Hello,
I am writing this in German because my English is not the best.
I am looking for help with my volunteer project that involves combining Discourse, Rocket.Chat, and Nextcloud.
I would be happy if one or the other would get in touch.
I can provide more information privately as well.
Thank you
Hello Florian,
Getting support in German is certainly not easy here, but your questions should definitely be a bit more specific. Perhaps you could introduce the project and say how far you have progressed.
Hello @Florian_MĂĽller,
as @helmi already said, getting support in German here is not easy, but not impossible either. 
What do you have in mind, what has already been done, and where are you stuck?
First of all, thank you very much for the quick answers.
I work professionally in emergency services and want to build an intranet for aid organizations and helpers to exchange ideas.
A name and domain already exist, but not much more.
The whole thing is under construction and will run under the name: Retter.One
Sincerely,
Florian
And what should that look like technically, so how do you imagine it with Discourse, Rocket.Chat and NextCloud?
Discourse for discussion topics
Rocket.Chat for voice and chat
NextCloud for files
A Linux server is available:
| CPU | Intel(R) Xeon(R) CPU E3-1230 v3 @ 3.30GHz (8 core(s)) |
|---|---|
| Version | Plesk Obsidian v18.0.38_build1800211001.19 os_Ubuntu 18.04 |
Yes, it’s clear what each individual item is for.
The question is, should it all be on one server? If so, should they also be “networked” with each other?
That’s why I’m asking how you envisioned it technically.
Yes, everything on one server would be the goal
And what is the problem or what has already been done?
Everything would have to be installed and networked together.
I’ll be honest:
Even if you’re doing this voluntarily, I think it’s better suited for the Marketplace.
Depending on how proficient someone is with all the stuff, it still doesn’t get done in an hour. Server configuration alone isn’t something you can just finish on the side.
Another suggestion:
Install yunohost.org on the server, and then install the 3 individual things with it. You can then do the “networking” yourself through the corresponding plugins.
While this isn’t optimal either, as you then have to trust yunohost, the installation etc. is easier, and everything can be done with a web browser.
I’ve also tried something similar, but unfortunately, there aren’t very good integrations between Nextcloud and Discourse yet. It seems very much the case that Nextcloud is trying to incorporate chat and discussion with “Nextcloud Circles” (Teams (formerly known as Circles) - Apps - App Store - Nextcloud) etc., but I find these overly complicated and not nearly as good as Discourse.
Forget about yunohost, I just checked, and Rocket.Chat is only half-heartedly supported.
Why have a separate chat anyway? Discourse can also be used for chatting, there’s a plugin for it.
And I wouldn’t do the integration with NextCloud for security reasons either, because if one access is hijacked, the person can also access the other service. So if someone steals access to the forum, they also have access to NextCloud.
I know many people like to connect everything, but it’s really foolish from a security perspective.
Sure, from a security perspective, those are naturally concerns if everything is interconnected, but I want to make it easy for the user to use everything with just one registration.
Two-way authentication is certainly sensible, though.
Besides chat, Rocket.Chat also offers voice.
Of course, Nextcloud has a function called Talk that can even do video, which could be used, but I find Rocket.Chat more suitable.
I already find your feedback and ideas so far very good, thank you.
I am driving a similar project at the StaBi Berlin - a social intranet for the entire Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation. Discourse and Nextcloud are also two building blocks there, RocketChat would generally be a good choice, but as described above, I am currently trying to handle it more via Discourse’s own messaging to reduce the number of tools.
What you want to look at for a “coupling”: a central LDAP directory, through which all three systems run their authentication uniformly.
I had also briefly considered Ralf for LDAP.
Let’s see how it could work without LDAP.
I have created a somewhat makeshift SSO bridge between Discourse and Nextcloud (or Nextcloud SSO) for internal use, after the Nextcloud-Discourse plugin didn’t work for me. Essentially, it’s an adapter that exposes the internal Discourse SSO as an external OAuth2 service. With minor modifications to the PHP source code, you can also differentiate based on groups or trust level who gets what access in Nextcloud. Discourse is the master, but the whole thing should run on a separate Vhost as a login service. I’m happy to provide it if you’re interested.
That sounds interesting, using Discourse as a base and then linking it with Nextcloud and Rocket.Chat via OAuth2
Interested in a Discourse meetup in Berlin or Potsdam?
Fundamentally yes, if you organize it towards 2G (I currently have children who cannot be vaccinated).
What interests me burning: I have money. I would like to spend it at a stall that builds open-source functions for me. A network might also be helpful for something like that.