Apache OpenOffice (AOO) Bugzilla – Issue 29716
Ability to share a workbook
Last modified: 2004-06-01 14:38:30 UTC
Apparently, in Excel (even I think in 2000), it is possible to share a workbook across users in an internal network. From the users mailing list, there have been a few users that would like this. However, some have asked about security and corruption, etc. Others have wondered whether this could be done using the database componenent of OOo. http://articles.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m6280/is_1_197/ai_112484560/pg_2 In this article there is a good description of how to set it up and it gives some ideas of how it works. From my understanding of databases, I think that if OOo can do this seamlessly with the database component, that would be HUGELY better than the way Excel is doing it. See some horror stories here: http://www.eng-tips.com/gviewthread.cfm/pid/770/qid/93115 I'm wondering if anyone else thinks this is worth it. I don't think a lot of users would use it, but with the changes for 2.0 to the database component, people might start using the db much more because it will be easier to use, then this might be a really awesome feature.
Someone posted this from the users list about using the feature in Excel: <paste> Given that you most likely don't have access to Excel, I will state a couple of the simple tests I did. Created a new Excel spreadsheet. Selected Shared Workbook and ticked the desired options including automatic update every 5 minutes. (It really is this simple for end users to enable.) Save the file on a shared hard disk. Both users open file which currently contains nothing First user enters "Fred" into cell A1 and saves Nothing happens in second users spreadsheet. If the second user presses Save, all changes appear. The changes appear with a Note providing full description of who changed what (including before and after) and when. >From a computer persons point of view having to press Save to see changes reflected in data is cumbersome. If the data is updated automatically every 5 minutes (the minimum time interval) then that could be a lot of updates to review. Now both users change cell A1 to "User1" and "User2" respectively. User two saves first first. User one goes to save. User one is prompted that a change has already occurred in the cell. What the change is, and whether to accept "mine", or "other". If the changes do not overlap, the changes simply appear and the user is informed that others have made changes. Again with full notes colour coded. This approach is a called optimistic locking I believe. This is the first time I have seen a good use for optimistic locking. I don't use optimistic locking in applications. I use record level locking. But hey, for end users with shared files and low volume changes, this approach is completely valid. At a guess this would appear to be very little different from tracking changes in a word processing document. What fusses me about all of this is I can't possibly see how OpenOffice.org is useable in Government and Corporates where this type of requirement exists everywhere. Even in the small business, medium business sector I work in, multiple user updates is pretty fundamental. Even if it only occurs in one in a hundred documents, if the functionality is not available in some form, users will start to look at other packages. Because of my database background I would prefer multi-user updates to be in a more controlled environment. </paste>
Hi, this is a double to Issue 13597 Frank *** This issue has been marked as a duplicate of 13597 ***
closed double