Hello World, 

We are continuing our journey and investigation about Nextcloud Server. 

The software is really a great solution for people with privacy concerns.  Nextcloud Server can be installed on premises and can help user to collaborate with each user through a simple web interface.  This solution is often seen as a Dropbox alternative.  Nextcloud Server can also be seen as an alternative to SharePoint Server.  

Nextcloud can be used indeed to store office document to a central server but it’s also possible to edit an share these documents in real time from a simple browser.  To provide such capability, Nextcloud is using the Collabora software solution.  More specifically, Nextcloud Office is based on the Collabora Online Development Edition (CODE). However, after the initial setup, this functionality is not available out of the box (editing documents),  you will need to perform some additional configurations 

In this post, we will describe the necessary steps to integrate and configure CODE and Nextcloud office in order to have a fully functional Dropbox or SharePoint server solution. Let’s try this….

Overview

In this post, we will explain how to successfully configure the CODE software on top of Nextcloud server and make it working properly with Nextcloud Office App

Assumptions

In order to successfully implement the proposed solution,  we would recommend readers to also follow the instructions provided in the following posts

• Ubuntu – How to install Nextcloud (Ver. 24) on Ubuntu 22.04 – Classic Installation
• Ubuntu – Post-Configuration on Nextcloud (Ver. 24) on Ubuntu 22.04 – Classic Installation

We are assuming that you have successfully deployed a Nextcloud Server.  When you will try to edit an Office document within the Browser, you will probably end up with the following message. 

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The message is quite clear : we still need to perform some additional configuration in order to enable Office document editing within the Nextcloud server.  So, we will try to perform this additional configuration

The CODE Server will be installed on the same host where the Nextcloud software has been installed. 

Step by Step CODE Instructions

Step 1 – Add CODE (Collabora Online Development Edition) Repository for Ubuntu 

We need to obtain and install some additional packages on our Ubuntu machine in order to enable the online editing capabilities.  Collabora provide Ubuntu support and offer official package repository for Ubuntu.   In order to access this repository, we will need to tell our Ubuntu machine that we will be using it.  To add a third party repo on Ubuntu, you will need to issue the following command 

echo 'deb https://www.collaboraoffice.com/repos/CollaboraOnline/CODE-ubuntu2204 ./' | sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/collabora.list

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Step 2 – Importing signing Keys from Collabora 

The CODE packages are digitally signed and ensure that package integrity is intact.  To import the signing key, you will need to issue the following command 

cd /usr/share/keyrings 
sudo wget https://collaboraoffice.com/downloads/gpg/collaboraonline-release-keyring.gpg

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Step 3 – Install Additional software 

Because Collabora repository will be using https protocol, we need to ensure that our system has the necessary software and module installed.  APT package manager will need the following two pacakges in order to perform secure connections

• apt-transport-https
• ca-certificates 

To install these packages, we can use the following command 

sudo apt install apt-transport-https ca-certificates

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Step 4 – Install the CODE Package 

We are ready to proceed with the CODE Package installation.   To perform the installation, we will simply issue the following commands and wait for completion 

sudo apt update
sudo apt install coolwsd code-brand

 

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When installation completes, we will need to check that the service is up and running by issuing the following command 

sudo systemctl status coolwsd

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You should end up in the same situation as I was.  The service is not starting and there is an error….

Step 5 – Disable TLS for Coolwsd 

It took us some time to find out what was the problem and what could be a possible solution… We have found the necessary information here and here and after the suggested changes, the service started.  To summarize, you will need to change some configuration settings in the /etc/coolwsd/coolwsd.xml file.  To perform these changes, it’s easier to use the cli utility provided..   

 

sudo coolconfig set ssl.enable false
sudo coolconfig set ssl.termination true
sudo coolconfig set storage.wopi.host <Your NextCloud FQDN>

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Additionally, you will need to set some admin password using the following command (keep the user and password in a safe place in case you need it one day…) 

sudo coolconfig set-admin-password

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The final steps consist of restarting the coolwsd service and check that the service is now up and running…. 

sudo systemctl restart coolwsd
systemctl status coolwsd

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If you are lucky (like me), you should see that your service is indeed up and running…… 

Step 6 – Configuring Name Resolution 

Since we have performed the installation on a single server hosting NextCloud software solution and the CODE package, we will need to configure name resolution accordingly.  Since we have not installed a DNS server on this lab infra, we will need to edit the /etc/hosts file and modify it accordingly.   We will refer to the CODE server by the name office.c-nergy.vlab.  We will add this entry in our /etc/hosts file and your hosts file should look like the following (if you have followed our installation guide) 

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Step 7 – Obtain a certificate for CODE Server 

Again, multiple solution exists here. You can try to use the free Let’s Encrypt SSL service to obtain a valid SSL certificate for your CODE Server.  In our scenario, since we are not connected to internet, we will use again a self-signed certificate.  

