Google Drive file simultaneous modification - javascript

I am trying to make a simple "sync" functionality. Let me describe my problem with a simple example:
Let's say there is a file named lorem.txt on Google Drive (appFolder). What happens if at the same time, two different devices (belonging to the same user with the same Google account) access the file and try to read or change the contents or name of the file? Lets say device A is suppose to make a change in the contents while device B is also trying to do the same at the same time. The file is accessed through it's unique ID.
How to go around this problem? Is there a build in functionality or measures in place to avoid simultaneous write access to a file (like some sort of file lock)?
I am specifically looking for a solution using Google JS SDK or using plain JS (with Authentication tokens ofc). Does the Drive server returns some sort of error status code (like 404) when such a scenario happens?
UPDATE:
Based on these previously asked questions (asked in 2017 and 2012 respectively):
Android Drive Api Lock File while in use
and
Can I set a lock on files with google api?
, I think it is fair to assume that there is no such functionality built-in into Google Drive.
I will leave this question as a reference for others.

Related

Possible download / upload manager embedded on html page with access to local filesystem

As the title indicates i want to have a certain application get access to the local file system. To describe why i will illustrate my situation:
I am a running a IIS WebApplication with the C# MVC 4 Framework as backend module. The site solely consists of HTML, CSS markup and some JS. The page will be loaded in IE11+ (Edge) only. For the standard procedure of displaying and accessing data from as well as sending data to the server this works quite fine.
On a certain page I want the user to be able to upload a file using a simple file dialog, like the one you can initiate with a simple <input type="file"> tag. I also want to offer the posibility to download files from the server but need to know where files has been saved / will be saved to.
As described on a lot of different websites, just like this one here, the HTML5 File API does a great job but will not be able to return the full qualified filename including the local path directions, same for JS accessing the file object.
As my research confirmed HTML5, JS and also SWF (Flash) will not report detailed information because they are all sandboxed applications or restricted by RFCs. I already unterstood and appreciate the effort to secure my trips to internet.
But in this case do need the paths where a file was upload from and the file has been downloaded to.
So my question is, what is the best way to expose the full path directions for a up- as well as downloaded file to report them back to the server?
Is it possible to embed a SWF object inside HTML which will run inside an Adobe AIR sandbox or is a signed JAVA Applet still the one and only solution to accomblish this security breaking task?
A solution i would also apreciate would be the possiblity to ask the user to get access the file system, like you grant access to the web push service to receive notifications.
Also if there is a possible solution which may suite my circumstances please let me know by adding some simeple examples / revealing some factful links, thanks in advance.

How to make a user-accessible file on the user's filesystem with a chrome extension

I'm making an extension that among other things edit a javascript file in an external editor (one on the user's computer). The extension has the javascript file saved in chrome.storage but it will ofcourse be a lot easier for the user to write code in their own editor.
This is why I decided to find something that creates a file on the user's filesystem which the user can find and edit it themselves, and if any changes are made, sync that back up to the extension (either by periodically checking or by using some listener).
I have looked around but nothing really seems to fit what I'm trying to do. Chrome's fileSystem API only works for chrome apps, not chrome extensions and the HTML5 fileSystem API does not allow for a simple filesystem URL to be requested and opened, instead it obfuscates the stored file and makes it practically impossible to edit that file easily.
Something else I looked at which might be more promising is letting the user edit one of the files in the directory where the extension is stored and somehow retrieving that content. This is however going to be a bit tough to implement with chrome's all the hash checking going on in chrome extensions not to mention the general modifying of those files' contents by the extension (possibly by hacking around by specifying your own update URL and "updating" a dummy javascript file that is going to be written to).
Is there any way to simply ask for a location to store a file and then allow the user to edit that file and sync it back up?
No, extensions are sandboxed from the real filesystem.
As you said, it's possible to read extension's own files; however, this is read-only for the extension and modifying those files on a deployed extension will result in Chrome detecting extension "tampering" and immediate disabling as a precaution.
The only way for a Chrome extension to escape the sandbox is, as wOxxOm suggested, a Native Host module. Note that this cannot be distributed in Chrome Web Store with the extension; it needs a separate installer.
Alternatively, you could use some sort of cloud storage with API to access it; e.g. a user could store something in a Dropbox subfolder, and your extension can authorize access to it via Dropbox API. Unfortunately, there is no "native" solution like syncFileSystem for Apps.

How to read all folder names from particular folder in JavaScript [duplicate]

I am creating a HTML page where I need to display the names of the files present in the specific local folder, example - C:\Users\User1\Documents\folder1 . I tried to write the code in java script but have not succeeded yet. Most of the question threads mention about "ActiveXObject" to be used but that itself does not work for me.
Reference: JavaScript: Read files in folder
Can anyone help me in achieving this?
In general, you can't do that. Web pages do not have access to the local filesystem.
Chrome can access the contents of a directory that is selected using a file input field. However, other browsers, such as Internet Explorer and Firefox, have not implemented this feature at this time, nor is there currently any way to access a directory that was not selected by the user.
In theory, it is possible to read arbitrary files using a signed Java (not Javascript) applet. However, this requires the user to approve a series of extremely scary warning dialogs — and requires Java! — so it's really not a viable solution.
I'm afraid I may be the bearer of bad news for your design: The action you are requesting expressly violates the security model as specified in the File API spec. The client implementation of FileReader() must make sure that "all files that are being read by FileReader objects have first been selected by the user." (W3C File API , 13. Security Considerations: http://www.w3.org/TR/FileAPI/#security-discussion).
It would be a huge security risk of browser scripts could just arbitrarily open and read any file from a path without any user interaction. No browser manufacturer would allow unfettered access to the entire file system like that.
Thinking about it however, if it is all being run locally, you could use ajax to query a server side script that could return the directory you request.

