ONLYOFFICE Alfresco module package

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

Tested with Alfresco 5.*, 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:

1. Remove gradle in case it has already been installed (it is needed to install the latest available version later at the next step): sudo apt-get remove gradle
2. Add the repository and install the latest version: sudo add-apt-repository ppa:cwchien/gradle sudo apt-get update sudo apt-get install gradle
3. 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
4. Build the necessary dependencies: git clone https://github.com/yeyan/alfresco-amp-plugin.git cd alfresco-amp-plugin gradle publish
5. Download the ONLYOFFICE Alfresco module package source code: cd .. git clone https://github.com/ONLYOFFICE/onlyoffice-alfresco.git
6. Compile packages in the repo and share directories: cd onlyoffice-alfresco/repo/ gradle amp cd ../share/ gradle amp
7. Upload the compiled *.amp packages to directories accordingly for your Alfresco installation:
   • from onlyoffice-alfresco/repo/build/amp to the amps/ for Alfresco repository,
   • from onlyoffice-alfresco/share/build/amp to amps_share/ for Share.
   You can download the already compiled package files here and place them to the respective directories.
8. Installing an Alfresco Module Package to Alfresco. sudo bin/apply_amps.sh You will see the two new modules being installed during the installation process. Press Enter to continue the installation.
9. Add the onlyoffice.url property to alfresco-global.properties: onlyoffice.url=https://documentserver/ Where the documentserver is the name of the server with the ONLYOFFICE Document Server installed.
10. 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.

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:

• docUrl - 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 reply 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;
• docTitle - 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.