Local Files report

This report provides information about any links on your website that point to files on your local server. There are two ways you can refer to a document within an HREF attribute: absolutely or relatively. An absolute link defines the location of the document, including the protocol to use to get the document, the server to get it from, the directory it is located in, and the name of the document itself. A relative link takes advantage of the fact that the server knows where the current document is.

Why it matters

There might be absolute URLs that point to files on your local server that users outside your network cannot access. These will appear as broken links to your users.

How local files are triggered

Local files are identified as having ///file in the http protocol.

Remediation and best practices for using local files

  • Verify the target is correct and URL is complete, not just the file name.
  • Use relative links instead of absolute links.

Information you should know about this report

If your site uses frames, HCL® Software Services or your Product Administrator can make the PageComponent data sets available so that you can use them to group your report results:
  • PageComponent: Useful for identifying the files that make up a web page, such as gif, js, html or frames.
  • PageComponent ID: A unique ID assigned during a scan to identify this particular component of the page. Open the About this PageComponent report to see more details about this particular PageComponent.