File.Move on client machine Asp.net MVC

Question

Silly question but here goes...

Is it possible to write an intranet windows auth asp.net mvc app that uses File.Move to rename a file on a users machine? Or will the File.Move and using Path.GetDirectory and other System.IO functions look on the IIS server directory structure instead of the client machine?

    [HttpPost]
    public ActionResult Index(HttpPostedFileBase file, string append)
    {
        try
        {
            if (file != null && file.ContentLength > 0)
            {
                var fileName = Path.GetFileName(file.FileName);
                DirectoryInfo filepath = new DirectoryInfo(file.FileName);
                string parentpath = Path.GetDirectoryName(filepath.FullName);
                DirectoryInfo searchablePath = new DirectoryInfo(parentpath);

                var directories = searchablePath.GetFiles("*", SearchOption.AllDirectories);

                foreach (FileInfo d in directories)
                {
                    if (!string.IsNullOrEmpty(append) && !d.Name.Contains(append))
                    {
                        string fName = Path.GetFileNameWithoutExtension(d.Name);
                        string fExt = Path.GetExtension(d.Name);

                        System.IO.File.Move(d.FullName, Path.Combine(d.DirectoryName, fName + append + fExt));
                    }
                }
            }
        }
        catch (Exception ex)
        {

        }

        return View();
    }

I have tried this but am getting a filenotfoundexception.

Any ideas?

Answer 1

These will indeed work only on the server.

You may look at the various file and filesystem related specifications for client-side javascript APIs provided by the user's browser:

• http://www.w3.org/TR/FileAPI/
• http://www.w3.org/TR/file-system-api/
• http://www.w3.org/TR/file-writer-api/

Answer 2

The ASP.NET code runs on the server, so it will look at the files on the server.

You can't rename a file on the client machine, however it would be possible to rename a file on the computer that is used as client, if:

• the server and computer are on the same network
• the server knows the name of the computer
• the server knows which folder to look for in the computer
• the folder is shared with the user account running the ASP.NET code on the server with enough privileges to change the name of a file

In that sense the computer is not a client to the server, but the server communicates directly with the computer via the file system, not via IIS.