> We have the following problem in using Subversion (currently version
1.6.15):
> I open the Windows Internet Explorer 8.0
> I enter there the URL to our Subversion repository: https://
> our.company.com/svn/REPO/trunk/docs
> I have to login with my credentials (user ID and password).
> I am able to navigate up and down the hierarchy of directories. The
> credentials are stored in the session, and are not asked again.
> Every time I try to open an Office document (PPT, XLS, DOC), I see
> the following happening:
> The windows download / open dialog is opened
> When I press open, there comes a popup that asks for my credentials
> again. It is not the one of the browser, but of the application that
> the document belongs to. The icon of that popup is also the one of
> the application.
> I see in the background a window that shows the whole URL in a
> dialog. The dialog is named ?Open? (German: Öffnen), and has only
> the button ?Cancel?.
> I then enter my credentials or approve the cached ones and press then
?OK?.
> This popup comes then 3 times, with the same contents.
> After the last one, the Office document is opened.
> I have asked our admins and they told me that they think that the
> IE8 tries to establish a WebDAV connection, which fails 3 times.
> Then the office document is downloaded as normally.
> This does not happen with any other browser: Firefox, Chrome, Opera,
> Sarari are all ok, even Internet Explorer 6.0 is.
>
> This happens only with Windows 7 (not sure about 64 bit only), and
> Internet Explorer 8. It has nothing to do with the client version of
> Subversion.
>
> I have 2 questions:
> 1. What is the reason for this behavior?
> 2. Is there anything we can do (server or client side) to fix that
behavior?
Office (2010 especially) tries VERY hard to believe anything that responds
to WebDAV is a sharepoint server. It then heavily relies on sharepoint
specific behavior and doesn't understand when things don't work.
I don't remember if this fixes this particular problem, but using some
httpd.conf magic, you can try and force 405 errors when office
requests WebDAV:
<IfModule rewrite_module>
RewriteEngine on
# Disallow Office 2010 WebDAV options request
############################################################################
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_METHOD} ^OPTIONS [OR]
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_METHOD} ^HEAD [OR]
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_METHOD} ^PROPFIND
RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} "^Microsoft Office"
RewriteRule .* - [R=405,L]
</IfModule>
This obviously requires mod_rewrite being enabled and is a
server change. I don't promise this won't affect other things
negatively.
Kevin R.
