Can I have a document library point to an existing server directory
I have local intranet users that have a directory structure on the same server as the webserver and I would like to point the document library to that structure instead of uploading the files into the document library. Local users have shortcuts to these docs on their machines and I don't want to screw that up. Can this be done in either Sharepoint Services 3.0 or Sharepoint Server 2007?
Please help!
First lets understand the storage mechanism of SharePoint documents.
All of the documents in document library are stored in the SQL database as content blob. SharePoint UI generates simple UI (links) for these documents. As user clicks on these documents links in the libraries, the file content is fetched from the SQL and served through HTTP request.
If I understand correctly, In your case the content is stored on the physical server as files in the folder structure.
Are these files accessible through http://server/folder/file.You could achieve that by enabling browsing option of the IIS Virtual site.
If users are accessible the files as above, then you might want to write simple tool to publish these links http://server/folder/file1 file2 etc... into the SharePoint Links list. As yours click on these links, files are served using the http protocol.
