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  1. Confluence Data Center
  2. CONFSERVER-23575

Links to filesystem are lost after upgrade to Confluence 4.x or upon saving the page in the new editor

      Before Confluence 4.0 we linked to various shared locations (files and folders).
      While this didn't work for all browsers, it worked in IE for those that used it.

      This seems to be broken now, the old links have been converted to normal text with the path in parentheses after it.

      E.g.

      Document XXX (file://j:\\Projects\\XXX\\Reference Documents
      XXX.docx)

      The reason we link to these files like that is that they are under version control, and the link is to a common location where they are shared. (We all have the J drive set to the same by logon scripts, we can't avoid that).


      Findings added by halatas (mainly tested on Chrome 19):

      Behaviors in Confluence
      Scenario Sample#1 Sample#2 Sample#3
      1. Confluence 3.5.13 (all works) - wiki markup
       [foobarDocs|\\\\\foobar.com\dfsrb\DfsDE\foobardocs.doc] 
       [foobarSpreadsheet|\\foobarhouse\spreadsheet\foobarspreadsheet.xls] 
       [foobarPreso|\\\C:\Foo\Bar\foobarpreso.ppt] 
      2. Post-upgrade Confluence 4.2.5 - storage format) Link retains correctly:
       <a href="\\\\\foobar.com\dfsrb\DfsDE\foobardocs.doc">foobarDocs</a> 

      Link retains correctly:
       <a href="\\foobarhouse\spreadsheet\foobarspreadsheet.xls">foobarSpreadsheet</a> 

      Plain text (original link is lost):
       foobarPreso (\\\Y:\C:\Foo\Bar\foobarpreso.ppt) 

      3. Once the page opened in the 4.2.5 editor and saved, although nothing is touched/changed - storage format link is lost:
       <a>foobarDocs</a> 

      link is lost:
       <a>foobarSpreadsheet</a> 

      nothing changed:
       foobarPreso (\\\Y:\C:\Foo\Bar\foobarpreso.ppt) 

      Behaviors in browsers:
      Browser Scenario#1.Sample#1,2,3 Scenario#2.Sample#1,2 Scenario#2.Sample#3
      Firefox 13.0
       http://Confluence-URL/display/SpaceKey/\\\\\foobar.com\dfsrb\DfsDE\foobardocs.doc 

      or

       http://Confluence-URL/display/SpaceKey/\\foobarhouse\spreadsheet\foobarspreadsheet.xls 

      no link
      Chrome 19 no link
      IE 9 no link
      Steps to reproduce Scenario#2:
      1. In Confluence 3.5.x, add the following wiki markup:
         
        [foobarDocs|\\\\\foobar.com\dfsrb\DfsDE\foobardocs.doc] 
        [foobarSpreadsheet|\\foobarhouse\spreadsheet\foobarspreadsheet.xls] 
        [foobarPreso|\\\C:\Foo\Bar\foobarpreso.ppt] 
        
      2. Upgrade to Confluence 4.x
      Steps to reproduce Scenario#3:

      Either proceed from the steps above by editing the page then save it. Or you could just simply insert the following in the 4.x Editor > Insert > Wiki Markup which will autoconvert the wiki markup to new storage format on the fly:

      [foobarDocs|\\\\\foobar.com\dfsrb\DfsDE\foobardocs.doc] 
      [foobarSpreadsheet|\\foobarhouse\spreadsheet\foobarspreadsheet.xls]
      [foobarPreso|\\\C:\Foo\Bar\foobarpreso.ppt] 
      
      Unsupported Workaround

      Disclaimer: We can't provide any support if you use this method and run into any issues

      As seen in the comments, some customers have had success in getting this working by ensuring all links are in the following format:

      1. Type "File:///" not "File://"
      2. use "/" and not "\" for the path (for exampe "file:///J:/Projects/..."
      3. Alternatively you can write "file://server/folder/Projects..." instead of "file:///J:/Projects/..."

