I have a HTML file upload field from which I’m reading the file name of the file that the user specifies. The actual contents of the file is never uploaded.
At a later stage, is it possible to construct a link using this file name information so that if the user clicks on this link, the original file is launched into a new browser window? If not, what are the reason for disallowing this behaviour?
The purpose of such a feature is to store links to documents that are available on a mapped local drive or a network share.
Most likely, no.
T.J.’s Crowder answer is correct but do note that on virtually all modern browsers that will work only if the webpage you are viewing (with the input type=file) is itself a
file:///.From your question it appears to be some kind of internal company website, which most likely will have its own web server.