Alfresco Office Services is the new implementation made for Alfresco One (former Enterprise) which allows an user to “Edit Online” a document with MS Office straight from Alfresco Share, provides a fully-compatible SharePoint repository. This new implementation replaces the existing VTI (Microsoft Office SharePoint Protocol Support) already in Alfresco Community.
With Alfresco Office Services (AOS) you can access Alfresco directly from your Microsoft Office applications. This means that you can browse, open, and save Microsoft Office files (Word, PowerPoint, and Excel) in Alfresco without the need to access Alfresco through Chrome, Firefox, or another web browser. (See oficial documentation here). With AOS you also can connect Alfresco as a network drive or shared folder.
The main differences between this new AOS and the existing VTI are:
- Removed Jetty embedded server therefore not need to use port 7070.
- Select document type when saving document form MS Office to Alfresco and fill the type properties within MS Office.
- AOS is part of the core, not need to install an additional AMP.
- A new ROOT.war and _vti_bin.war have to be deployed (included in Alfresco One), if you are upgrading from previous versions please check this information.
Here is a quick demo about how it works and how to use it: