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How do you feel about browser plugins?

nancyg
Champ in-the-making
Champ in-the-making
All -

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.

Thanks!
5 REPLIES 5

laura_
Champ in-the-making
Champ in-the-making
First, installing an Alfresco browser plugin isn't quite the same as installing Flash or Java.

Second, why does one need a browser plugin to do this?  Google Docs supports editing Word docs without needing anything special.

jharrop
Champ in-the-making
Champ in-the-making
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.

stevereiner
Champ in-the-making
Champ in-the-making
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)?

rogier_oudshoor
Champ in-the-making
Champ in-the-making
How about using the Sharepoint ActiveX object to open word documents via webdav (in IE) and creating a firefox alternative for that?

jharrop
Champ in-the-making
Champ in-the-making
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.