Might be related to bug 57765.

Also see Bug 72461 - WIKIHELP: swriter/UUI_HID_LOGIN_DLG_PASSWORD page does not exist.

@Qubit: Hi, Do you have 'libgnomevfs2-extra' & 'liborbit2' packages installed?

(In reply to comment #2)
> @Qubit: Hi, Do you have 'libgnomevfs2-extra' & 'liborbit2' packages
> installed?

Yes and No.

qubit@loopbackoffice:~$ dpkg --list libgnomevfs2-extra liborbit2
Desired=Unknown/Install/Remove/Purge/Hold
| Status=Not/Inst/Conf-files/Unpacked/halF-conf/Half-inst/trig-aWait/Trig-pend
|/ Err?=(none)/Reinst-required (Status,Err: uppercase=bad)
||/ Name           Version        Description
+++-==============-==============-============================================
ii  libgnomevfs2-e 1:2.24.4-1ubun GNOME Virtual File System (extra modules)
No packages found matching liborbit2.

I'll try installing liborbit2. Do we have docs on this?  (perhaps we could link to something from the Online Help)

Update:

Using the LibreOffice dialogs, I now see the button "...". I didn't know that this interface existed to open files on FTP servers :-)

Via that interface, I'm able to open and edit documents.

The documentation suggests a different method:
https://help.libreoffice.org/Common/Opening_Documents

"You can enter a URL in the File name box of the Open dialogs. The URL must start with file:/// or ftp:// or http://."

(In reply to comment #4)
> Update:
> 
> Using the LibreOffice dialogs, I now see the button "...". I didn't know
> that this interface existed to open files on FTP servers :-)
> 
> Via that interface, I'm able to open and edit documents.

I'm also now able to access ftp docs via the command line:
./DEBS/install/opt/libreofficedev4.2/program/soffice --norestore ftp://localhost/simple-test-writer-document.odt

It sounds like there may be two pieces to this

1) Documentation bug

2) Need extra packages for supported features (so perhaps better docs + error messages ?)

(In reply to comment #5)
> > Via that interface, I'm able to open and edit documents.
> 
> I'm also now able to access ftp docs via the command line:
> ./DEBS/install/opt/libreofficedev4.2/program/soffice --norestore
> ftp://localhost/simple-test-writer-document.odt
I guess without liborbit2. Looks like LO has it's own ftp handling code, not related to GVFS\GNOME-FVS2. So I was wrong, sorry. BTW what was the problem?

> It sounds like there may be two pieces to this
> 
> 1) Documentation bug
> 
> 2) Need extra packages for supported features (so perhaps better docs +
> error messages ?)
Indeed, at least for GVFS\GNOME-FVS2 based network access (like samba, sftp).

I use a NAS-Server that exports its directories as Windows Shares and I access them using the smbclient. When trying to open a text file directly from the share LO 4.1.4.2 always invokes Math instead of Writer. This did not happen in LO 4.1.3.2. Copying the file to a local directory and trying to open it works as expected.         
Operating System: Ubuntu
Version: 4.1.4.2 release
Last worked in: 4.1.3.2 release
Using the LibreOffice dialogs and accessing the file on .gvfs/<share-name> works.

*** Bug 73187 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***

(In reply to Maxim Monastirsky from comment #6)
> I guess without liborbit2. Looks like LO has it's own ftp handling code, not
> related to GVFS\GNOME-FVS2. So I was wrong, sorry.

Ah, okay, so command-line FTP is probably all set. (If someone wants to set up a minimal VM with an FTP server but without liborbit2 to test, that would be icing)

So that leaves us with the GUI and Documentation.

(In reply to Robinson Tryon (qubit) from comment #0)
> Using the GUI:
> 
> If I open the program and then try to access this file, I can't even get to
> the 'Authentication required' dialog with stock Ubuntu open dialog. With the
> LibreOffice dialogs I have the same problem as described above.
> 
> Theoretically, one should be able to open documents on an FTP server using
> either dialog:
> https://help.libreoffice.org/Common/Opening_Documents

REPRO Steps:
- Open LibreOffice  (I'm testing on Ubuntu 14.04)
- Use the regular dialogs (not the "LibreOffice" dialogs)
- File -> Open -> <some document on an FTP server>
  (e.g. "ftp://localhost/simple-test-writer-document.odt")

RESULT: Error dialog
  "The folder contents could not be displayed
   The specified location is not mounted"

EXPECTED: The file to open (or at least a helpful error message about what I need to install to make this work)

If I use ftp://localhost/file.doc either from command line or LibO dialogs, I can't change the username in the auth dialog.

ftp://user:pass@localhost/ works fine from the command line.

With LibO dialogs, I get Access to ftp://.. denied.

With non-LibO dialogs I get:
"The folder contents could not be displayed
   The specified location is not mounted"

Used vsftpd. Had liborbit2 installed.

Ubuntu 14.10 64-bit Version: 4.5.0.0.alpha0+
Build ID: 0ffa3abc7d6c0437ece30cfb1430d28ffcc9f5c1
TinderBox: Linux-rpm_deb-x86_64@46-TDF-dbg, Branch:master, Time: 2015-01-15_22:47:16

Version: 4.3.3.2
Build ID: 430m0(Build:2)

On pc Debian x86-64 with LO Debian package 6.1.5, I could open a file on ftp, changed it and saved it without errors.

Any update with a recent LO version?

(In reply to Julien Nabet from comment #12)
> On pc Debian x86-64 with LO Debian package 6.1.5, I could open a file on
> ftp, changed it and saved it without errors.
> 
> Any update with a recent LO version?

Let's close it as RESOLVED WORKSFORME then...