linking to documents on file server

[Michael Dahl]

I see conflicting information about whether you can or cannot link to documents sitting on a file share that is external to confluence?

Is it possible and if so how do you do it?

[Rob Woodgate]

Hi Michael,

You need the URI of the share.  For example, let's say you have the following situation:

• Your machine name: computer1
• Your shared folder: C:\Shared
• File you want to share: C:\Shared\file.txt
• All of your users are connected to your corporate network

The URI you need to link to is \\mycomputer\shared\file.txt

If your users are not connected to your corporate network then you'll need to share a file from a public-facing service like Dropbox, OneDrive or Google Drive.  Those services will provide a URL that anyone can click on and access.

[Nic Brough -Adaptavist-]

You can link to any url you want, including file shares, as long as it is presented as a proper url, not a "share".

I suspect what you've seen about it not being possible is the cases where people are trying to link to a file on the Confluence server and expecting c:\data\myfile to work - not understanding that their browser sees that as a path to files on the client machine.

[Michael Dahl]

Thanks Nic

I don't suppose you know what the correct syntax is to do this? Again I've been trying a number of different ways and nothing seem to work. 

PC in an all Microsoft enterprise environment

[Nic Brough -Adaptavist-]

Syntax for what?  What is the url to the file share you are trying to use?