BambooForge Office Preview for Documents
The Documents-app companion to BambooForge Office & PDF Preview — brings inline Office, OpenDocument & PDF preview into Odoo's Documents app (Kanban, List, Activity), powered by Microsoft's official Office Online viewer. A thin, view-layer add-on: JavaScript only, no backend.
Inline preview inside the Documents app
A short screen recording from a live Odoo 18 Enterprise install — opening Office, OpenDocument and PDF files inline from the Documents Kanban, List and Activity views, with no download and no editor.
Preview where your files already live
Odoo's Documents app is where Enterprise teams store their files — but Office, OpenDocument and PDF files still have to be downloaded to be read. Office Preview for Documents wires the proven BambooForge Office & PDF Preview engine straight into the Documents views, so a click previews the file inline. Microsoft's Office Online viewer renders Word/Excel/PowerPoint and OpenDocument files pixel-perfect, right inside the Documents Kanban, List and Activity views. Previews are access-checked and use short-lived signed links — no permanent public file URLs. The viewer needs the Odoo server reachable from the internet, since Microsoft fetches the file to render it. OpenDocument templates (.ott/.otp/.ots) and PDF render locally.
What you actually get
A focused add-on that does one thing well — inline preview, exactly where Documents users need it.
Preview in the Documents app
See Office, OpenDocument and PDF files inline across the Documents Kanban, List and Activity views — no download, no separate tab.
Same Microsoft viewer as the base module
The same Microsoft Office Online viewer that powers the base module — pixel-perfect rendering across the same 20+ formats. Needs the server reachable from the internet; previews are access-checked through signed links.
Access-checked & signed links
Every preview is access-checked, and the Microsoft path uses short-lived, time-limited signed links — no permanent public file URLs.
Pure view-layer add-on
JavaScript patches to the Documents views only — no Python models, no new database tables, no server-side tools to maintain.
From a live Documents app
Captured from a running Odoo 18 Enterprise install — not mockups.
What's included
Everything below ships in this add-on. The roadmap items belong to the shared preview engine and apply once shipped in the base module.
| Capability | Status |
|---|---|
| Inline preview in Documents Kanban | ✔ Included |
| Inline preview in Documents List | ✔ Included |
| Inline preview in Documents Activity view | ✔ Included |
| OpenDocument (ODF) formats | ✔ Included |
| ✔ Included | |
| Office formats | ✔ Included |
| Microsoft Office Online viewer for Word/Excel/PowerPoint & OpenDocument | ✔ Included |
| Access-checked previews · short-lived signed links (no permanent public URLs) | ✔ Included |
| Local rendering for PDF & OpenDocument templates | ✔ Included |
| No backend overhead | ✔ Included |
| On-prem / offline rendering (no internet) | Roadmap |
| In-document text search | Roadmap |
| Annotations | Roadmap |
| Thumbnail caching | Roadmap |
Live in minutes
Two installs, then preview is on everywhere in the Documents app.
Install the base
Install BambooForge Office & PDF Preview first — it carries the preview engine.
Install this add-on
Drop this module in your addons path and install it from Apps.
Open Documents
Head to the Odoo Documents app — your Enterprise file workspace.
Click to preview
Click a file to preview it inline — Kanban, List or Activity view.
Before you buy
In the box
- Inline preview across the three Documents views — Kanban, List and Activity.
- The same 20+ file formats as the base module.
- The same Microsoft Office Online viewer as the base module — pixel-perfect rendering of Word/Excel/PowerPoint and OpenDocument files.
- Access-checked previews using short-lived signed links — no permanent public file URLs.
- Zero backend overhead — JavaScript view patches only.
- Complete OPL-1 source.
Requirements (read before buying)
- Odoo ENTERPRISE — the Documents app is Enterprise-only.
- The base module BambooForge Office & PDF Preview MUST be installed first — it carries the Microsoft viewer.
- The Odoo server must be reachable from the internet — the Microsoft Office Online viewer fetches the file to render it, via a short-lived signed link.
- PDF and OpenDocument templates (.ott/.otp/.ots) render locally and need no internet.
- A modern browser.
- Preview-only — there is no editing.
Frequently asked
Do I need Enterprise?
