Security error while loading pdf file in jsp in firefox?

Question

When i type in the following link manually in firefox as " file://///172.16.2.1/copyediting/ELS/mallet.pdf", pdf file is loaded successfully in the firefox browser. PDF file is located in remote server which is referred by IP 172.16.2.1.
I've assigned the Same link in a String in jsp page and tested it through my tomcat application as
<%
String linktotest="file://///172.16.2.1/copyediting/ELS/mallet.pdf";
%>
<a href="<%=linktotest%>">link</a>
when i click on the hyperlink , the pdf is not loaded in firefox and i'm getting the following error in firefox error console
Security Error: Content at http://172.16.3.222:8080/FMS/source/journal/ProductionEntry.jsp may not load or link to file://///172.16.2.1/copyediting/ELS/mallet.pdf
can any one please give me the solution.

Answer 1

Links and forms in HTML should point to public URL´s (with http:// or https:// protocol), not to the file system (with file://).
If those files are not public accessible by URL, then you need to create a servlet which does the file streaming task. This example may be useful then: [http://balusc.blogspot.com/2007/07/fileservlet.html].