Confluence: How to place a link to a file on mapped drive in a confluence page

[Gerald Britton]

My team has several mapped LAN drives that we use to store various data.  I want to put hotlinks to frequently-used files in a confluence page.  Two examples:

On my mapped drive K:, I can access an html document in Chrome and IE using this URL:

file:///K:/Team/Projects/ProjectOne/index.html

However, if I just take this URL and put it as a link in a confluence page, when I click on it, I get a new "Untitled" tab that reads 

about:blank

However, if I copy the link and paste it into a new tab, I get the page displayed as desired.  What should I do so that a user can click on the file link in Confluence and get to the doc in one step?

[Thomas Schlegel · Accepted solution]

Hi @Gerald Britton,

have you tried to create the Link with the "Insert Link" function?

Add the link as a web link. This works for me.

Maybe you clicked on the link while previewing or editing the page? Then I get the same behaviour, an empty tab, untitled tab.

[Gerald Britton]

yes, that's exactly what I did,  I created a link.  While editing, clicking the link brings me to the about:blank page.  After updating the page, clicking the link does nothing at all.  Copying it and pasting it to a new tab works fine, though.  If I right-click on the link in the published page and select open in a new tab, I get the about:blank screen again.

[Thomas Schlegel]

Did you install an add-on to your Chrome-Browser? Without such an add-on, Chrome does not open file-links. We use the add-on "Enable local file links".

[Gerald Britton]

Oh, didn't know about that extension.  That seems to work!  thanks for the tip!!

[Thomas Schlegel]

You're welcome, @Gerald Britton

[Troy Havard]

I'm attempting to do the same thing, but with both Firefox and IE.  This solution works for me in Chrome but DOESN'T work in Firefox or IE.  My agency won't allow Chrome (at least not officially).  Is there a solution for those browsers?

[Thomas Schlegel]

Hi @Troy Havard

there’s an add-on for Firefox:

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/local-filesystem-links/

But you have to install a helper application, don‘t know, if that is ok for you.