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LibreOffice Online with ownCloud integration (CODE)

Collabora Online Development Edition -- short CODE -- is a virtual machine that brings LibreOffice Online and ownCloud server together.

The edition is an online version of the popular free and open source LibreOffice application with OwnCloud, integrating the viewing and editing capabilities of the Office Suite in ownCloud.

This introduces document viewing and editing capabilities to ownCloud, a service best known for providing users with the tools to run their own private cloud server or rent a privacy-focused cloud server.

While ownCloud ships with a collaborative editing of rich-text documents, namely odt or doc files, and some apps to read other document formats such as Excel Reader, integration with LibreOffice improves the functionality significantly.

CODE: LibreOffice Online and ownCloud

owncloud libreoffice online

As the name suggests, CODE is a development version and as such, may have bugs and other issues currently.

CODE is shipped as a virtual machine image bundled with an ownCloud server. The distribution has a size of more than 700 Megabytes and can be downloaded directly or as a torrent from the project website.

Instructions on how to run CODE once it has been downloaded to the local system are provided as well. Essentially, what you need to do is run the virtual machine image in VirtualBox or another comparable solution and follow instructions to get started.

code

The core difference between CODE and Collabora Online is that the latter is a commercial undertaking subject to quality assurance and security testing while the former is "strictly an open development and innovation platform".

The point of CODE is not to be “production-ready”, but to be a complete form of early access upon which developers can build and get involved with contributing. As the driving force behind and primary contributor to LibreOffice Online, we want to get CODE to you as an easy way for all contributors to engage, grow and improve the document suite experience

Documents look identical on the desktop and the online version, and that includes tables, images and other styles used in documents.

CODE is focused on getting developers involved in the project, but it is likely that a more suitable solution will be made for end-users eventually that enables them to use LibreOffice Online, either with or without ownCloud integration.

For now, it is something to keep an eye on to see how it evolves. OwnCloud users will benefit from the integration as well as it adds to the capabilities of the product and improves it competitiveness against other services that offer document editing.

 

This article was first seen on ComTek's "TekBits" Technology News

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