Configuring IBM Content Navigator with Office Online Server

You can configure IBM Content Navigator to work with Office Online so that users can collaboratively edit Microsoft Office documents.

Before you begin

You must have Office Online Server installed and configured before you configure IBM Content Navigator.

About this task

You can integrate Office Online Server with IBM Content Manager and IBM FileNet® Content Manager repositories.

When you integrate IBM Content Navigator with your Office Online Server, users can easily:
  • Create and add new Office Online documents to the repository

    When the repository is integrated with a Office Online Server, a user can click New and select the type of file that they want to create. The file is added to the repository, checked out, and opened in the appropriate Office Online application in the user's web browser. Additionally, when the user saves their changes, the changes are checked into the repository.

  • Save changes that are made in Office Online to the repository

    When the repository is integrated with a Office Online Server and a user clicks Edit > Edit with Office Online, the file is checked out and opened in the appropriate Office Online application in the user's web browser. Additionally, when the user saves their changes, the changes are checked into the repository.

By default, users can create new blank documents in Office Online. You can optionally add more Office templates that are used when a user creates a new Office Online document from IBM Content Navigator. However, if you provide a custom template, the blank templates that are provided for Office Online are hidden.

If you want users to be able to create blank documents or use a predefined template, you must add a blank template and a custom template.

Important: If you add custom Microsoft Office templates for the Office Online Server integration, the Microsoft Office applications must also be installed on the client machines in your environment.

Procedure

To configure IBM Content Navigator with Office Online Server:

  1. Open the IBM Content Navigator administration tool.
  2. Click Settings. On the General tab, specify the URL of your Office Online Server.
  3. Save your changes to the IBM Content Navigator configuration.
  4. Click Repositories and open the repository that you want to enable for Office Online:
    1. Connect to the repository as a library server administrator (IBM Content Manager) or a Content Platform Engine administrator (IBM FileNet P8).
    2. Click the Edit Integration tab.
    3. Enable Office Online Server for the repository.
    4. Save your changes to the repository configuration.
      Restriction: You cannot add templates to the repository configuration until you complete this step.
  5. If you want to add custom templates for Office Online documents, complete the following steps:
    1. Click Add for the category that you want to add a template to.
    2. Select the template file that you want to add to the repository and specify the appropriate values for the file in the repository.
      Important: Ensure that the users who need to use the template have access to the template.
    3. Click Add to add the file to the repository.
    4. If you have multiple templates associated with a category, specify which template is selected by default.
      This template is selected by default in the New Document window when the user clicks New > Document type.
    5. Save your changes to the repository configuration.
  6. If you are configuring an IBM Content Manager repository, complete the following steps:
    1. Specify which IBM Content Manager classes you want to modify to support Office Online.
      Restriction: After you save your changes in the IBM Content Navigator administration tool, the changes to the classes cannot be undone.
    2. Specify the groups or users who can create, edit, and use Office Online templates.
      Tip: Use groups to simplify Microsoft Office Online template management.
    3. Specify the groups or users who can create drafts of Office Online documents during collaborative editing.

      Any user who needs to collaboratively edit documents in Office Online must have the appropriate privileges to create drafts. Do not assign users to the editor or user roles if they need to collaboratively edit documents.

      Tip: Use groups to simplify draft management.
    4. Save your changes to the repository configuration.
  7. Click Desktops and open the desktop that you want to enable for Office Online:
    1. On the Repositories tab, ensure that the desktop configuration includes at least one repository where Office Online is enabled.
    2. On the General tab, enable Office Online.
      When you enable Office Online Server, menu items specific to Office Online are added to the default Office menus.
      Remember: You cannot enable Office Online integration for a desktop until you configure the server URL and enable the integration on a repository.
    3. Specify whether desktop users can collaborate on Office Online or whether you want to restrict editing to a single user.