      This was achieved by exporting to XML, running search/replace over it, and then importing it back.

          Form Name

            [CONFSERVER-23575] Links to filesystem are lost after upgrade to Confluence 4.x or upon saving the page in the new editor

            jabrillo added a comment -

            Yes, this issue has returned in version 6.

            jabrillo added a comment - Yes, this issue has returned in version 6.

            Javier Ruiz added a comment - - edited

            This issue appears to have returned in version 6; links using file:// are stripped from the page upon entering editor mode.

            Javier Ruiz added a comment - - edited This issue appears to have returned in version 6; links using file:// are stripped from the page upon entering editor mode.

            MattS added a comment -

            Rachel, how did the upgrade from 3.5 to 5.1 go?

            MattS added a comment - Rachel, how did the upgrade from 3.5 to 5.1 go?

            Hi Rachel,

            As there is generally no need to incrementally upgrade from one minor or point release to another, I don't anticipate any issues of going directly to 5.1.2 instead of 5.0.3.

            However, please check the 5.1 upgrade notes and known issues pages (as well as the documentation for versions you've skipped upgrading to) for anything relevant to your particular situation.

            An additional consideration is that since you are upgrading from 3.5.x, it will be easier for our support engineers to diagnose any problems you run into during the upgrade if you upgrade to 5.0.3 first, as it narrows the scope of upgrade tasks that have run.

            Best of luck with the upgrade!

            Regards,
            Edith

            edith (Inactive) added a comment - Hi Rachel, As there is generally no need to incrementally upgrade from one minor or point release to another, I don't anticipate any issues of going directly to 5.1.2 instead of 5.0.3. However, please check the 5.1 upgrade notes and known issues pages (as well as the documentation for versions you've skipped upgrading to ) for anything relevant to your particular situation. An additional consideration is that since you are upgrading from 3.5.x, it will be easier for our support engineers to diagnose any problems you run into during the upgrade if you upgrade to 5.0.3 first, as it narrows the scope of upgrade tasks that have run. Best of luck with the upgrade! Regards, Edith

            Hi Edith,

            Thanks very much for your prompt reply! We are going to try testing this with a test instance and a test copy of the production database.

            Do you know if there would be any issues of going from 3.5.x directly to 5.1.2? We are eager to use the new Blueprints feature, so we will try upgrading directly to 5.1.2 without upgrading to 5.0.3 first. If you happen to know of any issues, that would be good to know in advance.

            Thanks much for your help,
            Rachel Struthers

            Rachel Struthers added a comment - Hi Edith, Thanks very much for your prompt reply! We are going to try testing this with a test instance and a test copy of the production database. Do you know if there would be any issues of going from 3.5.x directly to 5.1.2? We are eager to use the new Blueprints feature, so we will try upgrading directly to 5.1.2 without upgrading to 5.0.3 first. If you happen to know of any issues, that would be good to know in advance. Thanks much for your help, Rachel Struthers

            Hi rmstruthers,

            Yes you can upgrade from 3.5.x to 5.0.3. This is an exception to our recommendation, and I'll ensure that our 4.x upgrade notes are updated accordingly.

            As with any upgrade, it's important to back up and test the upgrade before proceeding with the upgrade on a production server.

            Regards,
            Edith

            edith (Inactive) added a comment - Hi rmstruthers , Yes you can upgrade from 3.5.x to 5.0.3. This is an exception to our recommendation, and I'll ensure that our 4.x upgrade notes are updated accordingly. As with any upgrade, it's important to back up and test the upgrade before proceeding with the upgrade on a production server. Regards, Edith

            Can we upgrade directly from 3.5.x to 5.0.3? If we can't, then it seems that this issue is not resolved.

