# URL type format for file downloading

**URL:** <https://discuss.elastic.co/t/url-type-format-for-file-downloading/162819>\
**Category:** Kibana\
**Created:** [January 3, 2019, 2:08pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/url-type-format-for-file-downloading/162819 "2019-01-03T14:08:11Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![zivklara](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/77aa72/32.png) [@zivklara](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/zivklara)\
**Post date:** [January 3, 2019, 2:08pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/url-type-format-for-file-downloading/162819/1 "2019-01-03T14:08:11Z")

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I'm trying to use a string field value as a clickable link, that when clicked a file should be downloaded.  
I turned it into a link field successfully, but the link being opened includes the localhost, which causes the link to be incorrect.

I came across this [thread](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/url-type-format-issue/141797), and saw this was not supported back then (July 18), and the user was advised to open a feature request.

I tried to look for requests of this kind in github, but didn't find anything helpful.

Is this supported yet? Is there an open feature request, or was it rejected?

Thanks in advance

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**Author:** ![nickpeihl](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/nickpeihl/32/112622_2.png) [@nickpeihl](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/nickpeihl)\
**Post date:** [January 4, 2019, 6:16pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/url-type-format-for-file-downloading/162819/2 "2019-01-04T18:16:45Z")

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This feature request is being tracked here. [https://github.com/elastic/kibana/issues/16983](https://github.com/elastic/kibana/issues/16983)

Rather than use the `file://` protocol, you may opt to host the files with a web server and link to that instead.

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**Author:** ![zivklara](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/77aa72/32.png) [@zivklara](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/zivklara)\
**Post date:** [January 8, 2019, 12:37pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/url-type-format-for-file-downloading/162819/3 "2019-01-08T12:37:29Z")

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thanks for the reply.

Is it not going to be supported any time soon? last comment in there was in June 18, and by earlier comments it seemed like it was a pretty easy fix.

Is there any other way to do that other than hosting the files in a web server? this is highly inconvenient so I want to keep it as my last option...  
any workaround a user can do to add support for file:// protocol?

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**Author:** ![system](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/original/3X/1/a/1ac57faf039f6b580b3f104ef42a2a89e41014de.png) [@system](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/system)\
**Post date:** [February 5, 2019, 12:37pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/url-type-format-for-file-downloading/162819/4 "2019-02-05T12:37:38Z")

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