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Power Platform Community / Forums / Power Automate / How to open a local file.
Power Automate
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How to open a local file.

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Posted on by 7

Hello.

I'm trying to print several files downloaded from a website. The files are in .PDF or .P7S format . Those are encrypted .PDF, .jpg, or .doc encapsulated files with digital signatures.

.P7S files can be viewed (extracted) by simple double-click on it and select “view file” button.

 

P7S.png

 

How can I integrate that in a Flow.

There is no “Open file” action in “Files” section.

 

Someone suggested here, that can I be able to open the file from browser. The file is opening fine if I manually paste the full file path in browser, but in PAD, the browser is not recognizing the URL parameter from “Go to web page” action.

 

image.png

 

Tried:

  • C:\Users\me\Downloads\%CurrentItem%
  • %CurrentItem.FullName%
  • C:\Users\me\Downloads\FILE.PDF.p7s
  • file:///C:/Users/me/Downloads/FILE.PDF.p7s

 

Nothing works, “The URL is not valid. Make sure you are using an absolute URL.”.

What are the accepted format for URL path, to be able to open a local file.

Or better, how can I open a local file. Any type file (.jpg, .mov, .bat, etc.)

  • Verified answer
    Community Power Platform Member Profile Picture
    Microsoft Employee on at

    To open local files use 'Run application' action.

  • ViliMMT Profile Picture
    7 on at

    Haha, so simple.

    I was so focused on files section...

    'Run application' !!?? Not so intuitive.

    I didn't think it could be used for files. I thought it was for applications (.exe) only

    Thanks for response. I learned something today 😁.

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