To generate a self-signed certificate, you will need to issue the following command from a Terminal Session 

sudo openssl req -x509 -nodes -days 365 -newkey rsa:2048 -keyout /etc/ssl/private/office-selfsigned.key -out /etc/ssl/certs/office-selfsigned.crt

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Step 8 – Create & Configure Apache Virtual Host for CODE 

It’s time to create our Apache virtual host for the CODE (or office) Server.   We will create a new file called office.conf under /etc/apache2/sites-available/office.conf  by issuing the following command 

sudo nano /etc/apache2/sites-available/office.conf

In this file, you will need to copy the following information… Part in red are the ones that you will need to change to reflect your own infrastructure. 

 

<VirtualHost *:443>
ServerName office.c-nergy.vlab
Options -Indexes

ErrorLog "/var/log/apache2/collabora_error"
# Encoded slashes need to be allowed
AllowEncodedSlashes NoDecode

# keep the host
ProxyPreserveHost On

# static html, js, images, etc. served from coolwsd
# loleaflet/browser is the client part of Collabora Online
ProxyPass /loleaflet http://127.0.0.1:9980/loleaflet retry=0
ProxyPassReverse /loleaflet http://127.0.0.1:9980/loleaflet
ProxyPass /browser http://127.0.0.1:9980/browser retry=0
ProxyPassReverse /browser http://127.0.0.1:9980/browser

# WOPI discovery URL
ProxyPass /hosting/discovery http://127.0.0.1:9980/hosting/discovery retry=0
ProxyPassReverse /hosting/discovery http://127.0.0.1:9980/hosting/discovery

# Capabilities
ProxyPass /hosting/capabilities http://127.0.0.1:9980/hosting/capabilities retry=0
ProxyPassReverse /hosting/capabilities http://127.0.0.1:9980/hosting/capabilities

# Main websocket
ProxyPassMatch "/cool/(.*)/ws$" ws://127.0.0.1:9980/cool/$1/ws nocanon

# Admin Console websocket
ProxyPass /cool/adminws ws://127.0.0.1:9980/cool/adminws

# Download as, Fullscreen presentation and Image upload operations
ProxyPass /cool http://127.0.0.1:9980/cool
ProxyPassReverse /cool http://127.0.0.1:9980/cool

SSLEngine on
SSLCertificateFile /etc/ssl/certs/office-selfsigned.crt
SSLCertificateKeyFile /etc/ssl/private/office-selfsigned.key

</VirtualHost>

 

Step 9 – Apply configuration and restart apache service 

We are almost done.  We still need to apply the changes into our apache web server.  To do that, we will need to issue the following command 

#Enable/accept proxy traffic 
sudo a2enmod proxy proxy_wstunnel proxy_http

#Enable the virtual host
sudo a2ensite office.conf

#Restart the service
sudo systemctl restart apache2

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Step by Step Nextcloud and CODE Integration Configuration 

Step 1 – Configure Office settings on Nextcloud Server 

We are reaching almost the final steps to this crazy configuration.  At this stage, we have a fully functional Nextcloud server and we have made available the CODE server.  It’s time that these two software speaks to each other.  This part should be rather easy.  You will need to go to the Nextcloud server, Go to Settings > Administration section and select Office in the left menu (see screenshot below)

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In the Nextcloud office, select the option Use your own server

In the URL input box,  type the FQDN of your Collabora Server (in our scenario, we have used the name office.c-nergy.vlab).  Since we are using self-signed certificate, please ensure that the checkbox, Disable certificate verification (insecure) is enabled.   Save your configuration.  If you see a green check, it means that your configuration is correct and the online office edition is enabled on your Nextcloud server

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Step 2 – Test your configuration 

To do that, you will simply go to your Nextcloud server, go to Documents and select one of the Office document that you want to work on…In our example, we will open a spreadsheet.  After a few moment, you should see the spreadsheet ready for edition within your browser

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Final Notes

Voila ! This is it for this post ! 

We hope the post is not too long and too messy.  Nextcloud is not an easy software solution to deploy.  You will have to invest a little bit of time to become familiar with the product.  On the other hand, once the solution is installed and configured, Nextcloud offers more that centralized, web based storage capabilities.  By enabling Apps, you can extend the capabilities of the software and you can basically transform Nextcloud into a real collaboration tool that could be compared to SharePoint Server Solution.  

By integrating Collabora CODE solution with Nextcloud server, it’s possible to offer online editing capabilities on Office documents within a simple browser.  This combination offers real value to organization and allow users to collaborate online on Office Documents.  We are really pleased with such setup and we will probably continue playing around with the software solution and check which others Apps could be installed on top of the Nextcloud server to provide even more collaboration capabilities….. 

Stay Tuned

Till next time 

See ya 

Reference :

• https://docs.nextcloud.com/server/latest/admin_manual/office/example-ubuntu.html
• https://www.collaboraoffice.com/code/linux-packages/
• https://docs.nextcloud.com/server/latest/admin_manual/office/example-ubuntu.html
• https://www.rosehosting.com/blog/how-to-integrate-collabora-online-with-nextcloud-on-ubuntu-20-04/
• https://www.linuxbabe.com/ubuntu/integrate-collabora-onlinenextcloud-without-docker