# Starting an exe from within the browser

**URL:** <https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/starting-an-exe-from-within-the-browser/128037>\
**Category:** Rails\
**Created:** [February 4, 2008, 3:04pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/starting-an-exe-from-within-the-browser/128037 "2008-02-04T15:04:19Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![wlodarczak](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/w/3be4f8/32.png) [@wlodarczak](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/wlodarczak)\
**Post date:** [February 4, 2008, 3:04pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/starting-an-exe-from-within-the-browser/128037/1 "2008-02-04T15:04:19Z")

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All,  
I’m writing a Rails based app. I’m still on Rails version 1.2.2. I  
need to start an external app from within the browser, only IE and  
pass an argument to it. The only way I found was using ActiveX.

and then call it with

onClick="OpenFile(‘C:\projects\some.exe c:\projects  
\someinputfile.rpt’)

This works if I just use a regular HTML file and call it. In Rails for  
testing I call it like this:

some content

The function gets called but the ActiveXObject never gets created.  
Any ideas?  
Regards  
Peter

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**Author:** ![wlodarczak](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/w/3be4f8/32.png) [@wlodarczak](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/wlodarczak)\
**Post date:** [February 4, 2008, 3:17pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/starting-an-exe-from-within-the-browser/128037/2 "2008-02-04T15:17:15Z")

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On 4 Feb 2008, at 14:03, wlodarczak wrote:

> The function gets called but the ActiveXObject never gets created.  
> Any ideas?  
> By regular html file i assume you mean that you just pasted that into  
> a .html and opened it. That almost certainly means that different  
> security settings are used from the rails app (since that is bytes  
> arriving over the network (albeit from the same machine))

Fred

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**Author:** ![wlodarczak](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/w/3be4f8/32.png) [@wlodarczak](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/wlodarczak)\
**Post date:** [February 4, 2008, 5:47pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/starting-an-exe-from-within-the-browser/128037/3 "2008-02-04T17:47:02Z")

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Thank you for the quick reply, lowering the security did the trick.  
Peter

On Feb 4, 3:16 pm, Frederick C. [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid)