Access local filesystem on my own computer in a resource?

Make sure that the service user that is running the FME Server services can access all resources. Be aware that the default local system account can only access local files, not network drives.

See https://docs.safe.com/fme/html/FME_Server_Documentation/AdminGuide/Running_FME_Server_Engines_Under_Different_Account.htm

Thank you david_r for the answer.

We already had a service account, and the IT department has now given the account all permissions, but we still can't choose our local drives as the destination place to download to. What do we need to do more? Under Resources there's only paths to FME Server directories. If I should create a new resource that can access local computers drives, how do I do that?

Have a look at this section of the documentation: https://docs.safe.com/fme/html/FME_Server_Documentation/WebUI/Manage_Resource_Connections.htm

If you want to create a resource connection to e.g. "F:\\my_folder", then create a network resource pointing to the UNC path "\\\\localhost\\f$\\my_folder"

I've already tried that. I can't retry right now, but what happened was that localhost points to the FME Server itself, not the users local file system. I want the FME Server app to send a created file to the chosen users local filedrive/directory. Is that even possible?

Hi @jarfallakartgis​ ,

From my understanding, this is not possible. It poses a security risk to be able to access the end user's local file system. With the FME Data Download service, it'll return a downloadable zip file URL for the user to download to their downloads folder. With the FME Data Streaming service, the output will be directly sent to the user's downloads folder or streamed back to the user in the web browser depending on the output format.

I found these 2 resources that provide more detail on the security issue.

• https://stackoverflow.com/questions/34870711/download-a-file-at-different-location-using-html5
• https://www.outsystems.com/forums/discussion/76807/download-a-file-and-store-in-specific-file-path/

Hope this helps,

Kezia

Hi @keziaatsafe!

I was afraid of this. Fortunately, thera are just a few who should use this backup-routine, so I guess I can use the Data Download service and tell the users to change the webbrowser setting to choose file location instead of downloading to the default download location.

Thank you for the answer!