Collabora release of the platform (Collabora Online Development Edition), offering a specialized distribution for rapid deployment and organization of collaborative remote work with the office suite via the Web to achieve functionality similar to Google Docs and Office 365. The distribution is provided in the form of a pre-configured container for Docker and also as packages for popular Linux distributions. The developments used in the product are hosted in public repositories , , (Web Services Daemon) and (web client). The developments proposed in version CODE 6.4 will be included in the standard LibreOffice 7.1.
CODE includes all the components necessary for the operation of the LibreOffice Online server and provides the ability for rapid launch and familiarization with the current state of the LibreOffice Web edition development. Through the web browser, it supports working with documents, spreadsheets, and presentations, including the ability for multiple users to collaborate simultaneously, making edits, leaving comments, and responding to questions. Contributions, current edits, and each user's cursor positions are highlighted in different colors. To organize cloud storage of documents, systems such as , , and .
The displayed editing interface uses the standard LibreOffice engine and allows achieving a completely identical representation of the document structure compared to the desktop version. The interface is rendered using the HTML5 backend of the GTK library, designed to render the output of GTK applications in a web browser window. For calculations, tiled rendering, and multilayer document layout, the standard LibreOfficeKit is used. To organize server interaction with the browser, transfer images with parts of the interface, manage caching of image pieces, and work with document storage, a special Web Services Daemon is employed.
Key Changes:
- The version numbering is synchronized with the Collabora Office products, so after version 4.2, a release of CODE 6.4 was immediately formed. This change reflects the initiative to align all Collabora products, including applications for mobile platforms, to a common numbering.
- The new toolbar is proposed by default , designed in the Ribbon style and mirroring the same panel from the desktop version of LibreOffice. The panel offers simpler buttons and an intuitive categorization of tools into tabs.
- A collapsible mode for the NotebookBar has been added, allowing users to switch to a compact single-row layout where only the tabs are visible (clicking on the active tab hides the tools, and a second click brings them back).
- In the upper left corner, regardless of collapsing the NotebookBar, a dropdown menu (hamburger) now displays additional settings and tools for collaboration management and language capabilities.
- Based on the NotebookBar and tabs, the design of Writer, Impress, and Calc has been modernized.
- For users accustomed to the classic toolbar, the option to revert to the old interface is available by setting the user_interface parameter in the loolwsd.xml file to "classic".
- The code for rendering spreadsheets has been rewritten. In addition to improved performance, the new implementation allows for features such as freezing rows and columns — after clicking the freeze button in the toolbar or through the 'View > Freeze Rows' menu, the selected row or column remains visible on the left or top while scrolling.
- Tools for collaborative work with PDF files have been added. Users can now together review a PDF document, attach annotations, and add comments.
- The rendering of presentations, charts, images, and shapes when working with OOXML formats used in Microsoft Office has been improved. This includes support for displaying transparent text, enhanced SmartArt support, and better display of color gradients in presentations.
Source: opennet.ru
