Collabora Online is an

open source Open source is source code that is made freely available for possible modification and redistribution. Products include permission to use and view the source code, design documents, or content of the product. The open source model is a decentrali ...

online office suite based on

LibreOffice LibreOffice () is a free and open-source office productivity software suite developed by The Document Foundation (TDF). It was created in 2010 as a fork of OpenOffice.org, itself a successor to StarOffice. The suite includes applications ...

, enabling web-based collaborative real-time editing of word processing documents, spreadsheets, presentations, and

vector graphics Vector graphics are a form of computer graphics in which visual images are created directly from geometric shapes defined on a Cartesian plane, such as points, lines, curves and polygons. The associated mechanisms may include vector displ ...

. Optional apps are available for desktops,

laptops A laptop computer or notebook computer, also known as a laptop or notebook, is a small, portable personal computer (PC). Laptops typically have a clamshell form factor with a flat-panel screen on the inside of the upper lid and an alpha ...

, tablets,

smartphones A smartphone is a mobile phone with advanced computing capabilities. It typically has a touchscreen interface, allowing users to access a wide range of applications and services, such as web browsing, email, and social media, as well as mult ...

, and Chromebooks. Collabora Online is developed by Collabora Productivity, a division of

Collabora Collabora Ltd is a global private company headquartered in Cambridge, United Kingdom, with offices in Cambridge and Montreal. It provides open-source consultancy, training and products to companies. Collabora's initial focus was instant messa ...

, which is a commercial partner of LibreOffice's parent organization, The Document Foundation (TDF). TDF states that a majority of the

software development is done by its commercial partners, Collabora,

Red Hat Red Hat, Inc. (formerly Red Hat Software, Inc.) is an American software company that provides open source software products to enterprises and is a subsidiary of IBM. Founded in 1993, Red Hat has its corporate headquarters in Raleigh, North ...

, CIB, and Allotropia.

Features

Collabora Online can be accessed from modern

web browser A web browser, often shortened to browser, is an application for accessing websites. When a user requests a web page from a particular website, the browser retrieves its files from a web server and then displays the page on the user's scr ...

s without plug-ins or add-ons. Documents, spreadsheets, presentations and vector graphics can be edited collaboratively. Collaborative functions include comments which other users can respond to, document version history which enables the comparison of documents and restoring, etc. Collaborative functions may also include integrated video calls or chat whilst collaboratively editing documents, features like these are possible with integrations with enterprise cloud solutions such as

Nextcloud Nextcloud is a suite of Client–server model, client-server software for creating and using file hosting services. It can integrate with the Collabora Online and OnlyOffice office suites. It can be hosted in the Cloud computing, cloud or On-pre ...

ownCloud ownCloud is a Free Software Foundation, free and open-source software project for content collaboration, File sharing, file-sharing, and file-syncing. It's usable in distributed and Federation (information technology), federated enterprise scena ...

, Seafile, EGroupware and others. Collabora Online can be integrated with any application. Collabora Online Calc 6

Collabora Online Writer Screenshot with Estelle Johnson Poem 1920x1053

Device support

Client apps are not required to access web-based Collabora Online. Optional apps that install locally on devices will work online or offline are available for Android,

ChromeOS ChromeOS, sometimes styled as chromeOS and formerly styled as Chrome OS, is an operating system designed and developed by Google. It is derived from the open-source operating system and uses the Google Chrome web browser as its principal user ...

iOS Ios, Io or Nio (, ; ; locally Nios, Νιός) is a Greek island in the Cyclades group in the Aegean Sea. Ios is a hilly island with cliffs down to the sea on most sides. It is situated halfway between Naxos and Santorini. It is about long an ...

iPadOS iPadOS is a mobile operating system developed by Apple for its iPad line of tablet computers. It was given a name distinct from iOS, the operating system used by Apple's iPhones to reflect the diverging features of the two product lines, suc ...

Windows Windows is a Product lining, product line of Proprietary software, proprietary graphical user interface, graphical operating systems developed and marketed by Microsoft. It is grouped into families and subfamilies that cater to particular sec ...

macOS macOS, previously OS X and originally Mac OS X, is a Unix, Unix-based operating system developed and marketed by Apple Inc., Apple since 2001. It is the current operating system for Apple's Mac (computer), Mac computers. With ...

and

Linux Linux ( ) is a family of open source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an kernel (operating system), operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991, by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically package manager, pac ...