Yes — the Documents app is an Odoo Enterprise app, so this add-on requires Odoo Enterprise.
Do I need the base module?
Yes. Install BambooForge Office & PDF Preview first — this add-on extends it into the Documents app.
What's the difference from the base module?
The base module adds preview to the chatter and the file viewer. This add-on adds preview to the Documents app's Kanban, List and Activity views — using the same Microsoft Office Online viewer.
Does it need internet?
Yes. The Microsoft Office Online viewer fetches the file to render it, so the Odoo server must be reachable from the internet and the file is accessed by Microsoft via a short-lived signed link. PDF and OpenDocument templates (.ott/.otp/.ots) render locally. Fully on-prem / offline rendering is on the roadmap.
Are previews secure?
Every preview is access-checked against the user's Odoo permissions, and files are exposed only through short-lived, time-limited signed links — never permanent public URLs. Note the file is fetched by Microsoft's viewer to render it.
Can I edit files in the preview?
No — it is preview-only.
Bring inline preview to your Documents app
BambooForge Labs · the Documents companion to Office & PDF Preview · OPL-1 · source included
bambooforge.labs@gmail.comMore from BambooForge Labs — one vendor, the same standard: tested, documented, supported.
| Availability |
Odoo Online
Odoo.sh
On Premise
|
| Odoo Apps Dependencies |
•
Documents (documents)
• Discuss (mail) |
| Community Apps Dependencies | Show |
| Lines of code | 235 |
| Technical Name |
bambooforge_office_preview_documents |
| License | OPL-1 |
BambooForge Office Preview for Documents (Enterprise)
Preview Microsoft Office files, LibreOffice files, images and PDFs inline, right inside the Odoo Enterprise Documents app — no download, no external desktop application. This module is the Documents companion to BambooForge Office & PDF Preview: it teaches the Documents kanban, list and activity views to open the same inline viewer you already get on chatter attachments.
This page is the complete manual. Follow it top to bottom and you can install, verify and fix the common issues without contacting support.
Overview
The Enterprise Documents app lists every file you store in Odoo, but its built-in preview only opens a handful of formats inline; Office and most LibreOffice files fall back to a plain download. This module closes that gap.
It patches the Documents kanban, list and activity views so that a file is treated as viewable whenever the underlying BambooForge Office & PDF Preview engine can render it. When you open such a file in Documents, the file viewer shows it inline instead of forcing a download.
Formats recognised (inherited from the base preview engine):
| Family | Extensions |
|---|---|
| Word | .doc .docx .docm .dot .dotx .dotm |
| Excel | .xls .xlsx .xlsm .xlt .xltx .xltm |
| PowerPoint | .ppt .pptx .pptm .pot .potx .potm |
| LibreOffice / ODF documents | .odt .ods .odp |
| LibreOffice / ODF templates | .ott .ots .otp |
| Text | .rtf .txt |
| PDF and images | .pdf plus the image formats Odoo already previews |
The module adds no new menus, models or settings of its own. It only extends the existing Documents views. Folders are never treated as previewable.
Requirements
- Odoo: 18.0 Enterprise only. The Documents app ships only with Odoo Enterprise, so this module cannot install on Community.
- Base module: BambooForge Office & PDF Preview: Inline Attachment Viewer (technical name bambooforge_office_preview). This module depends on it and reuses its preview engine — install it too (it is the module that actually renders the files).
- Documents app: technical name documents. This is a hard dependency and is installed automatically when you install this module.
- Python: no extra libraries beyond a standard Odoo 18 Enterprise install.
- Odoo access: any internal user who can open the Documents app sees the inline previews — there is nothing extra to grant.
- Network: most formats render in the browser, but Microsoft Office and ODF document files are rendered through the Microsoft Office Online viewer, which requires the file to be reachable over the public internet. See Data, privacy & limits for exactly what leaves your server.
The exact dependency line from the manifest is:
'depends': ['bambooforge_office_preview', 'documents']
Installation
- Copy both bambooforge_office_preview and bambooforge_office_preview_documents into your Odoo addons path.
- Restart the Odoo service.
- Open Apps, click Update Apps List, search for Office Preview for Documents, and press Activate / Install.
