hyperlink in a servelt

[Sherif Shehab]

hello ,

I wanna show a file hyperlink in Servlet to the user , so i wrote the :

 out.println("the URL is :"+"<a href="+"C:/Program Files/MyEclipse 6.5/eclipse/myfile.xls"+">"+" file url "/*+ "</a>"*/ );   

when the application runs the "file url " appears like this : " file:///c:/Program" and this not like the link i wanna so why it's not appearing the path as i wrote it , and how to fix this?

[Steve Luke]

The space character is not allowed in a URL, so you have to replace them with '+' the URL-encoded form of spaces:

        String linkTo = "C:/Program Files/MyEclipse 6.5/eclipse/myfile.xls";
        String url = linkTo.replaceAll(" ", "+");
        System.out.println("The url is: <a href=\"" + url + "\">" + linkTo + "</a>");

The File:/// will be added as a replacement for http:// on the client side.

Note that this only works when you try to visit the page from the SAME computer as the server is running for. The file being linked to will be present on the SERVER, not the CLIENT, but a file:// url will try to find a file on the CLIENT's computer. If you want to be able to access the link from other computers you would have to move the file into your web application's working directory (Web App path).

This is also a display feature, so you should be making links/displaying values in JSPs, not Servlets.

[Sherif Shehab]

Thanks for your reply , i tried to get the file url in the servlet by using

URL link = getServletContext().getResource("/MyWEBApp/MyFile9-8-08.xls") ;   

and displaying it throw the servlet (i know all the presentation module should be in JSPs but this is a very tiny line of code ) so i display

 out.println(" the URL is :" +  "<a href="+link+">"+" file url " );   

the appeared url in "file url" is :

 <a href="http://localhost:9090/MyWebApp/null[/CODE" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">]http://localhost:9090/MyWebApp/null</a> 

although I'm printing the file path in the console it looks like this :

 C:\Program Files\Apache Software Foundation\Tomcat 6.0\webapps\MyWebApp\MyFile09-08-2008.xls  

PS: what i wanna is to show a link that when you presses it this file can be downloaded
So any advice ??
[ November 01, 2008: Message edited by: Bear Bibeault ]

[Bear Bibeault]

Assuming the the MyWebApp folder is the context root of your web app (the folder that WEB-INF is in), then an anchor with the proper URL would be:

<a href="/MyWebApp/MyFile09-08-2008.xls">Click me</a>    

[ November 01, 2008: Message edited by: Bear Bibeault ]

[Sherif Shehab]

Originally posted by Bear Bibeault:
Assuming the the MyWebApp folder is the context root of your web app (the folder that WEB-INF is in), then an anchor with the proper URL would be:

<a href="/MyWebApp/MyFile09-08-2008.xls">Click me</a>    

[ November 01, 2008: Message edited by: Bear Bibeault ]

Thanks much for your help it's up and running now

[Bear Bibeault]

Be sure you understand why that worked.