Connect to an External Office Server
Steps
An externally managed office server is an office process you start and stop yourself, which XWiki only connects to, so its startup parameters and its lifetime are yours to control; to have XWiki manage the process instead, connect to an internal Office Server. To connect your wiki to an externally managed office server:
- Install LibreOffice or OpenOffice on the server that runs XWiki.
- Open xwiki/WEB-INF/xwiki.properties in a text editor and find the office server properties.
- Uncomment openoffice.serverType and set it to 1. Leave openoffice.homePath and openoffice.profilePath commented out, since an externally managed server ignores them.
- Save the file and restart XWiki.
- Start the office server in headless mode, on the first of the ports set in openoffice.serverPorts:
soffice --headless --accept="socket,host=127.0.0.1,port=8100;urp;" --nofirststartwizardwhere soffice is the office suite executable, for example C:/Program Files/LibreOffice/program/soffice.exe on Microsoft Windows.
- Administer the wiki, select "Content" and then "Office Server", and click "Connect".
- Check that the "Server type" reads "Externally managed (local)" and the "Server state" reads "Connected":
FAQ
When is an externally managed office server the better choice?
When you need to control the office process's startup parameters, or to manage its lifetime separately from XWiki's, for example to run it under its own service manager.
The server environment does not let the office suite create its user profile. What can I do?
Prepare the profile directory on another machine, copy it to the server running XWiki, and pass it to the office process with -env:UserInstallation=file:///path/to/profile##. The openoffice.profilePath property has no effect on an externally managed server.
Can XWiki start the external office server for me?
No. With openoffice.serverType set to 1, the "Office Server" administration section only offers "Connect" and "Disconnect": starting and stopping the process itself is yours to do.
