HPI Edit Online – Save directly into Documentum or Alfresco Repository from Microsoft Word

benallenallen Alfresco, Documentum, HPI, , ,

We often hear from our clients that the process of changing a document requires too many steps. TSG has added a new feature to the HPI product that allows users to seamlessly edit their documents in one simple step.

The existing cumbersome process of editing a document goes as follows:

  • “Check out” the document from the ECM repository’s interface
  • Choose a place to save (or the browser saves it into some folder for you without asking)
  • Find and open the document to make edits
  • Save the document
  • Go back to the ECM repository interface and choose the “check in” option
  • “Browse” to the location that the file was saved on the filesystem to pick the file (cross fingers that you grabbed the right document and the right version of the document)

As we pointed out along the way, there are many things that can go wrong with this manual process.

With the new HPI “Edit Online” action, this process becomes a much less error prone process:

  • Click on the “Edit Online” action (Microsoft Word is automatically launched for editing the document)
  • Click on “Save” from the MS Word menu bar (or just type Control + S) as you are making your edits
  • Exit Word

Check out the video of what this process looks like:

The document is automatically checked into the ECM repository each time the user saves the document, so a robust version/audit trail is preserved each time the user saves the document while working.

Let us know about your check in/check out process in the comments below!

4 thoughts on “HPI Edit Online – Save directly into Documentum or Alfresco Repository from Microsoft Word”

  1. I like where you’ve gone with this. (loaded question) – with other Doc Mgmt apps I’ve looked at, this functionality requires some type of client side installation to support these types of features. What is required with your new Edit Online on the client side?

    • The functionality requires NO client side plugin or extension installation besides MS Word (which typically is already installed). We have had plenty of clients struggle with various java applets or plugins that are difficult to support for an enterprise deployment, so that was a driving force behind us avoiding any client installation. The underlying technology used is built into Office and is exposed through the “Office Client Protocol”.

    • The protocol only requires implementing the methods that are required to expose for your particular use case. If “view previous versions” or some other functionality isn’t necessary to support, the client won’t display those actions, so it is only necessary to implement the methods that you want to support. The HTTP “OPTIONS” call to the implementation will return all of the supported features and Office will only expose what is supported by the server.

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