Solution…(Contribute and mod_security)

I earlier mentioned, at this blog, the problem when you configure Adobe Contribute with a site running on an Apache server with mod_security rules enabled. You get the error message "cannot verify your connection information", even if all your settings are correct.

The mod_security rules block access to any folder called "TMP" and that is what Contribute is creating for its tests.

Here is the solution (please note the security warning at the end of this posting!):

1. In GoLive, Dreamweaver or a text editor create a .txt file with the following content:
   SecFilterEngine Off
   SecFilterScanPOST Off
   
   
2. Save the file as htaccess.txt.
   
   
3. Upload it to your site's root folder.
   
   
4. Through the FTP interface change the name to .htaccess (note the dot before the name, the entire name is a file extension!)
   
   
5. Now configure your site with Contribute.
   
   
6. When the configuration is done delete the .htaccess file from the server.

This technique will open you up slightly to hackers for approximately 2-3 minutes. I think you must have really bad luck to get hit during exactly those 3 minutes…but the decision is yours!

As far as I know this is the only solution to the Contribute and mod_security problem.

So promising...

After watching a number of Adobe Contribute tutorials at lynda.com I realized that Contribute would be perfect for a number of my clients.

My first step was to set it up with my personal site so I could take it for a spin.

During the site configuration everything looked perfect. Contribute connected via FTP and I could see the files on my site.

In the next step Contribute uploads a file (via FTP) and tries to read it (via HTTP). Now the problems started!

There is one folder name you never should use on an Apache server, "TMP". All attempts to access that folder through HTTP will be blocked by Apache's mod_security rules. Guess what Contribute names its test folder?

I have no idea of why the Adobe engineers chose that name, I guess they could have just generated some random letters instead. It's a shame since Contribute seems to be an excellent application, much better than Co-Author!