ONLYOFFICE and Nextcloud: ready accomplishments and next steps

Recently ONLYOFFICE and Nextcloud became official partners which means that the two are ready for joint steps in enhancing their integration. Read this post and see what we have achieved and what news to expect in the near future.

Just to remind

Since ONLYOFFICE formed a partnership with Nextcloud we decided to separate its integration app and focus more on what solution’s technology can offer and listen closer its users’ needs. You can find the Nextcloud integration app on our GitHub.

Public sharing – done

ONLYOFFICE now supports sharing from Nextcloud via public links to let external users view, edit and collaborate on documents. Read more in our post.

Easier work with ODF – done

One novelty we have presented in the latest release of the ONLYOFFICE connector is the automatic conversion of ODF files. To enable it, visit the admin settings and set any desired format to be opened for editing by default. Find more in our special article.

Univention app appliances – done

Univention introduced the new effortless way to get ONLYOFFICE-Nextcloud combo installed on your server – virtual app appliances. Read more in the dedicated blog article.

Connecting ONLYOFFICE desktop – coming soon

Soon ONLYOFFICE Desktop Editors will be connectable to Nextcloud platforms. This will allow working with documents from the storage and editing them collaboratively among Nextcloud users. With this option, you can edit files using local plugins, fonts and other features that are available in your desktop suite instance and not present in the online editor.

Inserting images from the file manager – in development

Nextcloud users will be able to insert pictures into the document right from the Nextcloud file management system.

File update notification hooks – at the planning stage

We are planning to use Nextcloud technology called ‘hooks’ to introduce special signals in the editors indicating that the file in the storage has been altered or removed. This is useful because the edited file is stored on the ONLYOFFICE side until it is saved, and Nextcloud doesn’t allow locking the initial file from intervention when it is being edited.

Force Save – at the planning stage

Another feature that can help protect documents from intervention while editing is Force Save. It lets you manually save changes to the document and update the file in Nextcloud without leaving ONLYOFFICE.

Converted file downloading from file manager – at the planning stage

Downloading a file from its context menu is available by default. In addition to this, we are discussing an option for downloading files in the desired format from the Nextcloud file manager (e.g. downloading XLSX sheets as ODS) using ONLYOFFICE for converting them.

Sharing from the editor – under discussion

We guess that, as it is done in ONLYOFFICE normally, sharing from the editor might be a great feature for Nextcloud users too. We haven’t started working on this yet, however, your ideas are always welcome! Please let us know if you find this option useful for your experience.

Have any suggestions for making ONLYOFFICE integration with Nextcloud better? Drop your ideas in the comments below or tweet us at @only_office.