|
10-21-2013, 06:20 AM
|
|
Novice
|
|
Join Date: Oct 2013
Posts: 2
|
|
How do MS Office products link to URLs?
Hi - we have lots of URLs like:
https://www.dawsonera.com/depp/athens?url=http://www.dawsonera.com/depp/reader/protected/external/AbstractView/S9780203143278
The URLs are supposed to take you to the title of a book after the user has been authenticated - the S97 etc etc number at the end of the URL is a unique ID.
If I type this directly into a browser (IE, Firefox or Chrome) it works fine, I get taken to the book. If using Word, and I save the document as a PDF,then the link works fine, I get taken to the book. However, if I follow the link from any Office product (tried Word, Excel and Powerpoint) I don't get taken to the book, I get taken to the Dawsonera home page. Apparently the same happens to all UK academic institutions.
Going direct to the URL, it looks like the site grabs the unique ID at the end of the link, sets the value as a cookie/session ID to refer to later, and then redirects the user to an authentication point. Once authenticated the site grabs the cookie and takes the user to the relevant title. It seems that the Office products are doing something before handing off to the web browser, and therefore the cookie is not being set and the Dawson website doesn't know what title to take the user to, so just redirects to their home page.
Does Office work like this? Is it doing "something" before the web browser takes over, and thus losing important session data? Even if I save the link has a tinyurl it still doesn't work, but works if I link from anywhere else other than Office products. Strange! It must be an Office "feature"? Can it be turned off?
Stephen
|