Wiki help updated to reflect new security settings.

Neal,

Thanks for the link. It does explain things very well.

Cheers,
Anton

OK, I found this link that talks about a new security setting in IE6 SP1.

I think Brad's right - security has plugged the hole. So maybe the doc'n should be changed to indicate the local file reference only works for downloading (saving) the file, and not opening it directly. Brad, does that work for you?

Please ignore my previous post (no longer visible after I edit this comment) - I was looking at the wrong link).
When I look at this link:

<a href="file:///c:/temp/book1.xls">file:///c:/temp/book1.xls<sup>
<img class="rendericon" src="/images/icons/linkext7.gif" height="7" width="7" 
align="absmiddle" alt="" border="0"/></sup></a>

it does appear the link is formulated correctly by the renderer.

However, it doesn't open the file. Hmmm...Maybe it only works if the target is a (network) folder, or if you are willing to click the Save As. I can't seem to get it to launch Excel when clicking the link.

The "Save Target As" functionality also works in IE 7.

The problem is with the WIKI renderer, not the browser. Because if I can click on a link in an HTML capable field where I have the <a> tag, then I should be able to do the same in the WIKI renderer, since it should be mimicking the <a> tag behaviour that HTML offers.

If I get that working I'll post back.

That would be really appreciated.

I presume that most people do not know that they have to use the "Save Target As" trick and hence claim that it does not work. I guess I would agree with them. I would not be surprised that the "Save Target As" functionality is an unfixed hole that was not closed when the functionality got changed.

We need to check if the "Save Target As" functionality works inIE 7.

When I click the link (above), nothing at all happens. if I right-click and say "Copy Shortcut" (in I.E. 6), I get the link file:///c:/temp/book1.xls, and as I said earlier, I can save that link as a new Excel file elsewhere, and open it successfully. I haven't tried monkeying with my IE settings to see why. If I get that working I'll post back.

Neal,

Thanks for the update!

What happens if you click the link, rather than go "Save Target As"? That is, what happens when you try to "open the XLS file in Excel directly"?

Cheers,
Anton

Although there is a security setting that might be in play, I should explain that I don't use the WIKI renderer. What I meant is that I have an HTML capable field (the project description) in which I have content like this:

<a href="file:y:/ABC/abc Documentation" target="_blank">

and it works just fine.

Even here, I was able to add a WIKI comment like this one:
File file:c:/temp/book1.xls
and although it wouldn't open the XLS file in Excel directly, if I right click and choose "Save Target As", it will allow me to save the XLS file, which means it is reachable.

My point is that if there is a problem, I don't think it's with the browser(s), but with the WIKI renderer and how it passes links to the browser for interpretation.

Hi Neal,

Can you try and create a link here and click through to a local file on your machine?

The file protocol still works if the original page is hosted on the local machine.

Cheers,
Lily