So I have a local sever website that we have a status board at my command center (military). We are displaying an excel spreadsheet on this website as a .mht
I want to create a button to edit this (because the people I work with cannot figure out how to right click open with excel)
Basically what I would love to see is a button called edit that would launch excel and open the .mht file in excel.
Is this possible?
As .mht is only supported by Internet Explorer I guess your users are using Internet Explorer.
For security reasons it is not easily possible to run code on local computer pushed to the client from webserver - without the user seeing questions like where do you want to save the file, do you trust the file etc etc.
I would search for answer in following directions:
1 Internet Explorer can run nearly any code with the HTML user interface through the .hta file format - may be outdated today
2 Editing spreadsheet documents directly from the browser is nicely supported if you host the Excel files on Google Docs
3 Similar easy to use online spreadsheet editing should be possible through Microsoft's services OneDrive and Office Online
Related
I'm working on a company intranet, the idea is to consolidate important company schedules (which are excel based) in one place.
It's simple, & im using: "file:///Z:\Spreadsheet.xlsx" as an href to open an excel spreadsheet.. this works after some browser security settings modifications.
The problem is that since HTTP is a transfer protocol, the browser downloads the file, then opens the copy that was downloaded.
I'm trying to have the link directly open the original excel file copy. Any ideas for this approach? Since it is an intranet, I have the freedom to deploy software that can help me accomplish this.
Thanks.
Background
I'm writing an excel app using the Javascript API for Office. (Office 2013). Inside that app, I have several links to folders on my computer/server, which I want to access from the app using the file protocol.
I've tested the file protocol with a dummy HTML file, using this link:
C:\Users\User\Desktop
It works perfectly, opening up the Desktop folder. I've also tested using a networked drive, and it works as well.
Problem
When I add this dummy link into an HTML page in my Excel web app, clicking on it does nothing. When I right click -> Open, IE11 opens a new instance (which doesn't happen with mailto: links), and asks if I'd like to give permission. After I do give permission, the folder is opened.
Goal
I want a single left click to open the folder location without the permissions box ever popping up. Worst case, I want to be able to have the user open a dummy link once during app setup and then once permission is given avoid having to right click -> open.
Question
How can I accomplish the goal here? Is Office just locking down the links?
Update
The primary issue I've found out is that the site I'm hosting the app on wasn't a trusted site. Links using the file protocol only work on intranet and trusted sites. So the only question now is whether the Office store location is trusted.
The problem here lies in the way that Office Apps work. A manifest file is stored with the Office Store, and that is what users download. That manifest points to a server location that the app developer specifies, and that is the location from which the app is served. That is the location which must be added to Trusted Sites in IE.
Therefore to get the File Protocol working smoothly, I'd need to include instructions with my App on adding my hosting server to the Trusted Sites domain, and I'd have to avoid ever changing domains.
I have hosted a HTML file created on my PC (along with a stylesheet) on Google Drive using the script described here.
I have given out the link and it seems to be working fine (no reported issues from those I've sent it to).
I have just discovered a minor omission from the file, I need to add another sentence. This should be ridiculously easy on a PC, I could just open it on notepad!
I can't find a way to edit it on Google Drive, the only connected apps are the viewer and Docs.
The viewer, as the name suggests, will only let me view the HTML, and the docs app won't let me save it back to the original file.
Obviously I could download it then upload again, but from experience it will probably give me a different URL.
Is there any way for me to do this while keeping the link the same, as I have already given the address out?
Currently you can't. You can only preview html files, that is preview the code or preview the rendered content, but you cannot natively edit the code. You have two options:
use a third party extension, such as Neutron Drive or Drive Notepad.
install the Google Drive Desktop App, edit your files locally and save. Changes will be uploaded automatically.
I have just used HTML Editey chrome app
You can do this through file revisions. Hopefully, Google adds another way, but using the revision feature works for me. To revise your file, click the check mark in the Google Drive file list, click more, and then click "Manage revisions...". In the box that pops up, click upload new revision and then you're set.
