Wednesday, April 1, 2009

Link to a Document Content Type SharePoint 2007 – Sending in a email message is not working

Link to a Document is one of the powerful features of SharePoint 2007. Unfortunately I am facing a wired error while using the Link to a document content type. We use the Content Type “Link to a Document” to link to a document that could be stored in another document library.

Issue:

If I send the link of a LINK content type in an email message, the user cannot open the file by clicking on the link in the message (It is opening a blank document, presentation etc..based on file type). Copying and pasting this link in the browser works fine.

An example link:
http://portal1/sites/sales/DocumentLink/LinkToMasterDocument.aspx
This does not work(Opens blank document, presentation..etc.) if you click on it, but works if you cut and paste it in a browser.

Here are the steps which i followed to create a link content type:

If the document library where you want to use the “Link to a Document” hasn’t been setup to use Content Types, you’ll have to click Settings, Document Library Settings, there you’ll need to access the Advanced Settings.









We need to add a Content Type, but before we can do this we’ll have to tell our Document Library that it can make use of different Content Types. Select “Yes” for the “Allow management of Content Types“.






When you return to the Document Library Settings, you’ll see a new section called Content Types, this is where we’ll add a new Content Type, click “Add from exisiting Content Type“.








The content type we need is “Link to a Document“, add it here.














When you return to your Document Library and click new, you’ll see that you have a new option to choose from, “Link to a Document“.













Let’s make a link to a Document in another Document Library, click “Link to a Document”. You’ll have to enter a name for the Link and enter the path to the Document you want to link to.








After confirming this is what your link looks like.








We made link to a document that’s saved in another document library, whenever you make a change to the master document, you don’t need to worry about the link, and it will point to the changed document.












Up to here it works fine. It’s really a good functionality. Here is the Issue.

If I send the link of a “LinkToMasterDocument” in an email message, the user cannot open the file by clicking on the link in the message. Copying and pasting this link in the browser works fine.

Here is the snapshot:











Email Message:









An example Link: http://portal1/sites/sales/DocumentLink/LinkToMasterDocument.aspx
This does not work if you click on it, but works if you cut and paste it in a browser.

I have tried this with different site collections, but none works.
Do you see a workaround for this?

Cheers!!!