Let's now take a look at how you can manage your Microsoft Office documents in Alfresco, without being an Alfresco Expert.
This is facilitated by the SharePoint protocol support that is offered by Alfresco. Alfresco is the first ECM system to implement the Microsoft Office and Windows SharePoint Services protocols as a compatible server. With this implementation, users can now look forward to an open alternative that delivers equivalent benefits but with true platform choice.
The Alfresco repository now offers:
Alfresco's new Surf platform is built on Alfresco Web Scripts technology, which utilizes light-weight scripting and templating. The Surf platform is designed to work in a number of different web environments, as well as a Web Part in a Microsoft SharePoint Portal.
The SharePoint Protocol support built into Alfresco Enterprise Edition 3.0 SP1 lets users work with documents in the Alfresco Share repository without using the Share interface. We will now go through how to manage documents within Microsoft Office. For the case scenarios, we shall use Microsoft Word 2003. You can also carry out the same tasks using Word 2007.
A Document Workspace is an Alfresco Share site that contains a document. For our example, we shall use The Alfresco Book project Site that we have created.
To create a Document Workspace, carry out the following steps in MS Word 2003:
Alfresco Update.doc
on your machine.There are six tabbed panels available on this pane. They are: Status, Members, Tasks, Documents, Links, and Document Information (as shown in the preceding screenshot). Position your cursor over a tab to display the tab name.
http://<Alfresco serverinstance>/alfresco
, for example, http://alfrescoserver:8080/alfresco
.Alfresco Update.doc
to the new site, and displays the familiar Shared Workspace task pane. Office may prompt you to log in again. If so, use the same username and password.http://< Alfresco server instance >/share/
on the browser. Sign in with your credentials. The Alfresco Update Site then displays in your My Sites dashlet on your personal dashboard, as shown in the following screenshot:On clicking the site link, the site is opened and you can see the Alfresco Update.doc file in the site's Document Library in the Recently Modified Documents dashlet, as highlighted in the following screenshot:
To edit a document, carry out the following steps:
http://<Alfresco server instance>/alfresco
as the file name and click on Open. As a result, a list of all of the existing Share sites is displayed.When you check a document during or before editing, the document is locked for all other users. Site members can still view or download the original version of the document while you edit it and have it checked out.
After editing the checked out document, check it in to update the document in the Document Workspace Library. This removes the lock from the document. As a result, the updated version is available to the other users.
When a document is added to the document workspace, it has a version. Each time it is updated, a version history is maintained. The versions can be managed through MS Word. Alfresco does not support the deletion of individual document versions.
Ensure that Alfresco Update.doc is open. We will use this document to view the version history and then explore the other document version features available.
To check the version history, carry out the following steps:
Alfresco Update.doc
.Any version that was saved for Alfresco Update.doc
file can be viewed. To view the original version of the document, select version 1.0 in the version list, and then click on the Open button.
The document opens in a new window as a read-only version. Close the window, when you have finished reviewing the content.
Selecting a previous version of the document in the Versions saved for Alfresco Update.doc window enables both, the Restore and Delete buttons. We can restore the original version of the document as our current version. In order to replace the current document with a previous version, carry out the following steps:
Alfresco Update.doc
. Click on the Close button on the Versions saved for Alfresco Update.doc window. The Alfresco Update.doc
that has been reverted to its original content remains open.You can create a separate folder in the document library to contain content, and then add a document to the folder. To do this, carry out the following steps:
Alfresco Update.doc
, select the Documents tab. The files and folders that currently reside in the site's document library are displayed here. You can manage the contents of the Document Workspace document library from here.A Document Workspace allows you to collaborate on documents with one or more colleagues. We shall use the Alfresco Update site that we created previously, as an example in this section. The site, after the exercises performed earlier, now contains two documents, namely the Alfresco Update.doc
and the document uploaded in the New Updates
folder.
We have created the Document Workspace and can now save MS Word documents directly to the site. To save an MS Word document to the Document Workspace, carry out the following steps:
http://<Alfresco server: 8080>/alfresco/AlfrescoUpdate/DocumentLibrary/Update.doc
as the File name. The URL takes the following form: http://<Alfresco server: 8080>/alfresco/<site URL name>/DocumentLibrary/<folder structure>/<filename>
.
<Alfresco server:8080>
is the server and port where Alfresco is installed and running on your machine. Alfresco's SharePoint Protocol Support name must be used with all URLs.
<site URL name>
is the URL name of the Document Workspace (Share site) where the document is being saved. In our case it is the Alfresco Update site.
DocumentLibrary
is the Site's Document Library page component.
<folder structure>
is the path and destination of the folder, where a folder structure has been established within the site's library. In our example, the folder is the New Updates
folder.
<filename>
is the filename of the current document. In our case, it is Update.doc
Update.doc
) to the Document Library of the specified Share site.The document workspace URL name is automatically generated from the name of the site provided. This name is not editable. In this tutorial, both the site name and the URL name are AlfrescoUpdate. Once the Document Workspace has been created, you can manage the site directly from Microsoft Word.
Ensure that the document Update.doc
is opened on your computer, and that the Shared Workspace task pane is open in the document window, with the site name AlfrescoUpdate displayed at the top. This is the name that you will edit by carrying out the following steps:
Update.doc
.http://localhost:8080/share/page/site/alfrescoupdate/dashboard
. The Document Library page component link appears beneath the site name.
