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An OpenOffice based Content Management System?

Posted by Cliff on from the opening-your-files-in-a-different-way dept.

bergeron76 asks: "Does anyone know of any OpenOffice based Content Management applications for Unix? I generate a tremendous amount of documents, spreadsheets, etc. and I'd like a way to organize them in a format other than a filesystem. A while back, I used a system called Docs Open. It was basically just a 'File Save [As]' dialog replacement database front-end for saving my document. I was _required_ to enter only meta-data(not the filename) about the document (keywords, description, etc) in order to save it. Conversely, it had a corresponding open-file dialog box that displayed the recent documents (DB records) and a query window for searching. It was a very nice system, and I'm wondering if anything like this exists for open-office or other popular non-Microsoft Office suites. I'm not seeking web-based systems, I'm seeking an integrated OO Plug-in or similar technology."

8 of 29 comments (clear)

  1. Take a look at Plone+CMFOODocument by CRaMM · · Score: 5, Informative
    http://plone.org

    The CMFOODocument Plone product (http://www.icoya.de/support/download_area/zope/CM FOODocument) has some interesting bridging functionality.

    I guess that when one uploads a OO Write document to a Plone site and it is converted to HTML by this product the content is added to the site catalog so it can be located on a seach by keywords.

    Yo can try it at the Plone demo site http://demo.plone.org

    I haven't' tried it myself though.

    -

    R

  2. How about CVS or Subversion? by hey! · · Score: 4, Interesting

    If you don't have a distribution and review process to be automated, maybe what you really want is a source code control system. You can use this to get every prior version and to tag related collections of documents and retrieve them in a single step. You'll have to teach cvs that oo's files are binary, but it should work fine.

    Our windows developers are using a nice plug-in called Tortoise that patches explorer to integrate cvs with file browsing. You can update/commit, get change graphs simply by clicking on the file. Tortoise doesn't do anything that cvs doesn't do, but its a lot more easy and intuitive. We also use it for our documentation.

    Of course, being able to use CVS like a file system, the way many IDEs do, would be even better. What would really rock is a plug in that stores the individual components of the OO file (content, stylesheet etc.) separately in a cvs archive. You could then get differences between different versions of a document.

    --
    Post may contain irony: discontinue use if experiencing mood swings, nausea or elevated blood pressure.
    1. Re:How about CVS or Subversion? by AdamInParadise · · Score: 4, Interesting

      Now here is something amazing: OO files are just zipped archives of XML files. One could simply unzip the files, store the individual files in CVS and voila! the perfect revision management system. Well maybe not perfect, but probably much better than the Word one, especially with a better SCM than CVS and a little frontend to manages the fact that several files represent a single document.

      Now, it seems simple, but last time I looked at the OO site, I didn't found anything like this. My guess at the time was that the built-in revision system was good enough.

      Regards,

      --
      Nobox: Only simple products.
    2. Re:How about CVS or Subversion? by Synonymous+Yellowbel · · Score: 2, Insightful
      If you don't have a distribution and review process to be automated, maybe what you really want is a source code control system.

      Didn't sound to me like he wanted anything of the sort. I got the impression that rather than a revision control system, he wants a metadata-driven storage/database system, with a key feature being integration into OO.org. Essentially, a quick/easy alternative to saving his documents and then loading them as BLOBs into a database with suitable categorisation metadata.

      I can't offer anything to match the requirements myself, but it does sound like an interesting/useful idea.

      steve

  3. Document Management by DiSKiLLeR · · Score: 2, Insightful

    What you are asking for is a 'Document Management' system. I know, I integrate our product with lots of doc mgmt systems and Integration is my job. (We also do GIS among other things).

    Unfortunately, I don't know of any for Unix that work with OpenOffice, we only deal with Windows. FWIW, Trim Context and DataWorks are a pain ;)

    D.

    --
    You can tell how powerful someone is by the magnitude of the crime they can commit and be able to get away with.
  4. Re:This is the point of Open Source by itwerx · · Score: 2, Insightful

    You have the source code.
    Write your own CMS.

    Some of us have only 24 hours per day to divide among work, family and sleep.

    Mod parent flamebait/troll. :(

  5. Good but not cheap...Oracle CMS SDK (AKA iFS) by 1001011010110101 · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Used to be called internet file system. You can write code to it (java), or you can mount it as NFS, NetBeui, access thru FTP, etc. The framework looks interesting, you can define extended atributes, perform searches, has a pretty complete ACL system, etc.
    Obviously, runs on Oracle databases only :). Might need work to integrate with front end apps.

  6. Re:This is the point of Open Source by josh3736 · · Score: 2, Funny
    You forgot to mention read slashdot, or is that assumed under "work"??

    Nah, it falls under "family."