Possible BUG: Multiple HTTPrequests send from one includetext statement

[Oliver]

Hi,
hope anyone can help me.

I have multiple INCLUDETEXT statement in a document. The text is
fetched from a server via a HTTPRequest.
My statements looks like this one
INCLUDETEXT http://localhost:8290/ppmservs/lang-en/jsp/contract.jsp?token=a41nqyoUYIt-&xsl=XSL/CTR/ADR/adr.xsl/
bm \c HTML \* MERGEFORMAT

Inside a macro i update all fields with
ActiveDocument.ActiveWindow.Document.Fields.Update

The update takes a very long time - so i've traced the requests and
found the following for e v e r y INCLUDETEXT statement

1.) check for Frontpage server extensions

---- HTTP Request at 23:24:10 ----
GET /_vti_inf.html HTTP/1.1
Date: Fri, 15 Apr 2005 21:24:10 GMT
MIME-Version: 1.0
Accept: */*
User-Agent: Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MS FrontPage 6.0)
Host: localhost:8290
Accept: auth/sicily
Content-Length: 0
Connection: Keep-Alive
Cache-Control: no-cache
Cookie: JSESSIONID=afS84wB7dDd_

---- HTTP Response at 23:24:10 ----
HTTP/1.1 404 Not Found
Server: Resin/2.1.6
Cache-Control: no-cache
Expires: Thu, 01 Dec 1994 16:00:00 GMT
Content-Type: text/html
Content-Length: 182
Connection: close
Date: Fri, 15 Apr 2005 21:24:13 GMT

<title>404 Not Found</title>
<h1>404 Not Found</h1>
/_vti_inf.html was not found on this server.
<p /><hr />
<small>
Resin 2.1.6 (built Fri Nov 8 08:18:18 PST 2002)
</small>


2.) check for Frontpage server extensions ??

---- HTTP Request at 23:24:10 ----
POST /_vti_bin/shtml.exe/_vti_rpc HTTP/1.1
Date: Fri, 15 Apr 2005 21:24:10 GMT
MIME-Version: 1.0
User-Agent: MSFrontPage/6.0
Host: localhost:8290
Accept: auth/sicily
Content-Length: 41
Content-Type: application/x-www-form-urlencoded
X-Vermeer-Content-Type: application/x-www-form-urlencoded
Connection: Keep-Alive
Cache-Control: no-cache
Cookie: JSESSIONID=afS84wB7dDd_

method=server+version%3a6%2e0%2e2%2e6356
---- HTTP Response at 23:24:10 ----
HTTP/1.1 404 Not Found
Server: Resin/2.1.6
Cache-Control: no-cache
Expires: Thu, 01 Dec 1994 16:00:00 GMT
Content-Type: text/html
Content-Length: 196
Connection: close
Date: Fri, 15 Apr 2005 21:24:14 GMT

<title>404 Not Found</title>
<h1>404 Not Found</h1>
/_vti_bin/shtml.exe/_vti_rpc was not found on this server.
<p /><hr />
<small>
Resin 2.1.6 (built Fri Nov 8 08:18:18 PST 2002)
</small>


3.) What ever

---- HTTP Request at 23:24:10 ----
OPTIONS / HTTP/1.1
Translate: f
User-Agent: Microsoft Data Access Internet Publishing Provider
Protocol Discovery
Host: localhost:8290
Content-Length: 0
Connection: Keep-Alive
Cookie: JSESSIONID=afS84wB7dDd_

---- HTTP Response at 23:24:11 ----
HTTP/1.1 501 Method not implemented
Server: Resin/2.1.6
Cache-Control: no-cache
Expires: Thu, 01 Dec 1994 16:00:00 GMT
Content-Type: text/html
Content-Length: 162
Connection: close
Date: Fri, 15 Apr 2005 21:24:14 GMT

<title>501 Method not implemented</title>
<h1>501 Method not implemented</h1>
<p /><hr />
<small>
Resin 2.1.6 (built Fri Nov 8 08:18:18 PST 2002)
</small>

