Support has verified the WebDAV Launcher bug here: https://jira.atlassian.com/browse/CONFSERVER-53722. Please add your votes and comments if you are experiencing the same or similar problem.

ak70, can you please help me by troubleshooting this issue with our support team? They will be able to raise a new bug report if they believe it to be an issue with the extension. To contact support, please visit https://support.atlassian.com/contact.

Hey Alex,

the problem still exists, even if I configure Firefox to open MS Office documents automatically (as descriped by Sebastian Arndt). The only solution is to remove the path inside the WebDAV-extension. But thats not a workaround, because I have to do it every time.

For me it looks like an issue with your WebDAV-ff-extension. Please provide me with information where to post this issue or transform my comment into a new issue by yourself).

Thank you!

Same Problem here!

Initial editing is working, however subsequent edits are not. Firefox shows that it can't recognize the url 'ms-word:ofe|u|<url_of_confluence>'.

The workaround suggested in the issue description is working - but only once. After that, the error will display again and I have to delete the application path inside the WebDAVLauncher-extension to make it work again.

This issue is not resolved imo!

My environment:

Confluence server 6.4.0

Firefox 52.4.0 ESR (running on Windows 2012 R2)

WebDAVLauncher 1.1.3

Office 2010 (no Office / Sharepoint 2013 components installed)

I have the problem with Confluence 6.0.3 and Firefox 53.0. When i open an excel file, the browser asks me to install the WebDAV Launcher (v. 1.1.3) and its opened in excel. But when i try it a second time, i got the errormessage, that the adress is not recognized (ms-excel:ofe|u|...).

I have installed Office 2007 SP3 but NO Office 2013 products.

Anyone have an idea, what to do?

OK, solved my problem. I think following Screenshot should explain the solution (set ms-excel to Open with MS Office 2010).

Hi there,

I'm running into this same problem now on Confluence 5.10.8. 

Windows 7 SP1

Office 2010 SP2 (no Office 2013 products installed!)

WebDAV Launcher 1.1.3 + FF 45.8.0 ESR.

Edit in Office works fine with pptx and docx Files. Excel Files do not work.

Cheers,

Sebastian

Hi daniel.krueger,

Thanks for contacting us.

Could you please attach the unexpected result you mentioned?

Could you please let us know whether you have Office 2010 SP2 installed? If not, I would suggest you to install the Office 2010 SP2 first, which could resolve the URL like "ms-excel:ofe".

Regards,

Feng

I'm running into this same problem now on Confluence 5.10. We have Confluence 5.8 in production and Firefox and WebDAV work as expected, no issues. However on our development server Confluence 5.10 when I try to "Edit in Office" I seen unexpected results. I see that the URL has been modified to include "ms-excel:ofe|u|" and no longer asks for permission to open the file with Excel.
What can I do to get this working again for Confluence 5.10?

Confluence 5.10
Office 2010
Firefox 48.0.2

@Jarno: As I said in my first post, this has been a good workaround for us but I cannot guarantee it will work for anyone else. I strongly suggest you test it out in a test environment first, to be sure.

I will copy/paste the steps that Atlassian Support has given me to do so.

" I'll try to explain as clearly as possible the necessary steps you have to perform. However, please notice that any action should, ideally, be performed in a staging environment before you attempt any changes in productive environments. There is no way to guarantee this is a flawless process, since I'm doing it in a brand new, blank install and you are doing it in a more complex system.

1. Stop Confluence
2. Remove the OfficeConnector-3.4.17.jar file for your current Office Connector, located in confluence-install/confluence/WEB-INF/atlassian-bundled-plugins
3. Start Confluence
4. Click on the cog icon and choose Add-ons
5. Click on Upload add-on
6. Choose the OfficeConnector-3.4.13.jar file, located in the confluence/WEB-INF/atlassian-bundled-plugins path for your standalone download of Confluence 5.9.4"

One thing to note, is that instead of completely removing the 3.4.17 Office Connector Plugin (as mentioned in Step 2), I simply moved it to another directory for safekeeping, if I wanted to reinstall it at a later date. Once the 3.4.13 plugin is installed, you will be able to see it under "User Installed Add-ons" rather than "System Add-ons" of the Manage Add-ons interface administration panel.
I will stress one last time to try this workaround in a test environment first to familiarize yourself with the process, and make sure it can actually be used as a workaround in your use case.

