+11Hello,
I understand that images and documents can be attached from URL links and that works well. Is there any way of attaching images / links from my computer via this kind of address?
file://localhost/Volumes/BBIMAGES/NEWEST2017.bentodb/Contents/Resources/Assets/BC5DF932-D8FE-4360-9020-37E1F2ED7E91/Auction-1613.TIF.png
many thanks for any help!
Here’s what i found about a year ago, when i started writing a document on using Airtable with Google Drive and Dropbox (a document I never completed, as it turns out):
Airtable allows one to prepend ‘file://’ to strings within a URL field. What is more, Airtable clearly understands this to be a file URL, as ‘file://C:[etc]’, ‘file://localhost/C:[etc]’, and ‘file:///C:[etc]’ are all normalized to link to ‘file:///C:[etc]’.
I then went on to say:
Now that one has converted the file path into a properly formatted file URL, selecting the link should open the file with a local app, right? Wrong. The security model underlying most modern browsers prohibit them from opening a file URL as a hyperlink from a non-local web page. That is to say, any ‘file://’ links defined on a page accessed as an ‘http://’ or ‘https://’ URL typically cannot be opened by selecting the link.
The solution? There are — or, at least, were — browser extensions that purposefully break the security model to allow one to load a ‘file://’ URL from a remote page. At the time, I provided links to Local Explorer for Chrome and Local Filesystem Links and LocalLink for Firefox. Are these still valid? I dunno. Keep in mind the security model exists for a reason, so you potentially open yourself up to evil. As I recall, Local Filesystem Links incorporated a whitelist of sites where the add-on would be active; otherwise, the default security model held.
Again, it’s been a year since I played around with this, so your mileage may vary. Every piece to the puzzle is a moving part, and Airtable, browsers, and possibly the plugins are likely to have been modified multiple times since I wrote those words.
On the other hand, even if they don’t work correctly today, at least you know the general direction you need to look for answers…
+11Here’s what i found about a year ago, when i started writing a document on using Airtable with Google Drive and Dropbox (a document I never completed, as it turns out):
Airtable allows one to prepend ‘file://’ to strings within a URL field. What is more, Airtable clearly understands this to be a file URL, as ‘file://C:[etc]’, ‘file://localhost/C:[etc]’, and ‘file:///C:[etc]’ are all normalized to link to ‘file:///C:[etc]’.
I then went on to say:
Now that one has converted the file path into a properly formatted file URL, selecting the link should open the file with a local app, right? Wrong. The security model underlying most modern browsers prohibit them from opening a file URL as a hyperlink from a non-local web page. That is to say, any ‘file://’ links defined on a page accessed as an ‘http://’ or ‘https://’ URL typically cannot be opened by selecting the link.
The solution? There are — or, at least, were — browser extensions that purposefully break the security model to allow one to load a ‘file://’ URL from a remote page. At the time, I provided links to Local Explorer for Chrome and Local Filesystem Links and LocalLink for Firefox. Are these still valid? I dunno. Keep in mind the security model exists for a reason, so you potentially open yourself up to evil. As I recall, Local Filesystem Links incorporated a whitelist of sites where the add-on would be active; otherwise, the default security model held.
Again, it’s been a year since I played around with this, so your mileage may vary. Every piece to the puzzle is a moving part, and Airtable, browsers, and possibly the plugins are likely to have been modified multiple times since I wrote those words.
On the other hand, even if they don’t work correctly today, at least you know the general direction you need to look for answers…
Thanks for the help. Unfortunately I can’t get anything to work.
Thanks for the help. Unfortunately I can’t get anything to work.
As I said, it’s been a while since I played around with this — and then only under certain conditions. I’ll try to take a look if I can break out a little time.
I use this Chrome extension https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/enable-local-file-links/nikfmfgobenbhmocjaaboihbeocackld
The syntax is: file:///C:/Yourfolder/yourfile.txt (Note forward slashes instead of backslashes)
Works for me
+11I use this Chrome extension https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/enable-local-file-links/nikfmfgobenbhmocjaaboihbeocackld
The syntax is: file:///C:/Yourfolder/yourfile.txt (Note forward slashes instead of backslashes)
Works for me
I may have described what I am trying to wrong so here goes again.
I would like to fill a field in Airtable with links like:
file://localhost/Volumes/Images/Mydatabase.bentodb/Contents/Resources/Assets/7FEB0573-E857-4E3C-8A83-29194914B7D2/inventory_000001.JPG
… and have those links fetch the image
OR open the image in a browser so they can be dragged into Airtable.
Yes, I am using a very old database called Bento where images cannot easily be exported, hence the problem with getting them into Airtable
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