Enable Dashboard on per User Basis

Schuldi · October 12, 2020, 6:53am

Hello,
I am running Nextcloud 20 and some of my Users disklike the Dashboard, while others like it.
I’d like to offer my Users to enable or disable the Dashboard for themselves. Is there an Option I haven’t found yet?
I don’t want to uninstall Dashboard and I don’t want to change the default app for the whole server.

Thank you in advance!

Schuldi · October 16, 2020, 9:48pm

Does no one have an idea?

rakekniven · October 17, 2020, 8:38am

You can enable apps based on group not users.

Schuldi · October 17, 2020, 9:35am

Well, that is a very impractical solution, as the users have to tell me if they like it or not, and i have to have two groups for users who like it and users who don’t…

Best solution would be, if the user coud decide if the dashboard should be enabled and if it should be the default app…

rakekniven · October 17, 2020, 9:52am

Please see “App order” app. There the user can arrange the order of apps and hide app icons from top navigation bar.

Schuldi · October 17, 2020, 11:23am

The Problem is not the App Order or the Icon.
Some Users want the Dashboard as default app, whilst some others don’t want the app as default, but want to use it from time to time, and the third group doesn’t want the app at all…

devnull · October 17, 2020, 11:41am

Is default app started because of default setting or app order? app order would be fine. If not perhaps open issue.

JohnITDH · January 6, 2021, 5:23pm

First, congrats to the NextCloud team for developing the Dashboard. Many populations of NC users will find this adds value.

But not all users - and I agree with what Schuldi says above the Dashboard.

We have just upgraded from v18 to v20, and so our users are now getting the Dashboard when they first log in. Right now we are only using the “Files” functionality, and so the additional items on the Dashboard are, for most users, just noise.

What we would prefer is:-

have a Global setting which gave the default “first app” which loads on first login - which could then be set to “Files”, “Calendar” or “Dashboard”.
and an Individual setting for users who could then choose to stay on the system default, or change to some other value.

For time being we are using the Dashboard “Limit to Groups” setting, and setting the list of Groups to a single test group. And allowing individual groups to opt in if it suits them.

kesselb · January 6, 2021, 5:31pm

github.com

nextcloud/server/blob/ad3735ba27f7b17f3e07b29df165710ca65f3dbb/config/config.sample.php#L218-L227


      
          /**
           * Set the default app to open on login. Use the app names as they appear in the
           * URL after clicking them in the Apps menu, such as documents, calendar, and
           * gallery. You can use a comma-separated list of app names, so if the first
           * app is not enabled for a user then Nextcloud will try the second one, and so
           * on. If no enabled apps are found it defaults to the Files app.
           *
           * Defaults to ``files``
           */
          'defaultapp' => 'files',

Defaults to files is outdated. dashboard is the default.

rakekniven · January 6, 2021, 5:37pm

Do you have any code reference? Time to update docs if it is like you wrote.

kesselb · January 6, 2021, 6:08pm

@rakekniven config.sample.php is the right place to update it. Documentation is generated from config.sample.php.

Allow default app to be overwritten by user config · nextcloud/server@db86bea · GitHub according to this commit the new default is dashboard,files.

github.com

nextcloud/server/blob/db86bea18ce41ad73e9c1a06f2b2d89d8d4f2ef8/lib/private/legacy/OC_Util.php#L1112-L1113


					$userDefaultApps = explode(',', $config->getUserValue($user->getUID(), 'core', 'defaultapp'));
					$defaultApps = array_filter(array_merge($userDefaultApps, $defaultApps));

And even better it seems there is already a way to overwrite the defaultapp on per user basis via userconfig (usually oc_preferences).

JohnITDH · January 6, 2021, 6:33pm

This is useful, and it is clear how a Global default setting can be made.

Can you explain “userconfig”, and “oc_preferences” - are they data items updatable by system admin only?

I don’t see any setting for “apps order” or similar for regular users via Settings config dialogs (eg Personal info, Security, Activity, Mobile & Desktop, Accessibility, Sharing, Flow, Privacy").

kesselb · January 6, 2021, 7:45pm

Yes. I don’t think there is an UI for it. Just add a record to the database table.

rakekniven · January 8, 2021, 9:16am

Updated docs. See Change defaultapp in config.sample.php to dashboard to improve docs and align it to source code by rakekniven · Pull Request #25029 · nextcloud/server · GitHub