Euro-Office app for Nextcloud

This app enables users to edit office documents from Nextcloud using Euro-Office Docs packaged as Document Server

Features ✨

The app allows to:

• ✍️ Create and edit text documents, spreadsheets and presentations
• 📝 Create and edit PDF forms.
• ✂️ Edit PDF files
• 📊 View diagram files
• 🤝 Share files to other users.
• 🔒 Protect documents with watermarks.
• 👥 Co-edit documents in real time: wo 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:

• WORD: DOC, DOCM, DOCX, DOT, DOTM, DOTX, EPUB, FB2, FODT, HML, HTM, HTML, HWP, HWPX, MD, MHT, MHTML, ODT, OTT, PAGES, RTF, STW, SXW, TXT, WPS, WPT, XML
• CELL: CSV, ET, ETT, FODS, NUMBERS, ODS, OTS, SXC, XLS, XLSB, XLSM, XLSX, XLT, XLTM, XLTX
• SLIDE: DPS, DPT, FODP, KEY, ODG, ODP, OTP, POT, POTM, POTX, PPS, PPSM, PPSX, PPT, PPTM, PPTX, SXI
• PDF: DJVU, DOCXF, OFORM, OXPS, PDF, XPS
• DIAGRAM: VSDM, VSDX, VSSM, VSSX, VSTM, VSTX

For editing:

• WORD: DOCM, DOCX, DOTM, DOTX
• CELL: XLSB, XLSM, XLSX, XLTM, XLTX
• SLIDE: POTM, POTX, PPSM, PPSX, PPTM, PPTX
• PDF: PDF

Installing Euro-Office Docs 📦

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

Euro-Office 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 Euro-Office Document Server and Nextcloud work on port 80.

Installing Euro-Office app for Nextcloud 📥

To start using Euro-Office 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 Euro-Office app for Nextcloud:

   git clone https://github.com/Euro-Office/eurooffice-nextcloud.git eurooffice
   cd eurooffice
   git submodule update --init --recursive

3. Build webpack (only if you chose to clone on the previous step):

   npm install
   npm run build

4. Install Composer dependencies (only if you chose to clone on the step 2):

   composer install

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

   chown -R www-data:www-data eurooffice

6. In Nextcloud open the ~/settings/apps/disabled page with Not enabled apps by administrator and click Enable for the Euro-Office application.

Configuring Euro-Office app for Nextcloud 🛠️

There are three ways to configure Euro-Office integration settings in Nextcloud.

User interface (UI)

Settings can be modified directly via the Nextcloud admin panel.

For example, in Nextcloud open the ~/settings/admin/eurooffice page with administrative settings for Euro-Office section. Enter the following address to connect Euro-Office Document Server:

https://<documentserver>/

Where the documentserver is the name of the server with the Euro-Office 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 Euro-Office Document Server for correct work.

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

Starting from version 7.2, JWT is enabled by default and the secret key is generated automatically to restrict the access to Euro-Office Docs and for security reasons and data integrity. Specify your own Secret key in the Nextcloud administrative configuration. In the Euro-Office Docs config file, specify the same secret key and enable the validation.

occ commands

Use the occ commands to set Euro-Office settings for Nextcloud in the following way:

php occ config:app:set eurooffice {setting_key} --value={setting_value}

where {setting_key} is the key of the Euro-Office integration setting, and {setting_value} is the corresponding value.

config.php

Directly define settings in the config/config.php file under the 'eurooffice' array:

"eurooffice" => array (
    {setting_key} => {setting_value},
)

where {setting_key} is the key of the Euro-Office integration setting, and {setting_value} is the corresponding value.

The tables below list all available Nextcloud settings along with the supported configuration methods.

Common settings

Setting key	UI name / Description	Example	UI	occ	config.php
demo	Connect to demo Euro-Office Docs server	-	+	-	-
DocumentServerUrl	Euro-Office Docs address The connector uses this setting from the config.php file if no value is specified in the application configuration via UI or occ command.	"http://<documentserver>/"	+	+	+
DocumentServerInternalUrl	Euro-Office Docs address for internal requests from the server The connector uses this setting from the config.php file if no value is specified in the application configuration via UI or occ command.	"http://<internal_url>/"	+	+	+
StorageUrl	Nextcloud address available from document server	"http://<storage_url>/"	+	+	+
jwt_secret	Secret key (leave blank to disable)	"your_secret_key"	+	+	+
jwt_header	JWT header	"AuthorizationJWT"	+	+	+
sameTab	Open file in the same tab The Open in Euro-Office 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.	false	+	+	-
enableSharing	Enable sharing If you forcibly enable this setting via occ command, the editors will be opened in a new tab even when sameTab === true, which is not the intended behavior.	true	+	+	-
preview	Use Euro-Office to generate a document preview	true	+	+	-
advanced	Provide advanced document permissions using Euro-Office Docs	true	+	+	-
cronChecker	Enable background connection check to the editors	true	+	+	-
emailNotifications	Enable e-mail notifications	true	+	+	-
versionHistory	Keep metadata for each version once the document is edited	true	+	+	-
protection	Enable document protection	Possible values: owner, all. Any other value will default to owner.	+	+	-
groups	Allow the following groups to access the editors	'["admin", "editors"]'	+	+	-
verify_peer_off	Disable certificate verification	true	+	+	+
unknownAuthor	Unknown author display name	"Guest User"	+	+	-
jwt_leeway	Defines the allowable leeway in JWT checks (measured in seconds).	60	-	-	+
limit_thumb_size	Defines the maximum size of a thumbnail (measured in bytes).	104857600	-	-	+
disable_download	Specifies whether to disable file downloads or not.	true	-	-	+
editors_check_interval	Defines the interval for checking the availability of editors using cron (measured in seconds).	86400	-	-	+
jwt_expiration	Defines the JWT expiration (measured in seconds).	5	-	-	+

