Hipchat Server Integration Fails Due to Error "The value must be an absolute URL"
Platform notice: Server and Data Center only. This article only applies to Atlassian products on the Server and Data Center platforms.
Support for Server* products ended on February 15th 2024. If you are running a Server product, you can visit the Atlassian Server end of support announcement to review your migration options.
*Except Fisheye and Crucible
This is for an outdated version of Hipchat Server
This article applies to a version of Hipchat Server which will be deprecated soon. After that period the version will no longer be supported.
You should upgrade to a more recent version of Hipchat Server as soon as you can to take advantage of new features, and security and bug fixes.
Problem
During the integration process between Hipchat Server and another Atlassian application (Jira, Confluence, etc.), an error similar to the following will appear in the administrative interface stating:
Error encountered creating your Hipchat link.
Something went wrong integrating Bitbucket and Hipchat. We probably had trouble connecting to the Hipchat server. Check that the connection between your server and Hipchat is working correctly and try again.
Try uninstalling the existing integration from Hipchat before trying again.
An error similar to the following may also be displayed:
The value must be an absolute URL: nodata:application/json;base64,eyJuYW1lIjoiSklSQSAoamlyYS5leGFtcGxlLmNvbSkiLCJkZXNjcmlwdGlvbiI6IkpJUkEgSGlwY2hhdCBBZGRvbiIsImtleSI6ImppcmEuZjY2NDMyN2QtZGMzZS0zZmNkLWIzOTItNDFlODkxOGQ4ZWYwIiwidmVuZG9yIjp7InVybCI6Imh0dHBzOi8vd3d3LmF0bGFzc2lhbi5jb20vIiwibmFtZSI6IkF0bGFzc2lhbiJ9LCJsaW5rcyI6eyJzZWxmIjoiaHR0cHM6Ly9qaXJhLmV4YW1wbGUuY29tIiwiaG9tZXBhZ2UiOiJodHRwczovL3RlIn the non-Hipchat application's log file (using Jira as an example, the atlassian-jira.log file), an error similar to the following may occur:
2015-09-22 22:11:03,462 http-bio-8080-exec-7 WARN 1331x283x3 1b55oy5 131.146.32.75 /rest/hipchat/integration/latest/installation/ping [plugins.hipchat.rest.HipChatLinkResource] Error converting response to [java.lang.Void] (status code 403):
java.lang.Exception: Error converting response to [java.lang.Void] (status code 403):
at com.atlassian.hipchat.api.DefaultClientResponseMapper.makeResourceError(DefaultClientResponseMapper.java:109)
at com.atlassian.hipchat.api.DefaultClientResponseMapper.access$100(DefaultClientResponseMapper.java:22)
at com.atlassian.hipchat.api.DefaultClientResponseMapper$3.apply(DefaultClientResponseMapper.java:64)
at com.atlassian.hipchat.api.DefaultClientResponseMapper$3.apply(DefaultClientResponseMapper.java:60)
at com.google.common.base.Functions$FunctionComposition.apply(Functions.java:205)
Diagnosis
- Try to ping the Hipchat Server by IP address and domain name from server hosting the other Atlassian application to check for basic network connectivity
- Use a web browser Developer Tool/Inspect Element function to check for any errors
Cause
The exact cause of this behavior is not yet known. Some possible causes are:
- URLs mishandled at the web browser level
- incorrect encoding at the proxy level
Workaround
- Bypass any proxy layer(s) between the applications to form the integration
- Attempt the integration using a different web browser and/or in a private/incognito browsing window
Resolution
If any of the workarounds listed above is unsuccessful, the problem may be resolved by applying the NE flag on the proxy rewrite rule.