OpenOffice Installation Problem

[tfoudray]

I've gotten everything working with my alfresco install except openoffice integration.

I'm running on ubuntu linux, with mySQL(14.7) and apache tomcat(5.5.12), and attempting to connect to openoffice 2.0.2-2ubuntu

I installed xubuntu for testing purposes, so I do not have the usual startup bug that is detailed elsewhere in the forum.  I'm starting X and launching alfresco from inside a console window in X windows.

The behavior is that I can run transformations, but the filename is all that changes (unless I transform to text, of course): the mimetype and file contents remains as the original type.

catalina.out reports the following line as the only indication of a problem during startup, and no information when it fails to transform:

10:35:58,521 ERROR [openoffice.connection.SocketOpenOfficeConnection] disconnected unexpectedly‍

My start_oo.sh:

/usr/lib/openoffice/program/soffice "-accept=socket,host=localhost,port=8100;urp;StarOffice.ServiceManager" -nologo -headless  -invisible &‍

It seems to start openoffice correctly, i.e. except for that one line in the tomcat logs, there is no indication of any issues.  Openoffice never prompted for registration, even when starting it normally.  I nevertheless removed the registration url from the Common.xcu file (as detailed in the wiki), but that didn't help.

Does anyone have any suggestions for me to try out?

Thanks in advance,
~Thaddeus Foudray
3si Holdings, Inc.

[tfoudray]

A bit more info….

I attempted to run it with a more 'standard' sort of configuration, using Xvfb, and got identical results, including the unexpected disconnection.

It seems like it may be related to the installation of openoffice from ubuntu.  Some people mentioned difficulties with openoffice on ubuntu elsewhere on the forums, but none seemed particularly detailed or useful..

Has anyone had success installing openoffice integration in alfresco 1.4 on ubuntu at all?

[tfoudray]

following suggestions from:
http://forums.alfresco.com/viewtopic.php?t=4136

I tried the following:
1) adding a sleep between openoffice start and alfresco start, to no avail.
2) restarting openoffice and tomcat in various orders, again with no effect.

although the symptoms seem to be identical to those mentioned in that thread, none of the suggestions there seem to be having any effect.

[silvia]

Hello!

I have the same problem with OpenOffice and Alfresco and I have tried all the suggestions mentioned unsuccesfully.

Did you find the solution??

Thanks!!

S.

[tfoudray]

Due to our current needs, we have opted to table the alfresco/openoffice integration for the time being, so I didn't spend much time on it after posting, and  never managed to get it working.

[steve]

Hi,

Your problems come from the fact that you are running OO headless - which means that the registration dailog will not be shown!

You should stop Tomcat/Jboss and stop the Alfresco Openoffice service. Then perform an action that will show the OO gui - like opening an OO document.

Then, you'll see the registration dialog!

I have just found some new steps on the Openoffice website that should disable the registration dialog for newer OO versions and have added a link to it on our Wiki here:
http://wiki.alfresco.com/wiki/Running_OpenOffice_From_Terminal#Manual_registration.2C_without_a_UI

Try that to see if it solves your problems.

Steve