* Media Links to external programs

[chris_searl]

I have been experimenting to try and expand my Custom ToDo attribute by linking to an external file. Currently I am looking at Clooz and Inspiration. In order to establish the link I am using the Media function to point to the files.

I have found that the links can be made if "other media" is typed into the format box although the option is not available on the drop down

I hope this might help others and perhaps "other media" might be added to the drop down in a future update.

I now will try to add media links to my Custom Do plugin.

Regards

Chris

[tatewise]

Thank you for confirming that technique works for you.

It is covered in how_to:v4:adding_multimedia#adding_other_media|> Adding Photographs and Other Multimedia.

You can enter almost anything into Format and set File to any valid file path & name.
But remember that if that path is not in the Project's Media folder it is not portable to another PC, etc.

Also if Clooz and Inspiration are not installed on the other PC then the link will fail.

Some will say it is better to capture a copy of your information in a more portable format such as JPG, PNG, PDF, etc, and link to that in the Media folder, or simply include a text transcript in a Note field.
But since it sounds like it is only used for Research To Do items, and it works for you, that is OK.

[cloozjoe]

Clooz has a Media Location Tool located in the Find==>Maintenance section. Any media links that have been established in a Clooz file will be found if the file is on the same computer where Clooz is installed. A user has control over re-establishing links, etc. A training video can be found on our website covering the entire process:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=smirhBi ... e=youtu.be

Best practice is to store your images of documents in your Clooz file in one area of your computer.

[pds2]

Part of the how_to:v4:adding_multimedia#adding_other_media|> Adding Photographs and Other Multimedia article explains...

Also Internet hyper-links may be added. The Format field should be set to url, and File set to a Shortcut URL file, say Media\FHUG.url with a URL of http://www.fhug.org.uk. Then the red triangular Perform Action button will open the web page in your default browser.

I just cannot get this to work.

I have a shortcut called test.url in \Media\URLShortcuts, and when I click this the correct web page opens.
My FH multimedia record has a format of 'url', a title and file contains the path to test.url, and is linked to a source record.
However, when this multimedia record has focus, clicking the red triangle just brings up a 'The specified file was not found' error.

Can anyone see what I'm doing wrong, or is this not working in version 5 ?

[tatewise]

It certainly works in all versions of FH.

Are you sure your Linked File: field is Media\URLShortcuts\test.url with no leading \ backslash.
To obtain a good link path use the [...] browse button to the right of the box and navigate to and Open the file.
When it is correct your default browser icon will be shown in the pane below, but if it is incorrect a cross X in a box is shown.

[pds2]

Thanks for the quick reply.

If I browse to the file and click the 'open' button, nothing happens - the 'Select File' window stays open and I have to click 'Cancel' to dispel it. Therefore I have to paste the full path into the 'File' field.

I do, as you said, get the cross displayed rather than a Firefox icon, see attached screen capture.

One thing I forgot to mention was that I'm using Windows 8.0, but I'm sure I cannot be the only one.

[tatewise]

Having browsed to the file in the Select file window, do you select the test file so its name appears in File name: at the bottom of the window. Until you do that Open will have nothing to open.

Also an oddity of these Shortcut files is that their filetype is .url but it does not appear in File Explorer, etc, even if you have changed the default settings to display extensions for known file types. So if you change the file name so it appears in File Explorer as test.url the full file name is actually test.url.url

[pds2]

That was the solution - thank you.

I renamed the shortcut to remove the .url extension and the link worked.