Open and save documents on local intranet site from shared folder

Question

I have an intranet site where we host files and forms.

When someone clicks on a link to a file on Internet Explorer it opens the file from a shared folder on the server so people who have permission can edit it and save changes. Other people have read only permissions.

If a person clicks on the link in a browser other than Internet Explorer it downloads the file instead of opening it from the shared folder.

Is there a way to have other browsers open the file from the shared folder instead of downloading it?

NOTE: I should clarify that in IE I use the file:// protocol and in other browsers I use http:// because file:// does not work.

score 2 · Accepted Answer · answered May 28 '15 at 16:45

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For read only mode it depends on the browser i.e. Firefox needs some parameters for file uri processing

user_pref("capability.policy.policynames", "localfilelinks");
user_pref("capability.policy.localfilelinks.sites", "http://yourServer1.companyname.com http://yourServer2.companyname.com");
user_pref("capability.policy.localfilelinks.checkloaduri.enabled", "allAccess");

then it should invite you to download or open the document

For read/write access IE is mandatory

answered May 28 '15 at 16:45

Pat

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this works for Firefox. Is there anything like this for Chrome? – Tony Brix May 29 '15 at 19:18
for Chrome please try right clicking on the link and select `Open link in new Tab` and let us know if it works – Pat May 29 '15 at 22:27
It just opens a blank tab – Tony Brix May 30 '15 at 22:56

score 1 · Answer 2 · edited May 23 '17 at 12:21

1

I think that has something to do with the content type of the files. Have a look at that answer https://stackoverflow.com/a/11894771/2153744

edited May 23 '17 at 12:21

Community

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answered May 23 '15 at 08:18

aronadaal

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Nope content type doesn't matter. It has to do with same origin policy. No browser other than IE will allow you to open a local document. I want to know how to get around that. – Tony Brix May 26 '15 at 17:34

score 1 · Answer 3 · answered May 29 '15 at 13:42

For Firefox and Chrome there are extensions to override that behavior (LocaLink for Firefox, Locallinks for Chrome). If you control your intranet software installations you could include those potentially unsafe extensions.

But this is not other browsers; just Firefox and Chrome. So, another option (that I've seen being used) is using a signed Java Applet. The downside is the complexity and having the user authorize the applet which needs privileged execution. The upside is that the applet can do anything as it is a privileged local client.

those extensions do not help they also download the file instead of opening it from the shared folder — Tony Brix, May 29 '15 at 19:02

Open and save documents on local intranet site from shared folder

3 Answers3