The Documents app and the base Office & PDF Preview module install automatically as dependencies.
Because this module is marked auto_install, it also installs itself automatically the moment both bambooforge_office_preview and documents are present in the same database — so if you already run the base preview module and the Documents app, this companion comes along on the next Apps update.
After installation, hard-refresh your browser (Ctrl/Cmd-Shift-R) once so the new JavaScript assets load.
Configuration
There is nothing to configure. The module ships zero settings, zero menus and zero scheduled actions. It only patches the Documents views to recognise the extra formats. Installing it is the whole setup.
If your organisation restricts which file formats the Microsoft Office Online viewer may reach (for example via a firewall), see Data, privacy & limits — that is the only network consideration, and it is inherited from the base module, not configured here.
Usage
- Open the Documents app from the main Odoo menu.
- Upload (or locate) an Office, LibreOffice, PDF or image file — for example a .docx or .xlsx.
- Click the file to open it, exactly as you already do for PDFs.
- The file opens inline in the viewer instead of downloading: Word/Excel/ PowerPoint and ODF documents render in the embedded viewer, ODF templates render with the bundled local ViewerJS engine, and PDFs/images use Odoo's native viewer.
This works in all three Documents layouts — the Kanban (card) view, the List view, and the Activity view — because the module patches each one. Folders are never opened as previews; only files are.
If a format is not in the supported list above, the file behaves exactly as it did before installing the module (Odoo's default download/preview), so nothing you relied on breaks.
Customization
The set of previewable formats lives in the base module (bambooforge_office_preview), in static/src/core/preview_utils.js — the isOfficePreviewable helper that this module calls. To add or remove a format, edit the MIME-type / extension tables there; this Documents companion automatically follows whatever the base module recognises, with no change needed here.
This module itself contains only three small view patches (documents_view/kanban, .../list, .../activity), each overriding the record's isViewable() method. If you maintain your own Documents view overrides, be aware these patches stack on top of the standard ones via Odoo's patch utility.
Troubleshooting
| Symptom | Cause and fix |
|---|---|
| Install fails: "Documents app not found" | The documents module is Enterprise-only. This module cannot run on Odoo Community — you need Odoo 18 Enterprise. |
| Install fails: missing bambooforge_office_preview | The base preview module is a hard dependency. Copy it into the addons path too, then Update Apps List and install again. |
| Files still download instead of previewing in Documents | The browser is serving cached JavaScript. Hard-refresh (Ctrl/Cmd-Shift-R); if you run a multi-worker server, also restart Odoo so the asset bundle is regenerated. |
| One specific format does not preview | Confirm its extension is in the supported list above. Formats outside that list fall back to Odoo's default behaviour by design. A file with a wrong or missing MIME type is matched by its filename extension instead. |
| A large Office/ODF document is slow or blank | Office and ODF document files render through the Microsoft Office Online viewer, which has its own file-size and time limits. Very large files may render slowly or not at all — download such files instead. |
| Office files preview on chatter attachments but not in Documents | The Documents companion is not installed or not active. Check Apps and confirm Office Preview for Documents shows Installed. |
| Preview opens but the document area is empty / shows a viewer error | For Office and ODF documents the file must be reachable from the public internet by the Microsoft viewer. On an air-gapped or internal-only server these formats cannot render; PDFs, images and ODF templates still work because they render locally. |
| Nothing changed after install | You opened Documents in a tab loaded before the upgrade. Reload the page so the patched views load. |
Frequently asked questions
Does this work on Odoo Community? No. It depends on the Enterprise Documents app, which does not exist in Community. You need Odoo 18 Enterprise.
Do I need the other BambooForge preview module too? Yes. This module is the Documents companion to BambooForge Office & PDF Preview; it reuses that module's rendering engine and lists it as a hard dependency. Both are installed automatically as dependencies when you install this one.
Will it install by itself? Yes — it is an auto-install module. Once both the base preview module and the Documents app are in the database, this companion installs on the next Apps update without you selecting it.
Which file formats are supported? Word, Excel, PowerPoint, the common LibreOffice/ODF documents and templates, RTF, plain text, PDF and images — see the table under What this app does.
