WebODF.js and PDF.js are projects that render documents in a browser using javascript. With these projects viewing ODF and PDF in the browser is safe and seamless. The visitor of the webpage is not required to have any browser plugins to view OpenDocument or PDF files. There is also no need to save the documents locally to open them. For both mobile and desktop visitors, the documents will be shown as part of the web page.
A common request from web authors is a simple and fast way to publish collections of text documents and presentations from e.g. seminars on their own website. While it is possible already to this by combining various javascript libraries, it is not yet convenient and the combination of different tools leads to a user experience that is suboptimal.
NLnet is stepping in and has contacted KO GmbH. NLnet is sponsoring a work to make a combined package that makes it simpler and more pleasant to publish OpenDocument and PDF texts and presentations on websites, without depending on 3rd party services. The combined package will be called viewer.js and the first release will be announced here.
