i am currently encountering an issue where I'd like to put a link to a shared excel sheet in our intranet.
Unfortunately the normal href="http:..." link automatically opens and saves it to the local machine instead of enabling the work on the shared sheet which is on the server itself.
I have read through here a bit and found solutions like : file://///SERVER/PATH/Excel.xls
but sadly that solution doesn't do anything.
If its relevant: my server version is Windows Server 2012
You can tell browser to open with Excel (if installed) by adding ms-excel:ofe|u| in front of your Excel file Url.
Open in Excel
HTTP is a stateless protocol. What that means for you is that when your users download a file from the intranet via http, they are downloading a copy, rather than the original. Any changes they make will only appear in their copy, and then you end up with loads of copies of the same workbook with different, possibly overlapping changes. You don't want that!
And also ... how are your users even going to upload their changes?
You need to create a shared folder on your network and put the workbook there. You can then use the file:///SERVER/PATH/FILE.xls format in your <a /> links on your intranet to direct your user to the actual file on the server.
I would recommend you start by creating a simple html doc on your desktop to get familiar with the file:/// path format.
Eg
<html>
<head />
<body>
Click
<body>
<html>
save that in notepad and rename the extension from .txt to .html.
You can also type file:/// paths straight into windows explorer's address bar which allow for testing paths without resorting to the html document mentioned above.
UNFORTUNATELY! It seems that the browsers default behavior is to always download a link rather than open it (even if it is a local resource), so if you actually want to open it then you must resort to changing your browser intranet permissions to allow JS to access local resources, which then allows you to use the technique below.
This article (http://www.codeproject.com/Articles/113678/How-to-execute-a-Local-File-using-HTML-Application) uses
<script type="text/javascript" language="javascript">
function RunFile() {
WshShell = new ActiveXObject("WScript.Shell");
WshShell.Run("c:/windows/system32/notepad.exe", 1, false);
}
</script>
to open notepad. You can use command line arguments with Excel.exe (https://support.office.com/en-za/article/Command-line-switches-for-Excel-321cf55a-ace4-40b3-9082-53bd4bc10725) to tell it what the file path is...
Excel.exe "C:\PATH\Excel.xls"
Use the below link if you are trying to open local file in excel.
Open in Excel
Note: The file path should have forward slash
Related
I want to test downloading a local file using the <a> tag in HTML. The attached code doesn't seem to download the file, instead, it opens it.
<p>Interested? Download <a href="download_files/ChannelLogo.png" download>here</a></p>
Your code is correct, however, the download attribute only works when you are viewing the code from a server, due to the same-origin policy of most browsers.
Are you previewing the file by double-clicking the file or directly opening it up in a browser? If the URL while previewing starts with something similar to file://FILEPATH_HERE or /Users/FILEPATH_HERE, you are opening the file rather than serving the file. If so, you should run your code from within a localhost setup to test. That may involve running a server locally, or using an editor extension to spin up a project-based server. Once your URL starts with http:// or https:// the download will work as intended.
Alternatively, you could upload the project somewhere on the web.
It depends on where the file is located and how files are being served.
Either way, whether it is a plain static website with local files or being served by a server, you might need to check the href again to make sure it is correct.
Could be something small like /download_files/ChannelLogo.png instead of download_files/ChannelLogo.png.
Edit after question update:
Yes answer by Riley is right: it will only download if you are using a server. You could use a server like Node.js to run and test what you would like to do.
Otherwise you could look into Electron if you would like to work with the filesystem more directly, all depending on what it is you would like to do with your program.
I'd like to have an html file that organizes certain files scattered throughout my hard drive. For example, I have two files that I would link to:
C:\Programs\sort.mw
C:\Videos\lecture.mp4
The problem is that I'd like the links to function as a shortcut to the file. I've tried the following:
Link 1
Link 2
... but the first link does nothing and the second link opens the file in Chrome, not VLC.
My questions are:
Is there a way to adjust my HTML to treat the links as shortcuts to the files?
If there isn't a way to adjust the HTML, are there any other ways to neatly link to files scattered throughout the hard drive?
