an intranet sollution needed

[goodhead]

Has any one come accross a good simple intranet system that allows you to add hyperlinks to applications liek word, excel etc

 

Our managment want a single place to access every think. So when the users login they automatically get a webpage that has links to office, webmail, macromedia studio etc.

 

Making the start menu obsolete basically.

[webman]

What's wrong with the Start menu... ?

 

Web browsers alone do not allow the running of executables for security reasons. But I believe you could create a Hypertext Application (HTA) to create a similar effect if you have appropriate web/scripting skills. Have a look at these samples.

[wesleyw]

Theoretically any good CMS package could do this Joomla, Drupal et cetera however you would have to make sure that the local intranet site is fully trusted and the security on it is set to none if you want to avoid security messages popping up all the time saying you are trying to running an execute?

 

 

Wes

[plexer]

I thought we were equipping students with the skills needed to go out into the real world? if so there's no problem with them navigating the start menu.

 

Or provide them with a desktop that has all the shortcuts.

 

Trying to make things more complicated than they need to be here.

 

Ben

[Pottsey]

Create a HTML webpage as a desktop background only store the webpage on the server so it doesnt work outside school. Works well for us. I can upload some of ours as examples if it helps.

[K.C.Leblanc]

Where I used to work we ran executables from an intranet. It didn't work very well because we got constant security warnings. My feeling if your SMT are asking for something daft.

[sreiach]

I would have to agree with others.. Why would you want to do this?

 

If you have an AD domain you can customize every start menu, desktop icons, IE links using GPO in one spot. Even customizing that based on the needs of the user. Seems like it would be making things a lot more complicated making that into intranet site. :: shrugs ::

[goodhead]

Where I used to work we ran executables from an intranet. It didn't work very well because we got constant security warnings. My feeling if your SMT are asking for something daft.

 

i totally agree.

I think cos users are familiar with start menu thats what they'll continue to use. And just close the stupid web version.

 

I found a company that does this stuff. Would do just what they want plus loads more. Costs £20k

[Michael]

I'd have to agree also, this seems a strange request. One method which would work is to create a Word document which allows hyperlinks from the web and links to directories/shares within your domain (providing permissions are granted).

 

If you use a controlled Start Menu and Desktop using Folder Redirection in AD, (if it doesn't exist) create a folder called "Startup" and make it hidden within its properties. Create a shortcut to the Word document which is located in a shared area and place it within the Startup folder.

 

When the user logs on, the document will pop-up allowing them to click on the relevant link(s) they need. Problem is though, the control key (by default) must be held down when clicking on a link, although this can probably be removed with Ork Tools (Office Resource Kit).

[amfony]

Hi -

 

I have actually applied both solutions to all staff and students.

I have created a active desktop that has all the goodies applied (like bgInfo but via html/vbscript) whilst maintaing a custom start menu.

 

In addition i have implented some drop down menus to start office suite, re-run login scripts if in error state, and other apps that are part of the base image.

 

I dont have security warnings - i instanciate the apps via object.shell.

 

I think that BOTH models have their place, should we be creating real world environment - yes. Should we be automating and facilitating as much as we can - ofcourse yes.

 

I even made a custom interface with bLean - but decided for a more realistic representation.

 

Cheers! Great site by the way - i was really happy to find this site.

[meastaugh1]

I use Windows Sharepoint Services for our intranet/extranet solution.

 

The staff site launches for staff when they logon, this has links to external applications (not my idea) using LaunchInIE. We're on IE6 at the moment, and I fully expect an update such as IE7, or a security patch in the future to knock this fucntionality out.

[torledo]

Has any one come accross a good simple intranet system that allows you to add hyperlinks to applications liek word, excel etc

 

Our managment want a single place to access every think. So when the users login they automatically get a webpage that has links to office, webmail, macromedia studio etc.

 

Making the start menu obsolete basically.

 

Having somekind of portal with access to webmail, internet web services, calendar and documents is a good idea. I mean that's what they're designed to do - aggregate information from multiple sources.

 

I think that's what your management means when talking about access to 'hyperlinks'. The only time that access to word or dreamweaver would be desirable for a portal application is in the citrix sense. In Citrix Presentation Server they have a portal product - they used to call it the access gateway that basically allows you to create a web page with access to applications and other elements such as weblinks all accessed via SSL.

 

But that's because remote users wouldn't necessarily have access to corporate applications e.g office or sap if they're accessing from an insecure location.

 

On the LAN in your school all machines should have the standard software suite installed - so putting the icons in a web portal or in a single area like with the horror story that is Active Desktop is pointless because as someone has said you've got the start menu and the windows desktop for that. You can group deployed applications with Novells Zenworks deployment tools, but again that doesn't add anything.

 

But do look into the idea of a portal or intranet. Open source is a good way to achieve it but my recommendation would be sharepoint it is quickly becoming the defacto standard on Windows for building any kind of information portal.

[ChrisP]

to launch exe's from the browser

 

A solution, but not very secure would be to install the run protocol handler, then you can launch exe's from a webpage....

 

I use this for my custom network-admin intranet i have written in asp to launch VNC, Ping, Darkpush, PSshutdown PSexec etc. etc.

 

although it's only installed on the two pc's i use in my office

[zag]

Sharepoint is a great simple (or complicated) Intranet. You can do alot with it.

[CyberNerd]

Has any one come accross a good simple intranet system that allows you to add hyperlinks to applications liek word, excel etc

 

Our managment want a single place to access every think. So when the users login they automatically get a webpage that has links to office, webmail, macromedia studio etc.

 

Making the start menu obsolete basically.

 

Citrix does exactly this, even has its own web interface for the job,

[klawd]

I think this is a good idea, and something I have been investigating for here.

 

Intralaunch works well and is easy to use, but is pretty expensive, or as someone said here LaunchinIE works in a less sophisticated way but is free.

 

However, I have given up on the idea so far, for the reasons listed above. Its not likely to work in the longterm due to increasing security, and really limits you to what browser users can access your site with.

 

Something we do use (for a different purpose) is 2x, which requires a client install, but comes with a web portal, allowing you to launch applications, it basically just downloads an xml file which runs the application launcher.