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Connecting with Nextcloud

BlueMind enables you to connect your system to a Nextcloud external drive.

Users can use their Nextcloud personal space to manage the files they send using BlueMind mail and enjoy the advantages of a drive: file structure, moving, deleting, security, synchronization with other apps, etc.

Administrators' capabilities are improved: easier, more detailed disk space management, user-specific management, centralized data, security and back-up monitoring.

Supported versions​

BlueMind supports Nextcloud version 11 and above. The files shown in this guide for version 12 are compatible with later versions.

Pre-requisites​

Install Nextcloud​

Nextcloud must be installed and operational.

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Nextcloud is an independent product with no ties to BlueMind. For more information on getting and installing Nextcloud and how it works, please go to https://www.nextcloud.com/.

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When Nextcloud is running on Apache + PHP-FPM, it is not capable of retrieving file contents. The uploaded file size is 0 bytes and no error is reported to BlueMind or shown in logs.

About this Apache bug: https://bz.apache.org/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=57087

The BlueMind plugin for Nextcloud will therefore not work if Nextcloud is deployed in a PHP-FPM on Apache. You must use mod_php or Nginx+PHP-FPM.

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To enable the preview of attachments stored in the Nextcloud system, it might be necessary to set the header "Access-Control-Allow-Origin" for all generated public links. This is usually done in the the webserver configuration. The header value must at least contain the external URL of your Bluemind installation or any wildcard value that includes this URL.

Uninstall BlueMind's file storage​

Nextcloud can be used:

  1. alongside BlueMind's internal storage: if the user doesn't enter a Nextcloud login ID, BlueMind will be used. To do this, install the files as shown in the section below.
  2. instead of BlueMind's internal storage: if the user doesn't enter a BlueMind login ID, they will not have access to the linked attachments feature. You must therefore uninstall the BlueMind file hosting package:
aptitude remove bm-plugin-core-filehosting-filesystem
bmctl restart
tip

BlueMind must be restarted to complete uninstallation, but it doesn't have to be done immediately. You can install Nextcloud as described below and restart BlueMind later.

To install Nextcloud, follow the steps below.

Installing Nextcloud​

From BlueMind 4.2​

Install the dedicated packages:

aptitude install bm-nextcloud-common bm-nextcloudXX

where XX is your version of Nextcloud, e.g.:

```
aptitude install bm-nextcloud-common bm-nextcloud12
```
  • up to Nextcloud 11, you must enter the exact version number 
  • with versions 12 or above, use bm-nextcloud12.

Versions prior to BlueMind 4.2​

  • Download and extract the archive from the BlueMind marketplace
  • Get the jar files kept in:
    • the net.bluemind.filehosting.nextcloud folder
    • the net.bluemind.filehosting.nextcloud**\*** folder for your version of Nextcloud
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Note: The folders provided for version 12 are compatible with all subsequent versions.

  • Place these 2 files in the server in the directory /usr/share/bm-core/extensions/
  • Delete the directory /var/lib/bm-core
  • Restart the bm-core service:
service bm-core restart
  • Place the file net.bluemind.ui.adminconsole.nextcloud.settings-*.jar in the server directory /usr/share/bm-webserver/extensions
  • Delete the directory /var/lib/bm-webserver
  • Restart the webserver:
service bm-webserver restart

Set up access to Nextcloud​

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Finding the access URL

Nextcloud WebDAV's default access URL may look like this (depending on the version):

  • http(s)://<server>/nextcloud/remote.php/dav/files
  • http(s)://<server>/remote.php/webdav/

Please refer to your Nextcloud administration settings to find your WebDAV access URL.

For more information, you may also visit: https://docs.nextcloud.com/server/latest/user_manual/en/files/access_webdav.html.

For all domains​

Only the super administrator is able to connect BlueMind to Nextcloud for all domains:

  • log into the admin console as admin0
  • go to System Management > System Configuration > Nextcloud tab
  • enter the Nextcloud WebDAV database's url:

For a specific domain​

Anyone with the "Domain Administrator" role for a specific domain can configure BlueMind to connect to Nextcloud for this domain.

  • log into the admin console as domain administrator
  • go to System Management > Manage Domain > select the domain > Nextcloud tab
  • enter the Nextcloud WebDAV database's url:

Connecting user accounts​

Once Nextcloud has been properly installed and configured, users can connect their Nextcloud account to their BlueMind account.

To find out more about how to proceed and how to use this feature, please go to BlueMind User's Guide page: Large files and linked attachments.

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