@Kevin: How did you downgrade that bundled plugin? As it's older than currently installed UPM didn't allow to do that. Should I clear caches, remove something from installation directory or even modify MySQL database? What ever is needed for Confluence server is much easier than try to get hundreds of computers to be updated to Office SP2 (which needs to be tested very carefully before installation).

If that works as Kevin told, seems that older Office Connector was good and shouldn't be updated as newest version seems to be not compatible with rest of the world (like earlier version was).

@Ben I downloaded it from the Confluence Archives.
https://www.atlassian.com/software/confluence/download-archives
I downloaded Confluence 5.9.4, then extracted the files and used the .jar for Office Connector 3.4.13 located in /confluence/WEB-INF/atlassian-bundled-plugins.

@Kevin can you post where you downloaded Office Connector 3.4.13 version from.

Hi,
Sorry if I forgot to mention. We are already running Confluence 5.9.7 and the previously mentioned issue and symptoms were still happening to us. We were told byt Atlassian Support to downgrade to the Office Connector plugin which is bundled with Confluence 5.9.4.
At the moment, with the old Office Connector plugin (version 3.4.13), we are now able to edit documents in Office as it should. I simply passed by to mention the workaround I was suggested to use, as well as possibly helping in figuring out the source of the problem for future releases.

admins20 The bug is released with confluence 5.9.7, please upgrade your Confluence to have the fix

Hi,
We had the same problem that was mentioned previously. Users could not use Edit in Office, and received the "Address wasn't understood" error message when they tried to use it in Firefox (45.0.1). As noted, if they re-installed the WebDAV plugin completely, they were able to use the feature once per extension, but not for subsequent uses. Only Office 2010 was installed, no Lync or any other Office versions.

We contacted the Atlassian support and after some debugging, the support representative suggested we tried manually installing an older version of the Office Connector plugin on our Confluence installation. We tried installing Office Connector 3.4.13 which was bundled with Confluence 5.9.4 instead of Office Connector 3.4.17, and we were able to start using Edit in Office once again without any problem.

I cannot be sure this can be a usable workaround for anyone else, but we had the same symptoms people have reported here. It would seem the problem was originating from the Office Connector plugin bundled with the version of Confluence we were running.

jarno.ahola3 I am afraid that we don't have much information besides above link
Could you try to test the your instance with Edit In Office feature in an environment without Lync installation?

Is that happening also with Lync 2010? In that article only Lync 2013 (which we don't have) is mentioned? I'm afraid we don't have SP2 installed and we have hundreds of workstations...

jarno.ahola3 please refer the above comment from Feng
There is a known issue (please refer to https://community.office365.com/en-us/f/154/t/167807) that Lync could override some contents or files which are used to resolve the protocol, such as ms-excel and ms-word. As a result, we believe this is an environment error.

We have Lync 2010. Office 2010 is the only Office version we use.

Minh Tran,

I work with Susan Parker (who has commented above) and I am experiencing the same issue as she describes. I am willing to troubleshoot / screen share with you or another tech support agent in hopes of resolving this issue for both of us, including other colleagues of ours.

Thank you in advance for your response!

Jason Burke

Hi jarno.ahola3,

Could you please let us know whether Microsoft Lync is installed on the user's computer? There is a known issue (please refer to https://community.office365.com/en-us/f/154/t/167807) that Lync could override some contents or files which are used to resolve the protocol, such as ms-excel and ms-word.

Regards,

Feng

We have Office 365 installed and the users are having the same issue. It is also happening on both MAC and PC's.

