How do you edit SharePoint documents from within Confluence?
Asked by Brian Louks:

Using Confluence 3.5.13, SharePoint Connector 1.4.7, SharePoint 2010, what's the trick to actually being able to edit a SharePoint document from within Confluence? I tried specifying the columns in the sp-list macro, but specifying an "Edit" column just gave me a "-" that didn't do anything


Answers:
author: Brian Louks
body: This might be out of scope for this forum (maybe it's a SharePiont issue), but when I click to open a document in SharePoint, I see:

* How would you like to open this file? (Read Only / Edit)
* If I select "Edit", it allows me to save it back to SharePoint

When I click to open the document through Confluence, I see:

* A prompt that says "What do you want to do with MyDocument.doc?" with the following options:
  * Open  
    The file won't be saved automatically
  * Save
  * Save as
* If I click one of the "Save" options, it just saves it to my file system.
* If I click the "Open" option, it opens Read-Only.   
  When I try to save the document, it does indeed try to save it back to SharePoint, however, it prompts me with a "Save-As" dialog, and does not let me overwrite the existing file

I've verified that the links are the same (whether I click through SharePoint to get the doucment, or through Confluence, it's the same underlying http link). So it's really just that when I click through the document on Confluence, it doesn't prompt me with that initial "How would you like to open this file?" prompt.

comments: author: Joe Clark
body: The check-in/check-out with SharePoint functionality should work in Confluence as long as you are using Internet Explorer. What browser are you using?


author: Brian Louks
body: I am using IE 9 (9.0.8112.16421) and Office 2007. I don't see anything about checking out. Should I see it within Word, or would I see it in IE before the Word doc opens?


author: Joe Clark
body: On IE9 and Office 2007, the document should open immediately from the browser with no prompt. Upon the document opening in word, you should see a button to check-out the document from SharePoint:

![](http://content.screencast.com/users/jlclark/folders/Jing/media/24545a28-7f58-4395-a450-132244c5b04c/2011-10-07_1143.png)

Clicking on "Edit Document" should check out the document from SharePoint and remove the read-only flag on the document.

Saving the document should upload a new version to SharePoint automatically.


author: Brian Louks
body: Bummer, I'm not seeing that. I tried in IE 8 as well. The document comes up with no prompt to edit it.

I was able to eventually get it to come up, but it's really not a usable workaround. What I had to do:

* Type stuff into the document
* Save the document (prompts me with a "save-as" dialog, which I cancel)
* Then if I go into the office menu, down to "Server", I get an option for "Check Out"
  * "Check out" wasn't there until I canceled the "save-as" dialog
  * Side Information: A few options were there initially, like "View Version History", which allows me to see the history of changes - so at some level it does know it's a server document even though "Check Out" isn't initially there
* If I check it out, save it, then check it back in, my changes are indeed reflected on the SharePoint side.
* Also, after I've checked it in, I now get the "Server Document To modify this document, click Edit Document" as you displayed.

So it's kind of like it doesn't know it's a server document when I first open it. So this is sounding to me like it's a Word issue of some sort.

So unless anyone has any other wild ideas, I think I'll have to talk to Microsoft on this one.

Thanks!


author: Joe Clark
body: Here's some additional ideas I've had to troubleshoot further:

* Ensure that SharePoint and Confluence are in the same IE Security Zone (eg. "Intranet Zone" or "Trusted Sites").
* Is the SharePoint list that contains the document a "Document Library" or some other list type?
* Try changing the library settings so that check-out is **required** in order to edit the document.


author: Brian Louks
body: * Confluence and SharePoint are in the same IE Security Zone
* I am seeing the issue when linking to a "Document Library"
* Changing it so that check out is required did the trick. I did get the ribbon that informs me I need to check it out to edit it, whether I go through Confluence or SharePoint.

Does that shed any light on why my "Edit" doesn't show up? If not, it's not a big deal, I think this will work for my users.

Thanks so much for the help!


author: Joe Clark
body: Awesome! I hope that's a suitable workaround for now. I'm not quite sure what the issue is just yet, but it's given me a good place to start digging.


author: Joe Clark
body: <https://studio.plugins.atlassian.com/browse/CSI-870>


author: Brian Louks
body: Lars,

I don't know the answer to that. We didn't end up using the connector. Since this question is already answered, I doubt anyone will see your question. I suspect you'll have better luck finding an answer if you post a new question


author: Joe Clark
body: Hey Brian,

You should be able to just click on the name of the document in the sp-list macro (which should be hyperlinked) to open the document in the appropriate client application (eg. Word, Excel, etc.). A default document library should look like this in Confluence:

![example sp-list](http://content.screencast.com/users/jlclark/folders/Jing/media/4da228b6-ef91-4007-a38f-7b2a83328681/2011-10-05_1434.png)

The "Edit" column is obsolete in SharePoint Connector 1.4 (you shouldn't need to use it anymore).

comments: author: Lars Sj?gren
body: Hi,

Above it says that check-in/check-out with full functionality requires Internet Explorer. Is that also the case in the latest available version of the SharePoint Connector?

Regards,

Lars


author: Brian Louks
body: Lars,

I don't know the answer to that. We didn't end up using the connector. Since this question is already answered, I doubt anyone will see your question. I suspect you'll have better luck finding an answer if you post a new question


author: Joe Clark
body: Yes, Internet Explorer is still required to use this feature. If you use another browser, instead of opening and saving the document directly in SharePoint, the document will just be downloaded to your computer.


author: Lars Sj?gren
body: Thank you for the rapid response.

/Lars


Tags: sharepoint