My computer runs Windows 7 and my web browser is Chrome.
You need to use the file:/// protocol (yes, that's three slashes) if you want to link to local files.
Link 1
Link 2
These will never open the file in your local applications automatically. That's for security reasons which I'll cover in the last section. If it opens, it will only ever open in the browser. If your browser can display the file, it will, otherwise it will probably ask you if you want to download the file.
You cannot cross from http(s) to the file protocol
Modern versions of many browsers (e.g. Firefox and Chrome) will refuse to cross from the http(s) protocol to the file protocol to prevent malicious behaviour.
This means a webpage hosted on a website somewhere will never be able to link to files on your hard drive. You'll need to open your webpage locally using the file protocol if you want to do this stuff at all.
Why does it get stuck without file:///?
The first part of a URL is the protocol. A protocol is a few letters, then a colon and two slashes. HTTP:// and FTP:// are valid protocols; C:/ isn't and I'm pretty sure it doesn't even properly resemble one.
C:/ also isn't a valid web address. The browser could assume it's meant to be http://c/ with a blank port specified, but that's going to fail.
Your browser may not assume it's referring to a local file. It has little reason to make that assumption because webpages generally don't try to link to peoples' local files.
So if you want to access local files: tell it to use the file protocol.
Why three slashes?
Because it's part of the File URI scheme. You have the option of specifying a host after the first two slashes. If you skip specifying a host it will just assume you're referring to a file on your own PC. This means file:///C:/etc is a shortcut for file://localhost/C:/etc.
These files will still open in your browser and that is good
Your browser will respond to these files the same way they'd respond to the same file anywhere on the internet. These files will not open in your default file handler (e.g. MS Word or VLC Media Player), and you will not be able to do anything like ask File Explorer to open the file's location.
This is an extremely good thing for your security.
Sites in your browser cannot interact with your operating system very well. If a good site could tell your machine to open lecture.mp4 in VLC.exe, a malicious site could tell it to open virus.bat in CMD.exe. Or it could just tell your machine to run a few Uninstall.exe files or open File Explorer a million times.
This may not be convenient for you, but HTML and browser security weren't really designed for what you're doing. If you want to be able to open lecture.mp4 in VLC.exe consider writing a desktop application instead.
If you are running IIS on your PC you can add the directory that you are trying to reach as a Virtual Directory.
To do this you right-click on your Site in ISS and press "Add Virtual Directory".
Name the virtual folder. Point the virtual folder to your folder location on your local PC.
You also have to supply credentials that has privileges to access the specific folder eg. HOSTNAME\username and password.
After that you can access the file in the virtual folder as any other file on your site.
http://sitename.com/virtual_folder_name/filename.fileextension
By the way, this also works with Chrome that otherwise does not accept the file-protocol file://
Hope this helps someone :)
Janky at best
right click </td>
and then right click, select "copy location" option, and then paste into url.
back to 2017:
use URL.createObjectURL( file ) to create local link to file system that user select;
don't forgot to free memory by using URL.revokeObjectURL()
I've a way and work like this:
<'a href="FOLDER_PATH" target="_explorer.exe">Link Text<'/a>
I've created a file in HTML and would like to set a default browser to have this load from. Can this be done using HTML, or does javascript have to be added to do so?
You can do that locally as part of a shortcut. So right click in desktop> create new shortcut and you can put the path to the browser followed by the html path.
Try this in the target of the shortcut
"C:\Program Files\Internet Explorer\iexplore.exe" C:\Users\user\Desktop\1.html
There will be no other way to start a local program from HTML or JavaScript on the users computer.
To add to SANM2009's answer: you can't set the default browser via HTML or JavaScript, as this would be a huge security flaw that could be exploited to allow malicious code to be set to run when loading HTML files (with even further potential repercussions).
SANM2009's answer is the most direct way to accomplish what you want to do if you only need to do this on your local computer. If you need to distribute your solution then you could use a batch file or PowerShell file to open a specific browser.