I tried it in a new system with Firefox. The first time I attempted to edit in office firefox prompted me to install WebDev Plugin which I did. Then when I tried to Edit in Office and I got the following prompt:

I pressed OK and Word opend up and gave me the following error:

I exited word and reloaded the page in confluence and clicked the "Edit in Office" link again and now I get the following error:

Hi jarno.ahola3,

Thank you very much for the prompt response.

As per the version info, I can see the Office 2010 SP2 is installed at your site, which should be able to resolve the address or the protocol of Office URI (currently used by Confluence. Please refer to https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/office/dn906146.aspx for the protocol details). I'll update you on this ticket as soon as I finish with the investigation with Office 2010.

Could you please let me know whether you have any Office 2013 or later installed at your site? If yes, do these users have the same issue?

Regards,

Feng

When trying this first (WebDAV empty) time it asks:

If I press OK file will open (and WebDAV setting is set). (If I cancel WebDAV setting is set too.)

Next time:

Clearing WebDAV setting -> you can open file once.

• Confluence: 5.9.8.
• Firefox: 46.0.1 (same happened with earlier version too)
• MS Office Professional Plus 2010 (14.0.7128.5000 32-bit)
• WebDAV:

• Everyone (except IE users) are affected

Dear customer,

Thanks for your patience. If you still experience this issue after upgrading to 5.9.8 or later version, could you please provide the following information?

• Confluence version
• Firefox version
• MS Office version
• the WebDAV Launcher configuration, the mapping from ext to the application path
• do all users experience the same error?

Much appreciated if you could provide some snapshots as well.

Regards,

Feng Xu
Senior Developer, Confluence
Atlassian

I am running Confluence 5.9.6 and getting this error in Safari and Chrome. In Firefox nothing happens when I click "Edit in Office".

5.9.8 as well, locally managed and receiving the same error.

FWIW I was directed here by a support technician:
https://confluence.atlassian.com/doc/install-the-firefox-add-on-for-the-office-connector-170494211.html#InstalltheFirefoxAdd-OnfortheOfficeConnector-InstallingtheFirefoxAdd-On
Of course you will not be able to carry out step 1... "Choose Edit in Office or Edit Document next to the document you wish to edit.You'll see a prompt to download the add-on." So start by Googling for the Add on and to to Firefox page for downloading it. I then carried out Step 2 and got to Step 3, and paths and file extensions were already there. And the edit link still does not work (get same error). The technician's next step is to do a screen share, but I haven't had time for that. Hoping to see what he can accomplish the next time I have a free moment. Nevertheless, this is not process I want to ask all my users to go through. The add-on used to "just work" without these interventions. It does now seem to work in IE - but that's not a great solution for us.

As stated originally, I am on the Cloud version. I assume that is always the latest version.

We have 5.9.9 and getting same error message than Susan.

We have 5.9.8 and getting same error message than Susan.

Dear sparker-laddawn,

This bug is fixed with 5.9.7
Would you please let me know what affect version of Confluence that you met this issue?

Thanks,
Minh Tran
Confluence BugMaster
Atlassian

I suggest opening a support ticket. In their minds it is resolved - and pleas here are going unanswered. I am working with a support tech, but haven't had time to do some of the troubleshooting steps yet. I will report back if it is resolved for me.

We are currently experiencing exactly what Matthias has described. Is there any further update on this issue which is clearly not resolved?

Atlassian, considering the problems people are still having, why is this "resolved"? When will it be fixed? Upon seeing Matthias's comment, I tested again, and now when I click the edit link, nothing happens. (I conducted my test on a new page, with new attachments - one Word, one Excel.)

The bug still exists for us. We are running Confluence 5.9.9 Server and WebDAV Launcher 1.1.0.
After clicking the "Edit in Office button" in Firefox 46.0 we are getting the error message "the address wasn't understood" as Susan mentioned.

