# Ignition Webdev Connect to Network Drive

**URL:** <https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/t/ignition-webdev-connect-to-network-drive/66869>\
**Category:** Ignition\
**Tags:** perspective\
**Created:** [November 23, 2022, 6:59pm UTC](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/t/ignition-webdev-connect-to-network-drive/66869 "2022-11-23T18:59:52Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Noah\_Casey](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/e480ec/32.png) [@Noah\_Casey](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/u/Noah_Casey)\
**Post date:** [November 23, 2022, 6:59pm UTC](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/t/ignition-webdev-connect-to-network-drive/66869/1 "2022-11-23T18:59:52Z")

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Hey everyone or anyone who can help I'm trying to use the Web Dev feature to connect to a network drive. then from this Network drive I want to be able to open a PDF in perspective PDF Viewer.

On the server Ignition is running on this machine has access to the network folder (V: Drive):

 ![image](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/inductiveautomation/original/3X/2/6/266975535827c0017017d62f55eb4eba883d1a67.png)  
I have put the file path in the WebDev area:  
 ![image](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/inductiveautomation/original/3X/a/4/a483c121ae6ef171317556c2184050cab31bb103.png)

When I try to open the PDF and set the source as the correct link + PDF name it does not load the PDF:

 ![image](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/inductiveautomation/original/3X/7/5/75766eed40f1e2fcf98c5ca583a4dfca13c2d444.png)

also when I try to go to the WebDev through a browser it appears as this:

 ![image](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/inductiveautomation/original/3X/8/7/87068e03d5e64ff31dfdcc6769011a36d8d8a983.png)

Any help would be greatly appreciated I'm running on version **8.0.17**

Thanks!

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![pturmel](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/inductiveautomation/user_avatar/forum.inductiveautomation.com/pturmel/32/3295_2.png) [@pturmel](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/u/pturmel)\
**Post date:** [November 23, 2022, 7:42pm UTC](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/t/ignition-webdev-connect-to-network-drive/66869/2 "2022-11-23T19:42:19Z")

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The gateway runs as a service, isolated from the desktop of the server. Showing a screenshot of the server's mapped drives just says that the user logged into the server can do so. The gateway **service** needs to map the drive itself, since it is independent. This is documented:

[https://docs.inductiveautomation.com/display/DOC81/Mapping+a+Network+Drive](https://docs.inductiveautomation.com/display/DOC81/Mapping+a+Network+Drive)

Note that you will need to restart your gateway to make these changes take effect, and you will have future problems if the network share is ever **not** working when the gateway restarts.

Consider using a reverse proxy in front of Ignition to present multiple resources as one, or use an API to the other server from within WebDev to retrieve the file. (Instead of network file access.)