Focal Point
[SOLVED] Excel 2010 and Basic Windows authentication

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November 02, 2012, 11:36 AM
Penny_Lester
[SOLVED] Excel 2010 and Basic Windows authentication
We have two web sites defined on Windows 2003 server named usahsvuam136.na.autoedir.com. The web site we run MRE/BID upon, wfconsreportal is using IWA, the web site we have a self service application, globalreportal running upon is using Basic Authentication. The properties for wfconsreportal have two headers defined: wfconreportal.meritor.com and wfconsreportal.arvinmeritor.com. The properties for globalreportal have four headers defined: globalreportal.meritor.com, globalmeritor.arvinmeritor.com, usahsvuam136, and usahsvuam136.na.autoedir.com.

We are gradually migrating all users to Win7 and Office 2010. We recently discovered Excel 2010 will not open if the web site is using Basic authentication. We can change the registry of the users' PCs to allow for basic authentication, but Microsoft recommends against using basic windows authentication. Our preference would be to change the basic authentication to IWA; however the owner of globalreportal says they need basic authentication because it passes the user ID, versus the token you get with IWA.

Does anyone have suggestions/recommendations on how we can get around this issue? I tried moving the usahsvaum136 and usahsvuam136.na.autoedir.com headers to the wfconsreportal web site, which is using IWA, but I continue to be prompted to provide the basic windows authentication information. Even if this did work we would still have the issue of downloading Excel from globalreportal, so we really need a solution which will hand off the user ID versus a token.

We are running WF 7.7.02 (no hotfixes or patches applied)

This message has been edited. Last edited by: Kerry,


WebFOCUS 7.7.02
Window 2003 /32bit
November 05, 2012, 11:56 AM
dhagen
This is really weird for me. According to MS doc, using Basic Authentication will not allow you to open the excel file unless you have SSL enabled. So, I put it to test, and for me it was actually the opposite. BA only, then the download was ok. BA with HTTPS and the download would not work. HTTPS only, and the download was ok.

In the end, if I turn off the redirect setting for ".xmh - application/vnd.ms-excel", then I was able to open Excel files when using BA for both SSL and non-SSL enabled sites. Give that a try for yourself.


"There is no limit to what you can achieve ... if you don’t care who gets the credit." Roger Abbott
November 13, 2012, 10:31 AM
Penny_Lester
All I searched the Microsoft website and found a "fix it" site that addresses this problem. It is an issue with IE and Excel 2010. There is no setting or adjustment required in WebFOCUS.

See: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2123563

PL


WebFOCUS 7.7.02
Window 2003 /32bit