KB-1847 Issues with static and dynamic content URLs

Symptoms

The static and dynamic content URLs are configured in custom.properties, as shown below:

conf.suite.SERVER_AND_PORT=example.appian.com
conf.suite.STATIC_SERVER_AND_PORT=example.appian-static.com
conf.suite.DYNAMIC_SERVER_AND_PORT=example.appian-dynamic.com

However, some features that rely on the static and dynamic content URLs (like the document viewer component) may not work.

All of the following symptoms are present:

Symptom 1

The following errors are NOT present in <APPIAN_HOME>/logs/tomcat-stdOut.log:

WARN com.appiancorp.suite.SuiteConfiguration - Misconfigured STATIC_SERVER_AND_PORT property in custom.properties - The static content hostname cannot use the same domain as SERVER_AND_PORT or DYNAMIC_SERVER_AND_PORT. Some Appian features will not be available.
WARN com.appiancorp.suite.SuiteConfiguration - Misconfigured DYNAMIC_SERVER_AND_PORT property in custom.properties - The dynamic content hostname cannot use the same domain as SERVER_AND_PORT or STATIC_SERVER_AND_PORT. Some Appian features will not be available

Symptom 2

The static and dynamic content URLs cannot be accessed over the browser:

Symptom 3

The document viewer component cannot render the document and the following error displays:

Cause

Routing for the static and dynamic content URLs are not configured properly or have not been set up.

Action

Work with a network administrator to add routing for the static and dynamic URLs in DNS.

Workaround

A user needing to access the static and dynamic URLs can do so by editing their computer's hosts file to route for these URLs. This should be a temporary measure until routing for the static and dynamic URLs in DNS can be configured.

Example:

With the below configuration in custom.properties:

conf.suite.SERVER_AND_PORT=example.appian.com
conf.suite.STATIC_SERVER_AND_PORT=example.appian-static.com
conf.suite.DYNAMIC_SERVER_AND_PORT=example.appian-dynamic.com

Add the following lines to the computer's hosts file:

<IP_OF_example.appian.com> example.appian-static.com
<IP_OF_example.appian.com> example.appian-dynamic.com

Affected Versions

This article applies to self-managed Appian 18.3 and later.

Last Reviewed: January 2019