My company is looking to adapt a content management system at the department level. One of the features we are looking for is inline editing of office documents. Is there any possibility that Alfresco would support this in the near future?
I've been working as an Opentext consultant for many years and had this questions a dozen of times. With the possibility to map Alfresco as a drive and to edit office documents as if you were on a file server might answer the question. Remember, these functionalities come in as extra modules (extra costs) or different licence types.
I believe inline editing for open office documents would be closer in the scope for Alfresco
As warrenzhai says, if you edit Office documents through the CIFS drive mapping then they will load into the appropriate app.
Also in the web-client you can change the default way in which documents are specified as URLs. By default the web-client simply points you to the content URL for a document, but if you change the web-client-config.xml (preferably using the config override mechanism) then you can instruct the web-client to create WebDav URLs instead. WebDav URLs open directly in Office apps and can be edited directly - including inline in the IE browser as an embedded Office app.
It's still in beta, few weeks out now but it looks interesting. They try to launch new Ajax applications weekly.
It's an Ajax version that looks like MS Office. Not the same functionality but a great idea and free. Imagine AjaxWrite with Alfresco…
That does look really interesting, looks like it's using the browser editing APIs (like most inline HTML editors do) with some fancy AJAX menus etc. as well - but the really interesting bit is the ability to import/export Office, Open Office, PDF etc. formats. I think it's definitely worth looking at as a future integration.
Wow, didn't expect this many replies in so short a time. I am trying to introduce Alfresco into our department. So far everyone is very impressed. Alfresco is really an amazing product.
So far the greatest concern we have is that sometimes our customers travel outside the company and need to edit certain Office documents in Internet Cafes where MS Office is not available. Inline editing support would greatly help.
1. I changed the entry in web-client-config.xml to webdav, but the link is still the external download link.
2. I opened a document through the WebDAV link on the document detail page, but the document was opened in read-only mode. How would I be able to open it in read/write mode?
Well, not quite, but a content management system which is accessible anywhere in the world with built-in word-processor, spreadsheet, etc. certainly is an intriguing business idea.
* using default webdav in config file does not make the link beeing effectively webdav * using webdav link (even using IE, and double checked the link string is really in the webdav root) opens the document in read only mode ("open or save-as" dialog)
I am trying sharepoint services and alfresco on a 2003 server. Is it possible to have a sharepoint-like document link? Which trigger a special IE dialog warning for security and then permitting to edit the document in read-write mode if accepted?
