General UI

Table of Contents

Nextcloud is Nubo core service and the main user interface we try to integrate with most of the apps we offer. In this little howto we would like to go through the basics of the interface explaining the main UI (User interface) concept, as well as some basic actions on files and personal settings.

General UI

The user experience across the entire cloud webapp is consistent and straight forward.

For the purpose of this howto we will name some of the blocks of the interface to help identify them later on:

  • Top bar - is the bar on top with links to all the apps, your personal settings, currently launched and notifications.
  • Left side-bar - is where you can find Options, Filters, Settings etc.
  • Main window - the main application window
  • Right side-bar - pop-up screen that opens when certain actions are triggered (file information, advanced calendar event creation, etc)

To navigate to different apps, you simply click an icon on the topbar.

 
Home, Files, Activity, Gallery, Talk, Contacts, Calendar, Deck, Bookmarks

Personal Settings

Lets start from looking at what can you setup and customize on your cloud account. Click on your avatar in top right corner and choose "Personal" settings (if you did not set avatar yet it's the 'gear' icon in top right corner of the topbar).

The settings are divided into sections. You can use quick links on the left-sidebar to get to them easily.

Personal info

Personal Info is the place where you can add various information about yourself, which then you can choose to share with others. You can additionally choose the access level you want this information to be "shared".

And so:

  • Private - You are the only person that can see this information
  • Contacts - means pretty much the same as Local but with the addition to have this information shared when sharing data with users on other nextcloud instances
  • Public - means the data will be sent to global address book (it can be viewed by anyone)

You should pay extra attention when filling up this information (which is optional) and decide how much information about yourself you want to reveal to the world

Details and Language

Below you can see to which groups you belong to. You you can also change your preferred language.

Security

Here, you can modifiy your password.You also can see how many machines are connected to your account. If you see any device connectd to your account and you don't know them, it can mean that your account is hacked. We advize you to change your password in that case. (Don't forget that each browser, phone, computer, etc. will be logged as separeted device, so don't panic at the first sign, et check everything before to become paranoïd).

Activity

In activity section you can decide how you want to be informed about events going on on your cloud. You can choose between getting mail notification and / or being notified in the Activity stream, or even choose not to get notified at all. You can decide to have your email notifications sent to you on: Hourly, Daily or weekly basis.

External Storage and Sharing

The external Storage gives you the opportunity to add devices and external services for external storage.

What is federated cloud?. A federated cloud (also called cloud federation) is the deployment and management of multiple external and internal cloud computing services to match users needs. A federation is the union of several smaller parts that perform a common action.
 
Just like emails that can be send between users on different servers (komun, riseup, disroot, etc.) also Nubo gives you opportunity to share files, contacts, calendars etc. with people outside of Nubo that also use similar cloud solution (owncloud and / or nextcloud). This gives the freedom to the users to use platform of their choice while being able to collaborate with each other.
 
In this section you can see your federation ID. You can share it with others by just sending a link or via predefined platforms (to which you can add your preferred ones that are not included of course).

Mobile & Desktop

This option gives you the opportunity to connect your files via an other application and to your other Nubo and Komun applications (like the calendar for example).

Accessibility

This option gives you the possibility to use themes for your Nubo.
You also have the option to view your screen with a font police for dyslexics.
If you want to use one (or more) option(s), click on the choosen option (you will see the mention "enabled").

Files

The main task of the cloud is managing files. You can easily upload, download, share and comment.

The left-sidebar let's you filter files based on certain criteria. Main window is your file-browser. You should be familiar with it if you ever used computer before :P.

Create new files and directories

To create new file, just click on "+" button and choose the type of file from the list. You can create directories as well as text files, spreadsheets, presentations, online collaborating text files (Pad) and online collaboratin sheets (Calc).

Upload files

There are two ways to upload files. You can either do that by simply dragging files form your "computer" (file browser) onto the cloud webbrowser window. The other way is to use "+" icon and select "Upload a file" option.

File Sharing

Sharing files and directories is an essential part of any cloud storage service. You you can choose to share files with other disroot users, your entire group, but also with other users using owncloud/nextcloud on different platforms. You can also share with anyone out there via the public link option.

To share a file or directory just click "share icon" right next to the name of the item you wish to share. A right-bar popup will show up with all the sharing options for you to choose from.

You can decide to share with other users, groups, or users on different cloud server using the federation address, by typing their entire username (we do not provide autocompletion for privacy reasons). When sharing with other users or groups you can decide if the users have right to edit/modify content of the share (delete files, upload, edit), and if they can re-share it further to other users.

On top of sharing with other users, you can share your data with anyone using "Share link" that you can copy/paste to anyone you want. Anyone who knows the address (url) will be able to access the files. The person does not need to have valid account. Share link gives you extra option to protect your share with password and expiry date.

Comments, Activities, Version

As you noticed when setting up sharing, there is more options in the right-sidebar.

  • Activities - gives you an overview of all events with the file. The time it was created, when it was shared, edited, commented on etc.
  • Comments - are very useful when working on the file with other users. Everyone you share the file with can read and add comments.
  • Versions - lets you view all changes done to the file. You can download previous revisions of the file as well as restore to previous revision (deleting all changes done after).

Other files operations

Clicking "Three dot" icon next to the filename or directory gives you extra options. Those options are self explanatory. You can "Rename", "Move", "Download" or delete the file or directory.

Activities

When your account is getting busy, you start collaborating with many other users and groups, you might find "Activities" app very useful. Here you have the general overview on all the events happening within your cloud account (file changes, comments, shares, contacts, todos, calendars etc).