Link to „file:///…“ is not working

Omeka Classic Development
#1

Hello

I am working on a project with Omeka classic . Everything’s works fine except the following and I was not able to found a solution.

We have a lot of datasets and every dataset has a folder with additional material.
It would be nice that this folder can be opened directly from a link which is opening the corresponding folder. The folders and the installation is in a company and is accessible only through the Intranet locally.

When I open the link directly with the browser then I can open the folder without problems.
Embedded in the dataset of Omeka - it is not working.
The link is in the form file:///path/to/folder/foldername

I guess it is difficult for security reasons to mix http and file protocol.
But I guess there must be a solution for this case.

Maybe anybody has a hint, a clue or a solution for this case. And it is possible that this very simple but I tried several things without success.

Thank you

Regards Toni

Ps: Omeka is installed on a qnap server. Hardware and Software newest generation.
The files of the folders is on the same qnap. Omeka is installed in the Web-Directory.

#2

file:// references a file on the user’s machine, this is no way to call a file on the server.

#3

There are security features in browsers that can prevent linking from HTTP content to the file: protocol. Maybe if the Omeka install is in an intranet “zone” it might be allowed? My knowledge on this subject is a little out-of-date. More relevant probably is, as @tgd mentions, a file: link is to a local file (this is why browsers block it), it doesn’t refer to a file on the same server but rather the user’s computer. This is probably not what you want but I guess it’s possible with shared drives or something it might be.

If you can just have the files served by the web server it would avoid these problems (your whole Omeka install could be only intranet-accessible if that’s an issue).

#4

Thank you for the reply.

In fact the installation is completely internal on a local network behind a firewall.

Omeka is for us as a museum the perfect tool to organize and store the inventory files (legal status of objects, donations, contracts etc.).
We have all the files locally on a server (mostly as pdf) in a defined folder structure and ordered by the inventory number. I don’t like to import them by Omeka or move the folder structure to a different location. But it would be nice if we can click directly in the Omeka - dataset on a link, which is opening a window (windows explorer) with all the related files to browse through. It is a research tool (read only) and help us to save a lot of time, because we don’t have to click through file explorer to the related folder every time.
I have checked and tried a lot of different solutions and I found in the meantime a solution only supported by Firefox. There is a plugin which is called “local filesystem links” and I can configure in the plugin also security settings.

I embedded the following code into the html field of omeka, and it is working perfect.
<a href=file:///X:/Path/to/Folder target="_blank" rel=“noopener” title= “Open Folder”

It is not the best solution, it is more a workaround but it is working for thousand of datasets.
Maybe there is a better solution which I simpler and depends not of a browser and a plugin

Regards Toni