. The optional apps share the same core LibreOffice Technology software with Collabora Online, resulting in document consistency between them. Software development of the LibreOffice core therefore normally benefits the source code of Collabora Online server and all of the client apps simultaneously. The apps work

offline In computer technology and telecommunications, online indicates a state of connectivity, and offline indicates a disconnected state. In modern terminology, this usually refers to an Internet connection, but (especially when expressed as "on li ...

without the need for a connection to a local server or the cloud; support for integrations with

cloud storage service A file-hosting service, also known as cloud-storage service, online file-storage provider, or cyberlocker, is an internet hosting service specifically designed to host user files. These services allow users to upload files that can be accessed o ...

s is still possible. The mobile apps have touch-optimized interfaces that scale across screen sizes.

File formats

Collabora Online supports ISO/IEC international standard ISO/IEC 26300 Open Document Format for Office Applications (ODF – odt, odp, ods, odg). It also supports Microsoft's XML formats (docx, pptx, xlsx) and Microsoft's legacy binary formats (doc, ppt, xls). Other formats supported include

pdf Portable document format (PDF), standardized as ISO 32000, is a file format developed by Adobe Inc., Adobe in 1992 to present documents, including text formatting and images, in a manner independent of application software, computer hardware, ...

, png, csv, tsv, rtf, and

epub EPUB is an e-book file format that uses the ".epub" file extension. The term is short for ''electronic publication'' and is sometimes stylized as ''ePUB''. EPUB is supported by many e-readers, and compatible software is available for most smart ...

Microsoft Visio Microsoft Visio (, ), formerly Microsoft Office Visio, is a diagramming and vector graphics application and is part of the Microsoft 365 Business. The product was first introduced in 1992 by former American software company Visio Corporation, an ...

, Microsoft Publisher, Apple Keynote,

Numbers A number is a mathematical object used to count, measure, and label. The most basic examples are the natural numbers 1, 2, 3, 4, and so forth. Numbers can be represented in language with number words. More universally, individual numbers can ...

, Pages, and other file formats can be imported, many the same as LibreOffice supported file formats. Older file formats including Lotus 123 ( 123, wks), Microsoft Works ( xlr), and Quattro Pro ( qpw, wb1, wq1 and wq2).

Applications

The following applications are included in online and the apps for desktops, laptops and mobile (tablets, smartphones and

Chromebook Chromebook (sometimes stylized in lowercase as chromebook) is a line of laptops, desktops, tablets and all-in-one computers that run ChromeOS, a proprietary operating system developed by Google. Chromebooks are optimised for web access. They al ...

s). * Collabora Writer word processor supporting .odt, .docx, .doc, .docm, .rtf and other formats. It has WYSIWYG editing, format and style options, comments, and is capable of tracking changes. * Collabora Calc spreadsheet editor supporting .ods, .xlsx, .xls, .xlsm, .csv and other formats. Advanced formulas, pivot tables,

HTML Hypertext Markup Language (HTML) is the standard markup language for documents designed to be displayed in a web browser. It defines the content and structure of web content. It is often assisted by technologies such as Cascading Style Sheets ( ...

formula input, conditional formatting and data validation. Spreadsheets with up to 16k columns, charts, sparklines and

hyperlinks In computing, a hyperlink, or simply a link, is a digital reference providing direct access to data by a user's clicking or tapping. A hyperlink points to a whole document or to a specific element within a document. Hypertext is text with ...

. Advanced multi-column sort and filter advanced options. When enabled, VBA macro compatibility. * Collabora Impress presentation editor supporting .odp, .pptx, .ppt. Master slides, ability to add text, images, tables, SmartArt, speaker notes, custom timings and transitions. * Collabora Draw vector graphics editor supporting .odg, .vsd. For flyers, newsletters, brochures, diagramming, drawing shapes. (Version 6.4.7+). Ability to add text, charts, tables, links, fields, FontWork, text rotation, comments. Options to download as an image or

. In Online, Draw functionality is integrated into Writer and Impress.

Server

Collabora Online allows collaborative real-time editing of word processing documents, spreadsheets, presentations and vector graphics. The server or servers can be hosted locally or with a provider, privately hosted cloud services allow applications and data to remain under the control of the respective users. Collabora Productivity supports Collabora Online server instances for

Debian Debian () is a free and open-source software, free and open source Linux distribution, developed by the Debian Project, which was established by Ian Murdock in August 1993. Debian is one of the oldest operating systems based on the Linux kerne ...

Ubuntu Ubuntu ( ) is a Linux distribution based on Debian and composed primarily of free and open-source software. Developed by the British company Canonical (company), Canonical and a community of contributors under a Meritocracy, meritocratic gover ...

