How to set up Thinkfree Office for Nextcloud

This help article explains how to setup Thinkfree Office with Nextcloud. This article assumes that you have already deployed Thinkfree Office server and communication between it and your Nextcloud instance is possible.

If you do not have Thinkfree Office available yet, you can install and deploy an instance of Thinkfree Office on your own server or private cloud instance as long as it is resolvable and connectable both from Nextcloud and from client browsers.

You can install Thinkfree Office server by following the official installation instructions provided by Thinkfree.

Installation Guide for Rocky Linux 8.x: Download

Installation Guide for Ubuntu: Download

After successfully installing and deploying the Thinkfree server you will need request a free trial license here if you do not have one yet. 

Request Free Trial License

Setup Thinkfree Connector

Log in to NextCloud with an administrator account. NextCloud only allows administrator accounts to access the market and install apps.

When you log in, the dashboard will appear. Click the button on the top right and go to Apps (Market).

Go to the "Office & text" category and type "thinkfree" in the search box at the upper left. When you type, you can see the Thinkfree Office connector app registered in the marketplace. Click the Download and enable button to proceed with installation and activation.

Initial setup

Connector Settings Page

Click the button on the top right to enter Personal settings. Click the Thinkfree Office tab in the left navigation to go to the settings page for linking Thinkfree to Nextcloud.

Currently, only the following setting is required.

(1) Thinkfree Office Server Address: 

Enter the full URL of your Thinkfree Office server (e.g. https://office.example.com). The default demo server (https://nextcloud.thinkfree.com) is publicly accessible but not recommended for production.

If a toast message appears in the upper right corner indicating successful saving, it has been saved successfully.

Next, visit the administrator settings page.

On the administrator settings page you will need to configure your JWT secret value. 

When the conditions are met, the notification window will change and a guide will be displayed indicating that the registered token must be copied in advance by pressing the Show button. The JWT token value is internally converted and used for encryption/decryption, signing, authentication, etc. during request/response.

The JWT Secret is stored and never displayed again. This value must be stored identically in the adapter, so copy it in advance. You can create a new one, but if necessary, store it separately in a secure location.

If a toast message appears in the upper right corner indicating successful saving, it means the save was successful.

For reference, once saved, the original value is processed so that it is not visible even if you press the Show button.

Storage

Create new

Clicking the Create New button allows you to create a new document in Nextcloud storage using the default template provided by the Connector, as shown in the image below.

Open document

Clicking "Open in Thinkfree Office" will open the document for editing.  Upon click, the Thinkfree connector app sends a request to the configured Thinkfree Office server which in turn loads the file from Nextcloud for editing.

Registering Nextcloud Adapter

The Nextcloud adapter must be registered to the Thinkfree Office server in order to allow the server to connect to the Nextcloud storage.

Thinkfree Office Administrator Page Settings

Login to the Thinkfree Office admin console > External Linkage → Add Adapter.

Use the following values when registering the adapter:

• Set Name: nc

• Set Class: com.tf.se.adapter.impl.nextcloud.NextCloudAdapter

• Set Description: Nextcloud adapter

• Upload the adapter JAR file.  Nextcloud Adapter download link here.

After registration, click Settings, then set the adapter config values so that you can access the server where your NextCloud files are stored.

Enter the below values:

1. config 

2. host::{Nextcloud server origin},secret::{jwt_secret}

   1. Nextcloud server origin: The NextCloud server IP and port, including the protocol. 
      (To be precise, this is the IP address where NextCloud Storage is set up, and it is usually the same.). e.g. http://203.123.123.111:8080

   2. jwt_secret: Paste the same value as the jwt_secret registered on the NextCloud admin page.

3.  e.g., host::https://203.123.123.111:8080,secret::abcde12345!#
   Note: Do not include curly braces. Ensure the server origin includes protocol and port if not standard.