ONLYOFFICE Docs: brand new name and big updates for spreadsheets

ONLYOFFICE Docs V6.0

ONLYOFFICE is a collaborative office suite for working with text documents, spreadsheets and presentations in UCS. It is combined with Nextcloud, ownCloud, or Seafile and installed from Univention App Center casually (Docker-based) or as a pre-configured virtual appliance. You can also integrate it in UCS LDAP to manage all users.
In this article I’d like to tell you about the latest major update that brings a new name for ONLYOFFICE online editors as well as long-awaited features for spreadsheets.

Cloud Office: Open Source is the better solution

These days, a modern workflow includes fast coordination processes in teams that should also function independently of time and location. For this type of collaboration, it is essential that all team members can edit documents together without conflicts due to different file versions or endless and tiring comment loops. In this article I’d like to show you two examples which represent open source alternatives to cloud office solutions from known software giants.

Let’s take the Corona crisis as an opportunity

Together we will change the world written on the pavement with chalk

The Corona crisis has had a huge impact on our society. Office workers had to start working remotely, medical professionals had countless double shifts and delivery companies went into over drive. Winners and losers everywhere – Amazon grew turnover by 25% in the second quarter of 2020, the cloud computing department of Microsoft saw a 47% growth, we all know Zoom barely held it together, spending hundreds of millions on expanding their server farms.

EGroupware 20.1: further upgrades for home office-based users

DDie neue Version von EGroupware birgt spannende Neuerungen - unter anderem das Tool "smallPART", welches videogesetütztes Lernen und Lehren ermöglicht.

EGroupware is a team management solution which specialises in team communication. The software is not only open source-based, but can be easily integrated into existing IT infrastructures. EGroupware can be installed via the Univention App Center.
The great advantage of Univention Corporate Server lies in the integrated identity and infrastructure management system. This facilitates the administration of applications, users and resources. Userscan, for example, simply install a mail server or other additional components that connect seamlessly with EGroupware.

Due to the ongoing corona crisis and the resulting increased demand for home office support, EGroupware has brought forward features originally planned for version 20.1 and released it already in April 2020.

Secure Communication Processes in UCS with (Self-generated and Signed) Certificates

Certificates – Why and What for

In this article I would like to give you an insight into the topic “Securing the Internet-based exchange of information through certificates”. I’ll take a quick look back at the beginnings of the Internet and the use of protocols such as HTTP, SMTP, POP … and their encrypted transport via SSL or TLS. Above all, however, I would like to explain to you how you can use public certificates with Univention Corporate Server to secure your data transfer or also how you can create trustworthy certificates by yourself with Let’s Encrypt. Completely secure and free of charge on top.

Create an SSO Login for Applications to Groups

Headerbild: SSO mit SAML für UCS-Gruppen
Since the introduction of single sign-on support in Univention Corporate Server (UCS) via Secure Authentication Markup Language (SAML), an administrator can assign a user within the user object to those applications, called service providers in the SAML context, he or she can log in to via single sign-on. As for administrators in organizations with many users, this assignment can be time-consuming.

Two Standards But One Common Single Sign-on – Integration of SAML and OpenID Connect

The integration of Kopano Konnect in the single sign-on network of Univention Corporate Server is an additional option for users to access a range of various applications that are integrated in UCS via a single, initial login using their user name and password.
The two authentication standards SAML (Security Assertion Markup Language) and OpenID Connect have already been available to UCS users for some time. So far, however, these two technologies have been two separated worlds. If some of the web services used SAML and others OpenID Connect for the authentication against UCS’ identity management, users were forced to log in twice in those environments with multiple services. With the support of the Kopano team, we were able to release an extension of the app “OpenID Connect ID” in the App Center. This is integrating the two standards with each other and thus allows a single authentication process by the end user.
I would like to briefly explain how a single sign-on generally works with UCS. Then I explain the interaction of Kerberos, SAML, and OpenID Connect and show you which functions the new implementation of Kopano Konnect offers to UCS users.

Jitsi Meet and the UCS Identity Management

In recent weeks, the increased demand for video conferencing solutions has kept us in the App Center team busy with the question of how Univention can help companies, organizations and school authorities to communicate effectively in digital form without leaving out aspects of data protection. For this reason, we have intensively studied various open source solutions for video conferencing and published quickly Jitsi Meet as an app in the App Center. It is now available to UCS users for easy installation.
Jitsi is a fully encrypted and 100% open source video conferencing solution. The connection to the UCS directory service via LDAP is already configured. Therefore, administrators of a UCS environment can give users access to Jitsi with their regular username and password using the Univention Management Console (UMC). Then Jitsi can be easily accessed from the UCS portal. In this blog post, I would like to show you the most important installation steps and then focus on the different use cases regarding user authentication. Organizations can use Jitsi Meet on Univention Corporate Server (UCS) to specifically control how open they make the access to the app and which users can conduct video conferences.