Outline - a Notion-like open source app
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@timconsidine I've packed it up as a custom cloudron app. Wouldn't call it production ready though. Same for outline itself.
So I've got now 3 apps driving this, outline, keycloak and minio for storage. Not exactly simple.
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@klawitterb brillliant !
if it gets to production and you don't mind sharing it, let us know.
I'm having a play keycloak on another VPS (I'm always nervous of breaking things on my Cloudron) -
@timconsidine on the topic of oidc. There is a fully featured oidc provider within the Kopano Meet app. For internal use I have even separated the oidc provider into a separate app.
I did write down how to configure external apps on cloudron against it in https://blog.9wd.eu/posts/cloudron-oidc-nextcloud/
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@fbartels Thank you !
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@fbartels nice article, thank you
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Would love to see Outline on CloudRon, hope @klawitterb will share the code to be added to the CloudRon
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@klawitterb said in Outline - a Notion-like open source app:
Latest release includes generic oidc authentication. Hooked it up with keycloak and seems to be running fine.
Even though I liked your post, I only just re-spotted that this PR has been merged https://github.com/outline/outline/pull/2388
Looks like most of this other Authentication stuff has been done too:
https://github.com/outline/outline/projects/5It'd be really fantastic if @klawitterb could collaborate with @staff to get Outline into the Cloudron app store!
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we are currently using docuwiki, but outline will be :chesskiss:
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@jdaviescoates Happy to share the code, just fired it up a couple of months ago to see if it would work. So should be regarded as a prototype only.
https://git.apehost.de/cloudron-apps/outline
Keep in mind that it also requires a S3 compatible storage like minio. So full solution would actually require 3 apps to be running. -
@klawitterb Nice thanks for sharing!
it also requires a S3 compatible storage like minio
Maybe this is a good time to bring up the Addon request: blob storage (s3) thread, which proposes a new "s3" addon in the same vein as the database addons that would create and manage s3-compatible buckets for apps automatically upon request in the app definition's manifest.
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@klawitterb Hi, were you able to make LDAP authentication work? I tried to build and install from the repo you shared but it threw several errors. Could you share a bit more about how you made Outline work with Cloudron user directory?
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@nj Never made LDAP work. Only oidc with users directly created in keycloak.
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I have also packaged Outline: https://github.com/njsubedi/cloudron-outline, thanks to the work @klawitterb started. Still no success with
passport-ldapauthbut since I've also packaged Keycloak, LDAP auth is no longer a blocker for Outline. I also added some more details on the manifest/POSTINSTALL.md file if anyone is interested. It would be awesome ifminiowas available as an addon.I recommend someone with more knowledge of
passport-ldapauthto try adding support for authenticating cloudron users. -
@nj wow thank you, will try to check it out.
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@nj thanks! have added it to our list of next apps. What is your impression of the app itself?
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Does anyone have a demo of this app running? I'd love to get a test account to look at it to try it out. Right now I'm using Joplin (and the great server). Thanks!
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@girish the app itself is great. I moved our team from Bookstack to Outline because it was extremely easy to create groups and assign permissions, default permission, etc. It also supports real-time collaboration on the document so we also started using it for meeting notes. So far, no issues. Working wonderfully inside cloudron with minio and keycloak both hosted alongside.
It is also pretty simple to keep updating regularly because of the simple migration command, and storage based on minio. No need to fuss with manual migration and storage, etc.
Also, I’d like to request S3 as an addon, because it’s trivial to create a bucket for an app, and an user for it, then grant “all” permissions on that bucket to that user.
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@nj First. Top. Thank you so much to step into app packaging. But now here is the real world
Sorry to ask noob questions. And yes: I have to read the docs for keycloak. But to test your app package, there is a missing part in the "First time setup" from your app package.
On your OIDC Provider, follow these steps:1,2,3 done.
But then in 4:And, the client is added to the reaml called "cloudron"Where do I add the client to the realm in keycloak?
From the Realm settings perspective, I didn't find any settings for the client.
AndClient Registrationisn't the right tabSame for the client perspective.
Yep. I know. SSO/IDM/SAML/LDAP/AD (<- and so on and on) is a complex topic. But hey. We are here for the Cloudron experience
Pronouns: he/him | Primary language: German
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@luckow Ey luckow! You already added the client to the realm Cloudron. Look at the navigation on the right side. Because if you click on the triangle, you can see you are right there. The Cloudron realm.
But that is no explanation for your user experience.
@luckow you need to find out why your client was not found.
luckow @ luckow not today. tomorrow is another day.Pronouns: he/him | Primary language: German
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@luckow Without the tomatoes on my eyes, the solution is obvious.
Keycloak - Clients - Credentials:
Client Id and Secret does not mean that you take
ZIDdK...for both. Secret is secret. Where do you find theClient Id? This is also simple.Keycload - Clients
Yes. It's the name.Sorry for hijacking this thread for my noob questions.
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@ei8fdb I have taken the email address from your website and added you as an administrator to my outline instance. Feel free to break anything, it's just a test instance.
Pronouns: he/him | Primary language: German
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Thank you very much @luckow. I got the email and thought "what is this email?!". But then thought it might be you. I appreciate you giving me this account.This is an interesting app. It's another riff on Notion/Anytype friendly mark-up note taking/knowledge management/database app.
