Can Collabora Online be used as a document viewer?

User Support
1

I would like to give users an option to open spreadsheets in CODE / COOL in read-only mode - a “View in Collabora” option - in addition to the “Edit in Collabora” option they already have. This would be available to users with read-only access AND users with read / write access.

This is to provide a better user experience than the viewing spreadsheets via PDF renditions that they currently get.

Is this possible?

2

Welcome, @PaddyTB, to collabora online forums :purple_heart:

yes, Collabora Online (COOL / CODE) can be used as a document viewer*in read-only mode. You can achieve this in multiple ways:

  1. WOPI UserCanWrite=false – If you’re integrating with a WOPI host (e.g., Nextcloud, ownCloud), set UserCanWrite=false in the WOPI response.
    This ensures that the document opens in read-only mode.
  1. URL Parameter permission=readonly – If you’re using a direct iframe integration, you can append permission=readonly to the URL, like this:
https://<collabora-server>/browser/dist/file.html?file_path=<your-file>&permission=readonly

This will prevent editing while allowing users to view the document
interactively. Advanced integration — SDK https://sdk.collaboraonline.com/ documentation

  1. Nextcloud Integration (loadReadonly) – If you’re using Nextcloud, you can modify the richdocuments app configuration to open documents in read-only mode when selecting “View in Collabora.”

  2. WOPI EnableOwnerTermination=false – This setting ensures that users cannot switch to edit mode when in read-only mode.

Thanks
Darshan

3

Thanks for the speedy response Darshan. I am integrating with a WOPI host.

Option 1 is adding UserCanWrite=false to the CheckFileInfo response I guess? I don’t think that would be possible as the WOPI host will not know if the request from CODE is in the context of a result of a view or an Edit request (where the user has read / write permission to the document)

Option 2 seems much more promising thanks. I do see it comes under And some debug and testing utilities in the docs. Is it OK to be used in production?

Best,
Paddy

4

Hi Paddy

For Option 2 (permission=readonly), while it’s mentioned under debug/testing utilities, it has been used in production environments successfully. However, it’s not an officially documented production feature, so it might not be the most future-proof approach.

A more flexible approach might be to use a platform like Nextcloud, which provides built-in permission management. It allows you to:

  • Control whether a user can view or edit the document.
  • Dynamically change permissions based on user roles.
  • Offer a “View in Collabora” option for read-only access while still allowing edits when needed

Thanks
Darshan

5

Hi Darshan, thanks once again for the quick reply.

I’m integrating with a platform already. Here’s how your list fits with what I’m doing:

  • Control whether a user can view or edit the document. - the integration already does this
  • Dynamically change permissions based on user roles. - don’t need to do this
  • Offer a “View in Collabora” option for read-only access while still allowing edits when needed - would like to implement this

Do you know if Nextcloud uses the permission=readonly to implement the third option - if it does I’d happily tag along with that approach?

Thanks,
Paddy

6

Wonderful @PaddyTB!

I would suggest checking out the example integration project we have in the Collabora Online repository GitHub - CollaboraOnline/collabora-online-sdk-examples: Various minor pieces of code to be used in Collabora Online and related software

  • If you search there, you’ll find how UserCanWrite is used in the CheckFileInfo response. This might give you a clearer idea of how to approach your implementation.

Also, I’d be very happy if you could contribute to these examples with your experience! Your insights could help other contributors who might face similar challenges.

Cheers
Darshan