Sharing

How to open a document with "track changes" mode enabled?

To open the document with the track changes mode enabled, the document.permissions parameter is used (see the complete structure of ONLYOFFICE Docs configuration object here).

There are three main variants how the document can be opened with the track changes mode enabled:

1. Both reviewing and editing enabled: if both the document.permission.edit and document.permission.review parameters are set to true, the user will be able to edit the document, accept/reject the changes made and switch to the review mode him-/herself. The configuration in this case will look like this:

const docEditor = new DocsAPI.DocEditor("placeholder", {
  document: {
    permissions: {
      edit: true,
      review: true,
    },
  },
  editorConfig: {
    mode: "edit",
  },
})

2. Reviewing only enabled: if the document.permission.edit parameter is set to false and document.permission.review is set to true, the user will be able to open the document in review mode only. The configuration in this case will look like this:

const docEditor = new DocsAPI.DocEditor("placeholder", {
  document: {
    permissions: {
      edit: false,
      review: true,
    },
  },
  editorConfig: {
    mode: "edit",
  },
})

3. Reviewing and commenting enabled: if the document.permission.edit parameter is set to false, document.permission.review and document.permission.comment are both set to true, the user will be able to open the document in review mode with possibility to comment it, but will not be able to edit it. The configuration in this case will look like this:

const docEditor = new DocsAPI.DocEditor("placeholder", {
  document: {
    permissions: {
      edit: false,
      comment: true,
      review: true,
    },
  },
  editorConfig: {
    mode: "edit",
  },
})

Further information about the permissions can be found at this page.

How to open a document with "commenting" mode enabled?

To open the document with the commenting mode enabled, the document.permissions parameter is used (see the complete structure of ONLYOFFICE Docs configuration object here).

There are the following main variants how the document can be opened with the commenting mode enabled:

1. Both commenting and editing enabled: if both the document.permission.edit and document.permission.comment parameters are set to true, the user will be able to edit the document and comment. The configuration in this case will look like this:

const docEditor = new DocsAPI.DocEditor("placeholder", {
  document: {
    permissions: {
      edit: true,
      comment: true,
    },
  },
  editorConfig: {
    mode: "edit",
  },
})

2. Commenting only enabled: if the document.permission.edit parameter is set to false and document.permission.comment is set to true, the document will be available for commenting only. The configuration in this case will look like this:

const docEditor = new DocsAPI.DocEditor("placeholder", {
  document: {
    permissions: {
      edit: false,
      comment: true,
    },
  },
  editorConfig: {
    mode: "edit",
  },
})

3. Reviewing and commenting enabled: if the document.permission.edit parameter is set to false, document.permission.review and document.permission.comment are both set to true, the user will be able to open the document in review mode with possibility to comment it, but will not be able to edit it. The configuration in this case will look like this:

const docEditor = new DocsAPI.DocEditor("placeholder", {
  document: {
    permissions: {
      edit: false,
      comment: true,
      review: true,
    },
  },
  editorConfig: {
    mode: "edit",
  },
})

4. Comments are available for viewing only: if the document.permission.edit parameter is set to true and document.permission.comment is set to false, the user will be able to edit only, the corresponding commenting functionality will be available for viewing only, the adding and editing of comments will be unavailable. The configuration in this case will look like this:

const docEditor = new DocsAPI.DocEditor("placeholder", {
  document: {
    permissions: {
      edit: true,
      comment: false,
    },
  },
  editorConfig: {
    mode: "edit",
  },
})

Further information about the permissions can be found at this page.

How can the 'fillForms' parameter be used?

Starting from version 5.2, ONLYOFFICE Docs provides functionality for filling special forms without the need to give editing permissions to the user. This can be used, for example, in case you have a document form of some kind and want to give the users the access to this form so that they could fill it, but could not edit other document fields (e.g. fill the names in a contract but not change the contract terms, or fill the variable fields in some other document but leave the other parts of the document intact).

To enable this mode the document.permissions.fillForms parameter is used:

const docEditor = new DocsAPI.DocEditor("placeholder", {
  document: {
    permissions: {
      edit: false,
      review: false,
      fillForms: true,
      comment: false,
    },
  },
  editorConfig: {
    mode: "edit",
  },
})

The comment field is optional because the commenting is disabled anyway with the fillForms parameter enabled and edit and review parameters disabled.

With the configuration above the document will be opened with the form filling mode enabled and all the other modes disabled, giving the users who have access to it only the possibility to fill the fields in the special content controls.

It is then up to you to decide what is done next: either the changes to the editable fields will be saved to the same document or a new document will be created each time the original one is accessed and altered by a new user.

The first scenario can be used if the access to the document will be given only once to a certain user with fillForms permissions, then it is saved with all the changes and no other user will have to fill it again.

The second scenario is more commonly used, when you have a document template with some fields not filled and want to give access to it to more users (put it to your website, for example, so that the users filled it right there without the need to download it each time, fill and upload it back again). In this case it will be more reasonable to have this document as a template for future changes and, once the users with the fillForms access edit the fields, save it under another name.

Further information about the permissions can be found at this page.

How to enable both the editing and commenting mode for a document?

To open the document with both the editing and the commenting modes enabled, the document.permissions parameter is used (see the complete structure of ONLYOFFICE Docs configuration object here).

