Do you have recommendations or ideas for Nextcloud?
May 16, 2022 4:16 PM Subscribe
My web host (Opalstack) just set up one-click installs of Nextcloud, which is pretty cool... at a glance it seems to be a replacement for the Google set of apps, including a Dropbox-style file sharing system. We're a two-person household that I'd describe as tech-friendly but not sophisticated. Have you found any great uses in this context?
My short-term hope is to wean off from Google and Dropbox and use this to fill those gaps: calendar, light word processing, possibly spreadsheets. I'm brand new to all of this, but it looks promising... I'm wondering if there are any Nextcloud aficionados that have recommendations for great apps, household integration, good use of features, etc.
I'm curious about Collabora as a document sharing/editing, the calendar (and "appointments" app), and the Cospend household budget manager. But any advice or tips would be very welcome!
I'm "low-medium" tech-savvy: I don't know enough to program but am comfortable with SFTP/SSH script-editing stuff if there are instructions and can handle simple variables. My wife is more in the end-user spectrum: she wants things to work, but has no interest in the fiddly bits.
My short-term hope is to wean off from Google and Dropbox and use this to fill those gaps: calendar, light word processing, possibly spreadsheets. I'm brand new to all of this, but it looks promising... I'm wondering if there are any Nextcloud aficionados that have recommendations for great apps, household integration, good use of features, etc.
I'm curious about Collabora as a document sharing/editing, the calendar (and "appointments" app), and the Cospend household budget manager. But any advice or tips would be very welcome!
I'm "low-medium" tech-savvy: I don't know enough to program but am comfortable with SFTP/SSH script-editing stuff if there are instructions and can handle simple variables. My wife is more in the end-user spectrum: she wants things to work, but has no interest in the fiddly bits.
Best answer: My spouse and I migrated away from Google to Nextcloud a few years ago. Totally agree with bradbane that file sharing, contacts, and calendar are quite good. Integration with WebDAV etc. is especially easy on iPhones; on Android, you might have to install "helper" apps such as CalDAV-Sync. Syncing your photos and being able to see them on a map is pretty cool.
My complaints about Nextcloud are things that, in my opinion, are UX issues that can be improved. For example, to get the combination of features that I wanted in the calendar (e.g. first day of the week, 24 hour clock, etc.), I had to go into settings and choose a locale that's not related to any location where I've ever lived. The implementation of Markdown in the Notes app is very weird; it does things like render the text but not remove the actual markup. The Cookbook app was not good when it launched, but to be fair, they've been improving the UX. It's just that some things take some getting used to.
My main tip is to test out your provider's capabilities before making the full switch; we self-hosted for years and then recently switched to a small regional provider and it has been rough to say the least. We plan to stick with Nextcloud, but with a different provider.
posted by neushoorn at 6:52 PM on May 16, 2022
My complaints about Nextcloud are things that, in my opinion, are UX issues that can be improved. For example, to get the combination of features that I wanted in the calendar (e.g. first day of the week, 24 hour clock, etc.), I had to go into settings and choose a locale that's not related to any location where I've ever lived. The implementation of Markdown in the Notes app is very weird; it does things like render the text but not remove the actual markup. The Cookbook app was not good when it launched, but to be fair, they've been improving the UX. It's just that some things take some getting used to.
My main tip is to test out your provider's capabilities before making the full switch; we self-hosted for years and then recently switched to a small regional provider and it has been rough to say the least. We plan to stick with Nextcloud, but with a different provider.
posted by neushoorn at 6:52 PM on May 16, 2022
Best answer: I used Nextcloud to wean my android phone off google. I now no longer have a google account. All the apps I use on the android end are available off F-Droid.
The android app for CalDAV/CardDAV is called "DAVx5". That adds an account just like with google, making it seamless with other apps. Google calendar doesn't know the difference. I've found I'm able to email/signal/text people .ics calendar files to share appointments.
The general Nextcloud app on android is just file syncing. It doesn't do any of the other apps. By default, it tries to backup your contacts/calendar, photos, and videos. But you can tell it arbitrary folders like signal backups, downloaded files, or retroarch states like I do.
On the Nextcloud end, I've used "News" as my RSS aggregator/reader, because the android app is pretty good and the web interface is pretty good on desktop. That's how I saw this very question (and summoned that ics link). I think I've seen better apps/interfaces with other options, but not both at once.
I use "Bookmarks" to save miscellaneous sites on my phone and desktop, because it can generate an RSS feed, putting that info back on "News."
ONLYOFFICE is the app on Nextcloud I use for documents. Collabora never really worked on slow browsers and required jumping some extra hoops (like the provided dummy server). I don't think Collabora was ever able to open my huge budget spreadsheet. ONLYOFFICE just feels like google docs and actually works in a mobile browser. I even run it on desktop for normal offline document work, I liked it so much.
I also have Maps installed, only for the photo geolocation. That's a neat tool. I use GPXPod and GPXMotion because I record bike rides sometimes. And those play the .gpx files back like strava.
