It shouldn't be odd that a client framework can't expose your server's directory tree if it is not otherwise exposed... that would be a tremendous security hole.
That said, you don't actually need to use a server-side language. If you have directory browsing enabled on the server, you can parse the returned HTML page (which will differ server-to-server, but will be structurally predictable across requests once you figure it out) and use that as your "database". --Sandy
