How to edit online an office (OpenOffice/MS Office)?

[jlabuelo]

Hi all

We are trying to edit content files stored in Alfresco, but we would like to be able to do it online, I mean we would like the user to be able to open the file (Open Office or MS Office) online, perform the changes and then save the file modified in the Alfresco ECM system.

So far we have two questions:

1) Is it possible to add online Edditors (plug-ings…) to Alfresco so editting office files online is possible (if so do you know where we can get then and the documentation where they are explained)??

2) We have been trying to do this using WEBDAV, is it possible?? we have tried this option so far and this is what we got:


2.1- In

\tomcat\webapps\alfresco\WEB-INF\classes\alfresco

in the

web-client-config.xml

we have changed

the edit-link-type

from http to webdav so the file could be open for edition with webdav:

       

 <!– the type of edit link to use, NOTE: inline editable will always take precedence –>
         <!– can be: http|webdav|cifs –>
         <edit-link-type>webdav</edit-link-type>‍‍‍

2.2.- I have installed the module

vti-module.amp

that comes with Alfresco, as I have readed that it was needed for editting files with webdav with Alfresco Labs3

In Alfresco, in an MS Excel file I set the "Allow onlie edition" property of the file to true, but when I press in the "edit online button" it opens the file as a normal way in http with txt symbols, like if Alfresco thinks the file is a txt and not an excel. It seems to me that Alfresco is not getting the WebDav configuration from step 1

If with the document I go to properties and select the link to "edit in webdav" opens the excel file correctly, but if I modify it and I save it with the changes it saves the file in a Windows Internet Temp File, out of Alfresco

Our Configuration is:

Windows XP
MySql5.0
Alfresco Labs3
Openoffice 3
IE6 - Firefox

Any ideas of what we are doing wrong?
Thanks a lot in advance

[zaizi]

Have you checked out Sharepoint Protocal in 3.0 http://wiki.alfresco.com/wiki/Installing_Labs_3#Installing_SharePoint_Protocol_Support.

Does it satisfy your requirements?

[rogier_oudshoor]

This is one of the major challenges currently in online collaboration. There are many options, but each has drawbacks:
1. Use ActiveX calls (IE) or Custom Extensions (Firefox) to force Office to open the webdav path (which will open directly) (but won't work with OpenOffice)
2. Use CIFS links (but CIFS isn't working 100% stable …)
3. Use Sharepoint protocol (but only works with Share …)
4. Use the OpenOffice & MSOffice plugins (but not 100% stable or functional …)

The problem really is a generic ECM problem. Even Sharepoint's implementation of the Sharepoint protocal isn't fully functional. If Alfresco once day can fully garantee both CIFS & Sharepoint protocals, that would be great.

[jlabuelo]

Hi all I have tried to apply your instructions but still does not work for me. Let me explain you what I have done so far:

I have installed Sharepoint Protocol :

1) Installed the module vti-module.amp that is in the Alfresco Labs 3 in the folder "amps". To install it I used the apply_amps.bat that also comes with the Alfresco 3 installation. This created a new  Alfreco.war and the old one got saved in a .bak file (alfresco.war-1234973702656.bak).

2) I downloaed the ROOT.war from http://wiki.alfresco.com/wiki/Installing_Labs_3#SharePoint_Protocol_support and copied to

tomcat\webapps.

3) When I launch Alfresco and I log in the application as admin user using IE6 I try to open and edit an OpenOffice .odt file (which was previously set as online editable (link online Editing and flag Edit Inline set to true).
When I click in the link or in the button Edit Online Alfresco still opens the http editor for txt files showing the extrange symbols.

Any idea of what I am doing wrong?

Thanks a lot guys

In

web-client-config.xml in tomcat\webapps\alfresco\WEB-INF\classes\alfresco

I have this configuration:

    

    <!– the type of edit link to use, NOTE: inline editable will always take precedence –>
         <!– can be: http|webdav|cifs –>
         <edit-link-type>webdav</edit-link-type>‍‍‍

[t_broyer]

In EditDocWebDavEvaluator and EditDocOnlineWebDavEvaluator (the code behind the "edit online" action and the now commented out "edit" action when edit-link-type is set to "webdav"), the documents are explicitly checked for not having the inlineEditable aspect ("inline" meaning here "through an editor integrated into the Alfresco Explorer", as for plain text and HTML fragments, which is somehow incompatible with editing through WebDAV).

[jlabuelo]

Hey thanks a lot for the reply… but does this means that I will not be able to edit an office file online?… I will always have to download it, edit it, save it, and upload it to Alfresco?  If not… any suggestion of how this can be done?

Cheers

[t_broyer]

It means that you must not flag it as "inline editable".

[umeshcse3]

Hi,
I am having the same problem.
I am not able to open alfresco documents using webdav,Although I can copy the file from alfresco to local file system and then open it.
I am using alfresco 2.1 and windows Vista as its webdav client.

Can u tell me in brief what exact steps are required to do it.

Please reply ASAP.
Thanks in Advance.

[umeshcse3]

Hi all,

After investigation I found that it 'windows' WEBDAV limitation :

1) Alfresco webdav works fine with MS-OFFICE files (.doc.,.xls,.ppt).

i.e. using webdav feature of Alfresco we can online edit MS-OFFICE files
(.doc.,.xls,.ppt) without copying files on local system and then editing.

2) But other windows editor such as NOTEPAD and WORDPAD does not have inbuilt webdav-client support. Thus, files such as .txt,.rtf, etc. which are opened in these text editors are not online editable.