I see that the CODE editor is built in, but I’m wondering if anyone has experience compiling Collabora by themselves for a production environment? Seeing as how it’s open source, you ought to be able to compile it in prod mode (non-CODE) and deploy it to a server, and connect Nextcloud to that new Collabora server, correct?
Any advice greatly appreciated.
There is no need to compile it, there are packaged versions for as good as all distributions available:
https://sdk.collaboraonline.com/docs/installation/Installation_from_packages.html
Much and good luck,
ernolf
CODE is a special “non-production” variant of Collabora Online product.
We offer our free version CODE (Collabora Online Development Edition). CODE is a continuously updated, rolling release where we try out our latest feature work, and has no SLA or long term support. As such, we don’t recommend CODE for business or production environments, but you can use it.
I’m not sure the license allows running it without a support contract in a commercial environment. I would recommend checking the docs and asking the project for support: FAQ — SDK https://sdk.collaboraonline.com/ documentation
Thanks! I’m wondering if Nextcloud can just bundle the production version with AIO and not use the CODE server. It seems preferable any way.
They say you can run CODE in prod, but it’s not recommended, which is why I was curious if Nextcloud could include a non-CODE setup in AIO. Collabora is open source, but apparently the instructions to build a prod environment require a support key from them, otherwise they tell you to use CODE
https://sdk.collaboraonline.com/docs/installation/Installation_from_packages.html#collaboras-partner
It’s not available for NixOS yet. Package request: Collabora Online Development Edition & Nextcloud support · Issue #218878 · NixOS/nixpkgs · GitHub
Yes, that’s the deal, just like with Nextcloud Enterprise. Afaik, you can’t really do signed builds of Nextcloud yourself either. So the deal for both products is basically, you get the short-term releases (Nextcloud), respectively the rolling release (CODE) for free, and if you want long-term support, you need to pay.
So I’d say, contact them if you want to use the production version (COOL), or just use CODE.
Yes, but that has nothing to do with what OP wants. OP wants to install the commercial version (COOL), which probably can’t be packaged by distros anyway. Also, to install COOL from their repos (on supported distros), you need an induvidual customer hash: Installation from packages — SDK https://sdk.collaboraonline.com/ documentation
I guess I would be building a prod-ready non-signed build, but can’t find instructions anywhere.
First of all, I’m not a developer, so take the following with a grain of salt.
As far as I know, Nextcloud doesn’t provide instructions on how to build releases yourself, and they don’t publish their build scripts, so I guess you’d have to figure it out yourself, which means you’d basically have to fork the project and then build your own ‘production’ version.
And to run your build safely in production, you’d also have to maintain it yourself, which means you’d have to pick the relevant patches (bug fixes and security fixes) yourself and backport them to your release, which I highly doubt is feasible, and probably not cheaper than an Enterprise subscription either, as you’d likely need a small team of developers/maintainers to keep track of all the changes and patches.
Collabora has build instructions on how to build CODE, but to get a stable LTS release similar to COOL, you’d probably also have to pick individual patches, backport them, and thus basically maintain your own LTS version of it, which would probably? maybe? be a bit easier than with Nextcloud, not sure, but still far from simple, and therefore most likely not worth it, just to save 20 bucks per user per year.
Oh and those are just the practical hurdles that come to mind, I have no idea if there would be any legal implications as well, if you use your own build in production, or maybe even offer hosting services with it. But I could imagine that you would at least have to change the branding, not sure…
I think this is the crux of the issue. The code is open source, but to compile it for use in prod, you have to pay 20/user/year which is a bit high. Seeing as how it’s open source, I thought there might be instructions on how to compile it, but it seems not.
Thanks for the answers, though!