After checking for a plugin or native feature I was not able to find any solution to add additional field to files.
I want to be able to create additional fields like WordPress ACF or Joomla is able to create.
Example:
Group X
Field I
Document No. Input Type Text
Field 2
Document issuing date Input Type Date
Field 3
Issued by Dropdown select
etc
I think this use case must have been solved before from other Nextcloud implementation, but as I am a new user of the application maybe I am not used to know how this settings are configured.
Can anyone give me some hits if what I need can be done and how?
As far as I know, it is not possible to edit file metadata directly from the GUI, and I am not aware of any apps that allow this in a general way. However, there are a few apps in the App Store that interact with metadata for specific use cases, such as AutoRename - Apps - App Store - Nextcloud and Confidential files - Apps - App Store - Nextcloud, …and maybe others..
That said, I’m not an expert on this topic, but if you describe your actual use case in more detail, someone else might be able to suggest a way to implement your specific use case or workflow within Nextcloud.
First let me thank you for your reply!
Unfortunately the suggested plugins does not solve my issue.
My use case is this:
A company needs to store their scanned documents in cloud storage.
But the files need to be archived with some metadata that they can be searched after being stored.
I understand that out of the box Nextcloud does not have the flow that I want, but I was wondering if there is any plugin at least that user can set extra attributes to each file.
Or maybe it would be better to use a dedicated solution designed specifically for that purpose, such as Paperless-ngx. https://docs.paperless-ngx.com/
After all, not everything has to be done in Nextcloud. Archiving documents, which typically don’t need to be modified anymore, and in most cases shouldn’t be, is probably better handled in a dedicated tool for that reason alone.
Well I must say that if the scope of the application would be just to store some files nextcloud would be an overkill, but I my use case I want to leverage also other features of Nextcloud like filesharing, email, calendar, calls
I’m saying Nextcloud is probably not the right tool for your specific usecase of archiving files, and I recommended some other tool that probably is better suited.
Yeah, I get it. Since you’re already using or planning to use Nextcloud for other purposes, it makes sense that you’d want to use it for this specific use case too. However, Nextcloud is really not designed or particularly well suited for actual document archiving.
However, while installing and maintaining two separate applications will require more effort, it might actually be more efficient in the long run to use a dedicated application for that specific use case.
Whether PaperlessNGX actually fits your needs, you’d have to test, I can only say it is the open-source document archiving tool with the most features. So unless you also consider checking out commercial solutions, it’s probably the way to go for a self-hosted document archiving solution.
Just in case these fields are required for further processing the documents using another application, or for making them available on a web application or website, then neither Nextcloud nor PaperlessNGX would probably be the right tool for the job.
In that case, unfortunately, I wouldn’t be able to offer any useful advice except maybe to stick with your existing workflow and tools for those specific tasks, if they already exist.
