Nextcloud

Q: Do we have a Dropbox/Google drive/Microsoft onedrive/Sharepoint alternative?

A: Obviously the answer is yes! or we would not have this topic :-)

It’s called Nextcloud (previously ownCloud). You can access it here:

https://telin.ugent.be/nextcloud/

Features

  • share your data between multiple devices and users
  • sync files between devices
  • photo gallery
  • calendar/task/bookmark manager
  • information stays within the UGent network

Share a folder

To share data between external partners you can quickly share a link. Add a folder with the + sign. Choose the share icon, it’s a triangle with one leg off, click share link, choose allow edit.

DAV access

You can use the following DAV url in the location area:

davs://telin.ugent.be/nextcloud/remote.php/dav/files/{TELIN_USERNAME}

Desktop Files

An interesting tool is the Nextcloud Desktop Files, it’s available for windows, Linux, MacOS, Android and iOS!

Goto Desktop-files and install the Desktop Files client for your OS. (or github for a specific version)

image

The TELIN Nextcloud server address is:

https://telin.ugent.be/nextcloud/

A browser tab is opened to fill in your credentials: imageimageimage

username: {TELIN_USERNAME}
password: {TELIN_PASSWORD}

image There are 2 options to choose: Everything or a Choose what to sync

DO NOT CHOOSE Everything if your nextcloud files are more than 5GB! This can be very slow. Select a limited set in this case.

Choose a local folder:

e.g. create a folder on your Desktop Nextcloud

Enter Finish

Now you can drag files into the Nextcloud folder and they will be synced with the Nextcloud server. Log in with the browser to https://telin.ugent.be/nextcloud/. You can click the share icon, type a name of a TELIN member or group, or you can also share it with a link (read-only or read-write) to external people.

More info in the Nextcloud Docs

Linux

Ubuntu users can add the package nextcloud-desktop It will be available in Applications.

sudo apt update
sudo apt install nextcloud-desktop

the settings are saved in: ~/.config/Nextcloud you can safely remove this folder and restart the config process if you want. If you happen to have Read-only attributes on your files, they can be reset to read-write:

chmod -R u+w ~/Desktop/Nextcloud

A task icon is available to change the settings e.g. add/remove folders, or exit Nextcloud if you don’t want to sync anymore. image

Windows

The setup is analogous to the Linux setup. To access the settings, once installed, goto the taskbar in the same location where you can eject your drives and right click on the Nextcloud icon. image

The settings, in case you want to erase them after an uninstall, are saved in %APPDATA%\Nextcloud and the database in %LOCALAPPDATA%\Nextcloud.

MacOS

The setup is analogous to the Linux setup. However you cannot select any folders, everything is selected initially! Your files are available Locations from the Finder and in $HOME/Library/CloudStorage/Nextcloud-{TELIN_USER}@telin․ugent․be. If you delete them here they will be deleted on the Nextcloud server!

image The settings are saved in: $HOME/Library/Containers/com.nextcloud.desktopclient/Data/Library/Preferences/Nextcloud