Openoffice with firefox and webdav

[TerryBarnaby]

Hi,

I am trying to use OpenOffice in a webdav environment with firefox.
I have come across some issues in Openoffice that make this difficult.
What I want to be able to do is open up an open office document
within the firefox browser window in view mode, but then if I press
the edit button open a new full editing window in openoffice.
When the user now saves it is sent to the webdav server.

To do this I am using the OpenOffice firefox plugin. This almost
works but has the following problem:

1. The firefox plugin downloads the document to a file and instructs
openoffice to open that rather than open the link directly. This
stops the user from being able to easily save the file back to the web.

I have also tried using mozplugger to open openoffice in the browser window
in view mode with the "stream" option. This again semi works but has
the following problem:

1. If you open a URL in view mode and then click on the edit button then
an openoffice dialog pops up stating you cannot write to the file.

Any ideas on how to use openoffice within a webdav environment ?

Cheers

Terry

[foxcole]

Sorry I can't answer any of your questions directly, being inexperienced in programming the things you're doing, but I do have a couple of questions of my own:

What I want to be able to do is open up an open office document
within the firefox browser window in view mode, but then if I press
the edit button open a new full editing window in openoffice.
When the user now saves it is sent to the webdav server.

May I assume you have control over the Firefox version and OOo version the users are running? Do they all run on the same OS, or does your web solution need to support a range of possible users? If I were thinking about ways to answer your question, I might want to know more environmental details and requirements than we have here.

1. The firefox plugin downloads the document to a file and instructs
openoffice to open that rather than open the link directly. This
stops the user from being able to easily save the file back to the web.

But it's in view mode, right? I can't see how the user should be able to easily save back to the web at this point. Or am I misunderstanding what you intend and what you need here?

I have also tried using mozplugger to open openoffice in the browser window
in view mode with the "stream" option. This again semi works but has
the following problem:

1. If you open a URL in view mode and then click on the edit button then
an openoffice dialog pops up stating you cannot write to the file.

Yep, that's how it is in the forum... every question is a #1 question.
So what you're saying does not happen at this point is that the edit button should pull the file out of its current read-only security level on the server side, then launch a local OOo edit window with the document in edit mode.

My guess is you won't find many answers here in the Writer forum, which is basically for problems with using Writer. You might have better luck in the Macros and API forum (you can PM any moderator and ask to move it there) or, perhaps, you might also contact the authors of the Firefox plug-in, who know their work well enough to perhaps know what needs to be changed or what already exists to allow what you would like to do.

Good luck! Sounds like a very nice solution for users in a collaborative environment, if you can get it up and running, and I hope you'll be willing to post back here and share how you were able to accomplish it.

[TerryBarnaby]

May I assume you have control over the Firefox version and OOo version the users are running? Do they all run on the same OS, or does your web solution need to support a range of possible users? If I were thinking about ways to answer your question, I might want to know more environmental details and requirements than we have here.

For the most part yes. They will be running Linux, Fedora Core 8 and I can update package to latest versions.
Other users with other systems can still use a web base "POST" system to upload modified files.

But it's in view mode, right? I can't see how the user should be able to easily save back to the web at this point. Or am I misunderstanding what you intend and what you need here?

I notice that when OpenOffice is opened in view mode there is a button to switch to edit mode.
It is with this button that a change to editing the web file would start.

Yep, that's how it is in the forum... every question is a #1 question.
So what you're saying does not happen at this point is that the edit button should pull the file out of its current read-only security level on the server side, then launch a local OOo edit window with the document in edit mode.

Basically, yes.

My guess is you won't find many answers here in the Writer forum, which is basically for problems with using Writer. You might have better luck in the Macros and API forum (you can PM any moderator and ask to move it there) or, perhaps, you might also contact the authors of the Firefox plug-in, who know their work well enough to perhaps know what needs to be changed or what already exists to allow what you would like to do.

Good luck! Sounds like a very nice solution for users in a collaborative environment, if you can get it up and running, and I hope you'll be willing to post back here and share how you were able to accomplish it.

Ok I will try and contact the authors of the Firefox plug-in, is there a separate forum for this ?

[Lazy-legs]

What Firefox extension do you use? I've found two:

Openwebfolder http://openwebfolder.mozdev.org/
Webfolder http://webfolder.mozdev.org/

Also, are you running Windows or Linux?

Kind regards,
Dmitri

[TerryBarnaby]

What Firefox extension do you use? I've found two:

Openwebfolder http://openwebfolder.mozdev.org/
Webfolder http://webfolder.mozdev.org/

Also, are you running Windows or Linux?

I am using the libnpsoplugin.so plugin that is a part of OpenOffice for firefox.
I am running Linux Fedora 8.

