Question

I would like to access a file system file from within SharePoint, programmatically via script (jQuery AJAX). I didn’t think this would be so difficult, because I do it routinely with, say, $.getJSON() outside of SharePoint, where the file to be opened is in the same directory as the HTML file holding the $.getJSON() call.

I set a folder to be shared universally, gave full control to Everyone, and placed a file there. From the browser, this address works:

\\server\folder\filename

In the script, no version of this or any format I can imagine has returned anything but “File not found.” I even put a file at the root of my IIS site and tried

http://mysite/myfile

but that had no better effect.

I use

$.support.cors=true

so I no longer get the “No Transport” errors that signify cross-domain problems.

I’ve seen statements that this is not possible but have a hard time accepting it, because of other similar successes.

Answer 1

There are two problems that you are running up against:

1. The security of a browser that stops script from interacting with disks. That is what is stopping you from accessing \server\folder\filename
2. The Sharepoint handler that processes all incoming requests, so the request never reaches http://mysite/myfile

A better way to do this would be to place your file in a SharePoint Document library. Then you can use the built in SharePoint functionality to read it.