This is a collection of questions and answers about Microsoft® Content Management Server (MCMS) gathered from the MCMS newsgroup. This content is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights. If you have feedback about one of these topics or would like to add information, please post your comments to the MCMS newsgroup.

 

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Steve Cawood Program Manager

MCMS 2002 - Authoring Connector FAQ - Table of Contents

"400 bad request" and "502 Error response received from gateway" errors
"500 server error" after .NET framework 1.1 is installed
"Send To MCMS" menu item in Microsoft Word is missing or greyed out
An empty task list is displayed in the wizard
Changing publishing server
Document published using Authoring Connector looks different as in Word
Error message: "Requested Resource not found"
New publishing task not available in Authoring Connector
Updating an existing page that was previously published using Authoring Connector fails
Value cannot be null
When I select the "Send To MCMS..." menu item in Word nothing happens

Topic: "400 bad request" and "502 Error response received from gateway" errors

When using Authoring Connector I received "400 bad request" and "502 Error response received from gateway" errors. How can I correct this?

Answer

This is most likely the problem discussed in the following KB article:

810957 - You receive more than one "400 bad request" response to one HTTP request in IIS

Background information for the UploadReadAheadSize metabase property discussed in the article can be found here:

http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/default.asp?url=/library/en-us/iissdk/html/8b7978ef-2034-4301-a432-29bc90508e8c.asp

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Topic: "500 server error" after .NET framework 1.1 is installed

I have Authoring Connector installed on a client machine with the MCMS server it points to just upgraded to .NET Framework 1.1 and MCMS SP1. Now when I go to create a page with MCMS Authoring Connector on my client machine I get a 500 server error.

Answer

The .NET Framework ships with a new feature to identify potentially harmful content in post requests. MCMS expects such content so this feature needs to be disabled.

These changes require that you modify the web.config file for your MCMS applications (e.g. '\Program Files\Microsoft Content Management Server\Server\MCMS\web.config' and '\Program Files\Microsoft Content Management Server\Sample Data\WoodgroveNet\web.config').

Add/modify this line:

<pages smartNavigation="false" validateRequest="false" />

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Topic: "Send To MCMS" menu item in Microsoft Word is missing or greyed out

The "Send To MCMS" menu item in Microsoft® Word is missing or grayed out

Answer

Here are some things to consider:

1. The add-in was not registered properly. Make sure the installation is successful, and accept any security dialogue that asks if the add-on is allowed.
   
2. There was another Microsoft® Word process running in the background during Authoring Connector client installation. Terminate all instances of Word before installing Authoring Connector client.
   
3. It may be a security problem. After you have installed Authoring Connector open up Word and Click on Tools \ Macro \ Security and click on "Trust all installed add-ins and templates".
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Topic: An empty task list is displayed in the wizard

An empty task list is displayed in the Authoring Connector wizard.

Answer

Here are some things to consider:

1. The publishing task list may be invalid. Make sure the task list is properly configured. Double-check the syntax of the XML file, and the path for channels and template gallery items.
   
2. The user may not have rights to any channels or template gallery items referenced in the tasks. Make sure the user has rights to the referenced templates and channels.
   
3. The publishing task file may not be placed in the proper location. Make sure the published task list (XML file) is stored in the right place. The task list, by default, is stored under '$CMSroot\server\IIS_CMS\OfficeWizard\Publishing Tasks.xml'. However, this default location can be changed in the web.config for Authoring Connector.
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Topic: Changing publishing server

Is it possible to change the server that Microsoft® Word docs are pointing to? I would like to do this without having to open each document and change the server using the Authoring Connector? I created a lot of word docs to use with the Authoring Connector. When I move them to production, even if I set the default server in Authoring Connector to be the new production server the Word doc is still trying to replace the page on the staging server.

Answer

Authoring Connector stores the MCMS published server URL in a custom document property ('CmsServerUrl'). You could write a VB script to point this custom property to the new MCMS server. This would eliminate the need to manually launch Word, invoke Authoring Connector and publish the doc to the new MCMS server.

But please keep in mind that this is unsupported. In a future release, this custom property could change.

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Topic: Document published using Authoring Connector looks different as in Word

I'm using Authoring Connector to publish some Microsoft® Word documents but the document looks completly different. How can I resolve this?

Answer

Authoring Connector uses the "Save as Html (Filtered)" function of Word. The final appearance is determined by this function.