4.) Request with wrong separator between the parameters

---- HTTP Request at 23:24:11 ----
OPTIONS /ppmservs/lang-en/jsp/contract.jsp?token=a41nqyoUYIt-%26xsl=XSL/CTR/COMMON/date.xsl/%26mode=1
HTTP/1.1
Translate: f
User-Agent: Microsoft Data Access Internet Publishing Provider
Protocol Discovery
Host: localhost:8290
Content-Length: 0
Connection: Keep-Alive
Cookie: JSESSIONID=afS84wB7dDd_

---- HTTP Response at 23:24:11 ----
HTTP/1.1 200 OK
Server: Resin/2.1.6
Cache-Control: private
Content-Type: text/html; charset=Windows-1252
Transfer-Encoding: chunked
Date: Fri, 15 Apr 2005 21:24:14 GMT

4.) No answer - ok try again - maybe there is a shy Frontpage
extension there ;-} - same as 1 + 2

---- HTTP Request at 23:24:11 ----
GET /_vti_inf.html HTTP/1.1
Date: Fri, 15 Apr 2005 21:24:11 GMT
MIME-Version: 1.0
Accept: */*
User-Agent: Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MS FrontPage 6.0)
Host: localhost:8290
Accept: auth/sicily
Content-Length: 0
Connection: Keep-Alive
Cache-Control: no-cache
Cookie: JSESSIONID=afS84wB7dDd_

---- HTTP Response at 23:24:11 ----
HTTP/1.1 404 Not Found
Server: Resin/2.1.6
Cache-Control: no-cache
Expires: Thu, 01 Dec 1994 16:00:00 GMT
Content-Type: text/html
Content-Length: 182
Connection: close
Date: Fri, 15 Apr 2005 21:24:13 GMT

<title>404 Not Found</title>
<h1>404 Not Found</h1>
/_vti_inf.html was not found on this server.
<p /><hr />
<small>
Resin 2.1.6 (built Fri Nov 8 08:18:18 PST 2002)
---- HTTP Request at 23:24:11 ----
POST /_vti_bin/shtml.exe/_vti_rpc HTTP/1.1
Date: Fri, 15 Apr 2005 21:24:11 GMT
MIME-Version: 1.0
User-Agent: MSFrontPage/6.0
Host: localhost:8290
Accept: auth/sicily
Content-Length: 41
Content-Type: application/x-www-form-urlencoded
X-Vermeer-Content-Type: application/x-www-form-urlencoded
Connection: Keep-Alive
Cache-Control: no-cache
Cookie: JSESSIONID=afS84wB7dDd_

method=server+version%3a6%2e0%2e2%2e6356
---- HTTP Response at 23:24:11 ----
HTTP/1.1 404 Not Found
Server: Resin/2.1.6
Cache-Control: no-cache
Expires: Thu, 01 Dec 1994 16:00:00 GMT
Content-Type: text/html
Content-Length: 196
Connection: close
Date: Fri, 15 Apr 2005 21:24:14 GMT

<title>404 Not Found</title>
<h1>404 Not Found</h1>
/_vti_bin/shtml.exe/_vti_rpc was not found on this server.
<p /><hr />
<small>
Resin 2.1.6 (built Fri Nov 8 08:18:18 PST 2002)
</small>

5.) Not a correct answer - damned - ok i try it in a conventional way

---- HTTP Request at 23:24:11 ----
GET /ppmservs/lang-en/jsp/contract.jsp?token=a41nqyoUYIt-&xsl=XSL/CTR/COMMON/date.xsl/&mode=1
HTTP/1.1
Accept: */*
Accept-Encoding: gzip, deflate
User-Agent: Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 6.0; Windows NT 5.1; SV1;
i-NavFourF; .NET CLR 1.1.4322)
Host: localhost:8290
Connection: Keep-Alive
Cookie: JSESSIONID=afS84wB7dDd_

---- HTTP Response at 23:24:11 ----
HTTP/1.1 200 OK
Server: Resin/2.1.6
Cache-Control: private
Content-Type: text/html; charset=Windows-1252
Transfer-Encoding: chunked
Date: Fri, 15 Apr 2005 21:24:14 GMT

127
<a name="bm"><html xmlns:date="http://www.oracle.com/XSL/Transform/java/com.klopotek.utils.helper.DateHelper">
<head>
<META http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html;
charset=UTF-8">
</head>
<body><a name="bm">15^th day of April 2005</a>
</body>
</html></a>
0

