Alfresco

About the ONLYOFFICE and Alfresco integration

ONLYOFFICE offers an official connector to integrate ONLYOFFICE Docs with Alfresco to create, edit, and convert office documents within the document library. You can download the ONLYOFFICE connector from the official Alfresco Add-ons directory or the ONLYOFFICE GitHub page.

To learn more about the ONLYOFFICE and Alfresco module and how it works in detail, please, visit our API documentation.
Main features
  • Creating, editing and viewing text documents, spreadsheets, and presentations.
  • Converting files.
  • Co-editing documents in real-time: two co-editing modes (Fast and Strict), the Track Changes mode, comments, and the built-in chat.
  • JWT support to secure your traffic so that no one can have access to your documents with the exception of the users with proper rights.
Supported formats
  • For creating, editing and viewing: DOCX, PPTX, XLSX
  • For working with forms: PDF
  • For conversion: ODT, ODP, ODS, DOC, XLS, PPT, RTF
  • For editing via conversion to OOXML: ODP, ODS, ODT, RTF, CSV, TXT
  • For viewing only: PDF
What's new in version 8.1.0

Added

  • Added events support in the editor: onRequestReferenceData, onRequestReferenceSource, onRequestOpen

Changed

  • Ignore SSL Certificate setting bug fixed

The full change log is available here.

Connecting ONLYOFFICE Docs to Alfresco Share

Requirements
  • ONLYOFFICE Document Server v7.1 (server or cloud version) or later

    You need an instance of ONLYOFFICE Docs that is resolvable and connectable both from Alfresco and any end clients. It must be able to POST to Alfresco directly.

    Please refer to the official documentation page to learn more about installing ONLYOFFICE Docs.
  • Alfresco v.6.2 - 7.2
  • ONLYOFFICE Connector 7.0.0 for Alfresco
Installing ONLYOFFICE and Alfresco module package

The latest compiled package files are available on GitHub. You need the onlyoffice-integration-repo.jar and the onlyoffice-integration-share.jar files.

Installing via compiled packages
  1. Download compiled packages in the repo and share directories: 
    cd onlyoffice-alfresco/
mvn clean install
  2. 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.

  3. (Optional) Edit the alfresco-global.properties file to specify correct hostnames, open ports and protocols as Alfresco and Share are deployed as two separate services.

    alfresco.host=<hostname>
alfresco.port=443
alfresco.protocol=https

share.host=<hostname>
share.port=443
share.protocol=https
  4. Restart Alfresco. 
    sudo ./alfresco.sh stop
sudo ./alfresco.sh start
  5. Check if the module is present in the list at /share/page/console/admin-console/module-package.
Installing on Ubuntu

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

  1. Upload the compiled *.amp packages to directories accordingly for your Alfresco installation:
    • from onlyoffice-alfresco/repo/target/ to /usr/local/tomcat/amps/ for Alfresco repository,
    • from onlyoffice-alfresco/share/target/ to /usr/local/tomcat/amps_share/ for Share.
  2. You can download the already compiled package files here and place them to the respective directories.

    Use the Module Management Tool (MMT) to install modules, run these commands:

    • Alfresco
      java -jar /usr/local/tomcat/alfresco-mmt/alfresco-mmt.jar install /usr/local/tomcat/amps/onlyoffice-integration-repo.amp /usr/local/tomcat/webapps/alfresco
    • Share
      java -jar /usr/local/tomcat/alfresco-mmt/alfresco-mmt.jar install /usr/local/tomcat/amps_share/onlyoffice-integration-share.amp /usr/local/tomcat/webapps/share

    More details about using MMT can be found in the Alfresco installation guide.

  3. Make sure that Document Server will be able to POST to Alfresco.

    You may need to change these lines in alfresco-global.properties or you can set it using configuration page:

    alfresco.host=alfresco.port=443 alfresco.protocol=https share.host=share.port=443 share.protocol=https

    Probably located here /usr/local/tomcat/shared/classes/alfresco-global.properties.

  4. 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.

Compiling ONLYOFFICE Alfresco module package

If you plan to compile the ONLYOFFICE Alfresco module package yourself (e.g., edit the source code and compile it afterwards), follow these steps:

  1. 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 apt-get update sudo apt-get install openjdk-8-jdk
  2. Install the latest Maven. Installation process is described in the official Maven guide.
  3. Download the ONLYOFFICE Alfresco module package source code: 
    git clone https://github.com/ONLYOFFICE/onlyoffice-alfresco.git
  4. Get a submodule: 
    git submodule update --init --recursive
  5. Compile packages in the repo and share directories: 
    cd onlyoffice-alfresco/ mvn clean install

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

Use this command from project directory:

docker-compose up
Configuring ONLYOFFICE and Alfresco module package

Go to Alfresco Administration Console. Open http://<alfrescohost>/alfresco/s/onlyoffice/onlyoffice-config and specify the following parameters.

