3

Situation

Attempting to launch a JIRA issue hyperlink from Excel 2013 drives the user to a login page for JIRA which is unexpected as the user has an active login session.

Example link format --> https://<subdomain>.atlassian.net/browse/<proj-#>

Even if the user logs in the first time, checks the box for "Keep me logged in" the user still must repeat this the next time a JIRA link from Excel is selected.

The URL appends the parameter &permission-violation=true

Attempts to Debug

  1. Copy the link to clipboard and paste directly in browser URL bar. This method does not generate the permission violation. User can go directly to issue without logging in again.
  2. Attempt the link in a different Office 2013 application. Using the same link from a MS Outlook 2013 email does not generate the permission violation.
  3. Browse the JIRA administration page for solutions. Could not find any such option to configure.
  4. Tested with both Firefox and Chrome set as the default browser. Issue persists for each.

Any suggestions to fix this? The behavior is very frustrating to our end users.

Taliesin
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  • Possible duplicate of [Why are cookies unrecognized when a link is clicked from an external source (i.e. Excel, Word, etc...)](https://stackoverflow.com/questions/2653626/why-are-cookies-unrecognized-when-a-link-is-clicked-from-an-external-source-i-e) – IMSoP Jul 16 '18 at 12:16

4 Answers4

1

The Problem

According to StackOverflow user myroslav, certain versions of Excel are first attempting to fetch the webpage using a Microsoft DLL that does not know about your browser's cookies (i.e. your login session). Here's an excerpt of his answer:

If session cookie protects website Hlink naturally is being redirected to login page and having reached HTML page and not able to "understand" it opens it in external browser. Note that it opens not original URL (expected behavior) but the result of redirect, even if it was 302 redirect.

His full answer can be read here.

The Solution

At this time, Microsoft has recommended that companies with single sign-on sites like Atlassian's should address the issue on their end. Such a fix is low on Atlassian's priority list. In the meantime, we are left to either accept Microsoft's solution - modify the registry as myroslav instructs and accept a loss of Excel functionality - or modify our URL to something that doesn't require single sign-on user validation.

The Workaround

I'm using Excel 2016 and Chrome. Taliesin's workaround, elsewhere on this page, did not work for me, but might work for some. Here's a next-best-thing workaround that did work:

HYPERLINK("https://<subdomain>.atlassian.net/issues/?jql=id%20in%20("&<cell>&")", "link")

Replace <subdomain> with your Atlassian subdomain, and <cell> with the cell containing your JIRA issue key.

This URL variant opens a search query for issues matching the given key. It doesn't take you directly to the issue, but it at least offers a convenient link to get where you want to go, which is at least better than entering your credentials on the login page again.

Community
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Ben Amos
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0

Try restarting the browser and login to JIRA by selecting keep me signed in

Pravin
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It seems to resolve the issue: https://www.redmine.org/boards/1/topics/14287?r=40540

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Office\"YOUR OFFICE VERSION"\Common\Internet] "ForceShellExecute"=dword:00000001

Anton Malyshev
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  • I think you are on the right track. Unfortunately, that fix doesn't appear to work in Office 2013 per the last comment in the forum post. I checked myself and "Internet" does not exist in that folder path for this version. – Taliesin Aug 05 '15 at 20:47
  • Did you try to create it? – Anton Malyshev Aug 05 '15 at 20:51
  • I did yes. Sadly, this fix does not work using Office 2013. – Taliesin Aug 06 '15 at 21:02
  • maybe change hyperlink address from `http://yoursite.com` to `start http://yoursite.com` - to make excel open web page with program start? – Anton Malyshev Aug 07 '15 at 21:54
  • Good idea. Excel does not like this though... Address entered in context option or thru VBA: `start https://yoursite.com` What the link actually shows or behaves as: `\start%20https://yoursite.com` – Taliesin Aug 10 '15 at 18:59
0

Workaround

Ok. So I have discovered a workaround. Note this will correct the issue in an indirect way by leveraging JIRA's own link correction behavior. Essentially, you can bypass the security issue by providing JIRA with an incorrectly structured URL. JIRA will then fix the URL and redirect you to the correct page.

Here is the structure https://<subdomain>.atlassian.net/browse/<proj-#> + /

Note the last forward slash. This does not belong in the URL construction but when used will establish the redirect and thereby bypass the security violation.

If you already have your hyperlinks in a JIRA file you can easily update those in batch by using this simple VBA code subroutine.

Sub AppendJiraLinks()

Dim c As Range
Dim i As Integer

For Each c In Selection.Cells

    If c.Hyperlinks.Count >= 1 Then
        For i = 1 To c.Hyperlinks.Count
            c.Hyperlinks(i).Address = c.Hyperlinks(i).Address & "/"
        Next i
    End If

Next c

End Sub

Note this code could be enhanced but works fine for my purposes.

Taliesin
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