ownCloud Server Administration Manual

Configuring SharePoint Integration

Native SharePoint support has been added to the ownCloud Enterprise Subscription as a secondary storage location for SharePoint 2007, 2010 and 2013. When this is enabled, users can access and sync all of their SharePoint content via ownCloud, whether in the desktop sync, mobile or Web interfaces. Updated files are bi-directionally synced automatically. SharePoint shares are created by the ownCloud admin, and optionally by any users who have SharePoint credentials.

The ownCloud SharePoint plugin uses SharePoint document lists as remote storage folders. ownCloud respects SharePoint access control lists (ACLs), so ownCloud sharing is intentionally disabled for SharePoint mountpoints. This is to preserve SharePoint ACLs and ensure content is properly accessed as per SharePoint rules.

The plugin uses the Simple Object Access Protocol (SOAP) and WebDAV for the uploads and downloads to talk to SharePoint servers. Your ownCloud server must have php-soap or php5-soap installed. Most Linux distributions and Windows call the package php-soap, though there may be some Linux variants that call it php5-soap. Starting with ownCloud 7.0.2 EE, Linux packages and ownCloud appliances will install php5-soap as a required dependency.

The supported authentication methods are:

  • Basic Auth
  • NTLM (Recomended)

Enabling the SharePoint Plugin

The SharePoint plugin is a native plugin in ownCloud 7 EE, so the first step is to enter the Apps administration page and enable it.

../_images/app-sharepoint-enable.png

Next, enter the Admin panel to set up SharePoint connections in the SharePoint Drive Configuration section.

../_images/sharepoint-drive-config.png
  • First, enter your SharePoint Listing credentials. These credentials are not stored in the database, but are used only during plugin setup to list the Document Libraries available per SharePoint site.
  • Global credentials is an optional field. If you fill in this field, these credentials will be used on on all SharePoint mounts where you select: “Use global credentials” as the Authentication credentials
  • Enter your ownCloud mount point in the Local Folder Name column. This is the name of the folder that each user will see on the ownCloud filesystem. You may use an existing folder, or enter a name to create a new mount point
  • Select who will have access to this mountpoint, by default “All users”, or a user or a group
  • Enter your SharePoint server URL
  • Then click the little refresh icon to the left of the Document Library field. If your credentials and URL are correct you’ll get a dropdown list of available SharePoint libraries
  • Select the document library you want to mount
  • Select which kind of Authentication credentials you want to use for this mountpoint. If you select use custom credentials, you will have to enter the the credentials on this line. Otherwise, the global credentials or the user’s own credentials will be used
  • Click Save, and you’re done

Please see Connecting to SharePoint in the User Manual to learn how to use your new SharePoint connections.

Note

Speed up load times by disabling file previews in config.php, because the previews are generated by downloading the remote files to a temp file. This means ownCloud will spend a lot of time creating previews for all of your SharePoint content. To disable file previews, add the following line to the ownCloud config file found in /owncloud/config/config.php:

'enable_previews' => false,

Troubleshooting

Turn on Sharepoint app logging by modifying the following line in apps/sharepoint/lib/sharepoint.php to TRUE:

private static $enableLogs = TRUE;

Global mount points can’t be accessed: You have to fill out your SharePoint credentials as User on the personal settings page, or in the popup menu. These credentials are used to mount all global mount points.

Personal mount points can’t be accessed: You have to fill your SharePoint credentials as User on the personal settings page in case your personal mount point doesn’t have its own credentials.

A user can’t update the credentials: Verify that the correct credentials are configured, and the correct type, either global or custom.