How to open local file from browser?

Question

I'm using the following when trying to open a local file:

<a href="file:///Users/username/Dropbox/Documents/a/some document.numbers">some document</a>

When I click the above in a browser, it opens Finder to the folder. But does not open the file. Should I be doing something else to have the file open in Numbers?

Answer 1

You cannot open local files on the client. This would be a huge security risk.

You can link to files on your server (like you did) or you can ask the client for a file using <input type="file">

Answer 2

You can only open some types of files in browsers, like html css js and mp4, otherwise the browser will want to download it. Also remember that browsers replace spaces with %20. I recommend right clicking the file and opening it with chrome then copy that link and using it.

You can open files that are local as long as it is a file that is on the file that is trying to open another file is local.