Is Nextcloud the perfect software for our needs?

Hi nextcloud-community,

first of all - sorry for my bad english, school is long time ago. I installed nextcloud 14 on a debian system. I am new to debian and new to nextcloud but i found the most answers i needed… so everything works. I played a little bit around to see whats possible.

Let me first explain what exactly i need:

We are a architecture company and we have a windows Fileserver where everything is in one simple folder called “projects”. In this folder there are (atm) around 1200 projects, every projects has lots of subfolders. every project folder is around 10GB large.

We have now collegues in our team who need their projects (which they are working on) SYNCED on a windows surface! they need the files OFFLINE.

Lets say we have 10 team members and everyone needs his own projects offline on a windows surface tablet.

As far as i understand nextcloud, every user has its own folder in the data folder. and i can additionally add our windows projects folder as “external storage”. thats what i have done so far after a usual nextcloud installation. the problem is that i did not find a possibility to manage the external storage ALSO TO SYNC with a users nextcloud client. i only have a access on the fly. i am sure you know what i mean…

PERFECT would be if i can use occ (via php script) to give my team members access to THE PROJECTS THEY NEED. This can change every half a year. We want them to have all files they need on their mobile device BECAUSE they dont have internet access where they are (for example at construction areas). when their windows surface gets internet again, the files should sync with our project folder. Multiple people need multiple project folders.

I’ve read a lot and i googled a lot but i wasn’t able to find an answer. Maybe i should point the “data” path from nextcloud to our fileserver folder “projects” ? but doesn’t this mean that every project is synced for everyone? this would be aroung 24.000 GB. A surface only has 128GB disk space :slight_smile:

Is nextcloud wrong for our needs?
Or not?
Can anyone help me out with pointing me in the right direction?

Greetings from Germany

Hallo,

ich antworte mal auf deutsch. Grundsätzlich ist Nextcloud eine Datenwolke die nur funktioniert wenn man online ist.

Du kannst natürlich den Gruppen jeweils die benötigen Projekte “freigeben” und die Benutzer downloaden sich die Projekte auf die eigene Festplatte.

Der Vorteil von Nextcloud ist eben das man auf seine Daten immer und von überall zugreifen kannst, aber eben nur “online”.

Ob diese Lösung mit Freigaben und lokal kopieren eine Lösung ist muss du mal testen.

ich antworte Dir auch mal in Deutsch: Du kannst die gewünschten Ordner im Nextcloud Client frei auswählen, die Du offline gesynct haben willst. Du brauchst also gar nicht die komplette Platte “Projects” sondern jeder Bauleiter/Architekt markiert im Clienten “seine” Bauvorhaben und trägt nur “seine” Projektdaten mit sich.

Ich denke Du hast vor, die Daten per “Externen Speicher” in die Nextcloud zu holen. Da würde ich von Anfang an einen Admin-User einrichten, der das 1x für alle macht und in Nextcloud diesen dann für alle teilt. Nicht jedem User individuell einen eigenen “Externen Speicher” zuweisen.

Die Nextcloud immer schön hinter einem Reverse Proxy betreiben, der auch gleichzeitig der STUN/TURN Server wird.


I’ll answer you also in German: You can select folders in the Nextcloud Client, which you want to have synced offline. So you don’t need the complete “Projects” Folder. Each construction manager/architect marks “his” projects in the client and only carries “his” project data with him.

I think you intend to fetch the data via "External Storage into Nextcloud. I would set up an admin user from the beginning who would do this job once and shares this for everyone else in your Nextcloud. Do not allocate each user an individual “External Storage”.

Final hint: Always operate the Nextcloud behind a reverse proxy, which also becomes the STUN/TURN server

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@JABAHOSTING @jakobssystems

as far as i understand your answers (and why you posted them in german) it would be nice to keep to the original language of the threadstarter… so that more ppl could read and understand what’s going on.

@Seichobob made an effort to describe his needs in english… and that should be respected.

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you’re right, done :wink:

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No. The desktop client will sync everything so you can use it offline.
You are accessing nc only via the web gui?