High Fidelity Document Preview

Warning: OnlyOffice is the recommended way to preview and edit documents in Zimbra 10 and above, below documentation is deprecated.

High Fidelity Document Preview

   KB 21097        Last updated on 2023-07-25  




5.00
(one vote)

High Fidelity Document Preview is a Network Edition feature that permits preview it regular document files using the Libreoffice engine.

How it works

Zimbra uses also Convertd module to build a preview of the documents. The Convertd preview conversion is works great but also works much better with the new High Fidelity Document Preview feature, using Libreoffice to render the preview into a .pdf file.

The benefits of this features is that the users can preview any file, in any computer, even if you don't have a Microsoft Office, or Libreoffice in your computer, you will be able to render and see the file. Really usefull.

Highfidelitydocumentpreview.png

How to enable it

Zimbra Convertd and High Fidelity Document Preview are Network Edition features. So you need to have a valid license to enable it.

Install Convertd

During the Zimbra Installation, you need to select the package called zimbra-convertd. You can check if you have it with the next command and see if the convertd is running: zimbra@zimbra-sn-u14-10:~$ zmcontrol status

   Host zimbra-sn-u14-10.zimbralab.local
       convertd                Running
       ldap                    Running
       logger                  Running
       mailbox                 Running
       mta                     Running
       opendkim                Running
       service webapp          Running
       snmp                    Running
       spell                   Running
       stats                   Running
       zimbra webapp           Running
       zimbraAdmin webapp      Running
       zimlet webapp           Running
       zmconfigd               Running
   zimbra@zimbra-sn-u14-10:~$ 

If convertd is not in the list, please run the ./install.sh again and install it when ask for it:

   Install zimbra-convertd [N] Y

Activate High Fidelity Document Preview

High Fidelity Document Preview is built in the Convertd code, the only thing that needs to be enabled is libreoffice, need to install libreoffice in the Server.

This can be accomplished with the Linux package management systems:

  • For RHEL, install the libreoffice-headless package:
   yum install libreoffice
   yum install libreoffice-headless
  • For SLES, install libreoffice:
   yast2 -i libreoffice
  • For Ubuntu, install libreoffice:
   apt-get install libreoffice

After the libreoffice install run the next command

   zmcontrol restart

Test the High Fidelity in Briefcase

Once Convertd and Libreoffice are installed, we can upload any doc, docx, xls, etc to our Briefcase, and try to see it selecting in the Web Client: Highfidelitydocumentpreview-002.png

Note: Google Chrome and Mozilla Firefox have a built-in PDF Viewer. If you want to use the High Fidelity Document Preview feature you need to have the latest versions of them, if you are using Internet Explorer, or an older versions of Chrome or Firefox, please make sure that you have Adobe Reader installed.

Enabling the Preview for attachments

If have the High Fidelity Document Preview feature is a really good idea in the Briefcase, imagine that also in the Attachments that people sent to your users. Even if your users don't have Office in their computers, they will be able to preview the document.

To enable the High Fidelity Document Preview in the attachments, edit the COS and change the next feature with the next value: Highfidelitydocumentpreview-003.png

Then in the Web Client of the users, they will have a new action with the attachments called Preview, and it will use the High Fidelity Document Preview feature: Highfidelitydocumentpreview-004.png

List of Supported documents to render

We have the next list of type of documents supported, much more info here:

text/csv
text/spreadsheet
application/msword
application/msword-template
application/vnd.openxmlformats-officedocument.wordprocessingml.document
application/vnd.openxmlformats-officedocument.wordprocessingml.template
application/vnd.ms-word.document.macroEnabled.12
application/vnd.ms-word.template.macroEnabled.12
application/vnd.ms-excel
application/vnd.openxmlformats-officedocument.spreadsheetml.sheet
application/vnd.openxmlformats-officedocument.spreadsheetml.template
application/vnd.ms-excel.sheet.macroEnabled.12
application/vnd.ms-excel.template.macroEnabled.12

application/vnd.ms-excel.sheet.binary.macroEnabled.12
application/vnd.ms-powerpoint
application/vnd.openxmlformats-officedocument.presentationml.presentation
application/vnd.openxmlformats-officedocument.presentationml.template

application/vnd.ms-powerpoint.presentation.macroEnabled.12
application/vnd.ms-powerpoint.template.macroEnabled.12
application/vnd.ms-powerpoint.slideshow.macroEnabled.12
application/x-ole-storage
application/rtf

application/vnd.oasis.opendocument.graphics

application/vnd.oasis.opendocument.presentation
application/vnd.oasis.opendocument.spreadsheet
application/vnd.oasis.opendocument.text

application/vnd.oasis.opendocument.presentation-template
application/vnd.oasis.opendocument.spreadsheet-template
application/vnd.oasis.opendocument.text-template

application/vnd.oasis.opendocument.presentation-flat-xml
application/vnd.oasis.opendocument.spreadsheet-flat-xml
application/vnd.oasis.opendocument.text-flat-xml

Switch between standard Convertd and High Fidelity Document Preview

Sometimes we could problems with the High Fidelity Document Preview like High CPU resources, some libreoffice issue, etc. If we want to switch to the "old" conversion engine based in Convertd we need to change the High Fidelity path for other:

   zmlocalconfig -e oo_linux_install_path=/HIGHFIDELITYOFF
   zmcontrol restart

If you want to enable it again, please launch this command:

   zmlocalconfig -e oo_linux_install_path=/usr/bin/soffice
   zmcontrol restart

Combination and modes of Convertd and High Fidelity Preview

You can run the Preview of the documents with one of the follow combination:

  • a) No libreoffice and zimbra-convertd is installed: Old preview system (keyview) is used.
  • b) Libreoffice is installed, and no zimbra-convertd is installed: New preview system is used, but there is no indexing of attachments.
  • c) Libreoffice is installed, and zimbra-convertd is installed: New preview system is used and attachments are indexed

Mode (b) is not recommended

Identified Support Issues

  • Bug 97439 - Document requirements for libreoffice.
  • Bug 97439 - High Fidelity Document Preview problem in Internet Explorer 11 or lower without Adobe Reader



Verified Against: Zimbra Collaboration Suite 8.6, 8.5 Date Created: 08/4/2014
Article ID: https://wiki.zimbra.com/index.php?title=High_Fidelity_Document_Preview Date Modified: 2023-07-25



Try Zimbra

Try Zimbra Collaboration with a 60-day free trial.
Get it now »

Want to get involved?

You can contribute in the Community, Wiki, Code, or development of Zimlets.
Find out more. »

Looking for a Video?

Visit our YouTube channel to get the latest webinars, technology news, product overviews, and so much more.
Go to the YouTube channel »


Jump to: navigation, search