Related: Components and criteria and features.
2014-08-04 For now, users will access and edit files via VPN, taking advantage of ClearOS's Flexshare feature. In the future, we will add a method to have offline copies of the files. Current idea is to use Syncthing along with adding ClearOS Flexshares as a storage option for the Tiki File Gallery.
John has a desktop, a laptop, a tablet, a smart phone. He wants:
a) Files synchronized on all devices (with possible exclusion of bigger files on tablet & smart phone)
b) Secure web-access to all his files and the history
c) Access to version history doesn't need to be on each device but would be nice
d) Ideally, the capacity to share a large file with a 1-time click secret URL which hell share via IM or e-mail.
e) As John's devices are sometimes all at the same place: an offsite, automated, write-only, encrypted backup to a an online drive (like Duplicati does) with version history (a backup of the last n versions of each file or all versions since x months)
f) Nice to have: a tool to search within the content of all files
The three companies are teaming up for a project so they need to collaborate on some files and since they work for different companies, they can't just use the office's shared folder/drive.
Every time someone updates a file, it should synchronize the copies of the others. All versions of the file should be for sure available on the server backup. And ideally, the last X versions would also be available on each user's computer. (Or maybe just keep local revisions and the last version from the server, so as to avoid retrieving a revision which has already been replaced by a newer version.)
Hamed, Qiao and Susana could very well work for the same company but not be happy with the shared folder/drive because it doesn't provide easy access to previous versions of the files. And thus, this solution would replace the shared folder/drive.
See: Syncthing
LibreOffice has a lot of features, and most overlap with Tiki functionality
| LibreOffice Writer | Tiki Wiki engine and structures |
| LibreOffice Calc | Tiki Spreadsheet |
| LibreOffice Impress | Tiki Slideshow with jQuery.S5 |
| LibreOffice Draw | Tiki Draw with SVG-edit |
| LibreOffice Base | Tiki Trackers |
| LibreOffice Math | Tiki Math |
In general, the desktop app (ex.: LibreOffice) will tend to be more powerful, and better to produce a printable version while the web app (ex.: Tiki) will make it easier to make web documents and to have multiple users collaborate (especially multilingual collaboration). Users will have to choose on a case-by-case basis which one to use and be made aware of the tradeoffs. With the File Gallery features (tags, categories, permissions, check-in, check-out, lock and WebDAV support), we'll minimizes the annoyances of the inherent limitation of file-based computing. On the other hand, with HTML5 and AJAX, we'll strive to make the web app experience better & better.
In any case, the transversal features such as unified search, fined-grained permissions, tags, categories, category transitions (for workflows) will work be it a Tiki spreadsheet or a Libre Office spreadsheet.
Newer organizations which are very collaborative and web-based may tend to create a lot of the new documents in Tiki. On the other hand, organizations with a lot of history will have a large number of files and they'll want to simply copy over to the new shared disk.
Thus, users can edit their .ODF files in LibreOffice via WebDAV. A Tiki plugin for LibreOffice could be made to do certain operations to a given document from within LibreOffice (just to avoid that the person edits a document and also needs to go via the web interface to add tags / change categories / etc.) At the very simplest, it could be "open the URL with the metadata about this file".
The other integration is to add WebODF support. When in the File Gallery, if it's a file format supported by WebODF, a drop down menu item "edit via browser" would appear. This is exactly what we do in Tiki7 when a .svg file is in the file gallery as it is editable in the browser via SVG-edit.
So the idea is to leverage the best cross-platform ODF editor now (LibreOffice), which covers PDF needs and is a familiar paradigm, while also having a fully Web way of doing things with WebODF. Users could choose to do most of the work with LibreOffice via WebDAV and use WebODF for reading and minor edits from a mobile device.
Over time, there will likely be some semi-automated ways to convert from one format to the other. For example, you may want to have ongoing collaboration with the Wiki and Structures, but every so often, export the document to LibreOffice to take advantage of page layout, pagination and PDF export. That is what the Tiki community does to generate a printable version of the documentation
Even if files are on the Tiki Suite server, we still want the double-click, edit and save experience of a desktop file. Via the File Server or via the File Gallery, binary files will be accessible via WebDAV. Thus, a WebDAV client is needed and Cyberduck is a nice app for Windows and Mac.
Please see: Cyberduck. License: GPL
(There is also the built in client in Mac OS's Finder, though it's not exactly as practical as Cyberduck, it is a no download alternative)
It's also nice for WebDAV access to Wiki Pages
See also: Tiki Suite Desktop
This will be more & more important as Tiki Suite SaaS gets underway. Jitsi can do Desktop streaming and Provisioning. We also want a solution like GLPI and OCS Inventory NG
User have choice, but we should pick a suggested minimal Linux desktop. By default, no apps, and users install / activate what they need.
ClearOS permits unified users & groups. So a user has the same username & password for ClearOS (to update their password and user certificates for OpenVPN), Tiki, XMPP (Prosody & Jitsi), Email (Zarafa & Thunderbird) and Flexshares (Samba shared folders accessible locally or via VPN). The system can also permit / restrict usage of many of the ClearOS apps. BigBlueButton & Kaltura users authenticate through Tiki, but it would be better if they could also authenticate directly to ClearOS. OwnCloud has OpenLDAP integration with ClearOS (Not in Tiki Suite, but still very useful for any ClearOS instance)
However, users still need to login to each app. We should progress to a Single Sign On solution. ClearOS should be an IdP (Identity Provider) and also should be able to be a SP (Service Provider).
Related:
ClearOS: Investigate the addition of a Single Sign On (SSO) solution
http://tracker.clearfoundation.com/view.php?id=1873
ClearOS: Add two-factor authentication
http://tracker.clearfoundation.com/view.php?id=1412
Protocols:
User story:
1- Login to ClearOS (or perhaps to any of the apps)
2- Have links to all apps available in SSO. This should be made available to the apps so they can include in their GUI (ex.: nav bar)
3- User clicks on any link in the nav bar, which takes to that site, and logs them in transparently and securely
Target apps for Tiki Suite
Other target apps for ClearOS:
Desktop & mobile apps should also be covered.
| 1) |
15 Aug 2024 14:00 GMT-0000
Tiki Roundtable Meeting |
| 2) |
19 Sep 2024 14:00 GMT-0000
Tiki Roundtable Meeting |
| 3) |
Tiki birthday |
| 4) |
17 Oct 2024 14:00 GMT-0000
Tiki Roundtable Meeting |
| 5) |
21 Nov 2024 14:00 GMT-0000
Tiki Roundtable Meeting |
| 6) |
19 Dec 2024 14:00 GMT-0000
Tiki Roundtable Meeting |
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