Image Source

[Paul]

When displaying an image is it possible to use an external URI instead of a path relative to the install directory on the i? We have thousands of product images stored on Win servers, is it possible to point to these using a standard \\myserver\myimages type URI?

Thanks,

Paul.

[Scott Klement]

Hi Paul,

Yes, you can set the image source to point to any URI that your browser can handle.

A path like "\\myserver\myimages" is not, technically speaking, a URI. It's what Windows refers to as a "UNC path", and is a component of Windows Networking (also know as SMB, Server Message Block protocol). Web pages normally access data using a protocol known as HTTP (Hypertext Transfer Protocol).

It may be possible to make a UNC path work by using a file: URI. For example:
file://///myserver/myimages/theimage.jpg

However, I do not recommend doing it that way. These paths will only work from Windows clients (but not from others, such as Mac, Linux or mobile devices). They will probably only work over a LAN, and can have all sorts of other problems.

Instead of using a UNC path, I recommend using an HTTP URL. To do that, make sure you have a web server like IIS or Apache installed on the Windows servers. Then, you should be able to point a standard http: url at those web servers. Put those http: URLs into the image source in PUI, and they should work fine.

I hope that helps!

[Paul]

D'oh! Of course its not a URI, I feel a bit silly now.

http:// works perfectly well, thanks for the pointer.