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The second SSO option is to rely on the web server (such as Apache or NGINX) and use basic user information passed as environment variables such as REMOTE_USER. More advanced SAML features are planned and development seems to be active. This means that a proxy IdP would be needed to provide fully federated access to users. NextCloud's SAML implementation is currently rather limited, and only supports one IdP. Two options are currently available for federated authentication: a built-in SAML SP, and a external SSO option that relies on the web server handling authentication. NextCloud needs a means of handling its own authentication. When users open a file in NextCloud control is passed to Collabora Online, and the office application interface appears.Ī single Collabora Online service can be used by more than one NextCloud front-end. Collabora Online compatibility is now available via a bundled plugin and the only configuration needed is the URL for the Collabora service. NextCloud is a PHP application and performs the role of, user interface, document store and WOPI authentication server. As such it requires a second application to act as the primary user interface and authentication provider. Authentication and authorisation are handled via WOPI and resemble Oauth. It runs as a web application behind an Apache or NGINX reverse-proxy with SSL. Integrating NextCloud and Collabora OnlineĬollabora Online provides a basic administration user interface, minimal configuration files, and a generic WOPI API (as used by Microsoft Office). Most of the desktop LibreOffice's functionality is available to users in a web page, with the added feature of simultaneous collaborative editing - users can work on the same document at the same time.
#Collabora online and nextcloud docker software#
We used NextCloud's free edition in this pilot, but the commercially supported edition of OwnCloud may be used in a similar way.Ĭollabora Online - LibreOffice for the webĬollabora Online is new software that allows the LibreOffice/OpenOffice office suite to run as a shared web application. They remain very similar, but NextCloud offers new built-in federated access features using SAML in its free version.
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NextCloud was recently forked from OwnCloud. Documents can be uploaded and downloaded via a web interface, or synchronised with local files. NextCloud is a web-based document management service. This pilot explored the use of two new applications that can be used together to provide federated access to both file management and office document creation and collaborative editing.
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Office documents are usually created offline. Federated access management has been widely used to control access to published documents, but its use in collaborative creation has usually been limited to wikis and content management systems. Documents are at the heart of most projects: people create and share text, spreadsheets, presentations and images.
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