Adding server-side script and RSS feed to Sharepoint 2007?

Question

I am investigating if the functionality of some CGI scripts written in Perl that we run on a web server can be migrated to our Sharepoint 2007 server (MOSS).

The CGI scripts are not complicated. Basically they display and process contents of files that resides in the network file system. For instance one script just displays the contents of small text files that are being added to a specific folder. These files are part of a production process and cannot be moved into a Sharepoint document archive. The CGI scripts are being used to give an overview on what is "new in the queue" for this production process. When the production process has finished, it removes the files from the folder. But new files may arrive to the folder at any time.

I have done some investigations and found that using a "Data View" web part would give possibilities of displaying the data in a good way. The files need to be transformed from text to XML format, before some xslt could make it look good in a Data View WP. I guess that could be done by some kind of server-side script? But how and where do I add such a script to Sharepoint?

Would it be a good idea implementing this as an RSS feed instead? But an RSS feed would also require a server-side script, wouldn't it?

I am new to Sharepoint development and would appreciate any useful advice.

Answer 1

Why not just write a Custom WebPart to read the content of those text files and display them. This way you wont be making changes to those text files.

Note : The link to custom Web Part is my blog. There are tonnes of other articles in the net :)