WebODF plugin?

Came accross this awesome javascript library that seems to allow collaborative file editing without a complex server-backend like etherpad AND has more editing features!

http://www.webodf.org/

http://aditya.bhatts.org/2013/12/16/bringing-opendocument-to-the-web/

Would be great if someone could write a Elgg plugin using this js lib.

  • a while ago i looked into this. It is a very promising functionality, but etherpad had the upper hand at that time. I do not know why exactly and maybe things have changed so it may be worthwhile looking into it again.

  • Hmm, I think the issues with Etherpad are:

    1. Complicated to install and run and especially no way to use it on a simple shared host

    2. Very limited editing features

    3. Not very actively developed

    WebODF on the other hand seems to have quite a lot more editing features and works natively with .ODF files which you can also edit and prepare in Word or LibreOffice etc. and just do minor collaborative editing on them later on.

  • hmm, seems like the owncloud coolaborative editing feature is a modified version of webodf, not sure what additional sever requirements it has. Owncloud seems to run on a simple AMP server though.

    Owncloud integration of some sort with Elgg would be cool too btw.

  • Next monday i will have a meeting with Jos van den Oever. He is a core developer of WebODF and we will have a talk about WebODF and Elgg.

    I have a question for the community: what do you expect from an integration with WebODF.

    Should it be used in the files plugin? To edit uploaded OpenDocument files? Or should we use it with pages to realtime edit the pages content? Or should a be it's own content type? If you have questions i will discuss it with him. I will write a blog about the findings.

  • I expect flexibility so it can be easily used with any of the mentioned use cases. ;)

  • (Not necessarily out of the box e.g. just by enablig a setting, but the possibility to easily extend it for different use cases via plugins.)

  • Personally i'm a bit against introducing yet another content type because people are already used to files and pages...

    I do not know if you tried the etherpad plugin (it created it's own content type) but it resulted in so much duplicate code and functionality (like upload a file or folder/tree functionality) that is already existing in core plugins.

  • Actually yes, I think I'm also against a new content type.

  • @michele fear of a plugin that gets abandoned is a problem in both cases. But if the plugin was build as an addition to pages/files it could leave the original plugin intact and just add features. Disabling the WebODF plugin should the result in normal functionality of both plugins. Having an own content type could render the content useless when updating Elgg and potentially breaking the plugin... (without a new version of the plugin).