Method and system for seamlessly accessing remotely stored files
A system and method by which users via programs on one computer may seamlessly access files remotely stored on other computers that run a well known file access protocol. An operating system extension and an application level network access program are provided. The operating system extension receives file system requests for remote files from the operating system that were issued according to a well known application program interface. The operating system extension forwards the remote file system request to the network access program. The network access program reformats the request according to a well known application level network protocol extension and sends it over a network to a remote computer system.
1. An apparatus, comprising:
means for receiving, at a file system within an operating system running within a computer system, a file system request from a first application program for accessing a file stored at a remote file system of a Web server over the Internet;
means for the file system transforming the file system request into a network communications request conforming to a communications protocol acceptable by the Web server over the Internet and forwarding network communications request to the Web server; and
means for caching locally within the computer system at least a portion of the requested file from the Web server over the Internet and using the at least a portion of the cached requested file which is cached to respond to the file system request as an ordinary file system response, wherein the at least a portion of the cached requested file is invisible via the file system of the operating system to a second application program running within the computer system other than the first application program.
2. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein a name of the at least a portion of the requested file is invisible in a local file system directory and wherein information related to a directory structure of the Web server is saved as an invisible file on the computer system.
3. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein all locally cached files, which are created from requests for files stored on a Web server, are created in a single directory.
4. The apparatus of claim 1 , further comprising means for removing a name of a cache file caching the requested file from the file system such that the second application cannot access the cache file.