CentOS CentOS (, from Community Enterprise Operating System; also known as CentOS Linux) is a discontinued Linux distribution that provided a free and open-source community-supported computing platform, functionally compatible with its upstream (softw ...

openSUSE openSUSE () is a free and open-source software, free and open-source Linux distribution developed by the openSUSE project. It is offered in two main variations: ''Tumbleweed'', an upstream rolling release distribution, and ''Leap'', a stable r ...

, Univention Virtual Machines and Docker images. It is often integrated with file sharing and collaboration cloud platforms, such as

, ownCloud, Seafile and EGroupware, which are functionally similar to

Dropbox Dropbox is a file hosting service operated by the American company Dropbox, Inc., headquartered in San Francisco, California, that offers cloud storage, file synchronization, personal cloud, and Client (computing), client software. Dropbox w ...

Google Drive Google Drive is a file-hosting service and synchronization service developed by Google. Launched on April 24, 2012, Google Drive allows users to store files in the cloud (on Google servers), synchronize files across devices, and share files ...

and

Microsoft 365 Microsoft 365 (previously called Office 365) is a product family of productivity software, collaboration and Cloud computing, cloud-based Software as a service, services owned by Microsoft. It encompasses online services such as Outlook.com, One ...

, these typically include email, contacts, calendar, file synchronization and sharing, calls, chat and video, with apps stores. Close integrations are possible, enabling things like the possibility to edit documents within a chatroom or a video call, as with Nextcloud's built-in video-conferencing tool Nextcloud Talk. Collabora Online server can integrate simultaneously with several cloud solutions such as aforementioned and also Alfresco, Kolab, Mattermost,

Moodle Moodle ( ) is a free and open-source learning management system written in PHP and distributed under the GNU General Public License. Moodle is used for blended learning, distance education, flipped classroom and other online learning project ...

, Nuxeo,

SharePoint SharePoint is a collection of enterprise content management and knowledge management tools developed by Microsoft. Launched in 2001, it was initially bundled with Windows Server as Windows SharePoint Server, then renamed to Microsoft Office ...

and others. The server can be installed from packages, or during development, for simplicity, from a docker image. The Docker website indicates that the Collabora Online Development Edition (CODE) Docker image has been downloaded 50 million times. A

software development kit A software development kit (SDK) is a collection of software development tools in one installable package. They facilitate the creation of applications by having a compiler, debugger and sometimes a software framework. They are normally specific t ...

(SDK) including

API An application programming interface (API) is a connection between computers or between computer programs. It is a type of software interface, offering a service to other pieces of software. A document or standard that describes how to build ...

specifications and integration instructions is available, along with sample integration code snippets for several programming languages. Collaborative functions include comments which other users can respond to and document version history enabling the comparison of documents and their restoration, and other things. In 2021 a

remote work Remote work (also called telecommuting, telework, work from or at home, WFH as an initialism, hybrid work, and other terms) is the practice of work (human activity), working at or from one's home or Third place, another space rather than from ...

solution was made available by Canonical, Collabora, and Nextcloud which includes the Collabora Online office suite, it installs on Intel NUCs or ARM based Raspberry Pi 4s, it is preconfigured and automatically updates itself, it is called Nextcloud Ubuntu Appliance. In 2022 support for the

OpenPOWER The OpenPOWER Foundation is a collaboration around Power ISA-based products initiated by IBM and announced as the "OpenPOWER Consortium" on August 6, 2013. IBM's focus is to open up technology surrounding their Power Architecture offerings, such ...

architecture was added, complementing existing support for x86-64 and

ARM64 AArch64, also known as ARM64, is a 64-bit version of the ARM architecture family, a widely used set of computer processor designs. It was introduced in 2011 with the ARMv8 architecture and later became part of the ARMv9 series. AArch64 allows ...

, this was the result of a partnership with IT service provider 21unity who offer a

Enterprise solution called 21unity CLOUD.

Digital sovereignty

Collabora Online is fully auditable open source software, uses open standards, is self-hostable and does not require an account from a third party provider to edit files. In July 2020, the European parliament published a briefing titled Digital sovereignty for Europe, detailing concerns that citizens, businesses and Member States of the

European Union The European Union (EU) is a supranational union, supranational political union, political and economic union of Member state of the European Union, member states that are Geography of the European Union, located primarily in Europe. The u ...

