=OPEN(your_workbook.xlsm, EGroupware)
Running EGroupware?
The Collabora application already speaks our protocol.
EGroupware ships a Collabora application in its distribution, and that application is a WOPI host. Point it at SumOffice and documents open in our engine. One condition comes from EGroupware, not from us: a custom document server requires EGroupware EPL or a support key from the EGroupware GmbH shop — in the Community Edition the address field is disabled. With that in place, a macro workbook and a document with five pictures went the full round and came back with the VBA and the pictures identical.
What was measured, and the trap
| Before anything else | Checked on EGroupware 26.9.20260925.1, installed clean: Admin → Collabora Online → App configuration shows the server field disabled, with the line «EGroupware EPL is required to configure a custom Collabora Online server». EGroupware lists running your own document server under EPL. Our round below was measured with that address in place; on a Community install you cannot enter it. |
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| The round | .xlsm and .docx opened from EGroupware, edited, saved back. VBA byte for byte, five pictures byte for byte. |
|---|---|
| It reads only the first zone | A discovery document can declare several network zones. EGroupware takes the first one and ignores the rest — so the zone order in the document decides whether it works at all. Ours is arranged for that. |
| It caches a failure for an hour | If the editor is not up yet when EGroupware first asks, it remembers the failure and does not ask again for an hour. Start the editors before you save the address, or plan to wait — this is the single most confusing thing about the setup, because everything looks correct and nothing happens. |
| On a real workbook | Repeated on a real macro workbook with VBA and a Power Query binding: the edit came back into the file, 22 parts of 22, vbaProject.bin byte for byte — and Microsoft Excel opened the result without a single dialog. |
| It falls back without telling you | If the check of your address fails, EGroupware quietly uses its own managed Collabora instead — and the editor page then shows an error that has nothing to do with your server. Combined with the hour-long cache above, this is the single most confusing thing here: fix the address, clear the cached discovery, and only then judge. |
Setting it up
# 1. start the editors FIRST — see the caching note above
git clone https://github.com/SumOfficeApp/sumoffice-docker && cd sumoffice-docker/nextcloud
cp env.example .env # PUBLIC_URL=https://office.example.com
docker compose up -d
curl -s https://office.example.com/hosting/discovery | head -c 300 # must answer before the next step
# 2. EGroupware EPL → the Collabora application → server address
# https://office.example.com
# Community Edition: this field is disabled — EGroupware requires EPL
# or a support key for a custom document server.Evaluation is free with no time limit; production is the per-application license. The other systems we measured →
Then
- Check my Excel file — what your workbooks rely on, in seconds.
- Tell us your EGroupware version and we will say plainly whether we fit it.