What’s New for Admins in ownCloud 7¶
New User Management¶
Admins can now view all ownCloud users in a single scrolling window, filter user lists by group, and search by user display name using the new text filter. User attributes have also been added, included the file storage location for each user and the last time they logged in. New groups can be added with a click of a button.
External Storage¶
Major improvements to the external storage app include support for FTP, Dropbox, Google Drive, SFTP, Swift, S3, WebDAV, SMB/CIFS and more storage locations to the ownCloud instance. You can control which storage types your users can set up in their Personal tabs. Further performance improvements have made externally mounted storage faster and more responsive.
Object Stores as Primary Storage¶
Primary storage in ownCloud is where all files and folders are stored by default. In contrast to secondary storage, primary storage is completely managed by the ownCloud application. With ownCloud 7, ownCloud can now leverage SWIFT and S3 (S3 is enterprise only) object stores as primary storage for ownCloud files. Now admins can choose the best option for their specific need, including local storage, network file system mounts, and object stores.
Server to Server Sharing¶
ownCloud 7 servers can now connect shares with each other. With just a few clicks you can easily and securely create public shares that are available to other ownCloud 7 users on remote servers, and optionally allow your users to also create their own public shares.
Windows Network Drive Integration (Enterprise Edition only)¶
ownCloud has always supported mounting Windows network drives, and in OC7 EE it is easier than ever for the administrator to mount Windows Network Drives for a user, a group or the entire ownCloud instance, and allow each user to access the network drives and preserve their ACLs. The network drives appear as normal folders and files, and changes are bi-directionally synced between user devices and the Windows network drives.
Sharing¶
Sharing has been dramatically enhanced and streamlined, making it more flexible, faster and accessible. Improvements include:
- Force Password:
Admins can now force users to set a password when they create shared links. This ensures that files shared outside of ownCloud via a link are properly secured by users.
- Share Link Default and Max Expiration:
When sharing a file with a link, admins can now require users to set a specific expiration duration for the link.
- Antivirus Action Updates:
The Antivirus app has been enhanced to allow – with some minor customization – the use of external virus scanners (rather than the default ClamAV) in scanning files as they arrive on the server.
- The Shared folder has been removed from new installations of ownCloud 7:
Shared files now appear in the top level of your file tree on your Files page, and you can change the default shared folder to any folder with the 'share_folder' directive in config.php. If you are upgrading from older ownCloud versions you will still have your old Shared folder.
- Local shares do not expire with public shares:
In older versions of ownCloud, you could set an expiration date on both local and public shares. Now you can set an expiration date only on public shares, and local shares do not expire when public shares expire.
Email Configuration Wizard¶
The new graphical Email configuration wizard connects to your mail server in just a few clicks, so that ownCloud can send automated messages to users. ownCloud connects via PHP, Sendmail, or standard SMTP.
Editable Email Templates¶
ownCloud admins can now edit the email templates that ownCloud uses for automatic notifications on the Admin page.
Active Directory and LDAP Enhancements¶
Several improvements have been made to the LDAP and Active Directory plug-in application, improving both the performance of the application as well as the compatibility with OpenLDAP and Active Directory.