(EU) are losing control over their data, it explains the economic model used by Apple, Amazon, Facebook, Google and Microsoft is largely based on the collection and exploitation of online users' data. Judgements such as “Schrems II” show that it is delicate to rely on solutions from the large cloud providers when it comes to processing and storing sensitive personal data. Digital sovereignty has been an increasing concern in the EU for several reasons since the Patriot Act enacted in October 2001, the continuing legal privacy conflicts between the US CLOUD Act enacted March 2018, and the EU's

General Data Protection Regulation The General Data Protection Regulation (Regulation (EU) 2016/679), abbreviated GDPR, is a European Union regulation on information privacy in the European Union (EU) and the European Economic Area (EEA). The GDPR is an important component of ...

(GDPR) implemented May 2018. The French Ministry's IT infrastructure director stated safety of the data of their citizens and employees as a reason for deploying Nextcloud-based private cloud for the French Ministry of Interior. The Dutch Ministry of Education, the German federal government, and the Swedish federal government agencies are deploying Nextcloud-based private cloud for similar reasons and to increase competition.

Technology

The core of Collabora Online is written in C++. It uses the LibreOfficeKit, a programming interface that allows the reuse of most of the existing LibreOffice code and the saving, loading and rendering of documents. The basic principle of Collabora Online is that documents never leave the server. The parties working on the documents see tile-rendered images of the document and send their changes back to the server. The visible user interface of Collabora Online is written in

JavaScript JavaScript (), often abbreviated as JS, is a programming language and core technology of the World Wide Web, alongside HTML and CSS. Ninety-nine percent of websites use JavaScript on the client side for webpage behavior. Web browsers have ...

. For file access and authentication with a file hosting services, Collabora Online uses the WOPI protocol developed by

Microsoft Microsoft Corporation is an American multinational corporation and technology company, technology conglomerate headquartered in Redmond, Washington. Founded in 1975, the company became influential in the History of personal computers#The ear ...

. This means that Collabora Online can – in theory – be used with any instance allowing a Microsoft 365 integration.

Reviews

Various online and print publications have discussed Collabora Online. In December 2016 the technology website

Softpedia Softpedia is a software and tech news website based in Romania. It indexes, reviews and hosts downloadable software and reports news on technology and science topics. It is ranked as among of the top download portals on the internet. History So ...

mentioned the availability of collaborative editing in version 2.0 and the integration with ownCloud, Nextcloud, and other FSS solutions. The technology website ZDNET reported in June 2020 that Collabora Online from version 19 of Nextcloud will be delivered as a standard office package and that within the native video conferencing software Talk direct editing of documents is now possible. The technology blog OMG! Ubuntu! covered the release of the Android and iOS apps pointing out the possibility to use them in offline mode. In September 2020

Linux Magazine ''Linux Magazine'' is an international magazine for Linux software enthusiasts and professionals. It is published by Computec Media GmbH in German-speaking countries and Linux New Media USA, LLC. for English edition. The magazine was first publ ...

compared Collabora Online with

OnlyOffice OnlyOffice (formerly TeamLab), stylized as ONLYOFFICE, is a free software office suite and ecosystem of collaborative applications. It consists of online editors for text documents, spreadsheets, presentations, forms and PDFs, and the room-base ...

, mentioning the flexibility and platform independence of both tools and pointing out the large set of features Collabora Online draws from

History

The former LibreOffice development team from SUSE joined Collabora in September 2013, forming the subsidiary Collabora Productivity. In 2015 Collabora and IceWarp announced the development of an enterprise-ready version of LibreOffice Online to compete with

Google Docs Google Docs is an online word processor and part of the free, web-based Google Docs Editors suite offered by Google. Google Docs is accessible via a web browser as a web-based application and is also available as a mobile app on Android and iO ...

and

Office 365 Microsoft 365 (previously called Office 365) is a product family of productivity software, collaboration and cloud-based services owned by Microsoft. It encompasses online services such as Outlook.com, OneDrive, Microsoft Teams, programs form ...

(now called Microsoft 365). In December 2015, the company's partnership with ownCloud and release of ''CODE'' (Collabora Online Development Edition) was announced on Joinup. In November 2016, Nextcloud announced their work and integration with v2.0 of CODE and their future work plans for improving performance, scalability, security and capabilities with Collabora Online. In October 2020, Collabora announced the move of its work on Collabora Online from The Document Foundation infrastructure to

GitHub GitHub () is a Proprietary software, proprietary developer platform that allows developers to create, store, manage, and share their code. It uses Git to provide distributed version control and GitHub itself provides access control, bug trackin ...

. A development version of Collabora Online is available called Collabora Online Development Edition (CODE).

Notes

References

External links

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