How to Authenticate via OAuth2 in Nextcloud Apps

💻 Development
1

Hey everyone,

I’m working on an app integration with Nextcloud and need to implement OAuth2 authentication. I’ve checked the official Nextcloud OAuth2 documentation, but I’m still unclear on a few points:

  • How do I correctly register my app to get the client ID/secret?
  • What’s the proper flow for exchanging authorization codes with Nextcloud’s endpoints?
  • Any gotchas with token refresh or scopes I should watch out for?
  • How do you handle OAuth2 in mobile or desktop apps that integrate with Nextcloud?
  • Are there any example implementations or code snippets you can share (PHP, Python, JS)?

If anyone has step-by-step instructions or real-world examples of OAuth2 integration with Nextcloud apps, it’d be super helpful.

Thanks in advance!

2

Hey,

I am not sure what you want to achieve. Please elaborate bit more:

  • Do you want to allow users of a foreign app with NC such that they do no longer need to login using NC credentials but instead your app’s credentials?
  • Do you have an external app with independent users from these in NC. You want your users to access their own files stored in NC from within the external app?
  • You want to use NC as an auth provider for your external app?
  • Something else?

Unfortunately, OAuth2 is not trivial and one has to be super-precise on the goal before doing anything there (especially as it is security related).

Chris