File template rework

[juliusknorr]

Our current ways to manage, organize and distribute file templates is a wild mix of old code and not very accessible to admins and end users.

The server provides the possibility for a user defined directory but there is no option to change it or see which folder that is.

Additionally templates that we ship are only copied on user creation, so existing users will not get updated or new templates.

Collabora has additionally a separate config option for a user template directory and an admin Ui where admins can define instance wide templates:

Especially in larger organizations, defining and updating templates on the admin level is quite important, but also for us shipping new templates regularly this would be better way as currently those templates only reach new users.

My proposal to clean this up would be:

• Add a folder picker to the files settings modal so users can have a fixed way to set, update which folder is used as their personal template directory
• Add a special icon to show for the folder that is the current user template directory
• Add an admin settings section where admins can upload and manage template files that are exposed to all users in the template picker dialog
• Remove the Collabora settings as they get obsolete with the server ones
• That way other apps like text can also make use of this

Open questions:

• Should users be able to opt out of admin defined templates?
• How do we want to handle our default templates?
  • It probably makes sense to add them as system wide templates
  • However then users cannot adjust them on their own unless there is an opt out
  • Admins might still want to remove them, maybe it is the best to just have a checkbox to include shipped templates or not?

@nextcloud/designers for feedback

FYI @sorbaugh as it touches the area of files

[juliusknorr]

To be evaluated additonally:

• Templates per groupfolder/team/group
• Templates in Collectives could use the same mechanism
• Delegating template management

[juliusknorr]

From discussion with @jancborchardt

• User template folder
  • Move setting to files for updating the location
  • No longer copy skeleton files, auto create templates folder but empty
  • Mark templates folder with icon
  • Give hint about what the template folder is (maybe with button to view admin templates)
• Template management for admins
  • Move from richdocuments to files
  • Put shipped template files as admin templates
• Admins can disable user templates
• Group limiting for individual tempaltes in admin interface
  • To be clarified if sections for each group or maybe just an option to disable templates for specific groups

Templates per team/group

Would be covered by the above

Delegating template management

Can be handled by admin delegation

Template per groupfolder
Templates in Collectives could use the same mechanism

Could be done by an extra Templates folder for each collective/groupfolder but as a next step.

[jancborchardt]

Just talked about this a bit with @nimishavijay and there are 2 specific issues we came across:

• Possibly big issue: With only having the templates in settings and not in a folder, they would not be synced to desktop. How can people create files using templates there?
• Less important: A lot of templates are folder-specific like e.g. invoices which are in one folder, or reimbursements which are in another. It’s a bit similar to team/group specific templates, but maybe a bit overkill to limit it like that.

[joshtrichards]

Good stuff! Sounds like this work will effectively cover #38198 and #25358 (including most of the follow-on comments therein).

Possibly big issue: With only having the templates in settings and not in a folder, they would not be synced to desktop. How can people create files using templates there?

User-level templates would still be derived from a user owned/controlled folder in the proposed design. At the admin-level, they'd manage (upload/etc) templates via Admin settings. And users don't need to be able to edit the system provided templates.

Less important: A lot of templates are folder-specific like e.g. invoices which are in one folder, or reimbursements which are in another. It’s a bit similar to team/group specific templates, but maybe a bit overkill to limit it like that.

I'm not sure how we'd handle folder specific templates, unless we started classifying folders... Wait, maybe we could associate templates with certain tags?... That would create the affiliation desired. Then the New button would activate for templates tagged the same as the folder the user is in.

[joshtrichards]

User template folder: No longer copy skeleton files, auto create templates folder but empty

Can maybe take care of the #31414 transition at the same time we touch the user template folder settings.

[jancborchardt]

Possibly big issue: With only having the templates in settings and not in a folder, they would not be synced to desktop. How can people create files using templates there?

FYI @juliusknorr this concern of @nimishavijay and me was also seconded by @karlitschek and @schiessle – so having this as a folder which can be synced is a requirement.

For this we need to keep in mind that the "Templates" folder name needs to be localized depending on language, which doesn’t work with a regular shared folder.