Nextcloud ONLYOFFICE integration app

This app enables users to edit office documents from Nextcloud using ONLYOFFICE Docs packaged as Document Server - Community or Enterprise Edition.

Features

The app allows to:

• Create and edit text documents, spreadsheets, and presentations.
• Share files to other users.
• Protect documents with watermarks.
• Co-edit documents in real-time: use two co-editing modes (Fast and Strict), Track Changes, comments, and built-in chat. Co-editing is also available between several federated Nextcloud instances connected to one Document Server.

Supported formats:

• For viewing and editing: DOCX, XLSX, PPTX, CSV, TXT.
• For viewing only: PDF.
• For converting to Office Open XML formats: DOC, DOCM, DOT, DOTX, EPUB, HTM, HTML, ODP, ODT, POT, POTM, POTX, PPS, PPSM, PPSX, PPT, PPTM, RTF, XLS, XLSM, XLT, XLTM, XLTX.

Installing ONLYOFFICE Docs

You will need an instance of ONLYOFFICE Docs (Document Server) that is resolvable and connectable both from Nextcloud and any end clients. ONLYOFFICE Document Server must also be able to POST to Nextcloud directly.

ONLYOFFICE Document Server and Nextcloud can be installed either on different computers, or on the same machine. If you use one machine, set up a custom port for Document Server as by default both ONLYOFFICE Document Server and Nextcloud work on port 80.

You can install free Community version of ONLYOFFICE Docs or scalable Enterprise Edition with pro features.

To install free Community version, use Docker (recommended) or follow these instructions for Debian, Ubuntu, or derivatives.

To install Enterprise Edition, follow instructions here.

Community Edition vs Enterprise Edition comparison can be found here.

To use ONLYOFFICE behind a proxy, please refer to this article.

You can also use our Docker installation to install pre-configured Document Server (free version) and Nextcloud with a couple of commands.

Installing Nextcloud ONLYOFFICE integration app

The Nextcloud administrator can install the integration app from the in-built application market. For that go to the user name and select Apps.

After that find ONLYOFFICE in the list of available applications and install it.

If the server with the Nextcloud installed does not have an Internet access, or if you need it for some other reason, the administrator can install the application manually. To start using ONLYOFFICE Document Server with Nextcloud, the following steps must be performed:

1. Go to the Nextcloud server apps/ directory (or some other directory used):

   cd apps/
   

2. Get the Nextcloud ONLYOFFICE integration app. There are several ways to do that:

   a. Download the latest signed version from the official store for Nextcloud.

   b. Or you can download the latest signed version from the application release page on GitHub.

   c. Or you can clone the application source code and compile it yourself:

   git clone https://github.com/ONLYOFFICE/onlyoffice-nextcloud.git onlyoffice
   

3. Change the owner to update the application right from Nextcloud web interface:

   chown -R www-data:www-data onlyoffice
   

4. In Nextcloud open the ~/settings/apps/disabled page with Not enabled apps by administrator and click Enable for the ONLYOFFICE application.

Configuring Nextcloud ONLYOFFICE integration app

In Nextcloud open the ~/settings/admin/onlyoffice page with administrative settings for ONLYOFFICE section. Enter the following address to connect ONLYOFFICE Document Server:

https://<documentserver>/

Where the documentserver is the name of the server with the ONLYOFFICE Document Server installed. The address must be accessible for the user browser and from the Nextcloud server. The Nextcloud server address must also be accessible from ONLYOFFICE Document Server for correct work.

Sometimes your network configuration might not allow the requests between installed Nextcloud and ONLYOFFICE Document Server using the public addresses. The Advanced server settings allows to set the ONLYOFFICE Document Server address for internal requests from Nextcloud server and the returning Nextcloud address for the internal requests from ONLYOFFICE Document Server. You need to enter them in the appropriate fields.

To restrict the access to ONLYOFFICE Document Server and for security reasons and data integrity the encrypted signature is used. Specify the Secret key in the Nextcloud administrative configuration. In the ONLYOFFICE Document Server config file specify the same secret key and enable the validation.

