"open a file" hyperlink syntax, relative link

Question

Hello all,
  I regularly put reports together that consist of 1 report and many "supporting documents", all in PDF format.  Each page of the report has anywhere from 1 to 8 links on it (report comes from SQL Reporting Services).  These links point to their supporting document(s).  The report and supporting documents are burned to a CD to send out to our clients.  The report is opened in Acrobat, and when a link is clicked the supporting document is opened in a new window.
  I have tried every way I can imagine to format a link so that when the report is output to PDF the link shows up as an "open a file" link rather than a hyperlink.
  My question:  Since I know I can make an absolute URL hyperlink work correctly...and relative file links work correctly when I manually link to the files, what is the correct syntax to achieve a relative file link?
  The directory structure burned to CD:
           >CD Drive
               >Main Folder
                    >PDF Report
                    >Supporting Documents Folder
                         >Document #1
                         >Document #2
I have tried this javascript inside a SSRS expression:   (Pardon the code, I'm java-stupid)
"javascript:void(window.open('FILE:\Documents\'" & filename-parameter &"'.pdf'"
Bottom line:  I'm looking for a way to automatically link one PDF to many PDFs based on the above folder structure, given a variable that comes from SSRS.
Thanks

Answer 1

Matt,
  Well, I did end up with a not-so-elegant-but-workable solution.  Here's what makes it tick:
1.  You'll need to construct the link to the target .PDF file (probably through SSRS).  You said that you are going to burn these files to CD, right?  If so, you'll probably want to construct something like [filename + .PDF], without brackets.  If your SSRS "list of PDF files" already looks like that you're that much further ahead.
2.  You'll need to use Adobe Livecycle Designer to create a report template.  I ran one of my SSRS reports, rendered it to PDF, and then created a new form template based off that PDF in LC Designer.  If you've never worked with LC Designer, it's not too hard.  Since the layout of my reports are variable in length, I took advantage of the "positioned" and "flowed" subforms.  MAKE SURE THE LC FORM FIELD NAMES MATCH THE SSRS FIELD NAMES.  This is a bit of a pain, but once you have it working you'll be thankful. 
My links are handled with buttons in LC Designer.  First, make a textbox to contain the text of the link to the target PDF from step 1 (make this in a flowed subform). Then, make a button to go directly over the textbox, remove button's caption, set button to transparent.  THIS PART WILL TAKE SOME TWEAKING depending on how your form is setup.  Add the following to the CLICK event of your button: 
app.openDoc({cPath:xfa.resolveNode("YourReportName.ReportPage#.YourSubFormName.NumberofSub form.YourLinkText").rawValue,oDoc: this});
If you already understand how this works feel free to read past it.  The app.openDoc needs two things from you, cPath and oDoc.  cPath is the path to the target PDF.  The xfa.resolveNode("YourReportName.ReportPage#.YourSubFormName.NumberofSubform.YourLinkText" ).rawValue says the link path is the literal value of this textbox, located in this subform, on this page of this report. 
oDoc is where the relative part comes into play.  If you construct the [filename + .PDF] links as in step 1, and you set oDoc:this, clicking on the link will instruct Acrobat to open the target PDF using the cPath relative to your list o' links report.
3.  Go back to SSRS, render one of your reports as XML and save it.  This is the data that you'll import into your form template.
4.  This is where I got tripped up.  For each and every file that you want to open up from a link you will have to set its Disclosed property to True.  I accomplished this through a batch action in Acrobat.  I'm not sure what version you have, but if you're using 10 it is under File>Action Wizard>Create New Action.  These are my settings:
                Start with: A file open in Acrobat
                Under "More Tools", select "Execute JavaScript", click on "Options" and paste in this: this.addScript("This Doc is Disclosed", "this.disclosed = true;");
                Save to:  Same folder selected at start So, all you have to do when preparing your target documents is run that batch action.  Add all of your target PDFs to window that pops up and click run.  AFAIK, once you've disclosed a  PDF, you won't have to re-disclose it. 
Once you have all that setup the process to create a CD becomes fairly easy. 
1. Render XML from SSRS
2. Disclose all target PDFs
3. Import XML into the template PDF you created with LC. (actual import done via Acrobat, not LC) 4. Read the new comics on XKCD while staring intently at the screen to make the boss think you are still working diligently. 
Depending on how you want the folder structure to look like on the CD, you might have to change the way you construct your links.  I have used several methods to suit different needs, but for proof of concept, I'd probably just stick to the way I described in step 1 (resulting CD won't have a folder structure, you'll just have your "master" PDF and all of your target PDFs on the CD.  Right now I just set the target PDFs to hidden via right-click>properties before I burn them to CD.  It's lazy, but it works.) I don't know if you use an ISO program like MagicISO, or one of the others, but it will help reduce the number of ruined CDs. 
There are many places to get tripped up and I'm sure I haven't explained the process fully, so feel free to ask if you run into problems.  Also, not trying to advertise for anyone, but pdfscripting.com was a HUGE help.  Thom Parker runs it, I believe.  They sell a subscription to their website (which I would say is worth it), but they also have a ton of useful freebies. 
Anyway, I hope this can help.
Chris