Hey Christian and Eric,
it would be a fantastic idea to put DEVONthink and Nextcloud together…
here my 5cent: How about a plugin for the nextcloud that would allow users to use your fantastic sync engine with a nextcloud folder…
… this way one can store Dox on the road (ie iPhone) with nextcloud in its corresponding folder (faster, directly in the subfolder, more flexible)
and
… scan dox on the Mac directly into DEVONthink Office.
nextcloud would allow sharing the dox with others (using nextclouds build-in features) while
Devonthink on the Mac would allow one to use all the wonderful features it provides (and integrates with the Mac)
Already now, one of my nextcloud servers is the sync store for all my iOS & Mac devices using WebDAV.
I am convinced that would be a win-win situation for Devonthink and all nextcloud users… a dream-team!!!
Thanks for the suggestion but I’m not seeing what the benefit would be here.
You’re already syncing with WebDAV: √
You can use NextCloud in the way it’s already built, including sharing documents: √
You can index local NextCloud documents into DEVONthink: √
DEVONthink To Go doesn’t support indexed documents: X (Is this it?)
Our sync engine isn’t a filesharing mechanism; it’s for syncing DEVONthink databases. Those are not synonymous functions.
And if we support NextCloud, why not ownCloud? Or OneDrive? Google Drive?… In fact, if we were to walk down this path, it’s more likely we’d implement a larger commercial service as it’s more broadly applicable to our userbase.
The Nextcloud (and owncloud etc) does so many other thinks that are valuable to me … and sure enough to others…
and yes, imho, the mobile App (Devonthink to go) is not really great … it does it’s job … better than no companion that’s for sure. and yes, on my Mac I am mostly using DTPO…
… but that is all not the point. Nextcloud offers so many other (great) features and it would be really great I could mingle to two. You mention the Indexing using WebDAV… it’s not really working great for me … remember, I got over 200k documents and several databases… WebDAV it keeps breaking… even the ocs mount pro Version (from what I know the best on the market for the Mac). So, in theory the indexing should do the job, but that’s only on paper… (that’s why I got the third license/seat a year ago).
you (already) got a really great(!) sync engine for the DEVONthink database… using WebDav (here it’s not breaking! and, yes, using the nextcloud webdav engine… must be the Mac-Finder) … and remember, the sync-engine-data is already in that very cloud. just open it for cloud solutions (such as nextcloud) … onedrive, dropbox, google drive etc. are drives… nextcloud is not a drive, it’s a mobile work environment that is really cool and extendible using php and java. I am convinced there is a great demand as cloud stuff is becoming more popular.
and here I am, got addicted to Devonthink more than 15 years ago at the same time must work nc (nextcloud and owncloud are basically identical…)
Beware the False Consensus Effect – your view may be less representative than you think. For myself, I had never heard of Nextcloud until I read this …
Same, never heard of it and it’s not clear from the post what OP actually wants to do with it.
Is it a sync mechanism or a folder? Why doesn’t indexing suffice if it’s the latter? What’s the problem with WebDAV that would be fixed by NextCloud if it’s the former? (If WebDAV is struggling due to volume of files, why would NextCloud handle that any better? And are we certain that even is the problem with WebDAV?)
To clarify:
Nextcloud is a spin-off of the older Owncloud. Both are open-source projects based on PHP that offer a similar functionality to iCloud: calendar, contacts, file services (“Groupware” is what they call themselves sometimes). The first two are running (again, as iClouds similar offerings) over WebDAV (CalDAV and CardDAV), but hat has nothing to do with WebDAV sync. I think that the file sharing is also based on WebDAV, but may be wrong there.
As WebDAV is a stateless protocol (since it’s based on HTTP), it’s not a network file system like SMB or NFS. According to the Nextcloud documentation, file “sharing” uses URLs that are sent to others – I’d call that “sharing 0.9”. Not suitable for indexing files with DT, imo.
I used to use Owncloud but dropped that since it became too tedious to update/upgrade following their security issues. Not enough benefit (for me) over iCloud or using a NAS with SMB.
As you have already pointed out, Nextcloud is groupware and open-source. Groupware is not only the CalDAV and CardDAV and WebDAV interface… not at all…
Nextcloud gives the user the possibility to co-work on documents while they are stored in the cloud. and yes, iCloud with Numbers and Pages offer these options as well. Nextcloud is just so much more flexible using either its implementation of OpenOffice/LibreOffice/Collabora/NextcloudOffice and/or OnlyOffice etc.
Devonthink is just not made for collaborating documents… and multi-user enviroments… the nextcloud framework provides you all at once with little extra effort. Having said that, Devonthink loves documents… texts, tables, pdf’s.As long as you are just on your Mac, Devonthink is the perfect instrument. The moment you want to be in an office envirement with many (!) users, just forget it. So, instead of re-inventing the wheel, just write a sync plugin (php or java or with a daemon) for the nextcloud – a user, its sync store, a subdirectory where the files/dox are stored… can’t be that difficult
In other words, it’s a market you have not addressed, yet… and a first glance at Linux
I think you’ve summed it up. That isn’t the purpose of DevonThink. It’s personal database software. There is a little support for sharing databases because this can be useful at a household or small business level, but given that DT is built from a foundational principle of Mac first, storing files in the cloud for collaboration is kind of antithetical to what DT does (though of course they have provided indexed support for those who do need files in a cloud).
(I work in conservation, and we have a joke when people complain that a bird organisation won’t conserve polar bears, or whatever it is someone upset about. Yes, polar bears are important. No, that isn’t the remit of a bird organisation. Go speak to the polar bear people. Having a defined scope of work is important.)
at the same time must work nc (nextcloud and owncloud are basically identical…)