            The upgrade instructions here: Upgrading Confluence, state this:

            Incremental upgrades across major versions. If you want to upgrade from one major version (first digit of version number) of Confluence to another, we recommend that you upgrade incrementally – do not skip a major version. For example, if you want to move from Confluence 3.x to Confluence 5.x, you should first upgrade from 3.x to 4.x, then from 4.x to 5.x. Note that there is no need for incremental upgrading when moving from one minor or point release to another within the same series. For example, you can move from Confluence 4.0.x directly to Confluence 4.3.x.

            If the above is true, then it doesn't seem like this is really fixed. Anyone that already has 4.x already has had their file links broken and upgrading to 5.x won't fix that. Anyone that is at 3.x would have to upgrade to 4.x first. However, since there is no fix in 4.x that preserves the file links, then there is no way to transition from 3.x to 5.x and still preserve the file links.

            Rachel Struthers added a comment - Can we upgrade directly from 3.5.x to 5.0.3? If we can't, then it seems that this issue is not resolved. The upgrade instructions here: Upgrading Confluence , state this: Incremental upgrades across major versions. If you want to upgrade from one major version (first digit of version number) of Confluence to another, we recommend that you upgrade incrementally – do not skip a major version. For example, if you want to move from Confluence 3.x to Confluence 5.x, you should first upgrade from 3.x to 4.x, then from 4.x to 5.x. Note that there is no need for incremental upgrading when moving from one minor or point release to another within the same series. For example, you can move from Confluence 4.0.x directly to Confluence 4.3.x. If the above is true, then it doesn't seem like this is really fixed. Anyone that already has 4.x already has had their file links broken and upgrading to 5.x won't fix that. Anyone that is at 3.x would have to upgrade to 4.x first. However, since there is no fix in 4.x that preserves the file links, then there is no way to transition from 3.x to 5.x and still preserve the file links.

            Hi Edith,
            The behavior of this problem is discussed on this forum and apparentrly it is corrrected in Confluence v5.x.
            Our confluence server is based on linux. All our share are based on windows or novell servers.

            I will gladely open a support request but if it is so be told that I have to upgrade to v5, that wont be the case;

            Sincerly,
            Michael

            Michael Regelin added a comment - Hi Edith, The behavior of this problem is discussed on this forum and apparentrly it is corrrected in Confluence v5.x. Our confluence server is based on linux. All our share are based on windows or novell servers. I will gladely open a support request but if it is so be told that I have to upgrade to v5, that wont be the case; Sincerly, Michael

            I'm sorry to hear that you're still having this problem.

            Testing on a Windows VM, I'm able to insert links (clickable in the browser) in the following formats:

            file://...
            \\...
            

            There could be a number of confounding variables here, so you may wish to raise a support request so that we can more thoroughly investigate what's happening and whether there's a solution for your particular situation. Providing as much background as possible on that request (including our conversation here) should help to speed up the process.

            Regards,
            Edith

            edith (Inactive) added a comment - I'm sorry to hear that you're still having this problem. Testing on a Windows VM, I'm able to insert links (clickable in the browser) in the following formats: file://... \\... There could be a number of confounding variables here, so you may wish to raise a support request so that we can more thoroughly investigate what's happening and whether there's a solution for your particular situation. Providing as much background as possible on that request (including our conversation here) should help to speed up the process. Regards, Edith

            Hi Edith,
            Thanks for your post.

            It doesnt work better with

            "file :///..."

            the link doesnt work either.

            But the primary functionality is "to be able" to click on the link and not copying the link in the url bar to open the file.
            That is why we use 5 "/////".

            Michael

            Michael Regelin added a comment - Hi Edith, Thanks for your post. It doesnt work better with "file : ///..." the link doesnt work either. But the primary functionality is "to be able" to click on the link and not copying the link in the url bar to open the file. That is why we use 5 "/////". Michael

              etom edith (Inactive)
              908a536c2a1d Jens
              Affected customers:
              17 This affects my team
              Watchers:
              33 Start watching this issue

                Created:
                Updated:
                Resolved: