How to use the mobile OnlyOffice app for collaboration ?

[DodoLeDev]

Hello everyone !

I have successfully set up an OpenCloud+OnlyOffice server, and the collaboration feature works flawlessly across computers and mobile browsers, but I never managed to make the official OnlyOffice app to work for real time collaboration purposes.

What I have tried so far :

• Opening the file from the OpenCloud app, then open it with OnlyOffice : only the last saved state is opened, and not synced
• Login to my OpenCloud account from the OnlyOffice app : Because OpenCloud is forked from OwnCloud, I first tried with this option, but was stuck with the sso page, that just did not load. I then tried with a basic WebDAV login, but same as the first point, only the last saved state is opened

For any of you that has been in my case, how did you manage to fix the problem ?

[niravpatidar37]

Short answer: with OpenCloud you can't get real-time co-editing inside the native ONLYOFFICE Documents app. Getting only the last saved state is what I'd expect from that setup. For co-editing on a phone, open the file in the same WOPI web editor you already use in the browser. The OpenCloud mobile app can do that for you.

Why the native app doesn't co-edit here

• ONLYOFFICE's own docs tie real-time collaboration in the Documents app to the ONLYOFFICE section, i.e. a DocSpace/Workspace portal ("share documents with other users, and collaborate in real time"). Nextcloud, ownCloud (incl. oCIS) and WebDAV are added under Clouds with a server URL, login and password: iOS overview, Android overview.
• ONLYOFFICE's ownCloud guide does say the mobile app can edit ownCloud files collaboratively. But it requires "ownCloud server, ONLYOFFICE Docs and the integration app installed and configured", meaning their connector app for ownCloud. OpenCloud doesn't use that connector. It talks to ONLYOFFICE over WOPI through its collaboration service (README). My reading is that the native app can only fetch and upload the file over WebDAV, so it can't join the live editing session that the browser users are in.

What works

1. Co-editing from the OpenCloud mobile app. On a file, open the menu and pick "Open in (web)". <app> is the name your collaboration service registers, e.g. COLLABORATION_APP_NAME=OnlyOffice.

   • iOS: opens in an in-app browser, with a button to switch to the default browser (OpenInWebAppAction.swift L112, L144-L154)
   • Android: opens in a Chrome Custom Tab (FragmentExt.kt L95-L112, MainFileListFragment.kt L541-L552)

   Both call the server's /app/open-with-web endpoint (frontend config L46-L54). So you get the same editor as in the browser, with co-editing.

2. Single-user editing in the native ONLYOFFICE app (WebDAV). This also gets you past the SSO page that hangs:

   • Create an app token under Account settings > App Tokens > + New (docs). Admins can also run opencloud auth-app create --user-name=<user> --expiration=72h (README).
   • In ONLYOFFICE Documents, go to Clouds > WebDAV (not ownCloud):
     • Server: https://cloud.example.com/remote.php/dav/spaces/<space-id>/. The URL appears in a space's details panel once you turn on "Show WebDAV info in details view" (docs). The legacy path /remote.php/webdav/ is still routed too (ocdav.go L186-L223).
     • Login: your username. If the IdP auto-provisions users, use your user UUID instead.
     • Password: the app token.

Caveats

• I don't know why the app's "ownCloud (oCIS)" OIDC login hangs against OpenCloud, so I can't offer a fix for it. WebDAV plus an app token avoids it.
• I haven't checked what happens when the native app uploads while someone has the same file open in the web editor. Don't edit the same file both ways at once.

Tested with OpenCloud 8.1.0 (opencloudeu/opencloud-rolling, single container): app-token creation with opencloud auth-app create works. Everything else above comes from the linked source and docs.
Not tested: WebDAV requests with the app token (my test environment went down), the ONLYOFFICE Documents app itself, and the OpenCloud mobile apps on a device.