Use external database as a source for Nextcloud users and groups. Retrieve the users and groups info. Allow the users to change their passwords. Sync the users' email addresses with the addresses stored by Nextcloud.

Getting Started

SSH into your server.
Get into the apps folder of your Nextcloud installation, for example /var/www/nextcloud/apps.
Git clone this project: git clone https://github.com/nextcloud/user_sql.git.
Login to your Nextcloud instance as admin.
Navigate to Apps from the menu then find and enable the User and Group SQL Backends app.
Navigate to Admin from menu and switch to Additional Settings, scroll down the page and you will see SQL Backends settings.

You can skip the first three steps as this app is available in the official Nextcloud App Store.

Configuration

Below are detailed descriptions of all available options.

Database connection

This section contains the database connection parameters.

Name	Description	Details
SQL driver	The database driver to use. Currently supported drivers are: mysql, pgsql.	Mandatory.
Hostname	The hostname on which the database server resides.	Mandatory.
Database	The name of the database.	Mandatory.
Username	The name of the user for the connection.	Optional.
Password	The password of the user for the connection.	Optional.

Options

Here are all currently supported options.

Name	Description	Details
Allow display name change	With this option enabled user can change its display name. The display name change is propagated to the database.	Optional. Default: false. Requires user's Display name column.
Allow password change	Can user change its password. The password change is propagated to the database. See Hash algorithms.	Optional. Default: false.
Use cache	Use database query results cache. The cache can be cleared any time with the Clear cache button click.	Optional. Default: false.
Hashing algorithm	How users passwords are stored in the database. See Hash algorithms.	Mandatory.
Email sync	Sync e-mail address with the Nextcloud. - None - Disables this feature. This is the default option. - Synchronise only once - Copy the e-mail address to the Nextcloud storage if its not set. - Nextcloud always wins - Always copy the e-mail address to the database. This updates the user table. - SQL always wins - Always copy the e-mail address to the Nextcloud storage.	Optional. Default: None. Requires user's Email column.
Home mode	User storage path. - Default - Let the Nextcloud manage this. The default option. - Query - Use location from the user table pointed by the home column. - Static - Use static location. The `%u` variable is replaced with the username of the user.	Optional Default: Default.
Home Location	User storage path for the `static` home mode.	Mandatory if the Home mode is set to `Static`.

User table

The definition of user table. The table containing user accounts.

Name	Description	Details
Table name	The table name.	Mandatory for user backend.
Username	Username column.	Mandatory for user backend.
Email	E-mail column.	Mandatory for Email sync option.
Home	Home path column.	Mandatory for `Query` Home sync option.
Password	Password hash column.	Mandatory for user backend.
Display name	Display name column.	Optional.
Can change avatar	Flag indicating if user can change its avatar.	Optional. Default: false.

Group table

Group definitions table.

Name	Description	Details
Table name	The table name.	Mandatory for group backend.
Is admin	Flag indicating if its the admin group	Optional.
Display name	Display name column.	Optional.
Group name	Group name column.	Mandatory for group backend.

User group table

Associative table which maps users to groups.

Name	Description	Details
Table name	The table name.	Mandatory for group backend.
Username	Username column.	Mandatory for group backend.
Group name	Group name column.	Mandatory for group backend.

Integrations

The basic functionality requires only one database table: User table.

For all options to work three tables are required:

User table,
Group table,
User group table.

If you already have an existing database you can always create database views which fits this model, but be aware that some functionalities requires data changes (update queries).

If you don't have any database model yet you can use below tables (MySQL):

CREATE TABLE sql_users
(
  id                INT         AUTO_INCREMENT PRIMARY KEY,
  username          VARCHAR(16) NOT NULL,
  display_name      TEXT        NULL,
  email             TEXT        NULL,
  home              TEXT        NULL,
  password          TEXT        NOT NULL,
  can_change_avatar BOOLEAN     NOT NULL DEFAULT FALSE,
  CONSTRAINT users_username_uindex UNIQUE (username)
);

CREATE TABLE sql_group
(
  id           INT         AUTO_INCREMENT PRIMARY KEY,
  name         VARCHAR(16) NOT NULL,
  display_name TEXT        NULL,
  admin        BOOLEAN     NOT NULL DEFAULT FALSE,
  CONSTRAINT group_name_uindex UNIQUE (name)
);

CREATE TABLE sql_user_group
(
  id         INT         AUTO_INCREMENT PRIMARY KEY,
  group_name VARCHAR(16) NOT NULL,
  username   VARCHAR(16) NOT NULL,
  CONSTRAINT user_group_group_name_username_uindex UNIQUE (group_name, username),
  INDEX user_group_group_name_index (group_name),
  INDEX user_group_username_index (username)
);

WordPress

Thanks to this app, Nextcloud can easily integrate with Wordpress. In the Nextcloud user table settings of SQL Backends, configure it as:

User table: wp_users
Username column: user_login
Password column: user_pass

Hashing algorithm: Unix (Crypt)

JHipster

It is very easy to integrate Nextcloud with JHipster. Follow the Using the Database instructions in Using Jhipster in development to configure your database. Assume you chose MySQL as JHipster database. In the Nextcloud user table settings of SQL Backends, configure it as:

User table: jhi_users
Username column: login
Password column: password_hash
Email column: email

Hashing algorithm: Unix (Crypt)

Features

Currently, it supports most of postfixadmin's encryption options, except dovecot and saslauthd. It was tested and developed for a postfixadmin database.

Password changing is disabled by default, but can be enabled in the Admin area. Caution: user_sql does not recreate password salts, which imposes a security risk. Password salts should be newly generated whenever the password changes.

The column autocomplete works only for MySQL and PostgreSQL database which is used to validate form data. If you use other database use occ command to set the application config parameters with domain suffix.

For example to set 'sql_hostname' parameter in default domain use:

occ config:app:set user_sql 'sql_hostname_default' --value='localhost'

Currently supported parameters

sql_hostname
sql_username
sql_password
sql_database
sql_table
sql_driver
col_username
col_password
col_active
col_displayname
col_email
col_gethome
set_active_invert
set_allow_pwchange
set_default_domain
set_strip_domain
set_crypt_type
set_mail_sync_mode
set_enable_gethome
set_gethome_mode
set_gethome
sql_group_table
col_group_username
col_group_name

Acknowledgments

This repository contains continuation of work done in this repo.

This plugin is heavily based on user_imap, user_pwauth, user_ldap and user_redmine!

Credits

Andreas Boehler for releasing the first version of this application
Johan Hendriks provided his user_postfixadmin
Ed Wildgoose for fixing possible SQL injection vulnerability