Adding a hotlink to an attribute field in QGIS

Question

How to add hotlink to QGIS? I saw this but had some problem. I want to open network location like \\fileserver\filefolder\file1.excel but it ends with error.

Edit: The network location is stored in a column of the table eg. URL column contains URL value for each attribute. Different row has different URL.

@sgrieve Unable to run command. I actually have stored the location in one of the column and I have used it has an expression. — kinkajou, Sep 07 '12 at 08:19
Maybe you need to prefix it with file:// or local://, since it is not directly on one of your disks. I imagine dos batch commands will have trouble interpreting that though. — lynxlynxlynx, Sep 07 '12 at 08:30
Then the path to your program executable must be between '"'. — Giovanni Manghi, Sep 07 '12 at 09:06
@GiovanniManghi can you give me example I am having problem still.. — kinkajou, Sep 07 '12 at 09:44

AndreJ · Accepted Answer · 2014-12-12T10:48:44.043

8

This way it works for me on Windows and Qgis 1.8.0:

Create a point shapefile with a field url of type string. Add a point and fill the url field with

\\<host>\<path>\<file>.xls

without any blanks or quotation marks unless you have blanks in folder and filenames. Don't forget to save the layer, end leave edit mode.

In the layers properties, create a new action of type Generic , name it open and add

cmd /c [% "url" %]

as action.

Select the Action icon, move the mouse over the point and click to open the excel sheet. The Excel sheet should have the standard .xls extension.

edited Dec 12 '14 at 10:48

answered Sep 07 '12 at 11:18

AndreJ

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tried it but my path has space i.e. my file name has space "test test12.xls" it opens a command window and nothing happens – kinkajou Sep 07 '12 at 12:00
2

It might work if you put the whole path inside quotes. Just guessing though. – Rayner Sep 07 '12 at 12:33
1

Just tested: "\fileserver\filefolder\file 1.xls" (with the quotation marks!) in the shapefile field works. – AndreJ Sep 07 '12 at 12:35
Glad I could help. Please vote my comment up if you think it was useful. – Rayner Sep 07 '12 at 16:45
@Rayner its helpful but my url is one of the column of table – kinkajou Sep 09 '12 at 09:47
I'm not quiet sure what you mean: Path-to-file has to be build of column(field) name and content of the field? That could be done in some way by field calculator. Can you add a screenshot of the table? – AndreJ Sep 09 '12 at 13:55
At last the solution : cmd /c "[% "URL_TSSR" %]". Using generic type action. See "" outside too. – kinkajou Sep 13 '12 at 11:14

score 2 · Answer 2 · edited May 23 '17 at 12:39

2

I'd use python. After reading a blog post from Tim Sutton at linfiniti [1] I learned you can use python in actions:

eg something along those lines:

from pywin32.client import Dispatch
xl = Dispatch('Excel.Application')
wb = xl.Workbooks.Open('C:\\Documents and Settings\\GradeBook.xls')

taken from another post [2]

[1] http://linfiniti.com/2012/03/a-python-layer-action-to-open-a-wikipedia-page-in-qgis/

[2] https://stackoverflow.com/questions/247724/how-can-i-launch-an-instance-of-an-application-using-python

edited May 23 '17 at 12:39

Community

1

answered Sep 09 '12 at 18:43

nickves

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I don't know if it is excel or pdf as I have mentioned in the question it can be pdf or any other file too. I use it with mapinfo currently. It's easy in Mapinfo but I am not able to find this feature in Qgis easy. – kinkajou Sep 10 '12 at 01:52

Adding a hotlink to an attribute field in QGIS

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