Running a script on a users PC

I am researching a new rails app that would like to create. One feature of the app will allow users to select a ruby script and run it on their local machine. However I'm not sure how to implement this.

There are a few points that I'm not sure how to approach: 1. How to store the script to be executed on the users PC. As text in the DB or as a file in the DB (Can a file be stored in a DB) Or as a file in the apps file structure. 2. How to get the script to the users PC and start it running. (The users PC will have Ruby installed). 3. How to report back the result of running the script.

I am researching a new rails app that would like to create. One feature of the app will allow users to select a ruby script and run it on their local machine. However I'm not sure how to implement this.

There are a few points that I'm not sure how to approach: 1. How to store the script to be executed on the users PC. As text in the DB or as a file in the DB (Can a file be stored in a DB) Or as a file in the apps file structure.

You could either store the contents of the file in the database or store the file somewhere and keep the path to that file in the database.

2. How to get the script to the users PC and start it running. (The users PC will have Ruby installed).

This is likely to be tricky - It would obviously be a major security flaw if random websites could run arbitrary ruby scripts on your computer. If you just want people to play around with ruby rather than have access to any local resources (file system, network etc...) you might be interested in the jruby applet.

Fred