Self-hosted PowerPoint viewing for web applications, agent chat interfaces, and embedded contexts.

Displaying PowerPoint files in web applications is surprisingly difficult. Microsoft's embedded viewer is blocked for enterprise accounts, and HTML conversion libraries lose formatting. This project demonstrates how to use ONLYOFFICE or Collabora Online to render PPTX files with high fidelity.

• Embedding presentations in agent chat interfaces or AI assistants
• Building document viewing portals for enterprise applications
• Displaying AI-generated presentations inline
• Any context where Microsoft's embed restrictions are a problem

Both viewers render slides as static content - no video playback, animations, or audio.

# Start ONLYOFFICE
docker run -d --name onlyoffice -p 8080:80 \
  -e JWT_ENABLED=false \
  -e ALLOW_PRIVATE_IP_ADDRESS=true \
  -e ALLOW_META_IP_ADDRESS=true \
  onlyoffice/documentserver:latest

# Wait ~60 seconds for initialization, then verify
curl http://localhost:8080/healthcheck  # Returns "true"

# Start the backend and frontend
cd backend && npm install && npm run dev &
cd frontend && npm install && npm run dev

Open http://localhost:5173, upload a PPTX, and view it.

Browser                    Backend                   ONLYOFFICE
   │                          │                          │
   ├── Upload PPTX ──────────►│                          │
   │                          ├── Store file             │
   │                          │                          │
   ├── Request viewer ───────►│                          │
   │                          ├── Generate config ──────►│
   │◄─── iframe URL ──────────┤                          │
   │                          │                          │
   ├── Load iframe ───────────┼─────────────────────────►│
   │                          │◄─── Fetch PPTX ──────────┤
   │◄─── Rendered slides ─────┼──────────────────────────┤

ONLYOFFICE fetches the file via URL and renders it using its OOXML engine. Collabora uses the WOPI protocol instead (your backend proxies the file).

ONLYOFFICE can fetch files from any URL it can reach:

See Architecture Guide for implementation details.

pptx-viewer/
├── backend/           # Express server (upload, ONLYOFFICE config, WOPI)
├── frontend/          # React app with viewer tabs
├── docs/
│   ├── ARCHITECTURE.md   # Enterprise deployment guide
│   └── ALTERNATIVES.md   # Why other approaches don't work
└── assets/            # LoopTech branding

• ONLYOFFICE Community Edition: AGPL 3.0
• Collabora CODE: MPL 2.0