internal link should open file not directory

[ferdiga]

Steps to reproduce

1. click share
2. select/copy internal link
3. past this link into browser

Expected behaviour

should open the shared file

Actual behaviour

opens the directory with the file - confusing as the users with the link does not know the file name
BTW it should work like "external link" which opens the file.

Server configuration detail

Operating system: Linux 4.9.0-11-amd64 #1 SMP Debian 4.9.189-3+deb9u2 (2019-11-11) x86_64

Webserver: Apache/2.4.25 (Debian) (apache2handler)

Database: mysql 10.4.8

PHP version:

7.3.21-1+020200807.66+debian91.gbp18a1c2
Modules loaded: Core, date, libxml, openssl, pcre, zlib, filter, hash, Reflection, SPL, sodium, session, standard, apache2handler, mysqlnd, PDO, xml, apcu, bcmath, bz2, calendar, ctype, curl, dom, mbstring, fileinfo, ftp, gd, gettext, gmp, iconv, imagick, intl, json, ldap, exif, mysqli, pdo_mysql, pdo_pgsql, pdo_sqlite, pgsql, apc, posix, readline, shmop, SimpleXML, smbclient, sockets, sqlite3, sysvmsg, sysvsem, sysvshm, tokenizer, wddx, xmlreader, xmlwriter, xsl, zip, Phar, libsmbclient, Zend OPcache

Nextcloud version: 19.0.1 - 19.0.1.1

Updated from an older Nextcloud/ownCloud or fresh install:

Where did you install Nextcloud from: unknown

Signing status

Array
(
)

List of activated apps

Enabled:
 - accessibility: 1.5.0
 - activity: 2.12.0
 - admin_audit: 1.9.0
 - analytics: 2.4.1
 - announcementcenter: 3.8.1
 - apporder: 0.10.0
 - audioplayer: 2.11.2
 - bruteforcesettings: 2.0.1
 - calendar: 2.0.4
 - carnet: 0.22.2
 - circles: 0.19.5
 - cloud_federation_api: 1.2.0
 - comments: 1.9.0
 - contacts: 3.3.0
 - contactsinteraction: 1.0.0
 - dashboard: 6.0.0
 - dav: 1.15.0
 - deck: 1.0.5
 - documentserver_community: 0.1.7
 - drawio: 0.9.7
 - emlviewer: 0.0.17
 - external: 3.6.0
 - federatedfilesharing: 1.9.0
 - files: 1.14.0
 - files_accesscontrol: 1.9.0
 - files_automatedtagging: 1.9.0
 - files_downloadactivity: 1.8.0
 - files_external: 1.10.0
 - files_fulltextsearch: 1.4.3
 - files_fulltextsearch_tesseract: 1.4.2
 - files_pdfviewer: 1.8.0
 - files_photospheres: 1.19.1
 - files_rightclick: 0.16.0
 - files_sharing: 1.11.0
 - files_trashbin: 1.9.0
 - files_versions: 1.12.0
 - files_videoplayer: 1.8.0
 - fulltextsearch: 1.4.2
 - fulltextsearch_elasticsearch: 1.5.2
 - groupfolders: 7.0.0
 - issuetemplate: 0.6.0
 - logreader: 2.4.0
 - lookup_server_connector: 1.7.0
 - mail: 1.4.1
 - metadata: 0.12.0
 - nextcloud_announcements: 1.8.0
 - notes: 3.6.4
 - notifications: 2.7.0
 - oauth2: 1.7.0
 - ocr: 6.0.55
 - ocsms: 2.1.8
 - onlyoffice: 4.3.0
 - password_policy: 1.9.1
 - phonetrack: 0.6.4
 - photos: 1.1.0
 - previewgenerator: 2.3.0
 - privacy: 1.3.0
 - provisioning_api: 1.9.0
 - quickaccesssorting: 1.0.3
 - quicknotes: 0.6.0
 - quota_warning: 1.8.0
 - rainloop: 7.0.2
 - recommendations: 0.7.0
 - serverinfo: 1.9.0
 - settings: 1.1.0
 - sharebymail: 1.9.0
 - socialsharing_email: 2.1.0
 - spreed: 9.0.3
 - support: 1.2.1
 - survey_client: 1.7.0
 - suspicious_login: 3.2.0
 - systemtags: 1.9.0
 - tasks: 0.13.3
 - text: 3.0.1
 - theming: 1.10.0
 - twofactor_backupcodes: 1.8.0
 - updatenotification: 1.9.0
 - user_usage_report: 1.3.3
 - viewer: 1.3.0
 - workflow_pdf_converter: 1.4.0
 - workflow_script: 1.4.0
 - workflowengine: 2.1.0
Disabled:
 - cms_pico
 - dashboardcharts
 - encryption
 - federation
 - files_retention
 - firstrunwizard
 - ojsxc
 - printer
 - registration
 - user_ldap
 - wopi

Configuration (config/config.php)