Customization settings

Setting key	UI name / Description	Example	UI	occ	config.php
customizationChat	Display Chat menu button	false	+	+	-
customizationCompactHeader	Display the header more compact	true	+	+	-
customizationFeedback	Display Feedback & Support menu button	false	+	+	-
customizationForcesave	Keep intermediate versions when editing (forcesave)	false	+	+	-
customizationHelp	Display Help menu button	false	+	+	-
customizationReviewDisplay	Review mode for viewing	Possible values: original, markup, final. The default value is original.	+	+	-
customizationTheme	Default editor theme	Possible values: theme-system, theme-light, theme-classic-light, theme-dark, theme-contrast-dark, theme-white, theme-night.	+	+	-
customization_macros	Run document macros	false	+	+	-
customization_plugins	Enable plugins	false	+	+	-

Watermark settings

Setting key	UI name / Description	Example	UI	occ	config.php
watermark_enabled	Enable watermarking	yes	+	+	-
watermark_text	Watermark text	"{userId}, {date}" Supported tags: {userId}, {userDisplayName}, {email}, {date}, {themingName}.	+	+	-
watermark_allGroups	Show watermark for users of groups	-	+	-	-
watermark_allTags	Show watermark on tagged files.	-	+	-	-
watermark_linkAll	Show watermark for all link shares	yes	+	+	-
watermark_shareAll	Show watermark for all shares	yes	+	+	-
watermark_linkSecure	Show watermark for download hidden shares	-	+	-	-
watermark_linkRead	Show watermark for read only link shares	-	+	-	-
watermark_linkTags	Show watermark on link shares with specific system tags	-	+	-	-

Checking the connection ☑️

You can check the connection to Euro-Office Document Server by using the following occ command:

occ eurooffice:documentserver --check

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

Advanced document permissions 🔒

The Advanced tab allows you to grant additional access rights only to those users specified in the Sharing tab without the ability to re-share the file. Depending on the chosen Custom permission option and the file type (docx, pptx, xlsx), you can grant different additional rights.

• If the DOCX file is shared with the Custom permission (Edit enabled, Share disabled) in the Sharing tab, you can set the given rights to only reviewing (Review only) or only commenting (Comment only) in the Advanced tab.
• If the XLSX file is shared with the Custom permission (Edit enabled, Share disabled) in the Sharing tab, you can set the given rights to only commenting (Comment only) or applying filtering for everyone (Global filter, which is enabled by default) in the Advanced tab.
• If the PPTX file is shared with the Custom permission (Edit enabled, Share disabled) in the Sharing tab, you can set the given rights to only commenting (Comment only) in the Advanced tab.
• If the PDF file is shared with the Custom permission (Edit enabled, Share disabled) in the Sharing tab, you can set the given rights to only filling out (Form Filling) in the Advanced tab.

How it works ⚙️

• 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 Euro-Office 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 Euro-Office Document Server uses to download the document;
  • callbackUrl - the URL that Euro-Office Document Server informs about status of the document editing;
  • documentServerUrl - the URL that the client needs to respond to Euro-Office Document Server (can be set at the administrative settings page);
  • key - the etag to instruct Euro-Office 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 Euro-Office Document Server and sends Euro-Office Document Server the DocEditor configuration with the above properties.

• Then Euro-Office Document Server downloads the document from Nextcloud and the user begins editing.

• Euro-Office 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, Euro-Office 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.

• 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 in two ways.

  You can check the 'Disable certificate verification (insecure)' box on the Euro-Office administration page, Server settings section, within your Nextcloud.

  Another option is to change the Nextcloud config file manually. Locate the Nextcloud config file (/nextcloud/config/config.php) and open it. Insert the following section to it:

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

  This will disable the certificate verification and allow Nextcloud to establish connection with Document Server.

  Please 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 uncheck the corresponding setting box or remove the above section from the Nextcloud config file.

• If the editors don't open or save documents after a period of proper functioning, the reason can be a problem in changing network settings or disabling any relevant services, or issues with the SSL certificate.

  To solve this, we added an asynchronous background task which runs on the server to check availability of the editors. It allows testing the connection between your Nextcloud instance and Euro-Office Document Server, namely availability of server addresses and the validity of the JWT secret are being checked.

  If any issue is detected, the Euro-Office app for Nextcloud (consequently, the ability to create and open files) will be disabled. As a Nextcloud admin, you will get the corresponding notification.

  This option allows you to avoid issues when the server settings become incorrect and require changes.

  By default, this background task runs once a day. If necessary, you can change the frequency. To do so, open the Nextcloud config file (/nextcloud/config/config.php). Insert the following section and enter the required value in minutes:

  'eurooffice' => array (
      'editors_check_interval' => 3624
  )

  To disable this check running, enter 0 value.

• When accessing a document without download permission, file printing and using the system clipboard are not available. Copying and pasting within the editor is available via buttons in the editor toolbar and in the context menu.

• When a file is opened for editing in Euro-Office while being simultaneously edited in other tools, changes may be overwritten or lost. To avoid conflicts and ensure smooth collaboration, we recommend using the Temporary File Lock application: https://apps.nextcloud.com/apps/files_lock. This helps prevent parallel editing and safeguards your work.