Cognos Analytics

I want to create a report where users are able to click on a hyperlink that opens a pdf file in a separate window.
The pdf file is located on a network share and users have access to this share from there local computer. They are able to paste an URL to a pdf file and the document is opened.

My report is working for a pdf file on a sharepoint drive (https://xxx.sharepoint.com/folder/Documents/file.pdf), but nothing happens when linking to the network share. I have tried several formats, like \\server\folder\file.pdf, //server/foler/file.pdf, file:\\server\folder\file.pdf, HTML link and more, but I does not work.

I know that Chrome and Firefox don't allow linking to a network share from an external/hosted/live site is because of security features.
I also found after searching on the internet that a way would be to create a virtual directory in IIS on the webserver so that the file is converted to an URL. Is this the way to go or should a direct hyperlink also be possible?

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Thomas van der Meer
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#CognosAnalyticswithWatson

Hi Thomas,
I've been looking into the same thing. Looks like there are some registry hacks and even a chrome extension available, but these aren't appropriate for our use case. We will likely end up serving the files either as ftp or http/s since file protocol is indeed blocked in the browser.
Hope that helps or at least validates.
Best,
Nik

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Nikolas Hunt
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Original Message:
Sent: Thu February 25, 2021 02:43 AM
From: Thomas van der Meer
Subject: Hyperlink to a file on a network share

I want to create a report where users are able to click on a hyperlink that opens a pdf file in a separate window.
The pdf file is located on a network share and users have access to this share from there local computer. They are able to paste an URL to a pdf file and the document is opened.

My report is working for a pdf file on a sharepoint drive (https://xxx.sharepoint.com/folder/Documents/file.pdf), but nothing happens when linking to the network share. I have tried several formats, like \\server\folder\file.pdf, //server/foler/file.pdf, file:\\server\folder\file.pdf, HTML link and more, but I does not work.

I know that Chrome and Firefox don't allow linking to a network share from an external/hosted/live site is because of security features.
I also found after searching on the internet that a way would be to create a virtual directory in IIS on the webserver so that the file is converted to an URL. Is this the way to go or should a direct hyperlink also be possible?

------------------------------
Thomas van der Meer
------------------------------

#CognosAnalyticswithWatson

Hi Thomas, 

A file can be accessed over HTTP/HTTPS via a URL. So, create a virtual directory in the webserver pointing to the network share folder and use the URL in the report to hyperlink. Note that the network share should be readable by the user account in whose context the webserver is running. 

Regards

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Kiran Passumarthi
www.linkedin.com/in/kiranpassumarthi
------------------------------

Original Message:
Sent: Thu February 25, 2021 02:43 AM
From: Thomas van der Meer
Subject: Hyperlink to a file on a network share

I want to create a report where users are able to click on a hyperlink that opens a pdf file in a separate window.
The pdf file is located on a network share and users have access to this share from there local computer. They are able to paste an URL to a pdf file and the document is opened.

My report is working for a pdf file on a sharepoint drive (https://xxx.sharepoint.com/folder/Documents/file.pdf), but nothing happens when linking to the network share. I have tried several formats, like \\server\folder\file.pdf, //server/foler/file.pdf, file:\\server\folder\file.pdf, HTML link and more, but I does not work.

I know that Chrome and Firefox don't allow linking to a network share from an external/hosted/live site is because of security features.
I also found after searching on the internet that a way would be to create a virtual directory in IIS on the webserver so that the file is converted to an URL. Is this the way to go or should a direct hyperlink also be possible?

------------------------------
Thomas van der Meer
------------------------------

#CognosAnalyticswithWatson

I have a report that has a hyperlink to a file on a shared network drive, with the file location being stored in a PA cube.  We've had to store the text in the format below to get the pdf hyperlink to work:

file://///directory_level-1/directory_level-2/filename.xlsx

That's 5 forward slashes after "file:".

Not sure if that helps in your scenario, but I thought I would share it just in case.

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Kizzy Kaye
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Original Message:
Sent: Thu February 25, 2021 02:43 AM
From: Thomas van der Meer
Subject: Hyperlink to a file on a network share

I want to create a report where users are able to click on a hyperlink that opens a pdf file in a separate window.
The pdf file is located on a network share and users have access to this share from there local computer. They are able to paste an URL to a pdf file and the document is opened.

My report is working for a pdf file on a sharepoint drive (https://xxx.sharepoint.com/folder/Documents/file.pdf), but nothing happens when linking to the network share. I have tried several formats, like \\server\folder\file.pdf, //server/foler/file.pdf, file:\\server\folder\file.pdf, HTML link and more, but I does not work.

I know that Chrome and Firefox don't allow linking to a network share from an external/hosted/live site is because of security features.
I also found after searching on the internet that a way would be to create a virtual directory in IIS on the webserver so that the file is converted to an URL. Is this the way to go or should a direct hyperlink also be possible?

------------------------------
Thomas van der Meer
------------------------------

#CognosAnalyticswithWatson