To create a batch file, just open a text editor and enter the following (this will open Firefox in this case):
start "firefox.exe" "path to your html file goes here"
Save that as a file with a .bat extension, such as openmyhtml.bat, and then you can just double click that file to open your HTML file in Firefox.
To accomplish the same in PowerShell, open a text editor and enter the following:
Start-Process "firefox.exe" "path to your html file goes here"
Save that with a .ps1 extension, such as openmyhtml.ps1, and then you can double-click that.
Batch files are more universally supported, so that's probably your best bet, unless there's a specific reason you'd want to use PowerShell.
After further investigating the file, when opening the shortcut it showed the incorrect path to the file in the browser. I dropped the file in chrome directly to see the path is detected and set that in the target. It is now working. Thank you both
I'd like to have an html file that organizes certain files scattered throughout my hard drive. For example, I have two files that I would link to:
C:\Programs\sort.mw
C:\Videos\lecture.mp4
The problem is that I'd like the links to function as a shortcut to the file. I've tried the following:
Link 1
Link 2
... but the first link does nothing and the second link opens the file in Chrome, not VLC.
My questions are:
Is there a way to adjust my HTML to treat the links as shortcuts to the files?
If there isn't a way to adjust the HTML, are there any other ways to neatly link to files scattered throughout the hard drive?
My computer runs Windows 7 and my web browser is Chrome.
You need to use the file:/// protocol (yes, that's three slashes) if you want to link to local files.
Link 1
Link 2
These will never open the file in your local applications automatically. That's for security reasons which I'll cover in the last section. If it opens, it will only ever open in the browser. If your browser can display the file, it will, otherwise it will probably ask you if you want to download the file.
You cannot cross from http(s) to the file protocol
Modern versions of many browsers (e.g. Firefox and Chrome) will refuse to cross from the http(s) protocol to the file protocol to prevent malicious behaviour.
This means a webpage hosted on a website somewhere will never be able to link to files on your hard drive. You'll need to open your webpage locally using the file protocol if you want to do this stuff at all.
Why does it get stuck without file:///?
The first part of a URL is the protocol. A protocol is a few letters, then a colon and two slashes. HTTP:// and FTP:// are valid protocols; C:/ isn't and I'm pretty sure it doesn't even properly resemble one.
C:/ also isn't a valid web address. The browser could assume it's meant to be http://c/ with a blank port specified, but that's going to fail.
Your browser may not assume it's referring to a local file. It has little reason to make that assumption because webpages generally don't try to link to peoples' local files.
So if you want to access local files: tell it to use the file protocol.
Why three slashes?
Because it's part of the File URI scheme. You have the option of specifying a host after the first two slashes. If you skip specifying a host it will just assume you're referring to a file on your own PC. This means file:///C:/etc is a shortcut for file://localhost/C:/etc.
These files will still open in your browser and that is good
Your browser will respond to these files the same way they'd respond to the same file anywhere on the internet. These files will not open in your default file handler (e.g. MS Word or VLC Media Player), and you will not be able to do anything like ask File Explorer to open the file's location.
This is an extremely good thing for your security.
Sites in your browser cannot interact with your operating system very well. If a good site could tell your machine to open lecture.mp4 in VLC.exe, a malicious site could tell it to open virus.bat in CMD.exe. Or it could just tell your machine to run a few Uninstall.exe files or open File Explorer a million times.
This may not be convenient for you, but HTML and browser security weren't really designed for what you're doing. If you want to be able to open lecture.mp4 in VLC.exe consider writing a desktop application instead.
If you are running IIS on your PC you can add the directory that you are trying to reach as a Virtual Directory.
To do this you right-click on your Site in ISS and press "Add Virtual Directory".
Name the virtual folder. Point the virtual folder to your folder location on your local PC.
You also have to supply credentials that has privileges to access the specific folder eg. HOSTNAME\username and password.