You will need to set both the document.permission.edit and document.permission.comment parameters to true, so that the user will be able to edit the document and comment. The configuration in this case will look like this:

const docEditor = new DocsAPI.DocEditor("placeholder", {
  document: {
    permissions: {
      edit: true,
      comment: true,
    },
  },
  editorConfig: {
    mode: "edit",
  },
})

Further information about the permissions can be found at this page.

Do the permission parameters influence each other?

Most permission parameters are independent and are only enabled when their value is set to true and disabled when the value is set to false. There are, though, several combinations, when the permission will be either enabled or disabled notwithstanding the corresponding parameter value:

• Form filling permission is enabled (even if the fillForm parameter is set to false) when either the edit or review parameter is set to true.
• Form filling permission is disabled (even if the fillForm parameter is set to true) when both the edit and review parameters are set to false and the comment is set to true.
• Commenting permission is disabled (even if the comment parameter is set to true) when both the edit and review parameters are set to false and the fillForms is set to true.

You should bear this in mind when you set the necessary permissions and combine different permissions for the same document.

See the interactive table below to find out how different parameters and parameter combinations influence each other and the resulting document permissions.

Further information about the permissions can be found at this page.

How to open the document in a viewer without the option to edit it?

To open the document with both the viewing mode enabled, the document.permissions parameter is used (see the complete structure of ONLYOFFICE Docs configuration object here).

You will need to set the document.permission.edit, document.permission.review and document.permission.fillForms parameters to false, so that the user will not be able to either edit, or review the document, or change form fields in it. If you additionally want to disable the commenting functionality for the document, set the comment parameter also to false (the existing comments will be available for viewing though).

In case you disable all the editing permissions, we suggest that you also set the document.permissions.chat to false, so that the users with the access to the document could not spam to the document embedded chat.

The configuration in this case will look like this:

const docEditor = new DocsAPI.DocEditor("placeholder", {
  document: {
    permissions: {
      chat: false,
      edit: false,
      review: false,
      fillForms: false,
      comment: false,
    },
  },
})

Further information about the permissions can be found at this page.

How to disable/enable the possibility to download the file?

To open the document with the downloading option disabled, the document.permissions parameter is used (see the complete structure of ONLYOFFICE Docs configuration object here).

You will need to set the document.permission.download to false, so that the Download as... option were removed from the document File menu (in case the document.permission.edit parameter is set to true) or from the top toolbar (in case the document.permission.edit is set to false and the file is available for viewing only) and the user could not download the document from the editor. The permission configuration in this case will look like this:

const docEditor = new DocsAPI.DocEditor("placeholder", {
  document: {
    permissions: {
      download: false,
    },
  },
})

Further information about the permissions can be found at this page.

How to prevent a document from being printed?

To open the document with the printing option disabled, the document.permissions parameter is used (see the complete structure of ONLYOFFICE Docs configuration object here).

You will need to set the document.permission.print to false, so that the Print option were removed from the document File menu (in case the document.permission.edit parameter is set to true) or from the top toolbar (in case the document.permission.edit is set to false and the file is available for viewing only) and the user could not print out the document from the editor. The permission configuration in this case will look like this:

const docEditor = new DocsAPI.DocEditor("placeholder", {
  document: {
    permissions: {
      print: false,
    },
  },
})

Further information about the permissions can be found at this page.

How to view and change sharing settings for a certain document?

The sharing settings are stored at the document storage service and must be defined by the software integrators themselves. ONLYOFFICE Docs can display these settings using the document.info.sharingSettings parameter the information from which will be displayed in the document File -> Access rights... window.

This parameter is an array of objects representing a list of user names (document.info.sharingSettings.user) with their access rights for the current document (document.info.sharingSettings.permissions).

The document.info.sharingSettings.user is a string parameter, which can display any user name passed from the document storage service to the ONLYOFFICE Docs.

The document.info.sharingSettings.permissions is also a string parameter, which displays the name of the access rights corresponding to the set of rules defining the user access to the current document.

Please note, that initially there are not any predefined set of rules for the document access. In case you use ONLYOFFICE Workspace, there are several access right rules defined (Full Access, Read Only, Deny Access) which will be used and displayed. If you set up your own document storage service, you will have to define your own set of rules and their names (e.g. Read-only access with document.permission.edit, document.permission.review, document.permission.fillForms parameters set to false; or Download only with all the document.permission parameters set to false and only document.permission.download parameter set to true, etc.) and send them to the document editing service so that the user could access the document and these settings were displayed in the document Access rights... window.

The sharingSettings configuration might look the following way:

const docEditor = new DocsAPI.DocEditor("placeholder", {
  document: {
    info: {
      sharingSettings: [
        {
          permissions: "Full Access",
          user: "John Smith",
        },
        {
          isLink: true,
          permissions: "Read Only",
          user: "External link",
        },
      ],
    },
  },
})

Further information about the permissions can be found at this page.

How to restrict commenting?

The comments are enabled by default. If you want to restrict commenting and allow the authors to edit and/or delete only their comments, you will need to change the document.permissions.editCommentsAuthorOnly and/or document.permissions.deleteCommentsAuthorOnly parameters:

const docEditor = new DocsAPI.DocEditor("placeholder", {
  document: {
    permissions: {
      comment: true,
      editCommentsAuthorOnly: true,
      deleteCommentsAuthorOnly: true,
    },
  },
})

Do not forget to set the editorConfig.mode to edit, otherwise any commenting functionality will be disabled.