Any way to get a PC server link clickable in OS X?

[stumbleman]

Hi all,

I work in a mixed Mac/PC environment and people send me links to items on our server all the time. Eg:

\\ServerName\products\BRANDS\Brand1\Photoshoots\girls

Problem is that these links never work after clicking them and I end up having to go to the item manually (a major pain). On a PC the link automatically activates and brings the user to the desired location (in this case, the folder "girls"), but no such luck in OS X. Also, "ServerName" would be the name of our particular server.

Just wondering if anyone has found a way to make this work? Any help would be appreciated! Using latest version of Tiger.

thanks
mike

[Las_Vegas]

Other than copying the path and replacing all the backslashes with forward slashes... No. Unfortunately, Macs and every other OS have always had to put up with PC-sentric oddities since the advent of MSDOS.

[stumbleman]

Hmm... at the "Connect to server" prompt (I press apple-K form the Finder), in the box paste in:

//ServerName/products/BRANDS/Brand1/Photoshoots/girls

I tried this, and it looks like it will only go as far as the "products" folder level, and no further. No way I can get it to dig deeper?

thanks
mike

[stumbleman]

Maybe I'm in the wrong forum? Is it against the rules to post this question again in 'Networking"? Please let me know.

thanks!

mike

[tlarkin]

wouldn't mapping the SMB do the trick?

[hayne]

Quote: Originally Posted by stumbleman Is it against the rules to post this question again in 'Networking"?

Yes - if you want your thread moved to a different section, ask a moderator.
I'll take the above as a request and move this thread to the Networking section.

[stumbleman]

Hey tlarkin,

by mapping the SMB share, I presume you mean having it mounted? Maybe I don't know how to map a share? Even when I have the SMB share mounted on my desktop, when I click on the link it just opens the mount at the top-level but does not dig into any folders.

Any other ideas?

thanks
mike

PS Hayne, thanks for moving the post.

[giskard22]

Try entering smb:// in the Connect to Server box before you paste in the rest.

Note that you probably need to put your Mac in the same "workgroup" as the rest of the computers in your office. You can change this setting using Directory Access. Go into the section for "SMB/CIFS".

[AHunter3]

Quote: Originally Posted by stumbleman Hi all, I work in a mixed Mac/PC environment and people send me links to items on our server all the time. Eg: \\ServerName\products\BRANDS\Brand1\Photoshoots\girls Problem is that these links never work after clicking them and I end up having to go to the item manually (a major pain).

Got FileMaker? (if not, whyever for the love of pete not?). Create a global text field, PCFilePath; create a calc field, MacifiedFilePath, defined as

Substitute(Substitute(PCFilePath, "\\", "file:///Volumes/
"), "\", "/")


...then create a script in the ScriptMaker with the single script step Open URL [no dialog, MacifiedFilePath].

(Be sure to have the PC server volume mounted on your Desktop first)

[SvenW]

Quote: Originally Posted by AHunter3 Got FileMaker? (if not, whyever for the love of pete not?). Create a global text field, PCFilePath; create a calc field, MacifiedFilePath, defined as

Wow, Filemaker for that stuff? You could do that with some lines of applescript yourself and for free, but there is something available already:

WinShortcutter

Install it, restart and then you can select the link in your mail, use the "Application menu"/Services/Open Window Link" menu item and you are done.

Also, if you use entourage, read this as well.

[AHunter3]

Well, I tend to use FileMaker for dang near everything. Well, not digital video editing, I suppose ...

[Raven]

With SMB it will just bring you up to the point from which you have access. The only way I've found to be able to specify a location further in the path is to hide network mounts on the desktop (to prevent confusion) and create symlinks while the drives are mounted to the exact location you wish to go to. Example:

SMB gets you to ServerName/products
Create a symplink like this while the drive is mounted via the terminal
ln -s /Volumes/ServerName/products/BRANDS/Brand1/Photoshoots/girls

Then you'd have the link on your desk and when the volume is mounted and you double click on the link it will bring you to the folder.

[stumbleman]

Amazing! Thanks so much for the help... I followed the link to the Applescript/Entourage page and tweaked it slightly to get it to work. Only problem is Entourage does not allow me to right-click on a link in the preview pane, so have to hit "reply" then execute the script with right-click or hotkeys. Finally....

I can't believe Apple hasn't built something like this. Even more shame on Microsoft for not adding a fix... hopefully next version will fix this and the dreaded "winmail.dat" problem (not that I don't like TNEF's Enough :-)

mike

[Las_Vegas]

So… Were the girls worth all the trouble?

[tlarkin]

Quote: Originally Posted by Las_Vegas So… Were the girls worth all the trouble?

worth lying for, worth killing for, worth dying for, worth going to hell for

marv is awesome

[stumbleman]

Ha! tlarkin has that answer covered...