Excel links not loading pages, but when the link is pasted in the browser it works.

Question

I have placed hyperlinks in an excel spreadsheet though my ruby-on-rails application. The links are to some privileged pages that require, After the login I am supposed to t

Answer 1

Not sure it's really an answer but I had the same problem with my application.

The whole application, including the home page, is protected (I'm using Devise). So whenever a user wants to access http://myapp, it redirects him to http://myapp/users/sign_in.

I think Devise uses a 301 or a 302 to redirect to the login screens.

My finding is that links clicked in Office and opening in IE cannot accomodate this redirect (no problem when Chrome is the default browser). Does it match your setup?

Ultimately, I have found no other solution but to link directly to the sign-in page... Maybe there are other options but I'm still looking for them.

EDIT: found this article (from 2006) about a bug in Outlook which totally matches our situation. Again, not a solution, but at least an explanation.