AppOrder is the Nextcloud app that lets you pretty-up the web interface a little. That's something you can setup per-user. I have News as my primary app, for instance.
As for non-app setup, I made sure to enable some external storages because I already had a photo collection and a documents folder. That probably doesn't apply to your webhosting. I turned on dark mode... Not much else, really.
You can also create menu options in Nextcloud for "external sites", which I point at other self-hosted tools. Jellyfin, Photoprism, Paperless, etc. Tools that are even more niche than Nextcloud. Since I have them all sharing the same external storage, I can push/sync files between them. So it makes sense in my brain to put them all in the same Nextcloud toolbar.
I haven't written or run any scripts to make this stuff work. Basically just pointed my nginx at a docker container, then did everything with the web interface. I think I had to put my domain name in a configuration.php file, but they probably took care of that for you if you're able to access the site at all.
So, I'm certainly an edge case, but I basically funnel the entire internet through Nextcloud. It's my browser homepage and it makes my phone work.
posted by Snijglau at 6:54 PM on May 16, 2022 [2 favorites]
The android app for CalDAV/CardDAV is called "DAVx5". That adds an account just like with google, making it seamless with other apps. Google calendar doesn't know the difference. I've found I'm able to email/signal/text people .ics calendar files to share appointments.
The general Nextcloud app on android is just file syncing. It doesn't do any of the other apps. By default, it tries to backup your contacts/calendar, photos, and videos. But you can tell it arbitrary folders like signal backups, downloaded files, or retroarch states like I do.
On the Nextcloud end, I've used "News" as my RSS aggregator/reader, because the android app is pretty good and the web interface is pretty good on desktop. That's how I saw this very question (and summoned that ics link). I think I've seen better apps/interfaces with other options, but not both at once.
I use "Bookmarks" to save miscellaneous sites on my phone and desktop, because it can generate an RSS feed, putting that info back on "News."
ONLYOFFICE is the app on Nextcloud I use for documents. Collabora never really worked on slow browsers and required jumping some extra hoops (like the provided dummy server). I don't think Collabora was ever able to open my huge budget spreadsheet. ONLYOFFICE just feels like google docs and actually works in a mobile browser. I even run it on desktop for normal offline document work, I liked it so much.
I also have Maps installed, only for the photo geolocation. That's a neat tool. I use GPXPod and GPXMotion because I record bike rides sometimes. And those play the .gpx files back like strava.
AppOrder is the Nextcloud app that lets you pretty-up the web interface a little. That's something you can setup per-user. I have News as my primary app, for instance.
As for non-app setup, I made sure to enable some external storages because I already had a photo collection and a documents folder. That probably doesn't apply to your webhosting. I turned on dark mode... Not much else, really.
You can also create menu options in Nextcloud for "external sites", which I point at other self-hosted tools. Jellyfin, Photoprism, Paperless, etc. Tools that are even more niche than Nextcloud. Since I have them all sharing the same external storage, I can push/sync files between them. So it makes sense in my brain to put them all in the same Nextcloud toolbar.
I haven't written or run any scripts to make this stuff work. Basically just pointed my nginx at a docker container, then did everything with the web interface. I think I had to put my domain name in a configuration.php file, but they probably took care of that for you if you're able to access the site at all.
So, I'm certainly an edge case, but I basically funnel the entire internet through Nextcloud. It's my browser homepage and it makes my phone work.
posted by Snijglau at 6:54 PM on May 16, 2022 [2 favorites]
Response by poster: Great tips and advice -- thanks, all. I've run into an unexpected snag in that the hosting company needs to fix... something... for the NextCloud service to work, and it's kind of in their hands for the moment, but I'm looking forward to diving into this once it's resolved.
posted by Shepherd at 4:07 PM on May 24, 2022
posted by Shepherd at 4:07 PM on May 24, 2022
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The file sharing, contacts, calendar, and todo list all use the WebDAV/CalDAV/CardDAV protocol which is supported by lots of software that handle those things. Including the default iOS apps or on Android using DavX to sync. So you can probably use whatever software/apps/phones you already use seamlessly by just migrating your calendar and contacts to your own server.
Nextcloud has their own file syncing apps or you can use any that support WebDAV. I do stuff like sync all my phone photos to my server and sync media to my devices. There's several apps and choices for syncing Notes between devices - there is a word processor integration but I just use Notes.
There are lots of apps as it seems you've discovered already - I use Deck extensively. I like the Maps one which shows all my photos from my phone geolocated. Some of the apps are better than others, but remember you can also embed any webapp inside the Nextcloud web interface (there's a plugin, AppOrder maybe?). Or generally because everything uses open protocols, you can never touch the web interface if you desire - using apps or just syncing the files and using local software.
It works great. It definitely benefits from a beefier server and a little bit of tweaking on the admin side.
posted by bradbane at 5:03 PM on May 16, 2022