Idea: App for organizing partys/meetings/events

🍱 Features & apps App ideas
#1

Hi out there,

some colleagues of mine and me were thinking whether it would be possible to replace the nicely done Facebook Events App, that is totally handy for organizing parties, events or meetings.

We thought: Why not add that feature as an dedicated app to nextcloud to improve the “All-In-One”-Solution it already offers. This feature fits in the road the “Global address book” opened: a federated social network.

What the App should offer:

  • Create and modify an event
  • Invite People from Server
  • Invite people from federated Servers
  • Invite people without an account with an customized link per person oder one for all (like Doodle)
  • Add additional information, like date, time, location, info
  • Accept/Decline/Maybe function for the invited participants
  • Chat area for event centered discussion

That would be the rough plan for the App. Replacing the need for facebook just to use this popular feature.

We think it would be interesting for privates and companies an that it would be better to be integrated in nextcloud rather than offering it as an independent web service.

Does anyone think similar and would there be a lobby in the programmers range? (As there is in my opinion quite demanding knowledge on the owncloud user management and federation management we cannot offer at the moment)

Best regards
Michael

3 Likes
App for coordination of meetings like doodle
#2

Interesting idea:

  • For me that would be an enhancement of the calendar app, because it already brings some of the requested features: You can create an event, invite people from your (i guess also dedicated?) server and by email and, if a mail server is configured, also send invitations and remindings by email. Also the requested information like date, time, location, description can be already provided there.
  • The enhancement would be now to create some optional gui (by dedicated app preferably) around an event that can be reached by invited people or by invitation link, like file/folder sharing links or spreed invitation links.
  • This gui, still linked to the according calendar event, could offer now the so far missing requested features: Chat/message wall, easy accept/decline and possibly some gadgets like event picture or stuff like that. It would give more a feeling of “coming together” than everybody just receiving an email invitation and thats it ;).
  • About the chat feature I am just thinking that this could be better a dedicated app again, at least the core feature/interface. This way it could be also included into spreed and possibly for just a simple chat client inside nextcloud, without the need to add the protocol/core feature for every single app again.
#3

It seems to me that the core of your proposal is much similar to what we discussed in


(correct me if I am wrong! :slight_smile:)

I signal that @georgehrke (calendar app developer) expressed his perplexity in including resources in calendar

Concerning the chat app there is already a lot of work ongoing in the spreed app

Concerning the doodle like functionality I remember a Polls ownCloud app but it seems it is not ported. You could test if this works. Eventually the porting of this app could be a minor programming task (I am guessing…)

Concerning the unified view between calendar, chat, polls and other things in the event management, I guess this will benefit a lot from the ongoing work in the tagging support. I would appreciate a lot this possibility but this is a lot of work also in the “usability department” (@jan… ).

Hope this helps.

#4

It’s pretty much a consent among a lot of people in the project that we don’t want to rebuild an entire groupware with the calendar (and contacts) apps.
There are free software self hosting groupware solutions out there. There is no point in doing that work twice.

But the calendar app is just a CalDAV client in your browser. The actual CalDAV server is part of the Nextcloud server, so you can just write an app, that can manage rooms, and talk to the CalDAV server.

#5

@georgehrke , please pardon me if I gave the wrong impression. I simply cited your opinion because it is an expert opinion; I did non mean to say that I disagree at all.
To the contrary, I do share your opinion that resource management is out of scope for the calendar app! :slight_smile:

No idea of who is managing the CalDAV server, maybe he/she should give an opinion on this issue

1 Like
#6

I totally agree in keeping the calendar app as it is and to not include several new features that just a handful people will use. I would always prefer such new features to be added as new apps to keep the core as slim as possible.

I don’t know how far it is possible for one app to adjust the ui of another app and in how far this would be actually wanted/accepted by app developers. But as the calendar app already gives the basic feature of event creation and invitation (as CalDAV client) it would be a nice small step to just add a link to the date creation/adjustment panel to redirect to an “shared meeting rooms”, “Open Event Management” or whatever you want to call it app that provides the groupware features, clearly connected to the specific date on the CalDAV server. I don’t know how complex it is and if it is easier to use the already existing CalDAV functions of the calendar app inside the new groupware gui or make it an independent CalDAV client.