6.) Wow - there is an answer - but is it ok ? - lets try it agaín

---- HTTP Request at 23:24:12 ----
GET /ppmservs/lang-en/jsp/contract.jsp?token=a41nqyoUYIt-&xsl=XSL/CTR/COMMON/date.xsl/&mode=1
HTTP/1.1
Accept: */*
Accept-Encoding: gzip, deflate
User-Agent: Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 6.0; Windows NT 5.1; SV1;
i-NavFourF; .NET CLR 1.1.4322)
Host: localhost:8290
Connection: Keep-Alive
Cookie: JSESSIONID=afS84wB7dDd_

---- HTTP Response at 23:24:12 ----
HTTP/1.1 200 OK
Server: Resin/2.1.6
Cache-Control: private
Content-Type: text/html; charset=Windows-1252
Transfer-Encoding: chunked
Date: Fri, 15 Apr 2005 21:24:15 GMT

127
<a name="bm"><html xmlns:date="http://www.oracle.com/XSL/Transform/java/com.klopotek.utils.helper.DateHelper">
<head>
<META http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html;
charset=UTF-8">
</head>
<body><a name="bm">15^th day of April 2005</a>
</body>
</html></a>
0

7.)..... Same for every INCLUDETEXT statement ......


Thats a big performance bottleneck and i think its a bug.
Any ideas for a workaround ?
Sending it to MS might not have a lot of sense. Even if they react on
it, i would have a patch two years later (maybe).

TIA
Oliver

 

[Peter Jamieson]

I had a look at this and had similar results. However, I cannot think of a
simple workaround.

I'm not one of the authors of Word so can only guess what is going on, but
a. if you try opening the same URL (or perhaps a simpler URL) in Word File
Open, Excel File Open, FrontPage File Open, and in all probability the File
Open in any other Office program, the "Is it a FrontPage site" checks are
also performed.

My assumption is that Word (and the other Office programs) are trying to
determine whether or not the file can be edited, so they check for things
such as:
a. is it a FrontPage web, and if so, does this user have author
permissions?
b. if not, is it a WebDav site? etc.

However, I cannot even guess why Word insists on getting the file twice at
the end - perhaps it is trying to ensure that the file exists first, then
request a specific format second (even though it already has the format it
needs).

I suspect you are right that Microsoft would not implement a change quickly,
even if they wanted to - I suspect that they would say that their
implementation is "by design" and that you would have to ask for a new
switch in INCLUDETEXT (perhaps "/Quick" ) , but it /might/ be worth
checking to see if, for example, there are any undocumented parameters that
would help. I doubt if there are though.

The only possible workaround I can think of would require you to use a
different program or Word converter to get the file. By "program", I mean
that you find and use an OLE Server that can return the results you need,
and use a LINK or EMBED field instead of INCLUDETEXT. But I suspect there
are many difficulties using that route and I doubt if the updates ould be
any quicker. Using another converter means either:
a. finding an existing converter (either Microsoft or third party) that
could do the job. I can't think of one, but I haven't thought very long
b. writing your own. I would be surprised if that would be worth it, but
the main points are:
- the converter SDK may not be available any more.
- because converters can theoretically do anything Microsoft has clearly
realised that they are a security risk and I suspect they now discourage
people from writing them.
- the SDK is C or C++ based and converters are required to be Win32 DLLs
(not ActiveX DLLs) , i.e. you either need access to C/C++ skills or you need
to translate the SDK interfaces etc. into another language whose build
facilities can create the right kind of DLL. Because a converter has to
deliver its results to Word in rtf format (actually, there may be an option
that allows you to deliver HTML, but as far as I can remember it is not
sufficiently well documented to use), you would be faced with a difficult
conversion task unless your requirements are very simple
- you have to test and distribute it.

Not very positive but maybe there's a useful idea in there for you.

Peter Jamieson

 

[kpo]

Hi Peter,

thanks a lot for your fast answer. Thats what i'm expected - but i've
had little hope, for a positive answer ;-). So i will try my luck with
MS support

Oliver