Document Server settings:

  • Document Editing Service address - specify the URL address where the Document Editing Service is installed.
    Important The address of ONLYOFFICE Docs must be accessible from Alfresco, as well as the address of Alfresco must be accessible from ONLYOFFICE Docs.
  • Secret Key - specify the secret used to sign the data.
    Starting from ONLYOFFICE Docs v7.2, JWT is enabled by default and the secret key is generated automatically. You need to enable it on the Alfresco side as well: find your secret key in the ONLYOFFICE Docs configuration file, then specify the same secret key in the connector settings. For more details, see the Enabling JWT for the ONLYOFFICE and Alfresco integration section of this article.

Advanced server settings:

  • Document Editing Service address for internal requests from the Alfresco server - specify the address that is used to access Document Editing Service from Alfresco server.
  • Alfresco server address for internal requests from the Document Editing Service - specify the address that is used to access Alfresco server from Document Editing Service.

Common settings:

  • Ignore SSL Certificate - turns SSL off.
  • Enable Force Save - enables saving document changes directly to the Alfresco storage after clicking the Save button (if disabled, the document is saved in the document editor's cache until the document is closed).
  • Save docx, xlsx, pptx as a new version of the original file after conversion - if disabled, a separate file will be created and placed in the same folder.
  • Open the file for editing - allows administrators to choose the document formats to edit via conversion to OOXML formats.
You can also add onlyoffice.url to alfresco-global.properties. Configuration made via settings page will override alfresco-global.properties.
Settings_menuSettings_menu
How it works

The ONLYOFFICE integration follows the API documented here.

  1. User navigates to a document within Alfresco Share and selects the Edit in ONLYOFFICE menu option.
  2. Alfresco Share makes a request to the repo end (URL of the form: /parashift/onlyoffice/prepare?nodeRef={nodeRef}).
  3. Alfresco Repo end prepares a JSON object for the Share with the following properties:
    • url - the URL that ONLYOFFICE Docs uses to download the document (includes the alf_ticket of the current user);
    • callbackUrl - the URL that ONLYOFFICE Docs informs about status of the document editing;
    • onlyofficeUrl - the URL that the client needs to respond to ONLYOFFICE Docs (provided by the onlyoffice.url property);
    • key - the UUID+Modified Timestamp to instruct ONLYOFFICE Docs whether to download the document again or not;
    • title - the document title (name).
  4. 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.
  5. The client browser makes a request to the JavaScript library from ONLYOFFICE Docs and sends ONLYOFFICE Docs the DocEditor configuration with the above properties.
  6. Then ONLYOFFICE Docs downloads the document from Alfresco and the user begins editing.
  7. ONLYOFFICE Docs sends a POST request to callbackUrl to inform Alfresco that a user is editing the document.
  8. Alfresco locks the document, but still allows other users with write access to collaborate in real time with ONLYOFFICE Docs by leaving the Action present.
  9. When all users and client browsers are done with editing, they close the editing window.
  10. After 10 seconds of inactivity, ONLYOFFICE Docs sends a POST to callbackUrl letting Alfresco know that the clients have finished editing the document and closed it.
  11. Alfresco downloads a new version of the document, replacing the old one.
Enabling JWT for the ONLYOFFICE and Alfresco integration

To protect documents from unauthorized access, ONLYOFFICE editors use the JSON Web Token (JWT). The token is added in the configuration when the Document Editor is initialized and during the exchange of commands between inner ONLYOFFICE Docs services. The secret key is used to sign the JSON web token and validate the token upon the request to ONLYOFFICE Docs.

Starting from ONLYOFFICE Docs v7.2, JWT is enabled by default and the secret key is generated automatically. You need to find your secret key in the ONLYOFFICE Docs configuration file, then specify the same secret key in the connector settings.