Please perform the following test:

1. open the document in word
2. save the document using the "Save as Html (Filtered)" or "Web Page, Filtered (*.htm; *.html)" option (depending on your Word version).
3. open the resulting html file in Internet Explorer.

The result you receive here is the optimum you can achieve using Authoring Connector.

If this result still looks better than the results in Authoring Connector, then most likely the style sheet applied to the template does not fit the content sent by Authoring Connector.

To improve the results, you need to apply the style sheet used by Word when generating the html page.

Please open the html page generated before in notepad and copy the <style>...</style> section to a text file with the extension .css and add it to your template project.

Then add this style sheet to the template you are using to publish this document. Now the look and feel in the posting should be as good as the result you got when saving the document using the "Save as Html (filtered)" option.

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Topic: Error message: "Requested Resource not found"

I get an error saying "requested resource not found" when trying to proceed from the Authoring Connector 'Welcome' screen to the next dialog.

Answer

Here are some things to consider:

1. The connecting server string may not be correctly configured. Make sure the connecting server path is correct. (e.g. http://servername/MCMS/cms/OfficeWizard/oc.aspx)
   
2. The MCMS server may not be available.
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Topic: New publishing task not available in Authoring Connector

I have added a new publishing task to the XML file, but it does not show up in the Authoring Connector Wizard. What could be wrong?

Answer

Here are some things to consider:

1. Check in the web.config file which 'PublishingTask.xml' file is being used (refer to the MCMS documentation for details).
   
2. Make sure that the Authoring Connector user has rights to the template and channel that the new task specifies. Authoring Connector will filter out tasks inaccessible to the current user.
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Topic: Updating an existing page that was previously published using Authoring Connector fails

Updating an existing page (that was previously published) fails when I use the Authoring Connector. What could be wrong?

Answer

Here are some things to consider:

1. Is the Web page still available in the server? Check to see if the page that Authoring Connector is updating is still available on the site.
   
2. If the posting does exist, use the browse feature to find the posting, and then replace it.
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Topic: Value cannot be null

500 server error in Authoring Connector. When I enter the URL in Internet Explorer I get a more detailed error message:

Value cannot be null. Parameter name: path2
Description: An unhandled exception occurred during the execution of the current web request. Please review the stack trace for more information about the error and where it originated in the code.
Exception Details: System.ArgumentNullException: Value cannot be null.
Parameter name: path2
Source Error:

An unhandled exception was generated during the execution of the current web request. Information regarding the origin and location of the exception can be identified using the exception stack trace below.

Stack Trace:

[ArgumentNullException: Value cannot be null. Parameter name: path2]
System.IO.Path.Combine(String path1, String path2) +419
System.Web.FilePathParse..ctor(String path, Boolean isFile, Boolean getShortNames) +366
System.Web.FileChangesMonitor.StartMonitoringDirectoryRenamesAndBinDirectory(String dir, FileChangeEventHandler callback) +46
System.Web.HttpRuntime.FirstRequestInit(HttpContext context) +324

[HttpException (0x80004005): ASP.NET Initialization Error]
System.Web.HttpRuntime.FirstRequestInit(HttpContext context) +926
System.Web.HttpRuntime.ProcessRequestInternal(HttpWorkerRequest wr) +128

Answer

This is an ASP.NET issue. The solution for the issue is discussed in the Microsoft Knowledge Base article 316721

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Topic: When I select the "Send To MCMS..." menu item in Word nothing happens

"Send To MCMS..." shows up but when I select it nothing happens. Also, when I click on "Help on MCMS Authoring Connector" in Word, nothing happens. What's wrong?
Answer
This is because Authoring Connector has been disabled. To enable it do the following:
• Open a command line window and enter the following command: cd “Microsoft Content Management Server\Authoring Connector” then regsvr32 offcon.dll. This will register the required DLL as a COM component.
  
• In Microsoft Word, select Tools from the menu bar. Then Click Macros, then Security and set the security settings to “low.” This is not necessary if offcon.dll is the original signed one and you selected trust it, but doing this ensures that Microsoft Word loads the macro.
  
• Copy the content below in a text file named ac.reg and execute it to fix the Microsoft Word add-in registration of Authoring Connector.
  
  Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00
  
  [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Office\Word\Addins\Offcon.Connect]
  "Server"="/mcms/cms/OfficeWizard/oc.aspx"
  "LoadBehavior"=dword:00000003
  "Description"="Microsoft CMS Office Connector"
  "FriendlyName"="Microsoft CMS Office Connector"
  
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