AOS - Edit in MS Office is failing

[rmeske]

Hello,

I have setup the new Alfresco Office Connector in Alfresco 5.1 and am having a an issue with using the Edit in Microsoft Office link.  When using the link the Office application opens and then gives an error that the document is not valid.  However, if I open the aos folder directly within word I can browse to the file and open it.

I did not find anything in the documentation that indicates I missed a configuration setting.  And the forums don't seem to address the new 5.1 version with the Office Connector.

Any hints as to where to look for this issue?

Thanks,
Ron

[rmeske]

Just wanted to clarify what is happening.  In Word 2013 I can open web location and enter https://mydomain/alfresco/aos/ and it will give me a pop-up to sign in and then I can browse the folder structure and open a document, edit and save.  It does create a new version of the document.

What is not happening is navigating to a document within a site and click the "Edit in Microsoft Office" and have it open in Word.  I receive the error "We can't connect to 'http://mydomain:8080/alfresco/aos/swsdp/...documentname'. Please make sure you're using the correct web address."

The only difference I see in the path is when open directly from with Word I am using https and leaving off the 8080. 

Is there a configuration file for AOS that I can edit to correct the URL path it is using?

Ron

Edit: I have not been able to resolve this and am stumped.  Is this possibly related to not having setup an SSL certificate?  It looks like I need to setup a Proxy Server?

[eswbitto]

When using port 8080 it isn't using an SSL. You might have to change your registry settings in windows to allow for the non SSL connection.

To be quite honest…You should probably set one up anyway to from a security standpoint. Myself and other's have outlined instructions on setting up a proxy server (apache) and using that. Just do a search.

[rmeske]

Hello ESWBitto,

Thank you for the reply.  I have been searching for directions on how to setup Apache as a reverse proxy for share, but the instructions I have found in the forums are for Alfresco 4.x and I am running 5.1.

I found your post (https://forums.alfresco.com/comment/145306#comment-145306) and noticed that they were written for Alfresco v4.2.x.  Have you had a chance yet to upgrade to 5.1? 

Also I noticed that the Jetty developers are recommending to not use AJP anymore and instead use mod_proxy plugin instead. (https://wiki.eclipse.org/Jetty/Howto/Configure_AJP13)  Will this work with Alfresco?

[eswbitto]

I haven't been able to test using the apache as a proxy on 5.1 as of yet. We're actually going to HA proxy so that will be something totally different. However, I have played around with 5.1 and upgrading and so far everything has been normal. I haven't read anything on the Jetty devs saying to not use AJP. Really the only reason you need the connector is so that the alfresco tomcat will actually talk with apache. (Note: the connection between these two will not be SSL) Which is fine if you have both of them on the same server.

You could try with the mod_proxy plugin, but I wouldn't know how to configure it. The reverse proxy part in apache is pretty easy to configure.

[rmeske]

I have it mostly working.

What I did:
<ol><li>Added a SSL certificate.</li>
<li>Editted the file apache-tomcat/shared/classes/alfresco-global.properties and changed the following values:</li>

alfresco.port=443
alfresco.protocol=https
share.port=443
share.protocol=https
‍‍‍‍‍‍

</ol>

I can now open documents in MS Office using the link in Alfresco called "Edit in Microsoft Office" and save back to the server and it generates a new version.

What isn't working, and perhaps this is intentional, when the file is opened in office it is prompting for login information.  Is this to be expected?

[eswbitto]

Yes,

That is expected because either avenue you take you will need to authenticate with alfresco.

[alexbromo]

Yes it is expected.
It is a MS Office auth funcion to enforce security, if you try to open a file on an IIS WebDav server witj integrated authentication it will prompt for credential also.
The trick is to leave Office (Word, Excel, etc …) opened after first file, then it will not ask for credentials anymore.

ALex.