Open WebDAV word file on OSX

Question

I have a Java application that opens WebDAV files on MS Word. This works successfully on Windows with the next code:

Runtime.getRuntime().exec("cmd /c start winword " + webdavUrl); 

But on Mac OSX this is not possible. I tried this function, but it only opens a blank document:

Runtime.getRuntime().exec(new String[]{"open", "-a", "Microsoft Word", webdavUrl}); 

if I create a file from the URL, I can open the file but I lose its reference to the WebDav URL.

I have found a discussion about a javascript code that can do this process from the browser.

Any thoughts?

Answer 1

First, can you access the directory where the word doc is? are you mounting your webdav?

I believe the terminal will be looking for a path, which is your webdavUrl. To debug, try running the same command but only with the -R and webdavUrl arguments.

Runtime.getRuntime().exec(new String[]{"open", "-R", webdavUrl}); 

-R will show the file in finder and this way you know that terminal can in fact navigate to your webdavUrl.

Answer 2

You may try one of the following:

1: Use the Desktop Api as described here.

File myFile = new File(webdavUrl); Desktop.getDesktop().open(myFile); 

2: Use ms-word: uri as detailed here.

For example enter "ms-word:ofe|u|http://webdavUrl" on your browser. If you have Microsoft Office (2010 SP2+) installed this should open the word application with your document loaded.

The following resources might be helpful as they cover different ways you could open/edit word files in a webdav server.

• How to open file in Microsoft Word on Mac OS X from within Java?

• http://www.webdavsystem.com/ajax/programming/opening_ms_office_docs/

• Is there an Application URL Protocol for MS Word?