menu linking direclty to a pdf file

First see the location of the files directory. By default, the 6.x install will make it as a subfolder of your sites directory. Thus the address would be something like the following:
sites/default/files/my.pdf

The "default" directory may be different, but chances are if you don't know, then it is that.

I've done similar things in 5.x, and am guessing about 6.x now, but this should work.

HI, I have the same problem. I want a menu link that takes me to a pdf file. The file is a /up/file.pdf. When I type in this address in the "Path" textbox and I submit it, and "?q=" is added so "?q=up/file.pdf" is not found. It seems that links are made to link to nodes only. How can I link to pdf file from a menu link?
Thanks.
- yhh -

I've managed to get this to work by using the complete URL - 'http://www.example.com/sites/default/files/my.pdf', but that is not ideal obviously. There should be a way to use a relative URL...(got the same error as mentioned above in 6.2.)

For those still having this issue there has been some discussion regarding fixes to the solution at the following:

http://drupal.org/node/308263
http://drupal.org/node/190867

An alternative solution to this problem would be to create a blank page for the link to your file (like "Read Me"), then create a page template for that fake page (page-content-read-me.tpl.php) that contains the following:

header("Location:/sites/default/files/file.pdf");

This will create the appropriate menu link and open the file you want without having to use a full url or futz with any code you may not be comfortable with. If you only have a few files to link this may be the simpler solution but if you have "3000" like that one guy said then you might want a different solution.

/**
* Returns TRUE if a path is external (e.g. http://example.com).
*/
function menu_path_is_external($path) {
if(string_begins_with($path,'sites/default')){
return true;
}
if(string_begins_with($path,'/sites/default')){
return true;
}
$colonpos = strpos($path, ':');
return $colonpos !== FALSE && !preg_match('![/?#]!', substr($path, 0, $colonpos)) && filter_xss_bad_protocol($path, FALSE) == check_plain($path);
}

function string_begins_with($string, $search)
{
return (strncmp($string, $search, strlen($search)) == 0);
}

The menu_link_save function requires that all menu links map to a router item. So my solution was to create a menu router item for the installation's files directory. This router item will never be hit if the file is found, it just allows you to create menu links for any file in your 'site/installation/files' directory. If the file is missing this will execute Drupal's default file not found handler.

Not a perfect solution but it does seem to work without hacking core.

Hope this helps.

/**
 * Implementation of hook_menu().
 */
function my_module_menu() {
  // Define a router item for the installation's files directory.
  $items[ file_directory_path() ] = array(
    'page callback' => 'drupal_not_found', 
    'access callback' => TRUE,
    'type' => MENU_CALLBACK,
  );
  return $items;
}

Dont get it... it still does not work.

I like the callback example above. This is the D7 version, for the default file schema (public:// or private://)

  // This allows menu item links directly to the file directory.
  $items[file_stream_wrapper_get_instance_by_scheme(file_default_scheme())->getDirectoryPath()] = array(
    'page callback' => 'drupal_not_found',
    'access callback' => TRUE,
    'type' => MENU_CALLBACK,
  );