Axis2UNO: Web Services Enabled Openoffice.org
This work addresses the need for enhanced web services functionality in free and open-source office software, though it appears incremental as it builds on existing technologies like UNO Web Service Proxy.
The paper tackles the problem of integrating web services into OpenOffice.org by introducing Axis2UNO, a framework that combines OpenOffice.org with the Axis2 web service engine, aiming to create a new era in office environments by leveraging community involvement and feature richness.
Openoffice.org is a popular, free and open source office product. This product is used by millions of people and developed, maintained and extended by thousands of developers worldwide. Playing a dominant role in the web, web services technology is serving millions of people every day. Axis2 is one of the most popular, free and open source web service engines. The framework presented in this paper, Axis2UNO, a combination of such two technologies is capable of making a new era in office environment. Two other attempts to enhance web services functionality in office products are Excel Web Services and UNO Web Service Proxy. Excel Web Services is combined with Microsoft SharePoint technology and exposes information sharing in a different perspective within the proprietary Microsoft office products. UNO Web Service Proxy is implemented with Java Web Services Developer Pack and enables basic web services related functionality in Openoffice.org. However, the work presented here is the first one to combine Openoffice.org and Axis2 and we expect it to outperform the other efforts with the community involvement and feature richness in those products.