In Sites Explorer or Activity Stream, users can preview documents of various types, without downloading it. To support this feature, eXo Platform uses the JODConverter service that requires OpenOffice or LibreOffice to be installed locally (in the same machine with the eXo Platform server).
Currently, JODConverter does not connect to LibreOffice 4 on Windows. This is a known issue reported by eXo.
Installing OpenOffice/LibreOffice
Follow OpenOffice guideline or LibreOffice guideline to install.
Note that those softwares might be installed in some Linux distributions by the OS already.
JODConverter is already built in eXo Platform, so you do not need to install it.
Sigar Framework
In Windows, Sigar is recommended. JODConverter uses Sigar - if available - to manage Office processes. Without Sigar, there is possibility that Office processes are not stopped successfully when you shut down eXo Platform, and it causes problem in your next start.
So download the following files and install them to
the lib folder ($PLATFORM_TOMCAT_HOME/lib in Tomcat
or $PLATFORM_JBOSS_HOME/standalone/deployments/platform.ear/lib in JBoss):
sigar.jar
sigar-x86-winnt.dll for Windows 32.
sigar-amd64-winnt.dll for Windows 64.
JODConverter version
eXo Platform uses JODConverter v3.0 that enhances processing different file types much.
Activating and deactivating
JODConverter is activated by default. You can deactivate it (and consequently not use the preview feature)
by setting exo.jodconverter.enable=false in the following file:
$PLATFORM_TOMCAT_HOME/gatein/conf/exo.properties (Tomcat).
$PLATFORM_JBOSS_HOME/standalone/configuration/gatein/exo.properties (JBoss).
Configurations
In most cases, you do not need to configure JODConverter because it can work with default configurations. However, if you are using OpenOffice 4 (or later), or have installed the Office server untypically, you will need to specify exo.jodconverter.officehome by yourself. See Specifying exo.jodconverter.officehome.
JODConverter configurations can be edited in the following files. See Configuration overview if the file has not been created yet.
$PLATFORM_TOMCAT_HOME/gatein/conf/exo.properties (Tomcat).
$PLATFORM_JBOSS_HOME/standalone/configuration/gatein/exo.properties (JBoss).
# JOD Converter exo.jodconverter.enable=true exo.jodconverter.portnumbers=2002 exo.jodconverter.officehome= exo.jodconverter.taskqueuetimeout=30000 exo.jodconverter.taskexecutiontimeout=120000 exo.jodconverter.maxtasksperprocess=200 exo.jodconverter.retrytimeout=120000
| Key | Default value | Description |
|---|---|---|
exo.jodconverter.portnumbers | 2002 | List of ports, separated by commas - those used by each JODConverter processing thread. The number of office instances is equal to the number of ports. |
exo.jodconverter.officehome | See here | The absolute path to Office installed folder. |
exo.jodconverter.taskqueuetimeout | 30000 | The maximum living time of a task in the conversation queue. The task will be removed from the queue if the waiting time is longer than taskQueueTimeout. |
exo.jodconverter.taskexecutiontimeout | 120000 | The maximum time to process a task. If the processing time of a task is longer than taskExecutionTimeout, this task will be aborted and the next task is processed. |
exo.jodconverter.maxtasksperprocess | 200 | The maximum number of tasks are processed. |
exo.jodconverter.retrytimeout | 120000 | The interval time to restart the Office services after an unexpected crash. |
Specifying exo.jodconverter.officehome
Again, the default configuration should work in many cases. Most likely you need to change it for OpenOffice 4.
Note that EXO_JODCONVERTER_OFFICEHOME variable is not used as of 4.1.0.
The customize script does not overlap JODConverter configuration anymore, so only use exo.properties for it.
Here are some examples of the property:
In Linux: exo.jodconverter.officehome=/opt/openoffice4
In Windows: exo.jodconverter.officehome=C:\\Program Files (x86)\\OpenOffice 4
Remember to use double slash (\\) for Windows.
In Linux, if you do not know the path, you might check the followings:
/opt/openoffice.org3
/opt/libreoffice
/usr/lib/openoffice
/usr/lib/libreoffice
Services details
To support as many as possible document types, it is recommended you install all available services of Open Office. However, if you do not want to do so, refer to the following table to know which packages are needed for which services.
| File extensions | Service names | Open Office installation package | Libre Office installation package |
|---|---|---|---|
|
| writer | openoffice.org-writer | libreoffice-writer |
|
| math | openoffice.org-math | libreoffice-math |
odg | draw | openoffice.org-draw | libreoffice-draw |
|
| impress | openoffice.org-impress | libreoffice-impress |
|
| calc | openoffice.org-calc | libreoffice-calc |
See also