High Fidelity Document Preview
High Fidelity Document Preview
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.
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:
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:
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:
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
