Placing Bluebeam Hyperlink Into Smartsheet

Matt RobertP

Hello,

I want to place a Bluebeam hyperlink into Smartsheet so that if a user clicks on a construction job title it takes them to the job in Bluebeam Studio.

I am able to create a file path hyperlink in Bluebeam by going to the pdf in Bluebeam>Right Clicking>Properties>then copying the Project Path. I know the link works because if I paste the link into Chrome it asks me if I want to open the file in Bluebeam. I then click open in Revu and it does indeed take me to the file I want to go to.

In Smartsheet I right click the cell I want the Hyperlink in>click hyperlink>paste the file path in "link to URL">hit ok. Smartsheet then says "invalid url". I'm guessing that Smartsheet needs to know to use a web browser so I need to modify the beginning of the path with something to indicate Smartsheet to use a web browser?

studio://studio.bluebeam.com/****

Above is the path that Bluebeam generates but I left out the rest of the path for security purposes and placed asterisks as an example. The asterisks are not in the actual path.

Thanks in advance for any help!

Bassam Khalil

Hi @Matt RobertP,

The issue you're encountering with Smartsheet not accepting the Bluebeam hyperlink stems from the fact that Smartsheet expects hyperlinks to follow the standard web protocols (http, https). The studio:// protocol provided by Bluebeam is not recognized by Smartsheet as a valid URL protocol, which is why you receive the "invalid url" message.

However, there's a workaround to achieve your objective by using a web redirect. The idea is to create a web page or a web redirect that takes the user from the Smartsheet hyperlink click to opening the desired file in Bluebeam through the browser. Here's a step-by-step guide:

1. Create a Web Redirect:
   • You'll need a web server or a platform where you can upload or configure a simple HTML or PHP page that performs a redirect.
   • The page would contain code that redirects from the HTTP/HTTPS protocol to the studio:// protocol. For HTML, you might use a meta refresh tag, or for PHP, you could use the header() function for redirection.
2. Example of PHP Redirect:

<?php
// Redirect to the Bluebeam Studio path
header('Location: studio://studio.bluebeam.com/****');
exit;
?>

1. Replace the **** with your actual path. This script will redirect anyone accessing the page to your Bluebeam Studio path.
2. Host the Redirect Page:
   • Upload this page to your web server or any hosting service you have access to. Ensure the page is accessible via a standard http:// or https:// URL.
3. Link to the Redirect Page from Smartsheet:
   • In Smartsheet, instead of pasting the studio:// URL, you paste the URL of the redirect page you've created and hosted.
   • When users click the link in Smartsheet, they will first go to the redirect page, which will then automatically redirect them to the Bluebeam file using the studio:// protocol.

Remember to ensure that any user who needs to use this link has Bluebeam Studio installed and configured correctly on their device, as the redirect will attempt to open the application.

This method requires a bit of setup, including having a place to host the redirect page, but it's a viable workaround for integrating custom protocol links into Smartsheet.