I read in the NC 11 changelog that there is already a public link feature included in the calendar app? So far I could not find something like this. But in this case from my point of view there is not much more missing than a message board/meeting rooms, that can be used by all people, invited to a CalDAV date/event. “Much more” just related to the words, of course this could be already a whole much more work :wink: .

#7

No idea of who is managing the CalDAV server, maybe he/she should give an opinion on this issue

Mostly @rullzer and @nickvergessen at the moment. Sometimes me as well.

#8

As the polls app was mentioned in this discussion; it is now available for Nextcloud as well:
https://apps.nextcloud.com/apps/polls

#9

Not to forget Deck

#10

Don’t need it personally, but an appointment management system (think private doctor, therapist, hairdresser etc.) linked to the Nextcloud calendar would be probably very similar and quite an nice app to add. An sufficiently generic event management system with public RSVP option could probably fill both niches.

#11

Doesn’t fulfil Tasks that need? You can also add start/end dates to tasks, then usually they show up on calendars, but yeah might not work on all calendar/tasks client combination I think.

1 Like
#12

I originally posted this as a comment on https://github.com/nextcloud/calendar/issues/298, but then found this thread where it was already clearly stated that the goal of the calendar app is (was?) not to implement a fully-fledged groupware solution.

I’ll just leave my original comment here for reference:

Just wanted to share this with you, possibly driving the specs a little further than supporting the ATTACH element. We have a client who’d like to add attachments to events. The requirements are quite sensible:

  1. Create an event, such as e.g. the yearly assembly of a non-profit
  2. Invite members (In Nextcloud e.g. members of a circle)
  3. Attach an agenda and maybe documents to prepare and bring (e.g. declaration as candidate for a position)
  4. After the event, attach the minutes and any other relevant documents.

What I have in mind when thinking about that description is extending an event (the pure VEVENT object) to possibly being represented as an event page (think XSLT). The end result could look a little like e.g. https://demo.theeventscalendar.com/event/healthy-cooking-for-busy-schedules-2/2022-04-26/
Such an event page could actually link to much more than just a couple of attachments. It might even allow for events to link to a directory that groups documents by type, displaying those groups again on the event page.

IMHO this would be another step in making Nextcloud a strong groupware/collaboration platform.

Rendering a VEVENT as a web-page isn’t necessarily the responsibility of the calendar app… I’m not sure about this. Should that be a separate app? Should there be something like pico CMS but for RFC 5545 ?

#13

Collectives - shared documentation for Circles
Forms now supports Circles.
Appointments - invite users to confirm dates and times ala Doodle.
Deck app can be assigned to a Circle

  • Due dates will show up in the Calendar + Tasks app.
  • Supports attachments

Mobilizon is a really nice event platform that supports federated users. You could host it in addition.

  • Nextcloud users can join & participate via the Social app.
#14

Thanks for your feedback, @just. I’d seen Collectives, but I can’t say that I’ve fully grasped its use. I’ll give it a try to get hands-on experience.

It’s true that Deck’s due-dates show up in the calendar, but that won’t feel natural to users.

The Mobilizon app looks like the best bet right now. Thanks, I knew some framasoft apps, but not that one.

#15

It will create Text app documents that are assigned to the Circle as opposed to an individual’s account. You can create as many documents as you want related to a circle such as “Event Planning” rather than sharing from your user account “kwisatz”. Anyone within the Circle will be able to access those documents via the Collectives app.

In that case you could use Appointments app to setup calendar events with your users. External users can be added via shared url.

#16

I found the appointment app very confusing to set up and use. I found the polls app much easier here, even if it doesn’t do exactly the same thing.

Not sure if the polls app can feed into calendar once a date has been picked, but that’d be nice too.

#17

I set up a test account on the mobilizon demo and installed the Social app.
Would you have an example of how a Nextcloud user would “join & participate”, @just ?
I managed to follow users on the mobilizon demo instance, but I fail to grasp how I’d see information on events. (Note: I’m still on Nextcloud 19 here, maybe the version that’s available for 20 brings additional ActivityPub functionality?!)

#18

You’ll want to look into Mobilizon’s documentation and git issues. It just reached version 1.0 stable, which I haven’t yet tested. The idea is any activitypub user (Nextcloud Social, Mastodon, Pleroma, whatever) can use Mobilizon related to events from their platform of choice.