1. rrrebo's Avatar
    Yes, you, too, can run your very own personal web site on your BlackBerry's Media Card! You can also create your own custom home page with links to your favorite sites! Works on both OS 5 and BB 6.

    This has been asked and answered a few times, both here and on a few other forums, so I cannot take credit for discovering it. I thought it would make a good How-To, so I'm merely organizing the fruits of others' labor. Please feel free to add info, correct me, or mock me as you see fit.

    It is possible to open HTML files stored on your Media Card. Links are clickable both in the basic file viewer and the BlackBerry Browser, and you can link to other HTML files on your Media Card, as well. Follow these instructions, and you'll be surfing your own Locals Only secret spot in no time!

    1. Create your desired folder structure on your Media Card.
    • Open Media.
    • Hit Menu>Explore.
    • Navigate to /MediaCard/BlackBerry. Here you can create new folders or open the default folders to create sub-directories.
    • To create a new folder, hit Menu>New Folder.

    2. Transfer the HTML files to your Media Card by drag and drop, or by e-mailing them to yourself and downloading the attachments. If you e-mail them, make sure you save them to the correct folder, or move them to it once they are saved. *Note: So far it does not seem possible to edit the files on your BB, so make sure they are right before you transfer them.

    3. Bookmark the file in your BlackBerry Browser.
    • Open your BlackBerry Browser.
    • Hit "g" to open the GoTo page (or use the Menu Key).
    • Delete the default "http://www." and enter the correct, complete path to your HTML file in the following format:

    file:///SDCard/BlackBerry/documents/yourfile.html

    • Please note: "SDCard" is the exact syntax, not a variable!
    • Hit the enter key or click the trackball.
    • Hit "a" on your keyboard to Add Bookmark (or use the Menu key). Edit the name if you wish, then click Add.

    If you use the Explore method to navigate to your file, it will open in the basic file viewer. Links are still clickable, but first you will get a menu, from which you must choose "Get link." The only way to open the files using the BB Browser is to use the method described above in Step 3.

    I haven't tried using relative links to other files in the same directory, but I was able to create 2 HTML pages that link to each other using the full file path syntax above.

    Thanks to MrAnalogy for asking the question. He wasn't the first, but he was the one I saw and responded to.

    I'd like to hear what kind of sites and site structures people use this for. Enjoy, and happy surfing, you crazy kids! If you like, nominate this for sticky or FAQ status and use the THANKS button.
    Last edited by rrrebo; 06-01-11 at 01:52 PM.
    telserv_ca likes this.
    01-05-09 07:49 PM
  2. Blacklatino's Avatar
    Thanks. Definite....Sticky!
    01-05-09 08:02 PM
  3. rrrebo's Avatar
    Mods, can you please add "Make your own home page!" to the subject? This file can be set as your home page, so you can add all your favorite links!

    Posted from my CrackBerry at wapforums.crackberry.com
    01-05-09 08:30 PM
  4. rrrebo's Avatar
    Thanks, bl!

    Posted from my CrackBerry at wapforums.crackberry.com
    01-05-09 08:31 PM
  5. Doug7743's Avatar
    I've tried to get this to work on my BlackBerry Storm, but I'm having problems. First, it appears the Storm calls the SDCard as "Media Card", with the space between the two words. Since you can't have a space in an HTML path, I've tried to substitute %20 for the space as well as tried without a space between the two words, but it doesn't recognize the path. Has anyone else been able to get this to work?
    01-21-09 07:54 AM
  6. rrrebo's Avatar
    It may say Media Card when you are browsing the directory, but the actual file protocol path should still be 'SDCard,' unless they have changed that in the 4.7 OS. Can any other Storm users out there confirm?

    When you say "having problems," what exactly is happening when you try to enter the file path into your browser? What error message do you get? Walk me through the process step by step.
    01-21-09 08:58 AM
  7. cdf3's Avatar
    Thanks for the tip. I will try it out later today. I was wondering how to open html files that were on my SDcard. I tried this a while back and could never get it to work. Thanks once again.
    01-21-09 02:49 PM
  8. Doug7743's Avatar
    My mistake. I've been using the Desktop Media Manager to copy my html files to the Storm, but there are hundreds of them and evidently they aren't all being copied. The files I was trying to reference from the browser were ones not being copied. As a result, I was getting the message: "A problem occurred while trying to render the page" with an OK button.

    I'm now copying my html files using Windows File Manager directly, and this is working cleanly. Thanks! This opens up a lot of uses for me.
    01-22-09 10:13 PM
  9. rrrebo's Avatar
    Here's another helpful tip: ignore Media Manager completely.

    Glad to know this method works on the Storm, too! Thanks.
    01-23-09 01:28 PM
  10. Sharke's Avatar
    Can anyone tell me how to do this for files stored in "Device Memory"? I cannot type that folder name in the browser navigation bar because I am not allowed to type a space.
    05-21-09 12:45 AM
  11. Sharke's Avatar
    Ha! Problem solved. I installed the desktop & Blackberry versions of Mobipocket Reader and it's converted the HTML files to ebooks and I can read them far more conveniently than I ever could with the view-only mode of the browser. For instance, when you view files in the BB read-only browser, it won't let you scroll down using the space bar or any other way except using the trackball. If you leave the browser and come back, it resets you back to the start of the page. If you're viewing a very long page it's a real pain to have to scroll all the way down again. With Mobipocket Reader you can scroll down very fast page by page and it saves where you were. What an absolutely fantastic program, by far the best app I've installed on my Bold yet!
    05-21-09 01:18 AM
  12. Spenci-Wan's Avatar
    You can download BBNotepad! You can edit the html right on the phone, but with one problem. You see, it doesn't save as pure text, it uses a cariage return. So it creates a wierd symbol after saving it. If you don't want it, I am currently looking for another text editor that does pure text, just get back to me.
    05-21-09 06:20 PM
  13. FF22's Avatar
    I know this is an older thread but since it was just referenced in a Playbook thread, I thought that I would add an answer to Sharke's question about the internal storage.

    The reference for the BB's browser is:

    file:///store/home/user/documents/BlackBerry.html
    06-01-11 06:47 PM
LINK TO POST COPIED TO CLIPBOARD