Installing OpenOffice.org 2.3.1 to the network

Not just to the network, but with extensions and some user options set by default.



Well, I think I have it figured out.



What I ended up doing is a network install with some tweaked .xcu files to set things like default save types(you can find how to tweak those files within these forums). I also created a transform for the .msi to set the file associations for M$ products as well as some other things (you can find those transforms within these forums as well). Those 2 things got the base product installed the way I wanted it via a group policy.



Then, to get some of the extensions installed I created a .bat file that calls unopkg to install those extensions that allow that type of install, and I ran it as a StartupScript in the same group policy I used to install the main product. Like this:

start "" /wait "C:\Program Files\OpenOffice.org 2.3\program\unopkg.exe" add --shared "C:\Program Files\OpenOffice.org 2.3\Pushed OXT\cropooo-0.2.1.oxt"



However, not all extensions can be installed this way, they simply lockup or just do not install. I assume this is because of the user agreements involved for some of them. So, to get around that I ran the installation of those manually and installed them on a test machine. I then took the resulting files located for instance in the following folder (C:\Program Files\OpenOffice.org 2.3\share\uno_packages\cache\uno_packages\21.tmp_\Sun_ODF_Template_Pack_en-US.oxt\template) and I put them in a folder within the network install folder for convenience. I then added the following lines to the .bat file.

XCOPY /Y /S "\OpenOffice2.3.1\Templates_To_Move\*" "C:\Program Files\OpenOffice.org 2.3\share\template\en-US\"

ECHO Pushed Templates



This simply copies the templates, gallery pics, etc. to the proper place in the folder structure of OOo.



That gave me everything I wanted to do at this point. The only issue I have had so far, is that 1. the initial install takes about 15-20 minutes on our slowest machines ( I can live with that) 2. On some machines, the first time you go to open a file from File -> New From Template it takes a bit to bring up the dialog. I assume it is building the list with all of the templates that were dumped into that directory.



I hope this helps someone else in my situation and I really hope I did not totally violate the user-agreements of those extensions by installing them that way. If I did, I hope someone will let me know and I will undo what I did immediately. Hopefully in future builds there will be an easier way to deploy OOo extensions to network machines without having to purchase a third party product. The biggest reason we use OOo is the cost or lack there of.