[Lazy-legs]

Okay, I've been playing a bit with WebDAV and OpenOffice.org, and it seems that the latter is the culprit. The WebDAV support in implemented in OpenOffice.org only partially, which means that it must create a local copy of the document before you can edit it. This effectively makes OpenOffice.org pretty much useless when working with documents stored on a WebDAV server.

Kind regards,
Dmitri

[TerryBarnaby]

Okay, I've been playing a bit with WebDAV and OpenOffice.org, and it seems that the latter is the culprit. The WebDAV support in implemented in OpenOffice.org only partially, which means that it must create a local copy of the document before you can edit it. This effectively makes OpenOffice.org pretty much useless when working with documents stored on a WebDAV server.

Actually OpenOffice generally seems to handle WebDav access Ok, at least under Linux.
If you open a webdav URL directly with OpenOffice it works fine, you can read and write to the URL.
If the WebDav access is userid/password protected then OpenOffice will present a login dialog.

The problem is with the firefox/OpenOffice integration using the firefox plugin.
If the firefox plugin simply passed the URL to open office rather than downloading the URL contents and creating a file, that would work reasonably well.
This would have the problem that you would have to enter userid/password information in OpenOffice to read or perhaps just to write to the file.
A better way would be for the firefox plugin to use the browser connection stream. In this case the firefox plugin could download to a local file as it does now but would override the default save operation and in this case "PUT" the file over the browser stream back to the WebDav server.
I don't know if this is the best way or possible however ...

[Lazy-legs]

Actually OpenOffice generally seems to handle WebDav access Ok, at least under Linux. If you open a webdav URL directly with OpenOffice it works fine, you can read and write to the URL. If the WebDav access is userid/password protected then OpenOffice will present a login dialog.

Really? I tried to open an .odt document from a WebDAV server in OpenOffice.org 2.3 on openSUSE, and I get a warning message that WebDAV is implemented only partially. OpenOffice.org then creates a local copy of the document. I also tried the Webfolder extension in Firefox with pretty much same result. I'm probably missing something...

Kind regards,
Dmitri

[TerryBarnaby]

Really? I tried to open an .odt document from a WebDAV server in OpenOffice.org 2.3 on openSUSE, and I get a warning message that WebDAV is implemented only partially. OpenOffice.org then creates a local copy of the document. I also tried the Webfolder extension in Firefox with pretty much same result. I'm probably missing something...

We I am using Fedora 8 with all updates to current. The OpenOffice rpm's used are version: 2.3.0-6.7.fc8.
This "appears" to work fine to a simple Apache webdav server running on the same system.

[Lazy-legs]

Thanks, TerryBarnaby. Sorry I dragged you into answering my questions

Kind regards,
Dmitri

[marinew]

Hi TerryBarnaby,

I hope I'm not too late... I have had the exact same need as you.
After lots of tests and search, I reached my goal : modify a document through OpenOffice, after clicking on a Webdav link in Firefox.

Have you found any answer ? If yes, I'm also interested. If no, I think I have a solution for you...

You could read this posts if you want :
- http://forums.alfresco.com/fr/viewtopic ... t=20#p6311 (in french, sorry !)
- http://forums.mozillazine.org/viewtopic.php?p=3203256

The final solution I use is under Windows and Mac, but it should also work with Linux :
- Download "DownloadWith" firefox extension here : http://extensions.geckozone.org/DownloadWith
- In Firefox extensions list, go to DownloadWith options, add "Open Office" application pointing to soffice.exe, with arguments : [URL]
- Then, in a webpage, add an HTML link pointing on a webdav url for a file. For example : <a href="http://webdav..../file.odt">myFile</a>
- Right-click on this link and choose DownloadWith OpenOffice => It should open the file with OpenOffice, ask you for password.
- You will be able to modify and simply save the document.

If your Webdav server is over https, you will have to use OpenOffice 2.4 at least.

My problem today, is that users don't want to type their login and password every time.
I'm working with Alfresco as Webdav server => I can add an authentication ticket in URL like this :

Code: Select all   Expand viewCollapse view

http://myAlfrescoServer/webdav/.../myFile.odt?ticket=A_Ticket_I_Get_Before

==> No password needed anymore to open the file in OOo. However, when I want to save the file, I have a "400 Bad Request error".
If you could help me on this problem, it would be very nice

[ElDiabolo]

I have found an alternative and IMHO better solution. It is purely server side and opens an OO document when clicking a link in Firefox. See http://www.heute-morgen.de/site/03_Web_Tech/60_CMS_with_WebDAV_and_Openoffice.shtml

Sincerely,
ElDiabolo