Work around for Html5 Local File Access

We are currently looking at porting a enterprise silverlight application over to html5. The major roadblock that we have hit is the ability to open files from the user's local disk. Currently they have a document library which just links to files on their computer that they can open from within the app and view or print out. All that I read is that you can only access the local sandbox of the web app with the html5 file api's. We want to load these files from code.
Does anyone know of any workarounds to this?
Thanks
There is no way for html5 to access local file without user selection. But FSO: FileSystemObject works for IE and MAYBE could be regarded as a work around. But still there are some requirements to meet.
It is possible to use chrome's filesystem API to access files on a users local filesytem. So you'd have to be willing to make this a chrome only application.
Using java you can create a "Signed" applet which has access to the local filesystem. (if the applet is signed you can request filesystm permissions)
then there is a tutorial for accessing methods of your java code directly from javascript here: http://docs.oracle.com/javase/tutorial/deployment/applet/invokingAppletMethodsFromJavaScript.html
you should be able to perform something similar from silverlight.
There is no workaround in pure HTML5/Javascript. You need the use of plugins, such as Java or Silverlight (maybe you shouldn't port it after all). As for workarounds, HTML5 gives you an easy way drag and drop multiple files that you could transfer on the server and then display back to your users. Another workaround would be to install a custom agent (a software with only a tray icon) that would send the information about the current user "document library" to server and then again, you could display it back to the user.
Note: I've heard somewhere that browsers will eventually stop supporting plugins. http://www.howtogeek.com/179213/why-browser-plug-ins-are-going-away-and-whats-replacing-them/
Ya, I agree with Markain. However, if you were to limit your audience solely to chrome users, I daresay, you would most likely use some of your users. If Huazhihao is right, then your number of leaving customers should decrease but users who regularly use firefox won't be happy. Overall, I think that this will not work. Otherwise, there would be too many websites that trashed your hard driver (or at least wherever you have the rights to edit/delete files). I think it would be best if your product was setup to synchronize the file whenever an internet connection was detected and a change was made to the file. That way the user would not need to visit the website whenever the file was uploaded. If this is some kind of an error file, then it would be most beneficial if you were to make a link in the application that when clicked, would upload the file to the website and the website were to do whatever was necessary. If this is a purely online thing, then I don't see what business you would have looking through other peoples' files =-). Hope I helped!

Solutions to allowing intranet/local file access in an HTML5 application?

I am all too aware of the fact that even with the new FileAPI it's not possible to access the local path of a file added using a file input field or drag-and-drop. Whether or not this is good, bad or ugly is not the issue here. According to the FileAPI specs local file access is not to be implemented, and so I'm not holding my breath.
But let's just pretend I'm in a situation with the following fixed parameters:
Developing an HTML5 application only to be used internally at a company
.NET used for backend (needed due to interop with APIs)
Can specify/control exactly which browser and version should be used with the application
Need to access files that are usually located on a network share, but possibly also locally at a user's workstation
And by access I don't mean access file data, but rather be able to relay a file drag-and-drop/select event to some other API by feeding the third party the file's local path, so that the third party can pick up the file and do some sort of work on it. This can be likened to using an input[type=file] field as you would an OpenFileDialog in .NET - i.e. the point is to feed the application a file path, not an actual file.
I realise that out of the box this is probably not possible. But I also think that there must be some sort of solution to the problem.
Some ideas I've been toying with are:
Using browser specific methods for allowing "secure features"
Not sure if possible - tired using some of these features to no avail
Would limit the app to a specific version of a browser as the functionality could potentially be removed in the future
Something like a Chrome extension could possibly do the trick
Using some sort of companion application installed locally on a clients computer that takes care of all on-disk file handling, possibly communicating with the HTML5 client using websockets or the like.
A potentially pretty messy solution
Would probably confuse the users a bit at first
Submitting the selected file data to the server, storing it at specific path and sending this new path to the third party.
Would constitute a lot of sending files over the company network, some 100+ MB in size
Would not be able to do any in-place changes to a file a user has selected
... and that's about it.
Any snazzy suggestions? Wise words? Helpful links? Snarky comments?
Thanks.
Edit: For anyone curious about it, this was very simple using Silverlight as per jgauffin's suggestion below.
From the Silverlight codebehind (using elevated privileges):
private void fileBtn_Click(object sender, RoutedEventArgs e)
{
//prompt file select dialog in Silverlight:
var dlg = new OpenFileDialog();
dlg.ShowDialog();
//call JavaScript method and feed it the file path:
HtmlPage.Window.Invoke("onFileSelected", dlg.File.FullName);
}
You'll probably have to use something that runs in the browser like flash or silverlight.
Since it's an internal app I would use silverlight as everything else is in .NET. It should be enought to only make the file access part in the plugin.
Here is an article about local file access: https://www.wintellect.com/silverlight-4-s-new-local-file-system-support/
does the server hosting the site have access to the network of pc's?
you could just list all the files that way.. build a small ajax script like a file dialog that will have php or whatever sending back the structure
no plugins needed, works on all browsers... :)

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