[rt-users] Linking to RT from MS Excel

[Lai Zit Seng]

On May 5, 2011, at 7:10 AM, Yan Seiner wrote:

> On Wed, May 4, 2011 3:48 pm, Yan Seiner wrote:
>> 
>> I'm trying to set up a link from a MS Excel spreadsheet to an RT ticket.
>> I've tried the "hyperlink" function and also a directl link; no matter
>> what I do RT only goes to the home page.
>> 
>> Hyperlinking directly to a ticket seems to work otherwise.  Is there
>> something particular about excel that makes it break?  Does anyone know
>> where to look?
> 
> Here's the apache logs of the exchange:

<snipped>

> Anyone have any clue what's going on?
> 
> It looks like a failed login, but the user is logged in on the machine,
> and RT opens up on the user's dashboard.

I've encountered similar problems with other sort of websites if hyperlinked from Office (not necessarily Excel, but also Word and PowerPoint). It's very irritating. I understand the issue is that Office programs will make an initial web request NOT using your favourite web browser, where it does not have the correct login credentials (or cookies of a pre-existing logged in session), and thus ends up with the wrong web content. If that initial web request results in a HTTP 403 error (forbidden), the Office program will just pop-up an error dialog without even launching the browser (this happens on my Drupal website).

I would love to know if there's a solution to this too.

Regards,

.lzs