[html] What are the ways to make an html link open a folder

I need to let users of an application open a folder by clicking a link inside a web page. The path of the folder is on the network and can be accessed from everywhere. I'm probably sure there is no easy way to do this, but maybe I'm mistaken?

make sure your folder permissions are set so that a directory listing is allowed then just point your anchor to that folder using chmod 701 (that might be risky though) for example

<a href="./downloads/folder_i_want_to_display/" >Go to downloads page</a>

make sure that you have no index.html any index file on that directory

A bit late to the party, but I had to solve this for myself recently, though slightly different, it might still help someone with similar circumstances to my own.

I'm using xampp on a laptop to run a purely local website app on windows. (A very specific environment I know). In this instance, I use a html link to a php file and run:

shell_exec('cd C:\path\to\file');
shell_exec('start .');

This opens a local Windows explorer window.

Using file:///// just doesn't work if security settings are set to even a moderate level.

If you just want users to be able to download/view files* located on a network or share you can set up a Virtual Directory in IIS. On the Properties tab make sure the "A share located on another computer" is selected and the "Connect as..." is an account that can see the network location.

Link to the virtual directory from your webpage (e.g. http://yoursite/yourvirtualdir/) and this will open up a view of the directory in the web browser.

*You can allow write permissions on the virtual directory to allow users to add files but not tried it and assume network permissions would override this setting.

You can also copy the link address and paste it in a new window to get around the security. This works in chrome and firefox but you may have to add slashes in firefox.

Does not work in Chrome, but this other answers suggests a solution via a plugin:

Can Google Chrome open local links?

Hope it will help someone someday. I was making a small POC and came across this. A button, onClick display contents of the folder. Below is the HTML,

<input type=button onClick="parent.location='file:///C:/Users/' " value='Users'>

The URL file://[servername]/[sharename] should open an explorer window to the shared folder on the network.