Attachments for events

[ghost]

Is there an option to add an attachments to calendar events? If not, please put it as enhancement.

[georgehrke]

Other CalDAV clients like thunderbird can already add attachments. The web calendar can't. Definitely something we should consider for the future.
Instead of writing the attachment into the actual calendar data I would suggest to upload it to the nextcloud and just link there.

[georgehrke]

@abditus please refrain from commenting when you can't add anything new. Use Github Reactions instead.

[DavidVentura]

Is this on a roadmap / milestone / anything ? Having link support (like thunderbird) would be enough

[georgehrke]

@DavidVentura I have no intention to implement this soon. There are way more important features missing.

But as always: Pull requests welcome :)

[tcitworld]

Was giving a few thoughts to this issue recently.

• Should the editor offer the possibility to pick an existing file?
• When uploading a new file, should the editor let the user pick where to upload the file (or to a fixed .calendar-attachments hidden folder)?
• Since the event may be shared/exported to people without access to the file, should the link to the file always be a public link? Or do we add a « public link » checkbox/toggle?

We can probably reuse the files app file picker to make things easier.

@georgehrke @jancborchardt

[georgehrke]

• Should the editor offer the possibility to pick an existing file?
• When uploading a new file, should the editor let the user pick where to upload the file (or to a fixed .calendar-attachments hidden folder)?

As a first iteration of implementing attachments, i would not allow uploading new documents at all. Only picking existing files from Nextcloud for now.

Later on we can add the possibility to upload new files. There is a related discussion going on in Talk right now, see nextcloud/spreed#1811 (comment)

Since the event may be shared/exported to people without access to the file, should the link to the file always be a public link? Or do we add a « public link » checkbox/toggle?

I think the link should always be public, but I'm not sure if we need a new share-type for that in the server. This can be a bit tricky. Even when you remove the attachment from a desktop or mobile client, the public link should automatically be unshared.

No matter what we do, if we automatically make the file public, we need some code changes in the server to detect if the attachment has been removed again.

So for now i would say just include the internal https://nextcloud.local/f/666666 link and find a proper solution for public attachments for Nextcloud 18.

[szaimen]

Since I don't know whether attachments can be based on the caldav standard, I think the best option would be to automatically write the internal link of the attached file into the description-field. Otherwise you probably get problems with some calendar client apps.

But these attachments should when directly uploaded or chosen from the computer to get uploaded be located in the appdata folder as suggested here: nextcloud/spreed#1811 (comment) and the internal link of this file then also automatically peopagated onto the decription field imo.

Also I am not sure about automatically making all these attachments publicly accessible. So the internal link is more appropriate imho.

Maybe when sharing the calendar event with a nextcloud user, an internal link for this user could be created (and automatically pasted into the description field) and when sharing the event with a mailaddress or over a link, also a public link to this file should be created (and also automatically pasted into the description field). The same could apply to sharing whole calendars.

BTW: maybe you can also use the viewer app to show these attached files directly in the calendar app since nextcloud/viewer#271 is merged? :)

[jancborchardt]

• When uploading a new file, should the editor let the user pick where to upload the file (or to a fixed .calendar-attachments hidden folder)?

As a first iteration of implementing attachments, i would not allow uploading new documents at all. Only picking existing files from Nextcloud for now.

Yep, good call. And similar as in Talk, once we do allow uploading files, for those there should indeed be a fixed hidden folder.

[jsschmid]

As a first iteration - why not. But just keep in mind this will lead to a different behavior when you use the calendar in Nextcloud compared when you use it on your phone / Lightning / etc.

[georgehrke]

Thunderbird lightning does not allow you to add attachments as files, only as links (Thank god for that)

So that would be exactly the same behaviour as in Nextcloud, just that we show a file-picker for Nextcloud and add the link to the file, instead of allowing to add arbitrary web links.

So if you add a file in Nextcloud, it would show up as https://nextcloud.tld/f/777772 in Thunderbird and if you click it, you will have to log in.

[kwisatz]

Edited my original text, having read @georgehrke 's opinion on this in an older support thread: https://help.nextcloud.com/t/idea-app-for-organizing-partys-meetings-events/6486/4

My original comment was indeed more a Resources thing than pure attachments.

[cetcondor]

If there's anyone out there to implement it, don't do it for free: I think I know a NGO that might pay for the feature development.

[Thaodan]

Thunderbird lightning does not allow you to add attachments as files, only as links (Thank god for that)

KOrganizer/Kontact adds those as files. How should those use-cases be handled? I don't know which standard is used by I suspect the before mentioned RFC8607.

[Thaodan]

KDE's KOrganizer and everything that uses KCalendarcore such as the Sailfish OS Calendar app uses RFC8607 for calendar attachments as can be seen here: https://invent.kde.org/frameworks/kcalendarcore/-/blob/master/src/icalformat_p.cpp#L1530

[oliv3r]

Thunderbird lightning does not allow you to add attachments as files, only as links (Thank god for that)

So that would be exactly the same behaviour as in Nextcloud, just that we show a file-picker for Nextcloud and add the link to the file, instead of allowing to add arbitrary web links.

