How to Integrate Collabora Online Office with NextCloud on a Vultr Cloud Server

Introduction

Collabora Online Office is a self-hosted LibreOffice-based online office solution with support for common document formats: ods, doc, docx, pptx, xlxs, among others. This article provides a step by step outile for integration and use of Collabora Online Office with NextCloud on a Vultr Cloud server.

Prerequisites

The prerequisites below are required prior to installation of Collabora Online Office with a new instance:

Deploy a OneClick NextCloud instance from the Vultr Marketplace.
Deploy a fresh Ubuntu server to host Collabora Online Office.
- Use SSH to access the server as a non-root user with sudo privileges.
- Update the server.
- Install Nginx.
- Install Docker.
Setup subdomains pointing to NextCloud and Collabora Online Office instances respectively.

1. Install Collabora Online Office

Pull the latest Collabora Online Office image from Docker Hub.
```
 $ sudo docker pull collabora/code:latest
```

Deploy a Collabora Office container listening on your preferred port, the value of 9980 is being used as an example. Replace the cloud.example.com sub-domain with your NextCloud sub-domain.

 $ sudo docker run -t -d -p 9980:9980 --name collaboraoffice -e 'domain=cloud.example.com' -e "extra_params=--o:ssl.enable=false --o:ssl.termination=true"--restart always collabora/code

Verify that the container is running.
```
 $ sudo docker ps
```

Output for container verification.

 CONTAINER ID   IMAGE            COMMAND                  CREATED          STATUS          PORTS                                       NAMES
 4d2244f6857e   collabora/code   "/start-collabora-onâ€¦"   38 seconds ago   Up 37 seconds   0.0.0.0:9980->9980/tcp, :::9980->9980/tcp   collaboraoffice

2. Configure Nginx as a Reverse Proxy

Create a new Nginx configuration file.

 $ sudo touch /etc/nginx/conf.d/collabora.conf

Open and edit the file using a text editor.

 $ sudo nano /etc/nginx/conf.d/collabora.conf

Add the following contents to the text editor file.

 server {
  listen 80;
  listen [::]:80;
  server_name  collabora.example.com;

   error_log /var/log/nginx/collaboraoffice.error;
   access_log /var/log/nginx/collaboraoffice.access;

     # Connect to Collabora Office
     location ~ /{
     proxy_pass http://localhost:9980;
     proxy_set_header Upgrade $http_upgrade;
     proxy_set_header Connection "Upgrade";
     }

     #Connect the main websocket
     location ~ ^/lool/(.*)/ws$ {
     proxy_pass http://localhost:9980;
     proxy_set_header Upgrade $http_upgrade;
     proxy_set_header Connection "Upgrade";
     proxy_set_header Host $http_host;
     proxy_read_timeout 36000s;
     }

     # Admin Console websocket
     location ^~ /lool/adminws {
     proxy_pass http://localhost:9980;
     proxy_set_header Upgrade $http_upgrade;
     proxy_set_header Connection "Upgrade";
     proxy_set_header Host $http_host;
     proxy_read_timeout 36000s;
     }

     # Handle static files
     location ^~ /loleaflet {
     proxy_pass http://localhost:9980;
     proxy_set_header Host $http_host;
     }

     location ~ ^/lool {
     proxy_pass http://localhost:9980;
     proxy_set_header Host $http_host;
     }

     # WOPI discovery
     location ^~ /hosting/discovery {
     proxy_pass http://localhost:9980;
     proxy_set_header Host $http_host;
     }

     # Capabilities
     location ^~ /hosting/capabilities {
     proxy_pass http://localhost:9980;
     proxy_set_header Host $http_host;
     }


     }

Ensure local host and server name reflect Install Collabora Office Online selections, save file.

Test Nginx for configuration errors.
```
 $ sudo nginx -t
```
Restart Nginx to load changes.
```
 $ sudo systemctl restart nginx
```

3. Security

Allow Nginx HTTP connections to the server.
```
 $ sudo ufw allow 80/tcp
```
Allow HTTPS connections.
```
 $ sudo ufw allow 443/tcp
```
Reload firewall rules to save changes.
```
 $ sudo ufw reload
```

4. Setup SSL

Install the Certbot Letâ€™s encrypt client.

 $ sudo apt install certbot python3-certbot-nginx -y

Request a free Letâ€™s Encrypt certificate. Replace collabora.example.com with your domain.
```
 $ sudo certbot -d collabora.example.com -m admin@example.com --agree-tos
```
Restart Nginx to load changes.
```
 $ sudo systemctl restart nginx
```
Test HTTPS access by visiting your Collabora Office domain.
```
 https://collabora.example.com
```
You should receive an OK signal.

5. Configure NextCloud

SSH and Login to your NextCloud server.

Generate a Letâ€™s Encrypt SSL certificate to link your subdomain with the NextCloud instance.
```
 $ sudo certbot -d cloud.example.com -m admin@example.com --agree-tos
```

Edit the NextCloud configuration file.

 $ sudo nano /var/www/html/config/config.php

Replace your server IP address with your domain in the trusted_domains array. Your edited section should look like the one below.
```
 'trusted_domains' => 
  array (
  0 => 'cloud.example.com',
 ),
```
Save the file.
Restart Nginx to load changes.
```
 $ sudo systemctl restart nginx
```
Using a web browser of your choice, visit your Nextcloud domain.
```
 https://cloud.example.com
```
Log in to NextCloud using credentials listed on your Vultr application information in the following format:
```
 User: user***
 Pass: *******
```

6. Integrate Collabora Online office with NextCloud

On your NextCloud dashboard, click your user icon in the top right corner, and select Apps from the drop-down list.
Navigate to the Office & Text apps section.
Find the Collabora Online App, download and enable it.
Access your user icon, and select Settings from the drop-down list.
On the left navigation bar, click Collabora Online under the Administration section.
Toggle Use your own server, enter your HTTPS Collabora Office server URL, and click Save. You should receive a server reachable alert.
Scroll to Advanced settings and set your preferred default file type for documents, to work well with Microsoft Office products, use Office Open XML (OOXML). To automatically watermark documents, enable watermarking under Secure view settings.
Navigate to Files.
Click create new + to upload supported files, or choose between text, word document, spreadsheet, or presentation files to create.
Collabora Online Office document types

More Information

You have successfully integrated Collabora Online Office with NextCloud running on a Vultr Cloud Server. For more information and configuration options, please visit the following articles.

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