I was wondering if it is possible to open an Excel file (or any Office file) stored on an Azure Blob account within a browser or, better yet, embedded on a web page. Kind of like a preview function instead of always prompting the user to download the file. I know this could be easily done by storing the file in Sharepoint or OneDrive and using it's embed functionality but I'm trying to steer clear of those since we already implement the blob storage.
I've been searching but most results only lead me to Sharepoint/OneDrive.
Any help would be appreciated. :)
Edit (2014-07-14)
As per RGregg's suggestion below, I tried looking into creating a custom WOPI Host and I do think it would perfectly fit what I need. But I think I'm missing something. I cannot get the preview running. I am always getting a "Server not found" error. I tried replacing the old discovery file directed at owa1.wingtip.com with officeapps.live.com/hosting/discovery and it now goes as far as the loading image of Word Online but it gets stuck there. Couldn't really find other materials that expounds on how to make it work and it doesn't show any error whatsoever.
I also tried to create my own (in an attempt to simplify everything with just the mere basics) by implementing the GetFile and CheckFileInfo methods required. It sucessfully retrieves the file and the info but I still can't integrate it with the Web Apps. I think I'm missing a big chunk of something but I can't really figure it out. :(
I think it'd be easier to convert your backend over to Office 365 or OneDrive than to make your blob storage solution work with the Office apps, but I think what you would need to do is implement a WOPI host, like in this article: http://code.msdn.microsoft.com/office/Building-an-Office-Web-f98650d6. That would at least get you to a point where Excel Web App could load files from your blob storage.
I've just recently found out about Google Doc Preview. Basically, you'll just need an online URL of your document and appended it to:
https://docs.google.com/viewer?url=
and put that in an iframe. For wholeness:
<iframe src="http://docs.google.com/viewer?url=http://<blobServer>/<filename>&embedded=true" width="600" height="780" style="border: none;"></iframe>
It already provides some sort of a "Print Preview" on an IFrame so you have to keep in mind of pagination when creating the document for a prettier view. It also doesn't require you to have any google account to access it.
I still have some issues with it though:
Security. No required account = less security.
Doesn't render charts well. I had a pie chart and it appears as one whole solid circle.
Doesn't render filters at all thus...
Doesn't provide interactivity unlike OneDrive's embed.
But, this still answers the question so I'm posting it here for anyone looking for a solution. :)
Any answers are still welcome. :)
Related
Is Sharepoint my best option to replace an aging network of fileshares? There's approx 1TB of data residing among 3 fileshares (1 DFS, 2 NAS boxes). A document management system is in place for new things - the file shares are now just read-only archives/legacy. Our users would simply need to be able to search for and open the documents.
Users are finding it difficult to locate their documents in the file shares and windows search does not often help. Sharepoint was suggested as something which would play nicely with Office documents (99% of the content) and have a good search facility.
Not being a Sharepoint Developer or having had any training on it, I'm getting a little lost. I have set up a test server to try it out using SP2013. I have managed to index each of my file shares and have created a search page. However, results aren't consistent with the indexted items. I assume I need to somehow get the relevant metadata from the files but I have no idea how to go about this.
Could anyone suggest some resources for help on this subject (my searches have mainly turned up paid-for Sharepoint addons or outdated blogs) and any experience of doing something similar? Also happy for any suggestions on ways to achieve this using other software/platforms.
I went with Microsoft Search Server 2010 in the end.
Sharepoint is basically optimized to be a document manager. I think you don't need to buy or donwload addons.
For your problem, metadata are the key! You need to properly specify the metadata.
I give you the theory of a plan document management in SharePoint 2013 :
https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc263266.aspx
A nice introduction to metadata :
http://fr.slideshare.net/gzelfond/document-management-in-sharepoint-without-folders-introduction-to-metadata
Be careful to use the Microsoft documentation for the beginning. From my experience, its difficult to start with this documentation because you have several things in it. There is also good books/ebooks that you can find easily to start well, and probably more simplified than MS documentation.
I'm looking to use Redmine for document management. I know that Redmine is not ideal for this task but there is already a lot of content on the site so I'd like to utilize it if possible.
Redmine currently does not a have great documents module. The files we've uploaded look to be amended on that specific page and it doesn't seem to be able to move to another page (unless you download and re-upload to the proper page).