You may also be able to edit html files stored in google drive through other plugins, but I do not use any at this time to know of them.
Update!
go to drive right click your html file
choose "open with" then "connect more apps"
when app library pop up search for "notepad" then choose "drivenotepad"
after it connect to drive, select it, you will get code editor.
I recently made Google Chrome my default browser (mainly due to its bookmark and preferences syncing capabilities across multiple systems).
One thing I find increasingly annoying with it though is, that Chrome does not allow to directly open a downloaded file in an appropriate application!
In IE I was us to, that, when I clicked onto a link pointing to some document, e.g. a spreadsheet, to being asked, whether I wanted to save this document to a local file or to directly open it (in Excel in this example). This worked with all kinds of registered applications but also other formats, e.g. email addresses (mailto:-links) or Calendar entries (.ics-files) which directly opened Outlook's new email dialog with the email-address already filled int or created a new calendar entry from the .ics file, resp.
In Chrome one can only save such docs to a local file and then needs to locate that and has to open it manually. I find this always most cumbersome! Is there some plugin that allows to bring back the convenience I was used to?
And to spare me the usual comments on such feature requests right away: Yes, I am aware, that this is a potential security issue, if one opens docs from dubious sources, etc. I know, that one needs to understand what one is doing in such situations, but I think I do!
Click the little arrow beside the file, which is being downloaded and choose Always open files of this type. That will make it open automatically in the program the file type has been associated with in Windows after it finishes downloading.
I am writing a small web site for a company Intranet and have the following question that may be simple. Is it possible to open an Excel file from it's current location on the network instead of downloading it. So that any changes made are made to the actual file and not a downloaded version of it?
Thanks
Matt
Yes, it's possible, but then you would have to specify the address of the file in the local network, not as an HTTP address on the web server.
The user would naturally need to have access to the file on the network share, with write permission.
No. It is not possible to open a remote excel file across HTTP and write changes back to it.
Let's consider some other things you might be trying to do.
If you are running excel, all you can open are files visible to the file system APIs. That means files on your local disk and network file systems accessible via CIFS. Mapped drive letters, \\ pathnames, that sort of thing.
If you set up an Excel file for download from a web server, it will always be downloaded. Excel won't open it 'in place'.
The Microsoft technology solution that addresses what you seem to be asking for is Sharepoint.
Anything you open from a HTTP connection I believe is "downloaded" to the client. Its more how you "uploade" the changes.
But if thats what the customer wants I have some alternatives:
1) Use Dropbox or similar filesharing utils. Once someone saves a document in Dropbox, its automatically uploaded to the Dropbox account. The free version allows up to 2 GB of data. Thats quite a few Excel files.
2) Use Gmail/Google Apps. If you do you get 1 GB space for online documents. You can upload Office files suchs as Excel and they will be converted an online editable from within the Google Docs. You can share the files within the domain or even externally if you make that setting the admin part. Afterwards you can also download/export the Spreadsheet as Excel format. I havent tested how much of the standards you loose but ofcause its not a full Excel.
3) wait for Microsoft to finish their Office online. I bet that Excel version will do exactly what you are currently asking for by using some special plugin or MSIE9 technics. But I dont really know yet.
Hope some of this gave you some ideas?
If the file is in a network share on the same domain (or reachable from the domain your app is running from), it is possible, provided that
The share is readable and writeable by the domain\user the app runs under (via ownership or assigned role.)
The file is shareable (IIRC). This is important if multiple users (or apps) need to access it.
Other than that, a \domain\location path should be treatable just like a local (or disk mounted) path.
In your HTML document, create/place a link:
<a href='file:///H:/docs/foo/bar.xls'>Your Excel File</a>
Substitite your network UNC path for H:/docs/foo/bar.xls. Note the slashes instead of the regular UNC backslashes.