Help us shape product direction. We are considering offering the ability to perform in-browser office document editing (MS Office and Open Office). To do this requires the installation of a plugin.
Companies routinely install the Flash plugin, the Acrobat reader plugin, and the Java plugin; the question is will they also install an office document editor plugin? Take our brief survey and let us know what you think, http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=8lUgh3gBNbnlZ0JOUpkvnA_3d_3d.
First, installing an Alfresco browser plugin isn't quite the same as installing Flash or Java.
If Alfresco were to use a browser plugin for document viewing/editing, I guess it would be more like the Acrobat Reader plugin, in that that is also designed to handle a non-HTML document type (rather than an environment for executing code, like Flash or Java). In what sense would *installing* an Alfresco plugin be different though?
Second, why does one need a browser plugin to do this? Google Docs supports editing Word docs without needing anything special.
I'm sure Alfresco are aware they could deliver something similar to Google Docs using a Javascript-based approach. But if you use Javascript, there are various limitations on what you can do. To take a simple example, you can't save a file to the user's hard drive without a server round trip. I guess this survey is Alfresco listening to their community as they weigh their alternatives.
One thing about browser plugins: they aren't supported in Adobe AIR (other than flash and acrobat). Still in-browser office document editing sounds like a great feature to have.
Would you need oo or ms office installed separately? Would the browser plugin(s) embed open office only (even for ms office formats)?
One thing about browser plugins: they aren't supported in Adobe AIR (other than flash and acrobat).
Interesting. That's a pity.
Would you need oo or ms office installed separately? Would the browser plugin(s) embed open office only (even for ms office formats)?
If I were building this, the thing would be self-contained (ie no need to have oo or ms office installed). I'd be sceptical about an approach based on the open office code base: its a very large code base; and its handling of ms office formats leaves something to be desired.
