View in CIFS / View in Webdav

[omegerard]

Short report of my tests with "View in CIFS" / "View in Webdav". Questions:

- has anybod seen sa similar behaviour?
- are (some of) these errors due to configuration faults?
- or is it someting else?

Alfresco server: enterprise 1.1.2
NTLM Authentication on (but similar results with NTLM off)
Testing "View in Webdav" / "View in CIFS" on W2K/WXP

A. Webbrowser:  Firefox

1. "View in Webdav": Error

12:33:37,498 ERROR [org.apache.catalina.core.ContainerBase.[Catalina].[localhost].[/alfresco].[WebDAV]] Servlet.service() for servlet WebDAV threw exceptio
n
java.lang.NullPointerException
        at org.alfresco.repo.webdav.auth.NTLMAuthenticationFilter.?(Unknown Source)
        at org.alfresco.repo.webdav.auth.NTLMAuthenticationFilter.doFilter(Unknown Source)
        at org.apache.catalina.core.ApplicationFilterChain.internalDoFilter(ApplicationFilterChain.java:202)
        at org.apache.catalina.core.ApplicationFilterChain.doFilter(ApplicationFilterChain.java:173)
        at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardWrapperValve.invoke(StandardWrapperValve.java:213)
        at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardContextValve.invoke(StandardContextValve.java:178)
        at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardHostValve.invoke(StandardHostValve.java:126)
        at org.apache.catalina.valves.ErrorReportValve.invoke(ErrorReportValve.java:105)
        at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardEngineValve.invoke(StandardEngineValve.java:107)
        at org.apache.catalina.connector.CoyoteAdapter.service(CoyoteAdapter.java:148)
        at org.apache.coyote.http11.Http11Processor.process(Http11Processor.java:856)
        at org.apache.coyote.http11.Http11Protocol$Http11ConnectionHandler.processConnection(Http11Protocol.java:744)
        at org.apache.tomcat.util.net.PoolTcpEndpoint.processSocket(PoolTcpEndpoint.java:527)
        at org.apache.tomcat.util.net.LeaderFollowerWorkerThread.runIt(LeaderFollowerWorkerThread.java:80)
        at org.apache.tomcat.util.threads.ThreadPool$ControlRunnable.run(ThreadPool.java:684)
        at java.lang.Thread.run(Unknown Source)

2. View in CIFS

If I simply click on the link ("View in CIFS") nothing happens. If I "copy the link location" and paste that link in a new Tab/Window, then it works as expected.

B. Web browser: IE

1. View in Webdav

The document opens, but in Read-Only mode. Trying the "Saving As", I learn that the system places the document in the top node of the C: drive tree, instead of the webdav location. I don't know why. In the top Word bar I spot "alfresco/webdav/path/to/document".

2. View in CIFS

Works as expected.

[gavinc]

Hi,

I'm not sure what would cause the NTLM NullPointerException to be honest, maybe Gary has some ideas?

However, i may be able to help with some of the other issues. Do you have the Alfresco Firefox extenstion installed? If not, that may be why the View in CIFS link does not work.

When opening WebDAV documents in IE the outcome is not very predictable, however, in most cases unfortunately, the documents open in read-only mode, this is one reason the link is named "View in Webdav".

If you wish to reliably edit office documents via webdav there is a configuration change you can make. In web-client-config you can change the following config:

<edit-link-type>http</edit-link-type>‍

to

<edit-link-type>webdav</edit-link-type>‍

This will change all the inline edit links in the browse screens to use some JavaScript. If the document is a recognised Office document IE will attempt to open the document using a built-in ActiveX object. This gives a much more reliable experience in that the document always opens in edit mode and not read-only mode.

Hope this helps.

[omegerard]

Hi,

Thanks for your reply.

As for the Firefox extension, no I hadn't and I should have known. Sorry.

Having said that, I'm afraid I have to report that Firefox downloads the file into the same Temp directory that IE does.

I had already adapted the web-client-config file. I just reported the "View" problems to be make it clear to everyone (also to those that are not aware of the <edit-link-type> feature.

Am I the only one with these kinds of problems? Anyone out there willing to execute the test scenario I described in my original post?

Regards

Ludo

[omegerard]

Preliminary: my configuration

[alfresco@pc2373 alfresco]$ pwd
/home/alfresco/alfresco-1.1.2/tomcat/webapps/alfresco/WEB-INF/classes/alfresco
[alfresco@pc2373 alfresco]$ grep -i webdav web-client-config.xml
         <!– can be: http|webdav|cifs –>
         <edit-link-type>webdav</edit-link-type>
[alfresco@pc2373 alfresco]$

Let me report the behaviour of IE again.

When I click on the document in the web interface, Word is fired up with the correct document name, but located at the Temp directory in the "Local Settings" directory. I can overwrite it directly.

When I click on "View in Webdav", Word opens in read-only mode in the same directory, but the name of the document is: alfresco/webdav/path/to/document.

[paulhh]

One of the other settings that might be useful to know is changing Word's default behaviour of opening in the browser.   You need to change a setting on the file association for .doc:
- Windows Explorer > Tools > Folder Options
- File Types tab
- Select DOC from registered file type
- Click Advanced button
- Uncheck 'Browse in same window'

Cheers
Paul.

[aznk]

Hi,
I also tried to modify this behavior for IE by putting webdav :

<config>
      <client>

         <edit-link-type>webdav</edit-link-type>
      </client>
   </config>
‍‍‍‍‍‍‍

I tried modifying the web-client-config-custom.xml and  web-client-config.xml
I also tried to modify the doc behavior in the folder options, but nothings changes, the word document always open on my local disk.
I'm using alfresco 1.4, Windows XP and IE 7.
It used to work before, but since I reinstalled it doesn't work anymore.
Note : it doesn't work in alfresco 2.0 preview.
Any ideas ?

[gavinc]

I have just tried this on the latest code for 2.0 with Windows XP and IE7 and the Word document opens fine i.e. i can save directly back to the webdav server.

For this to work the machine needs to have the "SharePoint.OpenDocuments.1" ActiveX present and accessible, could it be your browser security settings preventing it?

The code to open the office docs is in /scripts/webdav.js, you could also try puttting some debugging code in there to see what's going on.

[aznk]

Hi,
Thanks for your answer. I tried to change the browser settings to enable activeX and scripts but it doesn't change anything. BTW, what is "SharePoint.OpenDocuments.1"  ? Could it be downloaded somewhere ?
And how do we debug the code ?

[gavinc]

"SharePoint.OpenDocuments.1" is an ActiveX object that is installed by MS Office, it is the use of this object that ensures that Word (or other office apps) load the document via WebDAV.

By debugging I mean adding alerts to webdav.js or the Microsoft Script debugger.