Integration Guides - Alfresco Content App

About the ONLYOFFICE and Alfresco Content App integration

ONLYOFFICE offers an official integration to bring document editing and collaboration directly to Alfresco Content App (ACA) — the modern Angular-based interface for Alfresco Content Services. You can download the integration package from the npm Registry or the ONLYOFFICE GitHub page.

Note: This integration targets Alfresco Content App specifically. If you are using Alfresco Share, please refer to the ONLYOFFICE connector for Alfresco Share article instead.

Main features

Creating, editing, and viewing text documents, spreadsheets, and presentations.
Creating and filling out fillable PDF forms.
Co-editing documents in real time: two co-editing modes (Fast and Strict), the Track Changes mode, comments, and the built-in chat.
Document version history tracking directly from the editor interface.
File conversion to OOXML formats and export to various formats.
Document permissions management within the editing interface.
Advanced editor actions: inserting images from Alfresco, attaching files for mail merge, selecting documents for comparison, using plugins, inserting data from external links, navigating to the folder of the current file, and creating new documents from within the editor.
JWT support to secure your traffic so that no one can access your documents except users with proper rights.

Supported formats

For editing: DOCX, XLSX, PPTX
For viewing: DOCX, XLSX, PPTX, PDF, and other office formats
For creating: DOCX, XLSX, PPTX, PDF forms
For converting: office formats to OOXML
For export: various formats depending on backend configuration

Note: The exact list of available formats for editing, viewing, conversion, and export may vary depending on the installed version and backend configuration.

What's new in version 1.0.0

Initial release of the ONLYOFFICE integration for Alfresco Content App.

The full change log is available here.

Connecting ONLYOFFICE Docs to Alfresco Content App

Requirements

Alfresco Content Services — the Alfresco repository backend.
Alfresco Content App (ACA) — the host Angular application.
ONLYOFFICE Docs (server or cloud version) that is resolvable and connectable both from ACA and any end clients.
Please refer to the official documentation page to learn more about installing ONLYOFFICE Docs.
ONLYOFFICE module package for Alfresco version 8.3.0 or later.
ONLYOFFICE integration for Alfresco Content App v1.0.0 or later.

Installing the ONLYOFFICE integration for Alfresco Content App

Install the extension package:

npm install @onlyoffice/alfresco-extension

Register the extension in your ACA project.
Run the application:
```
npm run start
```

For detailed installation and configuration instructions, refer to the project documentation.

Enabling JWT for the ONLYOFFICE and Alfresco Content App 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 integration settings.

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

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

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"
        }
      }
    }
  }
}

The true value is specified in three sections, meaning token validation is enabled:
- services.CoAuthoring.token.enable.browser
- services.CoAuthoring.token.enable.request.inbox
- services.CoAuthoring.token.enable.request.outbox
The automatically generated secret key is specified in three sections. You can replace the default secret value with your own. The secret key must be the same in all three sections:
- services.CoAuthoring.secret.inbox.string
- services.CoAuthoring.secret.outbox.string
- services.CoAuthoring.secret.session.string
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 integration settings

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

Start using ONLYOFFICE Docs within Alfresco Content App

After installation, new ONLYOFFICE actions become available directly in the Alfresco Content App interface.

To edit a document:

Right-click a supported file in the ACA interface.
Choose Edit in ONLYOFFICE to open the file in the editor.

To view a document:

Right-click the file.
Choose View in ONLYOFFICE to open a read-only preview without downloading the file.

To create a new file:

Use the Create in ONLYOFFICE option in the ACA interface.
Select the type of file you want to create: Document, Spreadsheet, Presentation, or PDF Form.
The new file will open immediately for editing.

To convert a file to OOXML format:

Select the file in ACA.
Click Convert in ONLYOFFICE.

To export a file in a different format:

Select the file in ACA.
Use Download As and choose the desired format without leaving Alfresco Content App.

To learn more about forms, please read the corresponding articles on creating and filling out forms.