Problem : While browsing the images its giving error like Error 405 : Method Not Allowed
Assumption : You already have created Images virtual directory.
Solution : Need to Enable WebDEV for Cognos,so that images directory can be browsed safely.
Background : WebDEV( Web Based Distributed Authoring and Versioning) is a set of extensions to HTTP protocol,that allows users to edit and manage files on remote servers.In Cognos,if we are storing images in common location,that location should be available to users via web to read.So WebDEV need to be enabled with security in place.
Ways to implement :
Step 1: Append following lines in httpd.conf file.The file is located in
Include conf/extra/httpd-dav.conf
LoadModule dav_module modules/mod_dav.so
LoadModule dav_fs_module modules/mod_dav_fs.so
Mod_dav.so and mod_dav_fs.so are the modules used by apache for WebDAV.This is the good way to make changes in httpd-dav.conf file instead of appending the code in httpd.conf file.
Step 2: Take the backup of original httpd-dav.conf file before making changes,just to keep original copy.The final http-dav.conf file should look like this :
===============================================================
#
# Distributed authoring and versioning (WebDAV)
#
# Required modules: mod_dav, mod_dav_fs, mod_setenvif, mod_alias
# mod_auth_digest, mod_authn_file
#
# The following example gives DAV write access to a directory called
# "uploads" under the ServerRoot directory.
#
# The User/Group specified in httpd.conf needs to have write permissions
# on the directory where the DavLockDB is placed and on any directory where
# "Dav On" is specified.
DavLockDB "E:/Program Files/Apache Software Foundation/Apache2.2/var/DavLock"
Alias /cognos8/images "E:/cognos_projects/Images"
Dav On
AuthType Basic
AuthName DAV
AuthUserFile "E:/Program Files/Apache Software Foundation/Apache2.2/user.passwd"
require user admin
#
# The following directives disable redirects on non-GET requests for
# a directory that does not include the trailing slash. This fixes a
# problem with several clients that do not appropriately handle
# redirects for folders with DAV methods.
#
BrowserMatch "Microsoft Data Access Internet Publishing Provider" redirect-carefully
BrowserMatch "MS FrontPage" redirect-carefully
BrowserMatch "^WebDrive" redirect-carefully
BrowserMatch "^WebDAVFS/1.[0123]" redirect-carefully
BrowserMatch "^gnome-vfs/1.0" redirect-carefully
BrowserMatch "^XML Spy" redirect-carefully
BrowserMatch "^Dreamweaver-WebDAV-SCM1" redirect-carefully
Explaination : First thing is the specify the lock database location by specifying DavLockDB parameter as above.The directory containing the lock database file should have permission for user and group under which Apache is running.
Second thing is to Specify DAV ON .
NOTE : It is important to limit the http method like POST, PUT and DELETE as it exposes to potential security risk.Best Practice is to use limit except option.Alternatively Limit option can be used with options enabled.Check the Apache documentation for more details.
