Written by
Oana Elena Florea
, Customer Support Manager
Choosing the best Office application for XWiki is not an easy task thanks to the multiple available options, however, we would need to start by analyzing the differences between the OnlyOffice Connector, the Office Importer Application, and the macros GoogleApps and Office365. All applications are used to manage Office content and they are working with very different technologies in addition to each one having its own strengths for different use cases.
The Office Importer Application allows users to convert different Office content to wiki pages using a dedicated server like Libre Office. Next, the newly converted pages can further be WYSIWYG edited, extended inside the wiki with metadata or XWiki objects, exported again as ODT or RTF, etc. The gif below shows how to configure an Office server for a local wiki, by editing a few properties in the xwiki.properties file, starting the wiki, checking the Office server state in the wiki Administration, then how it would look when wanting to create a new page where you would import an Office document.
The OnlyOffice Connector allows you to create and edit Office content using a dedicated OnlyOffice server. Such documents will be stored as attachments on wiki pages and edited inside the OnlyOffice editor.
When is the Office Importer Application a better fit?
- The application is included by default with XWiki, only the Office server would need to be set up (internally or externally managed) for the import of Office content. For optimal results, we recommend our users to set up a Libre Office server.
- The application is a good fit when the imported wiki content will evolve over time thanks to the contributions from other wiki users. For example, the pages can, later on, be extended with other structured content, metadata (author, creator, page history), and macros (e.g. diagrams, workflow).
- When in need of a quick export of the latest page content (e.g. to share with external users, send by email, etc), the same Office server will convert the wiki page back to an ODF or RTF document for further use.
The best use cases for the OnlyOffice Connector Application
- One of the big advantages of this application is the possibility to have several users editing the same document in real-time.
- Large Excel documents can also be easily updated with a UI similar to the Microsoft Office package.
Other Office Applications to have in mind
- Office365 Integration would be a good addition to the wiki when users would like to display and to search for Office documents from OneDrive inside XWiki.
- With the GoogleApps Integration, the user can easily import a Google Apps document as an attachment in XWiki (in multiple formats) or launch editing of an XWiki attachment in Google Apps. Once the editing session is finished the user can reimport it in XWiki.
You can also take a look at the important summary of this article.
