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Authentication guide - Nextcloud (self-hosted)

This has been constructed using the Nextcloud OAuth2 Documentation combined with this issue comment on the nextcloud bugtracker .

This guide uses the generic OAuth2 module for compatibility with Nextcloud 13 and above (this guide has been tested successfully with Nextcloud 14 and Nextcloud 20).

  1. Sign-in with an administrator account to your Nextcloud server

  2. Navigate to the OAuth integration settings: Profile Icon (top right) --> Settings Then choose Security Settings from the Administration part of the list - Don't confuse this with Personal Security Settings, where you would change your personal password! At the top there's OAuth 2.0-Clients.
    Where to find OAuth2 in Nextcloud

  3. Add your HedgeDoc instance by giving it a name (perhaps HedgeDoc, but could be anything) and a Redirection-URI. The Redirection-URI will be \<your-hedgedoc-url\>/auth/oauth2/callback. Click Add.
    Adding a client to Nextcloud

  4. You'll now see a line containing a client identifier and a Secret. Successfully added OAuth2-client

  5. That's it for Nextcloud, the rest is configured in your HedgeDoc config.json or via the CMD_ environment variables!

  6. Add the Client ID and Client Secret to your config.json file or pass them as environment variables. Make sure you also replace <your-nextcloud-domain> with the right domain name.

    • config.json:

      {
        "production": {
          "oauth2": {
              "clientID": "ii4p1u3jz7dXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX",
              "clientSecret": "mqzzx6fydbXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX",
              "authorizationURL": "https://<your-nextcloud-domain>/apps/oauth2/authorize",
              "tokenURL": "https://<your-nextcloud-domain>/apps/oauth2/api/v1/token",
              "userProfileURL": "https://<your-nextcloud-domain>/ocs/v2.php/cloud/user?format=json",
              "userProfileUsernameAttr": "ocs.data.id",
              "userProfileDisplayNameAttr": "ocs.data.display-name",
              "userProfileEmailAttr": "ocs.data.email"
          }
        }
      }
      
    • environment variables:

      CMD_OAUTH2_CLIENT_ID=ii4p1u3jz7dXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
      CMD_OAUTH2_CLIENT_SECRET=mqzzx6fydbXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
      CMD_OAUTH2_AUTHORIZATION_URL=https://<your-nextcloud-domain>/apps/oauth2/authorize
      CMD_OAUTH2_TOKEN_URL=https://<your-nextcloud-domain>/apps/oauth2/api/v1/token
      CMD_OAUTH2_USER_PROFILE_URL=https://<your-nextcloud-domain>/ocs/v2.php/cloud/user?format=json
      CMD_OAUTH2_USER_PROFILE_USERNAME_ATTR=ocs.data.id
      CMD_OAUTH2_USER_PROFILE_DISPLAY_NAME_ATTR=ocs.data.display-name
      CMD_OAUTH2_USER_PROFILE_EMAIL_ATTR=ocs.data.email
      

Info

If you are using a CA not trusted by Node.js (like Let's Encrypt e.g) for your NextCloud instance you can set the NODE_EXTRA_CA_CERTS environment variable to the CA certificate file path of your CA.
Remember to also make the file available inside the Docker container, if you're running HedgeDoc in Docker container.