Does my document leave the server? For PDFs, images and ODF templates, no — they render locally in the browser. Microsoft Office files and ODF documents are rendered by the Microsoft Office Online viewer, so those files are fetched over the public internet by Microsoft. See Data, privacy & limits.
Does it add any settings or menus? No. There is nothing to configure; installing it is the whole setup.
What support and refund policy do I get? Every request is answered within 24 hours, setup help included. If you report a bug within 2 months of purchase and it is not resolved within 15 days, you are entitled to a full money-back refund.
Data, privacy & limits
- This module stores no data and adds no models, fields or scheduled actions. It only changes how the Documents views decide whether a file is previewable.
- Rendered locally (no upload): PDFs and images use Odoo's native viewer; ODF template files (.ott .ots .otp) render with the bundled ViewerJS/WebODF engine in your browser.
- Rendered via Microsoft (file leaves your server): Microsoft Office files and ODF document bodies (.odt .ods .odp) are shown through the Microsoft Office Online viewer. To do that, the base module exposes a short-lived, access-checked link that Microsoft fetches over the public internet. If you cannot allow that for confidential documents, download those files instead — PDFs, images and ODF templates still preview locally.
- In scope: inline preview of the listed formats in the Documents kanban, list and activity views.
- Out of scope: editing files in place, converting between formats, and previewing formats outside the supported list (those keep Odoo's default behaviour).
Support & updates
- Support: bambooforge.labs@gmail.com — answered within 24 hours, setup help included.
- Refund: report a bug within 2 months of purchase; if unresolved within 15 days, full refund.
- Full source is included. Updates track the supported Odoo 18 Enterprise line and the base BambooForge Office & PDF Preview module.
Upgrading & version compatibility
This build targets Odoo 18.0. Each Odoo major series (17.0, 18.0, 19.0) has its own dedicated build of this module — always install the build that matches your Odoo version. Mixing a build with a different Odoo series is not supported.
Patch upgrades (same series, e.g. 18.0.1.0.0 → later)
Back up your database and filestore first.
Replace the module folder with the newer build.
Restart Odoo with the module updated:
./odoo-bin -c your.conf -u bambooforge_office_preview_documents -d your_db
Odoo applies any schema/data changes automatically. Your existing records and configuration are preserved.
Cross-version migration (e.g. Odoo 17 → 18)
Upgrading Odoo itself is a database migration handled by Odoo's standard upgrade tooling. When you migrate the database to the next Odoo series, install the matching build of this module for that series. Data created by this module carries over with the database migration.
Uninstallation
You can remove this module at any time from Apps → (this module) → Uninstall, or from the command line. Uninstalling is clean and reversible by reinstalling — but note what is and is not deleted.
What is removed
- The fields, views and analysis definitions this module added.
- The menus, actions, views and reports this module installed.
What is preserved
- Your standard Odoo data (partners, products, sales, invoices, inventory moves) is not deleted — this module only reads and annotates it; the underlying records stay.
- Attachments and chatter messages on standard records are kept.
As always, take a database backup before uninstalling in production.
Changelog
18.0.2.0.0
Current release for Odoo 18.0. This build includes:
- Allows users to preview Microsoft Office files, LibreOffice files, images, and PDFs in Documents App.
Feature additions and fixes ship as new builds on the Odoo Apps store; this page and the module's version reflect the current published release. Always keep the build matched to your Odoo series (see Upgrading & version compatibility).
Odoo Proprietary License v1.0 This software and associated files (the "Software") may only be used (executed, modified, executed after modifications) if you have purchased a valid license from the authors, typically via Odoo Apps, or if you have received a written agreement from the authors of the Software (see the COPYRIGHT file). You may develop Odoo modules that use the Software as a library (typically by depending on it, importing it and using its resources), but without copying any source code or material from the Software. You may distribute those modules under the license of your choice, provided that this license is compatible with the terms of the Odoo Proprietary License (For example: LGPL, MIT, or proprietary licenses similar to this one). It is forbidden to publish, distribute, sublicense, or sell copies of the Software or modified copies of the Software. The above copyright notice and this permission notice must be included in all copies or substantial portions of the Software. THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHORS OR COPYRIGHT HOLDERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM, OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN THE SOFTWARE.
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