My main personal complaint with all these apps is they require always online access. There is no realistic way to use it offline.
I'm going to stay with it and see how it all works. As a wiki-type collaboration app it's certainly a very nice alternative to having to learn yet another markdown flavour.
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@luckow can I play too?
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Hi @luckow ,
Could you try following this blog post? https://blog.yarsalabs.com/self-hosting-outline-wiki-on-cloudron/
The description and first-time setup still need some work, so I'll look into it again. -
@jdaviescoates Give me an email address to send the invitation link to
Pronouns: he/him | Primary language: German
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@luckow said in Outline - a Notion-like open source app:
@jdaviescoates Give me an email address to send the invitation link to
Sent via chat dm on here
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@nj I found this post yesterday. Well written. Most of my problems (including the minio) were tomatoes on my eyes. And to be fair, misleading error messages in log files & browser console didn't make it any easier.
Let's see what the app packaging staff can tweak themselves. IMHO minio only for image storage is a big cannon as a solution. -
@ei8fdb I believe AnyType is intended to work offline and be decentralised. I suppose you could also have a localhost Cloudron instance if you like it like that?
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@nj Wow that's great!
The blog post installs keycloak as an app, but it might work better as a built-in addon that provides ODIC to any app that requests it. I suspect that there are more apps that authenticate via ODIC exclusively, and I can see there are some apps that could use it as an alternative to LDAP.
After some more research, it seems that OAuth used to be the default authentication method for Cloudron apps but it was removed in 2020 due to lack of support in apps. Has the authentication landscape changed in the last 2 years? Is now a good time to add it back? How does SAML look now?
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@infogulch FWIW, I don't mind adding OpenID into cloudron. It was OAuth that wasn't a great idea. My understanding is that OpenID is more uniform and standardized. @nebulon and @fbartels probably know more about this though.
I guess I mean OpenID connect (OIDC) and not OpenID. I don't know the difference between these terms
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@girish how about adding oidc as another addon and just ferderate to LDAP? Something like https://github.com/dexidp/dex could be used for this.
Only thinking out loud, never used this myself. Stumpled over it while working on other projects.
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@klawitterb yes, I don't see why not. But as mentioned, I am speaking beyond my expertise here
I think @nebulon will know how much work it is on Cloudron side. -
@klawitterb said in Outline - a Notion-like open source app:
as another addon
Yes, oidc should definitely be an addon (even better if one could just add addons during runtime of an app, so that one does not need to remove and reinstall apps to enable it). But instead of going third party it should be something native to the stack, like the https://docs.cloudron.io/packaging/addons/#proxyauth addon to benefit from existing sessions and the 2fa Cloudron already provides.
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So I was curious about my proposal and just tried this. Seems to work quote well. Much easier than setting up a fully fledged identity provider like keycloak imho.
Basically dex is a go app which is controlled by a yaml config. Currently just running it inside the outline app itself with a little nginx proxy in front of it. When logging in it redirects to the login mask from dex which then authenticates the user from cloudrons LDAP. -
@klawitterb Nice find and R&D! Looks like this might be just the thing for making Cloudron's LDAP useable by external apps:
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Update available: Outline v0.63.0
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Now that Cloudron adds authentication headers with the proxyAuth addon, maybe the easiest solution to integrate authentication is to use those headers in outline. I guess that might be as simple as adding a new file to the /server/routes/auth/providers dir. This would simplify the cloudron package because it wouldn't have to set up and run keycloak.
https://github.com/outline/outline/tree/main/server/routes/auth/providers
Then the only barrier to packaging for cloudron would be the hypothetical s3/minio addon mentioned above.
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@infogulch I think that's doable. I'll see if I can get it working.
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Update available: Outline v0.64.3
PS: Still no time to look into auth using Cloudron ProxyAuth
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@nj said in Outline - a Notion-like open source app:
PS: Still no time to look into auth using Cloudron ProxyAuth
praying that you'll find the time! Hopefully then @staff will be able to take it from from there get this app into the App Store! (perhaps they could take a look at adding the ProxyAuth too? )Edit: or perhaps another better/simpler(I've no idea if it's either, rieally!
) option would be to connect the outline app to the Cloudron LDAP Directory Server https://docs.cloudron.io/user-management/#directory-server= ? -
@jdaviescoates I've got this running using dex serving as a connection between oidc and cloudron ldap. Works pretty well.
If you're interested you can find the code in my repo https://git.apehost.de/cloudron-apps/outline -
@klawitterb that's great, thanks! But I wanna get Outline in the App Store.
Hopefully @staff can take a look at both these custom Outline packages and do whatever needs doing to get them into the store
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Perhaps AppFlowy can offer an alternative in the meantime?
Local installers available:
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Outline is paid, it is better to add a free plan also.
There are also free and open source notion alternatives like Logseq or focalboard which can be checked herehttps://developingdaily.com/article/technology/best-notion-alternatives-open-source-and-free/314
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@Vikas-jk said in Outline - a Notion-like open source app:
Outline is paid, it is better to add a free plan also.
There are also free and open source notion alternatives like Logseq or focalboard which can be checked herehttps://developingdaily.com/article/technology/best-notion-alternatives-open-source-and-free/314
Hosted Outline is paid, that doesn't apply to self-hosted. Outline is also free (as in freedom) open source software too.