Enable or disable the Open file in the same tab setting.

The Open in ONLYOFFICE action will be added to the file context menu. You can specify this action as default and it will be used when the file name is clicked for the selected file types.

Checking the connection

You can check the connection to ONLYOFFICE Document Server by using the following occ command:

occ onlyoffice:documentserver --check

You will see a text either with information about the successful connection or the cause of the error.

How it works

The ONLYOFFICE integration follows the API documented here https://api.onlyoffice.com/editors/basic:

• When creating a new file, the user navigates to a document folder within Nextcloud and clicks the Document, Spreadsheet or Presentation item in the new (+) menu.

• The browser invokes the create method in the /lib/Controller/EditorController.php controller. This method adds the copy of the file from the assets folder to the folder the user is currently in.

• Or, when opening an existing file, the user navigates to it within Nextcloud and selects the Open in ONLYOFFICE menu option.

• A new browser tab is opened and the index method of the /lib/Controller/EditorController.php controller is invoked.

• The app prepares a JSON object with the following properties:

  • url - the URL that ONLYOFFICE Document Server uses to download the document;
  • callbackUrl - the URL that ONLYOFFICE Document Server informs about status of the document editing;
  • documentServerUrl - the URL that the client needs to respond to ONLYOFFICE Document Server (can be set at the administrative settings page);
  • key - the etag to instruct ONLYOFFICE Document Server whether to download the document again or not;

• Nextcloud takes this object and constructs a page from templates/editor.php template, filling in all of those values so that the client browser can load up the editor.

• The client browser makes a request for the javascript library from ONLYOFFICE Document Server and sends ONLYOFFICE Document Server the DocEditor configuration with the above properties.

• Then ONLYOFFICE Document Server downloads the document from Nextcloud and the user begins editing.

• ONLYOFFICE Document Server sends a POST request to the callbackUrl to inform Nextcloud that a user is editing the document.

• When all users and client browsers are done with editing, they close the editing window.

• After 10 seconds of inactivity, ONLYOFFICE Document Server sends a POST to the callbackUrl letting Nextcloud know that the clients have finished editing the document and closed it.

• Nextcloud downloads the new version of the document, replacing the old one.

Known issues

• Adding the storage using the External storages app has issues with the co-editing in some cases. If the connection is made using the same authorization keys (the Username and password or Global credentials authentication type is selected), then the co-editing is available for the users. If different authorization keys are used (Log-in credentials, save in database or User entered, store in database authentication options), the co-editing is not available. When the Log-in credentials, save in session authentication type is used, the files cannot be opened in the editor.

• Nextcloud provides an option to encrypt the file storage. But if the encryption with the per-user encryption keys (used by default in Nextcloud Default encryption module app) is enabled, ONLYOFFICE Document Server cannot open the encrypted files for editing and save them after the editing. The ONLYOFFICE section of the administrative settings page will display a notification about it. However if you set the encryption with the master key, ONLYOFFICE application will work as intended. The instruction on enabling master key based encryption is available in the official documentation on Nextcloud websites.

• If you are using a self-signed certificate for your Document Server, Nextcloud will not validate such a certificate and will not allow connection to/from Document Server. This issue can be solved the following way: locate the Nextcloud config file (/nextcloud/config/config.php) and open it. Insert the following section to it:

  'onlyoffice' => array (
      'verify_peer_off' => true
  )
  

  This will disable the certificate verification and allow Nextcloud to establish connection with Document Server, but you must remember that this is a temporary insecure solution and we strongly recommend that you replace the certificate with the one issued by some CA. Once you do that, do not forget to remove the above section from Nextcloud config file.

ONLYOFFICE Docs editions

ONLYOFFICE offers different versions of its online document editors that can be deployed on your own servers.

• Community Edition (onlyoffice-documentserver package)
• Enterprise Edition (onlyoffice-documentserver-ee package)

The table below will help you to make the right choice.

* It's possible to add documents for comparison from your local drive, from URL and from Nextcloud storage.

** Support for all conditions and gradient. Adding/Editing capabilities are coming soon