After that you can access the file in the virtual folder as any other file on your site.
http://sitename.com/virtual_folder_name/filename.fileextension
By the way, this also works with Chrome that otherwise does not accept the file-protocol file://
Hope this helps someone :)
Janky at best
right click </td>
and then right click, select "copy location" option, and then paste into url.
back to 2017:
use URL.createObjectURL( file ) to create local link to file system that user select;
don't forgot to free memory by using URL.revokeObjectURL()
I've a way and work like this:
<'a href="FOLDER_PATH" target="_explorer.exe">Link Text<'/a>
I'd like to have an html file that organizes certain files scattered throughout my hard drive. For example, I have two files that I would link to:
C:\Programs\sort.mw
C:\Videos\lecture.mp4
The problem is that I'd like the links to function as a shortcut to the file. I've tried the following:
Link 1
Link 2
... but the first link does nothing and the second link opens the file in Chrome, not VLC.
My questions are:
Is there a way to adjust my HTML to treat the links as shortcuts to the files?
If there isn't a way to adjust the HTML, are there any other ways to neatly link to files scattered throughout the hard drive?
My computer runs Windows 7 and my web browser is Chrome.
You need to use the file:/// protocol (yes, that's three slashes) if you want to link to local files.
Link 1
Link 2
These will never open the file in your local applications automatically. That's for security reasons which I'll cover in the last section. If it opens, it will only ever open in the browser. If your browser can display the file, it will, otherwise it will probably ask you if you want to download the file.
You cannot cross from http(s) to the file protocol
Modern versions of many browsers (e.g. Firefox and Chrome) will refuse to cross from the http(s) protocol to the file protocol to prevent malicious behaviour.
This means a webpage hosted on a website somewhere will never be able to link to files on your hard drive. You'll need to open your webpage locally using the file protocol if you want to do this stuff at all.
Why does it get stuck without file:///?
The first part of a URL is the protocol. A protocol is a few letters, then a colon and two slashes. HTTP:// and FTP:// are valid protocols; C:/ isn't and I'm pretty sure it doesn't even properly resemble one.
C:/ also isn't a valid web address. The browser could assume it's meant to be http://c/ with a blank port specified, but that's going to fail.
Your browser may not assume it's referring to a local file. It has little reason to make that assumption because webpages generally don't try to link to peoples' local files.
So if you want to access local files: tell it to use the file protocol.
Why three slashes?
Because it's part of the File URI scheme. You have the option of specifying a host after the first two slashes. If you skip specifying a host it will just assume you're referring to a file on your own PC. This means file:///C:/etc is a shortcut for file://localhost/C:/etc.
These files will still open in your browser and that is good
Your browser will respond to these files the same way they'd respond to the same file anywhere on the internet. These files will not open in your default file handler (e.g. MS Word or VLC Media Player), and you will not be able to do anything like ask File Explorer to open the file's location.
This is an extremely good thing for your security.
Sites in your browser cannot interact with your operating system very well. If a good site could tell your machine to open lecture.mp4 in VLC.exe, a malicious site could tell it to open virus.bat in CMD.exe. Or it could just tell your machine to run a few Uninstall.exe files or open File Explorer a million times.
This may not be convenient for you, but HTML and browser security weren't really designed for what you're doing. If you want to be able to open lecture.mp4 in VLC.exe consider writing a desktop application instead.
If you are running IIS on your PC you can add the directory that you are trying to reach as a Virtual Directory.
To do this you right-click on your Site in ISS and press "Add Virtual Directory".
Name the virtual folder. Point the virtual folder to your folder location on your local PC.
You also have to supply credentials that has privileges to access the specific folder eg. HOSTNAME\username and password.
After that you can access the file in the virtual folder as any other file on your site.
http://sitename.com/virtual_folder_name/filename.fileextension
By the way, this also works with Chrome that otherwise does not accept the file-protocol file://
Hope this helps someone :)
Janky at best
right click </td>
and then right click, select "copy location" option, and then paste into url.
back to 2017:
use URL.createObjectURL( file ) to create local link to file system that user select;
don't forgot to free memory by using URL.revokeObjectURL()
I've a way and work like this:
<'a href="FOLDER_PATH" target="_explorer.exe">Link Text<'/a>