There are five page components available for a site namely, the Document Library, Calendar, Blog, Discussions, and Wiki in Alfresco Share. When you create a Document Workspace from MS Word, the site includes only the Document Library component by default. From MS Word, you can easily access the Share page to customize the site. Again, you will work from the document Update.doc
.
Update.doc
, position your cursor over the site name, that is, Alfresco SPP Support. Open the context menu and select the option Change Site Settings.Only the members of the Document Workspace can work with the documents stored there. The tasks relating to site members are displayed on the Members tab of the Shared Workspace task pane.
Currently, only Bob, whose login credentials you used to create the Document Workspace, is a member of the Alfresco SPP Support site. The user who creates the site is automatically given the role of Site Manager. We will now add users to the site, by carrying out the following steps:
Update.doc
, select the Members tab. The Admin appears at the top of the tab.A user can only edit his or her profile details. However, he or she can view the profiles of all of the site members. To edit a user profile, carry out the following steps:
Update.doc
, position your cursor over Admin, open the context menu, and then select the Edit User Information option.There are four roles available in Share sites, namely, Manager, Collaborator, Contributor, and Consumer. Only a Site Manager can manage site membership by changing a member's role. To do this, position your cursor over (for example) Ann on the Shared Workspace task pane of the document Update.doc
. Open the context menu and select the Edit Site Group Membership option.
Log in as Bob. Share opens and displays the Search for Site Members page. Type in the username in the field provided, and then click on the Search button. Share returns a list of the site's members matching the search criteria entered. The assigned role is displayed for each member. As the Site Manager, you can change the member roles and remove members from the site.
When you add or save a document to the Document Workspace, the original version of the document remains on your computer. This document copy is linked to the copy in the site's Document Library. Once linked, you can work on one version, and then update the other, to keep them synchronized.
Use the file Alfresco Update.doc
, which you used to create the Alfresco SPP Support site. It should still reside on your desktop. A copy also exists in the site's library. Double-click on the Alfresco Update.doc
document that is saved on your desktop. The following pop-up window will appear:
Because a copy of the Alfresco Update.doc
document exists in the collaboration site, it is possible that your local copy is no longer current. You need to synchronize your local copy with the site copy to ensure that you have the current version.
When a local copy of a document is linked to a Document Workspace, MS Word detects the changes made to the document and prompts you to resolve the discrepancy. In the previous task, you updated the local copy with the version from the workspace. In this task, you will update the workspace copy with the local version. To update the site copy, carry out the following steps:
Alfresco Update.doc
) and then save the document. The Status tab displays a warning, indicating that there is a discrepancy between the local copy and the workspace copy of the document.Currently, user Bob has the original copy of the document Alfresco Update.doc
on his desktop. The Save Updatable Copy feature in MS Word enables other site members to obtain a copy of this document for their own machines. This copy, similar to the original document on your own machine, is linked to the Alfresco Update.doc
document in the Document Workspace. This can only be done if there is access to a second machine that uses Internet Explorer as the default browser, and that has your Alfresco Server as a Trusted Site. To save an updatable copy to the local machine itself, you have to carry out the following steps:
http://<Alfresco server URL:8080>/alfresco
./AlfrescoUpdate/documentLibrary
and open the Alfresco Update.doc
file.Alfresco Update.doc
open. On the Shared Workspace task pane, select the Documents tab. The document Alfresco Update.doc is highlighted in the Documents list. Position your cursor over the document name, open the menu that becomes active, and select the Save Updatable Copy option. Save the document locally when the Save As window appears.
Tom now has a local copy of the Alfresco Update.doc
file, just as Bob does. Make some changes to the Alfresco Update.doc
file, save the document, and upload it to the Document Workspace.
When multiple users hold local copies of a Document Workspace document, the Document Updates pane provides you with options for managing the edits. When changes to your local copy conflict with the version stored in the site, this feature enables you to compare the two versions, and either overwrite one copy, or merge the two copies. All of this can be done by carrying out the following steps:
Alfresco Update.doc
is open. On the Shared Workspace task pane, select the Documents tab.Alfresco Update.doc
is highlighted in the Documents list. Position your cursor over the document name, open the context menu, and then select Document Updates.Once you complete the collaboration on the document, you would typically delete the Document Workspace, as it is no longer required. This action permanently deletes the site and all of its contents. With the tutorial now complete, you can perform this task to remove the sample site, Alfresco SPP Support, and its contents, from Share. Ensure that the document Alfresco Update.doc
is open, and then carry out the following steps:
With the addition of Share, Alfresco delivers a Web 2.0 application that leverages Flash and AJAX with a richer user interface than more traditional document management libraries. Share is heavily focused on collaboration tasks, and includes integration with popular blogs that you can publish to internally and externally, Wiki, and Forum/Discussion products are provided out of the box. Share's ability to perform rapid user site creation, site user invitation, permissions and management is noteworthy.
In SharePoint, you can open a document from the web interface, have it automatically load in the appropriate Office application, make your edits, and then check the file in to automatically upload the new version. In Alfresco Share, you have to navigate down to the document manager area of your desired site, and then open the file. Then, check out the file, edit it, and check it back in. The difference in the two methods seems to be that the SharePoint way uses the web interface as the starting point, whereas Alfresco Share uses Microsoft Office as the starting point.