I can confirm, that if we trying to Edit in Office first time (after clearing path from WebDAV add-on) it works. But not the second time..
The URL is as follows:
ms-word:ofe|u|http://example.de/plugins/servlet/confluence/editinword/23265282/attachments/ocauth/8a7daa73-a2f9-4e7f-9523-c43e74b520bc/test.docx

Has anyone else experienced this issue in the newest standalone Confluence Version?
Our company with a 2000 confluence server license uses this feature very often. It would be very great and helpful, if the bug could be fixed.
Many thanks in advance.

Upgraded standalone Confluence 5.9.5 -> 5.9.8 and getting the same error message than Susan above. Address is:

ms-excel:ofe|u|http://x.y.z.com/conflu/plugins/servlet/confluence/editinword/23592964/attachments/ocauth/x-y-z-a-bcdef/dummy.xlsx

When trying to Edit in Office first time (or after clearing path from WebDAV add-on) Excel is opened but it doesn't allow viewing/editing as my test server doesn't use SSL at the moment.

Doesn't seem to be totally fine yet.

Atlassian - any updates on when your fix will be rolled? I have many users who depend on this feature.

Still not working for me (cloud, FF 44.0.2). When is the fix slated to be "merged"?

This seems to work again for cloud users. Tried it this morning with Firefox 44.0.2. Thanks.

I am Confluence Cloud user. Am getting this error in Firefox, right after updating to 44.0.2. FWIW, the error msg is not as prescriptive for me as other commenters have stated, no mention of configuring the office connector plug in per se:

In FF v44
1) Click on Edit in Office button for any document, and the pop up displays "Please configure the Office Connector plugin to allow authentication tokens in the URL path"

2) I have Admin access but am physically blocked from configuring the Office Connector – I get message “You are not permitted to perform this operation.”
Additionally – I can see that 44 of 45 modules are enabled. Most likely the token in the URL path is already enabled. However, I cannot see what is enabled/disabled. Additionally – I can see that 44 of 45 modules are enabled. Most likely the token in the URL path is already enabled. However, I cannot see what is enabled/disabled.

I retried in IE11 today and it seems to be working for me now.

Just tested Windows 10, all browsers are giving the same error message regarding authentication token in the URL path.

As a cloud user that experienced this problem, I would like to add that we experienced this issue across all browsers; Firefox, Chrome, and IE. Also with Office 2010, Office 2013, and Office 365, using not just MS Word, but Excel as well. Prior to the AM of 2/9/2016 we were able to edit Office documents fine. Then the morning of 2/9/2016 we got the above mentioned pop-up and could no longer edit Office documents. We had to notify support because we are not able to modify the Office Connector settings ourselves as a Cloud customer.

Indeed you're right Wilfred. Reopening.

We'll be getting a fix out for this as soon as possible.

Regards,
Jonah Turnquist
Software Engineer, Confluence
Atlassian

This is still a bug for cloud instance users, though. Cloud instances are administered by Atlassian sysadmins, and the option is already enabled, based upon my communication with Atlassian support. Also, apparently this bug is only true for the most recent version of Firefox and Microsoft Word 2013. I was able to do Edit In Office with Firefox 44.0.1 and Word 2010 without any problem.

Resolving as not a bug.

The message is not an error message, rather an instruction for the user to follow to correctly configure the plugin.

The https://jira.atlassian.com/browse/CONF-25594 on Office Connector includes the following features:

• When the Microsoft Office is installed on Mac OS, the customer can edit the document with Firefox (WebDAV Launcher 1.1.0 installed) or Safari. However, the customer needs to configure the Office Connector plugin to enable the option - "Allow authentication tokens in the URL path", which is the intention of that message.
• On Windows platform, the customer is able to edit the document with IE. For other browsers including Edge/Firefox/Chrome, the "Allow authentication tokens in the URL path" should be enabled as well.

In short, the admin of the customer can solve this issue by following "Configuration --> Office Connector", then selecting the authentication option.

Regards,
Jonah Turnquist
Software Engineer, Confluence
Atlassian