Welcome to the fourth entry of our ownCloud App of the Week blog series. Today we’d like to introduce a small yet important application for ownCloud called Custom Groups and show why it makes the collaboration of users so much more efficient.
When working in larger companies, the number of users in an enterprise filesharing platform like ownCloud quickly reaches a point where the segmentation of users becomes very relevant for administrators. With ownClouds Group functionality, admins are able to create groups of users, following for example department, team or hierarchical structures. This enables IT administrators to quickly set rules and permissions for certain groups of users without manually altering every single user account.
So, the Group functionality in ownCloud is great for administrators to raise the security level by for example restricting access rights for certain user groups or by creating working units for group sharing. But by default these groups can only be set by ownCloud administrators. Users however are only able to share either with single users or with groups that the ownCloud administrator has already created. But what if a user wants to quickly share files with multiple people? Is it always necessary to contact an ownCloud admin for that? Well, not anymore. With the ownCloud Custom Groups application it’s now possible for users to create their own groups on-the-fly.
The ownCloud Custom Groups App can be found here:
https://marketplace.owncloud.com/apps/customgroups
Using Custom Groups in ownCloud
After installing and enabling the Custom Groups App in ownCloud, every user will find the new category Custom Groups in their Settings section. While using the ownCloud web-interface simply click Settings in the top right-hand corner and then navigate to Custom Groups in the left menu. Here users can create and manage their custom groups with a few simple clicks. Please be aware that custom groups are visible only to members of the group, but not to anyone outside the group and that ownCloud administrators can see and modify all custom groups of an instance.
To manage group members simply select the custom group and then add or delete users in the menu on the right. Group members can only use a group for sharing, whereas group admins can manage the group’s members, change the group’s name, change members’ roles, and delete groups.
The sharing with a custom group is as easy and quick as always. Just click on the sharing symbol of a file or folder, go to the Users and Groups tab in the Sharing menu and select the relevant custom group from the dropdown menu. Of course users are also able to share with custom groups via the ownCloud Desktop Clients and Mobile Apps as they are used to.
The full documentation of the ownCloud Custom Groups App can be found here.
And there it is – it’s now easier than ever for users to collaborate and work efficiently as a team while sparing administrators of unnecessary work. With Custom Groups in ownCloud every user can now create and manage their own groups and share data in a productive manner.
So, are you already using the ownCloud Custom Groups App? As always we’d love to hear your feedback. Stay tuned for next weeks App of the Week Blog!
Overview of the past ownCloud App of the Week Blogs:
App of the Week – Auditing
App of the Week – LDAP Home Connector
App of the Week – Market
