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.

  • Hmm, not too sure about the implications of different content types, but I think the pure reader functionality of webodf (e.g. http://viewerjs.org/) should just be an tool associated with the corresponding files.

    A full collaborative realtime text editing solution (like shown in owncloud) could probably just replace the pages plugin (and also be offered as a tool for the corresponding file types).

  • Another note: AFAIK webODF also supports presentations and spreadsheets (albeight not as well as documents), thus I am not so sure if only a "pages" focussed implementation would make much sense.

    There should definitly be an option to edit any file uploaded with it and share it with other elgg users for online collaboration (see owncloud implementation: click share button, choose friend with userpicker, user gets notification with link to file).

  • @krischan using the files plugin requires you to upload one first and then start collaborating... the current location in elgg for collaborating on content is pages... that is why i mentioned them both...

  • Yes I understand, however one of the great features of webODF is non-destructive editing of odf files... from a logical point of view it thus makes sense to treat them as files and not some other Elgg internal concept as many users will probably use the collaborative editing as an add on to their main work using LibreOffice etc.

    I personally feel that the pages tool in it's current form is kind of useless anyways. It's not a really usable wiki (and the dokuwiki integration plugin is better anyways) and for collaborative editing a file centred solution based on webODF would make it completly obsolete.

    P.S.: with a "add document" button in the file menu, one could start new works easily too.

  • I think what Jerome ment is that if WebODF was used to edit pages as they are, then even if the Webodf plugin was disabled the pages would be still visible and editable with the core tools (e.g. tinymce).

    However that is not really how Webodf works... it edits .odt (.ods/.odp) file natively, thus making it edit the pages would require to switch to odf for rendering the pages, which would basically mean a complete replacement of the pages and webodf (viewer) inclusion in elgg core.

  • @krischan if collaboration on ODF files should take place in the files functionality, we should have a "create new ODF doc/presentation/sheet" functionality to start collaborating on new files.

    @michele plugins made for 1.8 should work in all patches (1.8.1 - 1.8.xx) and even in 1.9 (depending on the functionality of a plugin). But if for some reason it breaks in any version and it is no longer supported anymore, you will loose the content (or should stick with that version of Elgg in which it does work), or need to migrate content. If make it as an extension on files, you could drop the plugin and upgrade elgg, loosing the functionality, but not the content...

     

     

  • btw, if this is implemented for files, a way to access your files on Elgg via WebDAV would be awesome.

  • @krischan it can be done, but aligning rights between the WebDav location and Elgg's Access Collections is the main challenge, but webdav is offtopic for this discussion :)

  • Long story short: we will build a plugin for Elgg that allows you to work together on odf files in Elgg. First version will be very basic and will require no server software (other than our Elgg plugin). First release planned at the end of March. I will update this discussion as soon as there is a first version available on github.com/ColdTrick.