousB

There may be other possible solutions, but here are a couple that I can come up with.

1) If you're running Web services and have a registered domain, you could make a folder in the web directory - "filegrab" for example - and use ACLs to share that folder out to your users. They could then place the file in that directory and roll a link to it, such as "http://mydomain.com/filegrab/document.pdf" to include in an email that would download it via their browser. I've done this myself so I know it works. Of course, this entails having Web and DNS services configured and running which is not without tribulations for the novice sysadmin.

2) FTP - or a derivative thereof. I would NOT recommend using the FTP services in OS X Server for this. I've found that CrushFTP serves very well for FTP services on OS X Server, is very reasonably priced and runs its own Web server interface. User creation and access permissions are easily done, including unrestricted access, though I would suggest using a "public" account with password to prevent snoopers from gaining open access to the files you post. Best to have a public static IP for doing this. Still, your users can email a link to the FTP server with the login credentials and have the client grab the files right through the browser.

-Doug

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Answer 2

MrHoffman

Level 10

146,209 points

Dec 24, 2009 2:56 PM in response to tenaciousB

Embed an ftp or maybe an sftp link in your email message, and host the file(s) at your server or out at a bandwidth provider. This involves getting the file to the server or content provider, receiving a link to the file to embed into the email, and file clean-up after the usefulness of the file has expired. There are also considerations around what (should) happen when somebody accesses a stale link from an old message.

Mailing stuff around is comparatively difficult to deal with in general, as information dissemination designs go. It's big and awkward and bandwidth-intensive and generally becomes a problem beyond the issues with mailing the messages around.

Web content management systems (CMSs) can possibly be implemented here, as can distributed version control packages, and direct on-line access; basically looking at available solutions to your particular requirement. If remote viewing is infeasible, it's also possible to implement a client interface or tool that downloads the data in the background, and that maintains a cache, and that can incrementally update the client view of the data.

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Answer 3

Dec 30, 2009 4:33 PM in response to MrHoffman

Hi,
With Leopard Server you can set up a web group that provides wiki and blog service with built-in file upload and downloading under control set in WGM or Directory.app. If you restrict the uploads to specific members of the group (selected in Directory.app) or anyone in the group then OD limits access on who can change the site.
However, you can also control who can view the site and viewers can download any files posted on a page they can see. The controls are built into the group ware. Additionally, you can limit the service to a user blog for one poster with many viewers.

HTH,
Harry

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