ONLYOFFICE Alfresco module package

This plugin enables users to edit office documents from Alfresco Share using ONLYOFFICE Document Server.

Tested with Alfresco 5.2 - 6.1, the plugin is available in the official Alfresco Add-ons directory.

Features

Currently the following document formats can be opened and edited with this plugin: DOCX, XLSX, PPTX.
The plugin will create a new Edit in ONLYOFFICE menu option within the document library for Office documents.
This allows multiple users to collaborate in real time and to save back those changes to Alfresco.

Installing ONLYOFFICE Document Server

You will need an instance of ONLYOFFICE Document Server that is resolvable and connectable both from Alfresco and any end clients (version 3.0 and later are supported for use with the plugin). If that is not the case, use the official ONLYOFFICE Document Server documentation page: Document Server for Linux. ONLYOFFICE Document Server must also be able to POST to Alfresco directly.

The easiest way to start an instance of ONLYOFFICE Document Server is to use Docker.

Installing ONLYOFFICE Alfresco module package

To start using ONLYOFFICE Document Server with Alfresco, the following steps must be performed for Ubuntu 14.04:

Steps 1 — 4 are only necessary if you for some reason plan to compile the ONLYOFFICE Alfresco module package yourself (e.g. edit the source code and compile it afterwards). If you do not want to do that and plan to use the already compiled module files, please skip to step 5 directly. The latest compiled package files are available here.

The latest stable Oracle Java version is necessary for the successful build. If you do not have it installed, use the following commands to install Oracle Java 8: sudo add-apt-repository ppa:webupd8team/java sudo apt-get update sudo apt-get install oracle-java8-installer
Install latest Maven: Installation process is described here
Download the ONLYOFFICE Alfresco module package source code: cd .. git clone https://github.com/ONLYOFFICE/onlyoffice-alfresco.git
Compile packages in the repo and share directories: cd onlyoffice-alfresco/ mvn clean install
Upload the compiled *.jar packages to directories accordingly for your Alfresco installation:
- from onlyoffice-alfresco/repo/target/ to the /webapps/alfresco/WEB-INF/lib/ for Alfresco repository,
- from onlyoffice-alfresco/share/target/ to /webapps/share/WEB-INF/lib/ for Share.
You can download the already compiled package files here and place them to the respective directories.
Make sure that Document Server will be able to POST to Alfresco
You may need to change these lines in alfresco-global.properties
alfresco.host=<hostname> alfresco.port=443 alfresco.protocol=https share.host=<hostname> share.port=443 share.protocol=https
Probably located here /usr/local/tomcat/shared/classes/alfresco-global.properties
Restart Alfresco: sudo ./alfresco.sh stop sudo ./alfresco.sh start

The module can be checked in administrator tools at /share/page/console/admin-console/module-package in Alfresco.

Building from docker-compose

Other way to build ONLYOFFICE Alfresco module package is using docker-compose file.

Use this command from project directory:

docker-compose up

Configuration

Module configuration can be found at /alfresco/s/onlyoffice/onlyoffice-config page

You can also add onlyoffice.url in alfresco-global.properties. Configuration made via settings page will override alfresco-global.properties.

JWT

JWT can be configured via configuration page or by adding onlyoffice.jwtsecret in alfresco-global.properties.

The JWT configuration on the Document Server side can be found here.

Convertation

File types that can be converted

.doc, .odt -> .docx
.xls, .ods -> .xlsx
.ppt, .odp -> .pptx

To convert one specific file you can simply select Convert using ONLYOFFICE action. Resulting file will be placed in the same folder. You can also configure rules for a folder, that will automatically convert files on upload or on change. You can read how such rules can be configured here.

How it works

User navigates to a document within Alfresco Share and selects the Edit in ONLYOFFICE menu option.

Alfresco Share makes a request to the repo end (URL of the form: /parashift/onlyoffice/prepare?nodeRef={nodeRef}).

Alfresco Repo end prepares a JSON object for the Share with the following properties:

url - the URL that ONLYOFFICE Document Server uses to download the document (includes the alf_ticket of the current user);
callbackUrl - the URL that ONLYOFFICE Document Server informs about status of the document editing;
onlyofficeUrl - the URL that the client needs to respond to ONLYOFFICE Document Server (provided by the onlyoffice.url property);
key - the UUID+Modified Timestamp to instruct ONLYOFFICE Document Server whether to download the document again or not;
title - the document Title (name).

Alfresco Share takes this object and constructs a page from a freemarker template, filling in all of those values so that the client browser can load up the editor.

The client browser makes a request for the javascript library from ONLYOFFICE Document Server and sends ONLYOFFICE Document Server the DocEditor configuration with the above properties.

Then ONLYOFFICE Document Server downloads the document from Alfresco and the user begins editing.

ONLYOFFICE Document Server sends a POST request to the callback URL to inform Alfresco that a user is editing the document.

Alfresco locks the document, but still allows other users with write access the ability to collaborate in real time with ONLYOFFICE Document Server by leaving the Action present.

When all users and client browsers are done with editing, they close the editing window.

After 10 seconds of inactivity, ONLYOFFICE Document Server sends a POST to the callback URL letting Alfresco know that the clients have finished editing the document and closed it.

Alfresco downloads the new version of the document, replacing the old one.

Download the ONLYOFFICE Alfresco module package here.