Hyperlink to Network/Local files
Asked by ABandekar:

Hi All,

Let me begin by saying that I have read below:

<https://community.atlassian.com/t5/Confluence-questions/Confluence-How-to-place-a-link-to-a-file-on-a-server-share-in-a/qaq-p/258790>

We are on Confluence Cloud and I am trying to create hyperlink to files on my local and/or network drive. This does not seem to work. Can someone please provide me step-by-step guide of we can do this and which MACRO to use for it.


Answers:
author: Nic Brough -Adaptavist-
body: Is your local file share served up with a valid standard protocol that your browser(s) support and on a valid url?

If you want this to be generally available to all your people, you need to be using a local/network url that is understandable by all browsers. And bear in mind that your "local" drive is not other people's, which makes the point of collaboration useless as you'll be looking at different things.

comments: author: ABandekar
body: Thanks [@Nic Brough -Adaptavist-](/t5/user/viewprofilepage/user-id/781454)

You are right about the "local" drive. I won't be exposing my "local" on Confluence. I am looking to share paths on network driver that are accessible to everyone.

I am able to access the files from browser, mainly Chrome, as file://\<path\>

How should I set up the hyperlink on my Confluence page?


author: Nic Brough -Adaptavist-
body: You can just put file://\<path\> in as the url for a link.

It does require the browser to understand it though, and "file" is not a standard so a lot don't.


author: ABandekar
body: My browser support "file://\<path\>" URLs. But on Confluence pages the "Link" macro does not accept "file://\<path\>" as URL. What is wrong?


author: IT
body: Did you manage to find a way to make this work?


author: Nic Brough -Adaptavist-
body: Yes, if you use a browser that supports file:// and give it a valid link to a common share (not a local mapping), it will open the file or directory in the browser.


author: ABandekar
body: Did not work for me. I am using Confluence Cloud. file:// is supported by the browser. But "Link" macro does not support file://


author: lbarton
body: Hi [@ABandekar](/t5/user/viewprofilepage/user-id/4023554) -

Were you able to resolve this issue? I agree it is not the browser it is the limitation of the macro.

I am looking for way to create a hyperlink on a Confluence page pointing to a network location (file: extension). The macro only supports https.


author: ABandekar
body: [@lbarton](/t5/user/viewprofilepage/user-id/4503000) No solution so far.


author: lbarton
body: \[sigh\] Thank you [@ABandekar](/t5/user/viewprofilepage/user-id/4023554) ! Appreciate the quick reply anyway.


author: Mattias Vannerg?rd
body: Would be great to have a solution for this.


author: Elvina Chang
body: I have the same issue, confluence Insert link, does not accept file://../../ but in the browser, it works fine.


author: Jacob Horwath
body: Would like to see this as a feature as well. It would be nice to be able to link network locations or other files in confluence.


author: Jahn Quinnett
body: We use a workaround where we open every file with edge which formats it for us, (the only thing I have found edge is good for btw lol) then copy the link from the address field and paste that address in as the web link. You will have to have your people install the "enable local file links" extension for chrome, or set up confluence as a trusted site for IE, in order to be able to open the files but it works. Just kinda sad confluence can't just do this formatting for file links. When we used sharepoint previously it had no problem formatting file links automatically.


author: Sven Alderath
body: Using Windows as Client System, save a (Windows) link file in Confluence as an attachment.

If you open the link file, the origin linked file will be opened.


Tags: cloud

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