Step 1: Find your secret key in the ONLYOFFICE Docs configuration file

  1. Open the local.json file with any available text editor.
    • For Linux - /etc/onlyoffice/documentserver/local.json
    • For Windows - %ProgramFiles%\ONLYOFFICE\DocumentServer\config\local.json
    • For Docker - enter the ONLYOFFICE Docs container using the docker exec -it <containerID> bash command and open /etc/onlyoffice/documentserver/local.json

      Alternatively, you can use the following command to find the default secret key without opening local.json:

      sudo docker exec <containerID> /var/www/onlyoffice/documentserver/npm/json -f /etc/onlyoffice/documentserver/local.json 'services.CoAuthoring.secret.session.string'

    The local.json file should look like this:

    {"services": {"CoAuthoring": {"token": {"enable": {"request": {"inbox": true,"outbox": true},"browser": true}},"secret": {"inbox": {"string": "yoursecret"},"outbox": {"string": "yoursecret"},"session": {"string": "yoursecret"}}}}}
  2. The true value is specified in three sections. It means that token validation is enabled.
    • services.CoAuthoring.token.enable.browser
    • services.CoAuthoring.token.enable.request.inbox
    • services.CoAuthoring.token.enable.request.outbox
  3. The automatically generated secret key is specified in three sections. You can replace the default secret value with your own secret key. The secret key must be the same in three sections.
    • services.CoAuthoring.secret.inbox.string
    • services.CoAuthoring.secret.outbox.string
    • services.CoAuthoring.secret.session.string
  4. If you make changes, save them and restart the services for the config changes to take effect. 
    supervisorctl restart all

Step 2: Specify the same secret key in the connector settings

In the connector settings, specify the same secret in the Secret key field and save the settings.

Connecting to the demo ONLYOFFICE Docs

Starting from ONLYOFFICE connector version 5.0.0, you can try ONLYOFFICE online editors within Alfresco without installing ONLYOFFICE Docs.

To turn the connection on, click the Connect to demo ONLYOFFICE Document Server checkbox and click the Save button.

ImportantThis is a public test server that will be available during a 30-day period. Don’t share your sensitive data there.

Start using ONLYOFFICE Docs within Alfresco

To create a document:

  1. Open the folder where you want to create a document.
  2. Click the Create... button.
  3. Choose the file type you want to create: Document, Spreadsheet or Presentation.
new_menunew_menu

To edit or view a document:

  1. Find the required document.
  2. Click the Edit in ONLYOFFICE button.
edit_menuedit_menu

To convert a non-XML document into XML format (DOCX, XLSX or PPTX):

  1. Find the required document.
  2. Click the Convert using ONLYOFFICE button.

The document will be automatically converted into its XML analog. Resulting files are placed in the same folder. You can also configure automatic converting rules for a folder. For more information about the rule configuration, please read the official Alfresco documentation.

convert_menuconvert_menu

To download the file in a preferred format:

  1. Find the required file.
  2. Click the Download as... button and choose the format you need.
download_menudownload_menu

To see the history of file changes:

  1. Click the file name or its icon to open the file details tab.
  2. Find the Version History tab in the right panel.
  3. The available sections are: Latest Version and Older Versions. The changes made to the file will be highlighted.
  4. To upload a new version, click the corresponding icon in the top right corner.
  5. To quickly see the current file version, hover the mouse pointer over the file. The version number will be displayed to the right of the file name, e.g. .

properties

or

  1. Go to the File tab in the editor.
  2. Choose the Version History option in the menu.

To create a new file right in the Document Editor:

  1. Open the File tab.
  2. Click the Create New option.

A new .docx file will be opened in a new tab.

To create custom templates:

  1. Log in to your Alfresco portal as administrator who created it.
  2. Go to My files -> Data Dictionary -> Node Templates.
  3. Add custom templates in the available formats: .docx, .xlsx, .pptx.
create_templatecreate_template

To create documents from templates:

  1. Open the folder where you want to create a document.
  2. Click the Create... button.
  3. Select the Create document from template option and choose one of the available templates.
    create_from_templatecreate_from_template

    or

  1. In the editor, go to the File tab.
  2. Click the Create New... option.
  3. Choose the required template.
    create_from_template_editorcreate_from_template_editor

To learn how to compare files from storage, please follow the instructions from this article.

compare_filescompare_files

To learn how to use mail merge from storage, please follow the instructions from this article.

mail_mergemail_merge

To learn how to insert images from storage, please follow the instructions from this article.

insert_imagesinsert_images

To learn how to mark the document as favorite right in the Document Editor, please follow the instructions from this article.

mark_favmark_fav

Watch video

How to integrate ONLYOFFICE with Alfresco Share

Host ONLYOFFICE Docs on your own server or use it in the cloud

Get it nowUse in the cloud
Article with the tag:
Browse all tags