new platform release , which provides a self-sufficient solution for organizing joint work of employees of enterprises and teams developing various projects. Simultaneously the Nextcloud 19 cloud platform underlying the Nextcloud Hub, which allows you to deploy cloud storage with support for synchronization and data exchange, which provides the ability to view and edit data from any device anywhere in the network (using a web interface or WebDAV). The Nextcloud server can be deployed on any hosting that supports PHP scripts and provides access to SQLite, MariaDB/MySQL or PostgreSQL. Nextcloud sources under the AGPL license.
In terms of tasks to be solved, Nextcloud Hub resembles Google Docs and Microsoft 365, but allows you to deploy a fully controlled collaboration infrastructure that operates on its own servers and is not tied to external cloud services. Nextcloud Hub combines several add-on applications over the Nextcloud cloud platform that allow you to work collaboratively with office documents, files and information for planning tasks and events. The platform also includes add-ons for email access, messaging, video conferencing and chats.
User authentication can both locally and through integration with LDAP / Active Directory, Kerberos, IMAP and Shibboleth / SAML 2.0, including using two-factor authentication, SSO (Single-sign-on) and linking new systems to an account via QR- code. Version control allows you to track changes to files, comments, sharing rules, and tags.
The main components of the Nextcloud Hub platform:
- — organization of storage, synchronization, sharing and exchange of files. Access can be made both via the Web and using client software for desktop and mobile systems. Provides advanced features such as full-text search, attaching files when posting comments, selective access control, creating password-protected download links, with external storages (FTP, CIFS/SMB, SharePoint, NFS, Amazon S3, Google Drive, Dropbox, etc.).
- - optimizes business processes by automating the execution of typical work, such as converting documents to PDF, sending messages to chats when new files are uploaded to certain directories, automatic tagging. It is possible to create your own handlers that perform actions in relation to certain events.
- collaborative editing of documents, spreadsheets and presentations based on the package that supports Microsoft Office formats. Full integration of ONLYOFFICE with other platform components is provided, for example, several participants can edit one document at the same time, while discussing changes in a video chat and leaving notes.
- Photos is an image gallery that makes it easy to find, share, and navigate a collaborative collection of photos and images.
Supports ranking photos by time, place, tags and frequency of viewing. - — a calendar-scheduler that allows you to coordinate meetings, schedule chats and video conferences. Integration with iOS, Android, macOS, Windows, Linux, Outlook, and Thunderbird groupware is provided. Loading events from external resources that support the WebCal protocol is supported.
- - a joint address book and a web-interface for working with e-mail. It is possible to bind several accounts to one inbox. Encryption of letters and attachment of digital signatures based on OpenPGP are supported. It is possible to synchronize the address book using CalDAV.
- — messaging and web-conferencing system (chat, audio and video). There is support for groups, the ability to share screen content, and support for SIP gateways for integration with conventional telephony.
The new release focused on functionality that makes it easier for employees to work from home during the COVID-19 pandemic. Key innovations of Nextcloud Hub 19:
- Support for passwordless authentication using U2F/FIDO2-enabled hardware tokens or biometric authentication such as fingerprint (implemented via API ).
- The administrator has the ability to set additional restrictions on user accounts, including a password reuse restriction, automatic logout after inactivity, automatic lockout after a certain number of failed login attempts, and setting a password expiration time.
- In the system of messaging and audio / video conferencing Talk Collaborative document editing capabilities that allow you to make changes to a document, spreadsheet, or presentation during a video conference or chat. To start co-editing, just drag the document with the mouse into the chat or conference window. Editing and uploading documents is also available to members with guest accounts. Collaborative editing implemented on the basis of the package .
- A new mode for displaying a grid of participants ("Grid") is proposed, in which all participants are allocated the same portions of the screen (in normal mode, most of the screen is given to the active participant, and the rest are displayed in the bottom row of thumbnails).
- A new type of chats has been added for free communication during smoke breaks, which are positioned as a kind of virtual smoking room where you can relax during breaks, joke and chat with colleagues on topics not related to your main work.
- Implemented automatic change of the video call quality level when the bandwidth of the Internet connection changes. New high performance for Talk, which is suitable for video conferences with 10-50 participants on conventional equipment.
- A new release of the Talk mobile app for iOS and Android, which has a redesigned interface, added the ability to send invitations, and added support for sending messages while offline.
- Changes have been made to make it easier to find information and group existing data. For example, users can attach tags and comments to files, attach descriptions to directories, and even add to-do lists. The interface has the ability to keep track of recently opened or edited files.
- Significant performance optimizations have been made. Read speed from external SFTP storage increased up to 5 times,
file scanning is accelerated up to 2.5 times, thumbnail generation is 25-50% faster. Added the ability to apply a call
"fseek" to files in Amazon S3 and OpenStack Swift storage (for example, you can start playing a video without first downloading the file). Increased block size in NFS. Improved ACL support for SMB partitions and automatic hiding of directories to which the user does not have access rights. - The calendar planner and address book are integrated with the project management scheduling application . Deck implements a virtual map of plans (Kanban), which allows you to visually place tasks in the form of maps, divided into sections "in plans", "in progress" and "done". The integration made it possible to link events from the calendar with plans and set deadlines.
- Added the ability to create guest accounts, the management of which can be transferred to group administrators by linking a group to a guest account during its creation.
Source: opennet.ru