{
    "instanceid": "***REMOVED SENSITIVE VALUE***",
    "passwordsalt": "***REMOVED SENSITIVE VALUE***",
    "datadirectory": "***REMOVED SENSITIVE VALUE***",
    "dbtype": "mysql",
    "version": "19.0.1.1",
    "dbname": "***REMOVED SENSITIVE VALUE***",
    "dbhost": "***REMOVED SENSITIVE VALUE***",
    "dbtableprefix": "oc_",
    "dbuser": "***REMOVED SENSITIVE VALUE***",
    "dbpassword": "***REMOVED SENSITIVE VALUE***",
    "installed": true,
    "enable_previews": true,
    "forcessl": true,
    "theme": "",
    "maintenance": false,
    "mail_smtpmode": "smtp",
    "mail_smtphost": "***REMOVED SENSITIVE VALUE***",
    "mail_smtpport": "587",
    "mail_smtptimeout": 10,
    "loglevel": 0,
    "share_folder": "\/Shared",
    "trusted_domains": [
        "service.chricar.at"
    ],
    "mail_from_address": "***REMOVED SENSITIVE VALUE***",
    "mail_domain": "***REMOVED SENSITIVE VALUE***",
    "secret": "***REMOVED SENSITIVE VALUE***",
    "singleuser": false,
    "forceSSLforSubdomains": true,
    "trashbin_retention_obligation": "auto",
    "filelocking.enabled": "true",
    "filesystem_check_changes": 1,
    "mail_smtpauthtype": "PLAIN",
    "mail_smtpsecure": "tls",
    "mail_smtpauth": 1,
    "mail_smtpname": "***REMOVED SENSITIVE VALUE***",
    "mail_smtppassword": "***REMOVED SENSITIVE VALUE***",
    "auth.bruteforce.protection.enabled": true,
    "overwriteprotocol": "https",
    "overwrite.cli.url": "https:\/\/service.chricar.at\/owncloud",
    "updater.release.channel": "stable",
    "memcache.local": "\\OC\\Memcache\\APCu",
    "memcache.locking": "\\OC\\Memcache\\Redis",
    "redis": {
        "host": "***REMOVED SENSITIVE VALUE***",
        "port": 6379,
        "password": "***REMOVED SENSITIVE VALUE***",
        "timeout": 1.5
    },
    "preview_max_x": 512,
    "preview_max_y": 512,
    "preview_max_scale_factor": 1,
    "preview_libreoffice_path": "\/usr\/bin\/libreoffice",
    "enabledPreviewProviders": [
        "OC\\Preview\\Image",
        "OC\\Preview\\MP3",
        "OC\\Preview\\TXT",
        "OC\\Preview\\PDF",
        "OC\\Preview\\Movie",
        "OC\\Preview\\Photoshop",
        "OC\\Preview\\TIFF",
        "OC\\Preview\\SVG",
        "OC\\Preview\\OpenDocument"
    ],
    "has_rebuilt_cache": true,
    "mysql.utf8mb4": true,
    "app_install_overwrite": [
        "files_clipboard",
        "files_accesscontrol",
        "issuetemplate",
        "dashboard",
        "files_external_gdrive",
        "ojsxc",
        "quickaccesssorting",
        "ocr"
    ],
    "updater.secret": "***REMOVED SENSITIVE VALUE***"
}

Are you using external storage, if yes which one: local/smb/sftp/...

Are you using encryption:

Are you using an external user-backend, if yes which one: LDAP/ActiveDirectory/Webdav/...

Client configuration

Browser: Mozilla/5.0 (X11; Linux x86_64) AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/85.0.4183.83 Safari/537.36

Operating system: ubuntu 20.04

Logs

Web server error log

Insert your web server log here 

Nextcloud log

Insert your Nextcloud log here

Browser log

Insert your browser log here, this could for example include:

a) The javascript console log
b) The network log
c) ...

[jospoortvliet]

The browser scrolls to the file and highlights it, though in my experience this isn't always very reliable.

Thing is - one can't 'open the file' as many file types are simply not supported with an online viewer. I agree with you that it would be nice, though. Perhaps we could at least do that on files that ARE supported in a viewer...

[ferdiga]

Thanks for looking into this
Probably a only office style menu would be helpful to allow quick selection of the desired action (open, download,....)

[q-wertz]

Or the standard Download Menu from the Browser

[Perino01]

If I share a document with 'Share link', than the link leads direct to the document. So when I copy the link to a browser or click the link from an excel cell, the link opens the document!

If I share the same document with 'Internal Link', which I would prefer, then the link leads only to the directory of the file. It is not possible, to open the docment, by clicking the link!

Why it is possible, in the first case, but not realizable in the second case (which is much more secure)?

[alexanderdd]

IMO this is a duplicate of #12470

[ferdiga]

If I share a document with 'Share link', than the link leads direct to the document. So when I copy the link to a browser or click the link from an excel cell, the link opens the document!

If I share the same document with 'Internal Link', which I would prefer, then the link leads only to the directory of the file. It is not possible, to open the docment, by clicking the link!

Why it is possible, in the first case, but not realizable in the second case (which is much more secure)?

I agree, this is a very strange behavior - nevertheless understandable and good, external users must not see the files in the directory.

[Perino01]

This is not a question of authorization, of course only authorized users are allowed to view the files. It is very inconvenient if you click on a link where you expect a file and only a directory is opened. If you use this link as a reference (for example in a mail or in a document), you don't know which of the many files in this folder is meant.

[alexanderdd]

Does anybody know which users can do triage? I.e. remove "needs triage" and add "to develop"

[juliushaertl]

#12470 is not really about the internal link but the one that is presented to the user in the browsers url bar, so I'd keep those separate.

I think it is kind of debatable which behavior would be expected here, though for files it probably makes more sense to open them right away instead of just scrolling to them in the file list. What do you think @nextcloud/designers ?

[alexanderdd]

#12470 is not really about the internal link but the one that is presented to the user in the browsers url bar, so I'd keep those separate.

@juliushaertl can you rename that issue #12470 so the difference to this one here is clear?

[dartcafe]

The current behavior should be kept, it heavily supports efficency in our company. We often use internal links to files and it is usual, that not only the linked file is of interest but also other files which are kept in the same (project) directory. As long as the linked file is highlighted, there is enough context IMHO.

[szaimen]

Maybe it could do both? So open the directory in the files app and also open the file directly itself?

[dartcafe]

Another possible solution could be, that the internal link leads to a selection, where you can decide, if you want to

• download and open the file,
• open the file in the browser (if there is an app installed for the file) or
• just open in the directory and highlight the linked file.

One of my secret wishes: Open file locally (from my local synced folder).

[Perino01]

If you send an link, refering to a document to person, and only a directory opens and not the document itself, then the user gets confused! Especially in case of a directory with lots of files.

Furthermore, if you have a document eg. Excel Calculation, with links to documents like offers or bills, then it is useless to click on one of the links and only a directory with dozens of files gets opened.

[Perino01]

Another possible solution could be, that the internal link leads to a selection, where you can decide, if you want to

* download and open the file,

* open the file in the browser (if there is an app installed for the file) or

* just open in the directory and highlight the linked file.

One of my secret wishes: Open file locally (from my local synced folder).

Nice approach!

[szaimen]

cc @nextcloud/designers

[sebastienaubry]

Same problem here: I created a simple notepad for my holidays and just want to quickly open it in edition mode. Currently, I only manage to do that by sharing it (which I don't want): if it is not shared, the "openfile" URL gives me a "download.zip" file.

Given the comments, I suggest that we keep the current behaviour for the current internal files links, but add a link attribute (e.g. &edit=true) to open the file in edition mode in order to allow rich text "Notes" use case: sometimes you just want to open a list and edit it, and it should be possible to create a shortcut to the edition mode. Currently it seems that only the shared files can be directly opened in edition mode.

[alexanderdd]

@szaimen you added "needs info" label -- which information do you need?

[bitdivine]

@sebastienaubry I agree, albeit with a minor tweak. edit=true has limited use, it can be only edit=true or edit=false and the false version might as well be omitted. Instead one might have e.g. view=edit or view=readonly or view=directory (the current default) etc.

Regarding how to handle files that don't have a viewer, in asimilar situation Google Drive asks the viewer what they would like to do, with options typically including download and letting the user choose an app that can handle the file type.

[szaimen]

@artonge didn't you recently implemented something like the discussed feature here?

[skjnldsv]

#28174

[skjnldsv]

backported to 22 (not 20 nor 21 and it won't be)

[stefankrischer]

Do I understand the last comments here right, that this was successfully implemented? Do i have to activate it somewhere? Because on Nextcloud Hub II (23.0.3) we still experience the initial behavior of opening the folder instead of the file and i don't find the right settings to change that.

[az-bp]

backported to 22 (not 20 nor 21 and it won't be)

I also encountered the same problem.
I have recently integrated Nextcloud and ONLYOFFICE.
When you open internal link, it opens file location instead of that file itself.
Opening external link actually opens a file.
I upgraded Nextcloud from version 21 to 22 and now to 23.0.5.
That did not solve the issue.

[alexanderdd]

Works as expected for me in Nextcloud 23.0.5 with Collabora CODE

[errotu]

I can confirm the behavior @az-bp describes, currently it's not working with OnlyOffice (NC 26.0.1). Is there any workaround/solution for that?

[pikachurus]

backported to 22 (not 20 nor 21 and it won't be)

I also encountered the same problem. I have recently integrated Nextcloud and ONLYOFFICE. When you open internal link, it opens file location instead of that file itself. Opening external link actually opens a file. I upgraded Nextcloud from version 21 to 22 and now to 23.0.5. That did not solve the issue.

same problem here.

nextcloud 28.0.8
onlyoffice 8.1.1.26

internal link https://xxx.xxx/index.php/f/60449 opens https://xxx.xxx/index.php/apps/files/files/60449?dir=/ with focus on file