Idea 1
I see there is a Files section, which could work as a central repository (and you can upload document based on release) however, is there a way to set up a nice-looking 'front-end' page that automatically updates based on new submissions to the Files tab? I envision this front end to be a simple wiki page with the document name, a short description and a links to the file posted in the Files tab.
There are so many documents uploaded to varying pages on the Redmine site. I would only do the whole download and re-upload of files if there was a way to automatically update the 'front end' wiki.
Idea 2
I see there is a DMSF plugin for Redmine. Has anyone used this before and has is solved document management issues? I'd like to hear your feedback. Even if DMSF doesn't totally solve my issue, anything is better than what I have now.
Thanks!
In my opinion DMSF module is a perfect companion for Redmine. We have adopted it in our company. You can easily deal with document versions, webdav access, custom approval workflow, document modifications notification with the extra value of being well integrated with Redmine features (roles, dynamic links in Wiki and issue text and notes).
I have a request of a customer who wants his dashboards to be send weekly/daily to him via E-mail (PDF or IMAGE). I have searched for hours to find a decent solution, but I can’t seem to find one. This should work on “CRM Online” and on “IFD”.
I have found some code that can take a snapshot of a Webpage, but there I have the “Log-In” problems. Each time you execute the page, you see a page with the “MICROSOFT PASSPORT” or “ADFS” sign in box. I tried the “wkhtmltopdf”-method and “WebBrowser”-method and 3rd party tools.
There is also no “JavaScript” or “JQuery” that is able to generate screenshots from the current page. I’ve created a Webresource in CRM 2011 with an iFrame and in that iFrame I’m able to show the “Dashboard”. If I would be able to take a snapshot of that page, I could create an attachment and put in the CRM.
I think I’m on the right way of doing this, but I can’t seem to get over the last difficulties. I hope someone here on the forum already has done something like that. I’m almost sure it must be possible, because a partner of us was able to take a screenshot of the Dashboard and put it in their application. Of course they don’t want to share that piece of code with me.
I don't believe there is a way to possibly implement the functionality requested with out some major "hacks" that would be brittle and most likely break with any type of CRM/Browser update. I would work with the customer and advise them that what they are asking really doesn't make sense from a cost / maintenance standpoint. I'd try to see if they'd be willing to live with these work arounds:
Send a weekly e-mail with a link to CRM. Downside is the user has to be able to have rights to login and see the data, but it would be super easy.
Create custom reports that recreate the dashboard data. You should be able to schedule e-mails for this through SSRS
Good luck!
I am trying to download the full archive files of this website (http://www.afghanislamicpress.com/).
I tried using DeepVacuum (http://www.hexcat.com/deepvacuum/index.html) but the site is dynamic (I think that's the right word).
So you submit a form that gives the article archive, but it only spits out 5 at a time (i.e. per page) and then you have to click through. I want to download all the individual articles for the full data set, but don't want to manually click through.
I know there's some easy way to do this, but not entirely sure how.
Any suggestions for a novice at doing data scraping etc?
The most straightforward solution would be to contact the owner of the website and request their permission to republish their articles, and ask for a digital copy.
You can certainly automate pulling down content that is paged, but it requires some programming effort. The best tool for that imho is HTML Agility Pack.
Please be sure and comply with copyright and licensing terms of the content you are downloading.
I'm trying to implement an Excel Services reporting solution in SharePoint (MOSS). Since the source data is a SharePoint list, this problem is doubly frustrating. I keep bumping up against permissions problems, even though I've enabled virtually everything in sight.
The first error is about refreshing external data - it's not (really) external data, but that's a semantic point.
The second error is a cryptic "Excel Web Access" problem.
Anyone get this to work??
Could be a couple different problems. The first possibility is that Excel Services doesn't support using SharePoint list data (crazy I know)... although this only applies if you try using the type of embedded data source you get if you choose Export to Excel from a list (again, I know crazy).
However an easy way around this problem is to use the SP webservices to get you list data. I had a macro written by someone at MS a while back that automated this conversion, if I canfind a link I'll post it. If you are using Kerberos then you task is probably finished. If using NTLM then you may need to also configure an SSO application so that the right credentials can be passed to the webservice (or any other data source for that matter). There's a pretty good step by step here.
One kind of "hack" to get this to work via UDF's (which if trusted, custom code can be deployed and made available via Excel Services) can be found here.