So if you add a file in Nextcloud, it would show up as https://nextcloud.tld/f/777772 in Thunderbird and if you click it, you will have to log in.

NOFI but that's pretty dumb. Yes, storing files in nextcloud is great, and using a link instead of the actual file is very smart. I know tons of orgs that keep sending files back and forth in 20 versions which makes a mess. HOWEVER, it is still very dumb.

I may have only access to a (shared) calendar, but no access to the file, so now I don't have access this resource. Or, I'm on mobile, I just want to get to the attachement from my calendar, but alas, it'll open a link, which now I also need data for (calendar syncing would have had the file already), but I have very poor/metered connection.

So while I can certainly see the advantage of 'links only' or 'only resources accessible to the same instance' for an end user this is NOT that useful.

Just my €0,02 :)

[strobeflash]

@oliv3r How do you suggest storing the attachments? What mail client provides this feature as you described it? Also, I think it's rude to call someones opinion dumb.

On another note, how do I donate to this specific cause?

[oliv3r]

@oliv3r How do you suggest storing the attachments? What mail client provides this feature as you described it? Also, I think it's rude to call someones opinion dumb.

On another note, how do I donate to this specific cause?

Since Korganizer (or Kalendar, I forget which one I tried) does it just fine, and Gmail and outlook also do it just fine within the spec, I doubt it should be a real issue. AFAIk even Thunderbird used to do it a long long time ago :)

As for the dumbness, the opinion is their own, there's nothing with that. The suggested implementation is dumb :)

[strobeflash]

Since Korganizer (or Kalendar, I forget which one I tried) does it just fine, and Gmail and outlook also do it just fine within the spec, I doubt it should be a real issue. AFAIk even Thunderbird used to do it a long long time ago :)

Since Gmail is the easiest to test, I tried to add an attachment to a calendar appointment and it shows me a Google Drive popup to select or upload a file. The file is then only available through drive, not locally. How to replicate the behaviour you're describing?

[oliv3r]

Since Gmail is the easiest to test, I tried to add an attachment to a calendar appointment and it shows me a Google Drive popup to select or upload a file. The file is then only available through drive, not locally. How to replicate the behaviour you're describing?

Hmm, interesting, they changed this behavior it seems, to lock you into drive. Understandable of course, as you can actually manage a file this way, but this was not always the case!

[olegchensky]

People, please... It is not important which soft-client supports this feature. Very important for me is, that all my Clients switch to Group Office only for the feature. Please don't discuss it, simply develop it and we save many hours and money.
Thanks!

[strobeflash]

Hmm, interesting, they changed this behavior it seems, to lock you into drive. Understandable of course, as you can actually manage a file this way, but this was not always the case!

I will have to take your word for it.

People, please... It is not important which soft-client supports this feature. Very important for me is, that all my Clients switch to Group Office only for the feature. Please don't discuss it, simply develop it and we save many hours and money.

Which feature now?

• Inline attachment to the iCalendar file?
• Implement RFC 8607?
• A Nextcloud file url?

The RFC introduction explains the issue nicely, the iCalendar data format and iTIP protocol are not suited for inline attachments. Two choices remain, either by extending the data format an protocol publicly with an RFC or have a (proprietary) third-party filesharing platform handle storage and access.

While the RFC provides a nice feature suspect implementing it will not be trivial so having a file selector insert the correct file url could be an useful intermediate step. Would this improve your situation already?

What's a rough estimate for both approaches? I'm willing to spend 50$ on this, maybe we could even have both.

[sunjam]

Nextcloud discontinued bounties a couple years ago. They accept Pull Requests instead.

…

On Fri, Jan 6, 2023, 10:55 AM Albatroz Jeremias ***@***.***> wrote: can someone create a bounty? If it's high enough I could dig into it :) I'll start digging a bit anyway. I want to make an auto-sync with gancio.org which is a beautiful activityPub event page! check it out. — Reply to this email directly, view it on GitHub <#298 (comment)>, or unsubscribe <https://github.com/notifications/unsubscribe-auth/AANUKZT7YB2I2JAO3S42H3LWRBTCRANCNFSM4C4XNUJA> . You are receiving this because you are subscribed to this thread.Message ID: ***@***.***>

[strobeflash]

I see, donations are not welcome either it seems and enterprise subscriptions start at 100 users. too bad.

So either a hobbyist, freelancer or organization need to develop or request/sponsor. Whoever you are, my offer stands.

[miaulalala]

Have you had a look at th elinked PR? #4251

[strobeflash]

I have not, very cool! Maybe this issue can be closed in favor of the PR?

[st3iny]

I have not, very cool! Maybe this issue can be closed in favor of the PR?

It'll be closed automatically once the PR is done and merged.