XYplorer does not seem to support file:// URI scheme

[eukeilgoosk]

Hi,

I sometimes want to access URI's such as "file://<hostname>/<share_name>" to access intranet resources in my company. Our internal webpages link to internal files using "file://". These URIs open fine in Windows 10 File Explorer. But XYplorer doesn't seem to support them. Xyplorer, however, does support "\\<hostname>\<share_name>".

Is there some way to enable "file://" access functionality that I am not aware of? If this functionality does not exist, then I would like to put in a feature request.

[eukeilgoosk]

I pasted a URI such as "file://myhostname/myshare" in the address bar and hit enter. I got an error dialog box with the message "Not Found: Location or item". The dialog box further had the message "Could not find: file:\hostname\myshare".

If I paste "\\myhostname\myshare" in the address bar, and then hit enter, XYplorer navigates to the shared folder successfully.

[jupe]

Well as shown in the example in the help file, it needs to be like this:

file:///C:\Program Files\XYplorer\LicenseXY.txt

So it should work if you use the correct number of forward slashes, (by work I mean open the associated application for the URI)

[eukeilgoosk]

When I tried with three slashes to open the local file as you suggested, XYplorer started the application registered to open that file type (notepad++ in my case to open LicenseXY.txt).

When I tried with three slashes to open a local directory such as the XYplorer installation directory, XYplorer opened Windows File Explorer, which then showed me that directory.

However, my original question was to open a shared folder on the intranet. If I use three slashes for that (e.g. "file:///myhostname/myshare"), nothing happens after I hit enter.

Based on what I read about file URI scheme, two slashes have to be used if a host name is followed by it.

[jupe]

For a UNC path it would be like this:

file://///myhostname/myshare

[eukeilgoosk]

"file://///myhostname/myshare" worked in the sense that XYplorer did not throw an error, and started Windows File Explorer to open the URI. I also noted that using 4 slashes instead of 5 cause the same behavior.

Technically, one could say that XYplorer supports file URI (albeit in a modified form, i.e. 4 or 5 slashes instead of 2 slashes) by opening the registered handler. This was unexpected/unanticipated for me. I wanted XYplorer to handle it. But I guess that's how it will be since XYplorer is not a "handler" for file URI.

What is the reason for requiring 4 or 5 slashes? Why don't 2 slashes suffice? When I tried a URI such as "http://microsoft.com", XYplorer correctly opened the browser, passing it the URI. Why doesn't it do that for "file://"?

[admin]

I will make it work in the next beta.

But why are you using this scheme? Never came across it in real life...

[eukeilgoosk]

Thank you.

In my company, various people create intranet wiki pages with references to files and directories on internal shares. Most people use "\\myhostname\sharename\path\to\directoryorfile". But some of them use "file://myhostname/sharename/path/to/directoryorfile". Since "file://" is a valid way (https://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc8089) to specify it, and it works well natively with Windows 10, I can't force them to change it to "\\...".

[admin]

I see. Well, now that I fixed it the company can go ahead and buy a fat site license.

[eukeilgoosk]

Haha... very funny.... For now, I am the only one with license. I don't think most people are even aware of XYplorer. It is a great tool. For me, the Catalog and File search are killer features. Those are the ones that I use the most. I am going to make my co-workers aware of it.

[admin]

You are a shining example.

[eukeilgoosk]

Just checked out version 19.80. file:// works very well. I originally expected XY to delegate the request to File Explorer. But instead, it handled it by itself. This is very convenient. Thanks.