Live Editing Documents with OnSemble 6.1

With the 6.1 update, we made some changes to how the portal initiates Live Editing for documents in the portal repository.  No longer does this process require special ActiveX controls, which means that Live Editing is now supported across all browsers.  However, this change might require some additional configuration in order to work properly.  This document is intended to serve as a reference for that configuration.

Windows Authentication

In a portal that uses Windows Authentication, each client machine must be configured to treat the portal as a trusted site so that Office will automatically transmit credentials to the portal when opening and editing a document via Live Edit.  To do this, open the Control Panel, select Internet Options, and switch to the Security tab.  Under Trusted Sites, make sure that your portal URL is included in the list of websites.  Additionally, if the portal URL does not begin with https:, make sure the box at the bottom is unchecked.

Forms Authentication

In a portal using Forms Authentication, Office must use basic authentication in order to open and edit documents from the portal.  Since basic authentication does not encrypt your credentials, it is generally unsafe to use basic authentication without also using SSL to encrypt client-server communications.  For this reason, Office applications will not use basic authentication unless the document source uses SSL (https:).  If your portal uses SSL, then upon clicking a Live Edit link, the appropriate Office application will open and prompt you for your portal credentials, which will then allow you to open and edit the requested document.

If you are having trouble under this configuration, see this Microsoft article.

It is possible, depending on your version of Windows and Office, to configure Office to refuse basic authentication even when it is safe to use, and the linked support document can help you make sure you have the appropriate settings.

Mixed Authentication

If your portal supports both Windows and Forms authentication, then some edge cases might arise depending on the specifics of your portal.  When opening a document from such a portal, Office will first attempt to use Windows authentication to access the document.  If that fails, it will then prompt you for credentials.  If you are logged into the portal via Forms authentication, but there exists a valid user in the portal with your windows login, then when you open a document, Office will authenticate using your windows credentials, not as the Forms authentication user.  If the Forms authentication user and windows login user have different document permissions, then it is possible for you to click a document link but be denied access through Office, since the two are authenticating with the portal as different users.