Nextcloud and Collabora Integration on FreeNAS

Update (10/08/2020): For the most recent version of this resource, refer to Nextcloud and Collabora Integration in the Resources section of the FreeNAS Community Forum. 

Resource

Collabora and OnlyOffice are popular office suite choices for Nextcloud. This is a collection of notes on how to get Collabora Online Development Edition (CODE) working in Nextcloud behind a reverse proxy on FreeNAS. To realise this, a number of building blocks need to be put together.

Credits

@danb35: Nextcloud and Caddy resources
@kevdog: Collabora configuration, Docker Compose

Outline of the Steps

1. Install Nextcloud
2. Set up Nextcloud behind a reverse proxy
3. Install Ubuntu with Docker and Docker Compose in a FreeNAS VM
4. Install Collabora using Docker Compose
5. Set up the Collabora server behind the reverse proxy
6. Enable and configure the Collabora Online connector in Nextcloud
7. Collabora automatic updates (optional)

You may be able to cherry-pick from these steps if you already have some of the building blocks in place.

At the time of preparing this resource, I’m working with Nextcloud version 18.0.3, Collabora Office version 6.2-9 and FreeNAS 11.3-U2.

Note: For the purpose of explanation, the steps below assume that the Nextcloud FQDN is cloud.mydomain.com and for Collabora, it is collabora.mydomain.com.

Steps 1 to 3

Refer to the first three steps of the resource Nextcloud and OnlyOffice Integration.

Step 4: Install Collabora using Docker Compose

Change to the home directory cd and create a directory for the Compose file mkdir collabora. Change to the directory cd collabora. Create the Compose file nano docker-compose.yml and paste the following:

version: '3.3'
services:
  code:
    ports:
      - '9980:9980'
    container_name: collabora-code
    environment:
      - domain=cloud\.mydomain\.com
      - server_name=collabora\.mydomain\.com
      - username=admin
      - password=secret
      - 'extra_params=--o:ssl.enable=false --o:ssl.termination=true'
    restart: always
    image: collabora/code

References:

1. Collabora Online in Nextcloud
2. Setting up and configuring collabora/code Docker image
3. Collabora, Nextcloud 11, FreeNAS, Nginx
4. Requesting address is denied: ::ffff:172.17.0.1| wsd/LOOLWSD.cpp:1971
5. Composerize

Alter the highlighted entries to suit your environment.

Note: By design, certification services are switched off in the Collabora container. A separate reverse proxy will provide certification services and TLS termination for Collabora. The Collabora server is placed behind the reverse proxy. When configured in this manner, there should be no SSL errors in the server log.

Build and run OnlyOffice Document Server with Compose sudo docker-compose up -d.

Q1. How will I know the Collabora server is working correctly, and I can proceed to step 5?

After a restart, it can take a few minutes for the Collabora server to reach a quiescent state. You can monitor the progress of server initialisation using sudo docker logs -f collabora-codeto view the server log (Ctrl-C to exit). There are a couple of useful indicators that the Collabora CODE server has started properly:

You know you’re approaching the end of server initialisation when one of the entries towards the end of the log looks something like the following:

wsd-00006-00006 2020-04-12 20:11:19.792294 [ loolwsd ] INF WSD initialization complete: setting log-level to [warning] as configured.| wsd/LOOLWSD.cpp:3536

Next, entering the IP address of the Ubuntu VM and Collabora listening port e.g. http://10.1.1.21:9980 in a browser will return the status OK. Entering curl -k http://10.1.1.21:9980in a terminal window will do the same thing.

Step 5: Set up the Collabora server behind the reverse proxy

Notes:

1. In Cloudflare, set up a CNAME record for the subdomain collabora.mydomain.com.
2. If using Caddy, the Caddyfile code block for Collabora will look something like:

collabora.mydomain.com {
  # Static html, js, images, etc. served from loolwsd
  # Loleaflet is the client part of LibreOffice Online
  proxy /loleaflet http://10.1.1.21:9980 {
    insecure_skip_verify
    transparent
  }
  # WOPI discovery URL
  proxy /hosting/discovery http://10.1.1.21:9980 {
    insecure_skip_verify
    transparent
  }
  # Main websocket
  proxy /lool http://10.1.1.21:9980 {
    insecure_skip_verify
    transparent
    websocket
  }
  ## Admin console websocket
  #proxy /lool/adminws http://10.1.1.21:9980 {
  #  insecure_skip_verify
  #  transparent
  #  websocket
  #}
  # Show capabilities as json
    proxy /hosting/capabilities http://10.1.1.21:9980 {
    insecure_skip_verify
    transparent
  }
  # Download as, fullscreen presentation and image upload operations
  proxy /lool http://10.1.1.21:9980 {
    insecure_skip_verify
    transparent
  }
}

Reference: Collabora Caddyfile example

Q1. How will I know Collabora is working with a reverse proxy such as Caddy, and I can proceed to step 6? 

There are three useful indicators:

1. Entering https://collabora.mydomain.com/hosting/discovery in a browser will output the contents of an xml file.
2. You can access the admin console at https://collabora.mydomain.com/loleaflet/dist/admin/admin.html.
3. Entering https://collabora.mydomain.com/hosting/capabilities in a browser will return text similar to that shown below:

[CODE]{“convert-to”:{“available”:false},”hasMobileSupport”:true,”hasTemplateSaveAs”:false,”hasTemplateSource”:true,”productName”:”Collabora Online Development Edition”}[/CODE]

Step 6: Enable and configure the Collabora Online connector in Nextcloud

That’s it. Logging in as a Nextcloud user now gives you access to the Collabora CODE suite including a word processor, spreadsheet and presentation applications. There are also free mobile Collabora apps that work with Nextcloud

Step 7: Collabora Automatic Updates

This is an optional step. It is not required for Nextcloud-Collabora integration. What it does is aim to ensure that Nextcloud has access to the latest version of Collabora CODE. A check is done daily for a new version of the Collabora image. If a new version exists, it is downloaded and the Collabora container updated. The old image is then removed.

The following assumes that you’ve adhered closely to step 4 and your Compose file is stored in the Collabora folder within the home directory.

Change to the Collabora folder cd $HOME/collabora. Create the update.sh script nano update.sh and paste the following:

#!/bin/bash
date
cd "`dirname "$0"`"
docker-compose pull
docker-compose up -d
docker image prune -f
date
echo

Reference: CODE docker automatic update

Make the file executable chmod +x update.sh.

Next, we’re going to add a line, that takes the form below, to the system-wide crontab.

m h * * * /path/to/script >> /path/to/log 2>&1

References:

1. Ubuntu Crontab
2. Understanding Shell Script’s idiom: 2>&1

Standard and error output will be appended to /path/to/log. By design, the log file will be placed in the Collabora folder as well, so:

/path/to/script = $HOME/collabora/update.sh
/path/to/log = $HOME/collabora/update.log

However, we need to use the evaluated version of $HOME for the system-wide crontab. Make a note of what this is echo $HOME.

For example:

For this example:

/path/to/script = /home/administrator/collabora/update.sh
/path/to/log = /home/administrator/collabora/update.log

Edit the system-wide crontab sudo crontab -e and set up the cron job.

The script should be run at a time when it’s unlikely anyone will be using Collabora. In the example below, I’m checking for updates daily at 10 minutes past midnight.

10 0 * * *  /home/administrator/collabora/update.sh >> /home/administrator/collabora/update.log 2>&1

If there isn’t an update when the job is run, a typical log entry will look something like the following: