Kolab (chwala) and Seafile

Hello,

Seafile is an open source cloud software which is free for private use.

There is also a professional edition which is not necessary for my needs. I just want to sync files across more than one device. In the past I used ownCloud which was pretty good for my needs.

First I decided to have ownCloud integrated in Kolab as a backend but I had a bit lack of time so developing a new driver for chwala was not so easy.

After a while I noticed that Seafile is integrated in chwala 0.3.0 and with Kolab 3.4 it is quite stable to install.

This is a Step-By-Step Guide:

1. Install Kolab 3.4 and test it
   It's obvious that you need Kolab for this. Please refer to the kolab.org web page for an installation guide for your distro
2. Install seafile and test it.
   The homepage of seafile will guide you through all the stuff you need for that. So just download, extract and run it.
3. Connect Seafile to Kolab-LDAP
   Following Seafile->Using LDAP is exactly what I did. My installation was spreaded over /opt/seafile, /opt/seafile/seafile-server-latest and /mnt/seafile
   But you'll find your ccnet.conf and add the LDAP part to it (please change the values according to your installation):

   [LDAP]
   HOST = ldap://127.0.0.1
   BASE = ou=People,dc=example,dc=com
   USER_DN = cn=directory manager
   PASSWORD = youdon'tknowjack
   LOGIN_ATTR = mail

4. Now test seafile again if you can now login with your kolab main mailaddress.
   Please keep in mind that each user has to login for the first time to seafile in order to get the right folders.
5. If everything is ok, now you have to use Apache as a proxy for Seafile
   Following Seafile -> Deploy with Apache was ok for me for the first time.
   Well, this will break your Kolab if you follow the steps directly.
6. If this is ok as well, now fine tune a bit the Apache configuration for Seafile.
   These lines should be changed in your apache.conf (or vhost):

   #
   # seahub
   #
   RewriteRule ^/(media.*)$ /$1 [QSA,L,PT]
   RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
   RewriteRule ^(.*)$ /seahub.fcgi$1 [QSA,L,E=HTTP_AUTHORIZATION:%{HTTP:Authorization}]

   This will redirect all request to Seafile, but if you only have one SSL certificate and one domain you have to ignore this for all the Kolab modules.
   So please add the following RewriteCond to the config:
   
   

   RewriteRule ^/(media.*)$ /$1 [QSA,L,PT]
   RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
   RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} !^/roundcubemail.*
   RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} !^/Microsoft.*
   RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} !^/iRony.*
   RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} !^/chwala.*
   RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} !^/kolab.*
   RewriteRule ^(.*)$ /seahub.fcgi$1 [QSA,L,E=HTTP_AUTHORIZATION:%{HTTP:Authorization}]

   The first RwriteCond tells Apache to rewrite the URL if the file does not exist. For the Kolab installation there are some URL more not to check against an existing file because they are an Alias in the Apache way. So we ignore this rewrite when the URL starts with "roundcube", "Microsoft" (for active sync) and so on.
   Reading the conf above should be:
   
   Rewrite all URL starting with /media
   ReWrite the URL when the requested file does not exist (! -f)
   AND (is implicitly) the request does not start with roundcube (!/^/roundcubemail.*)
   AND the request does not start with Microsoft
   AND the request does not start with iRony
   AND the erquest does not start with chwala
   AND the request does not start with kolab
   TO /seahub.fcgi PLUS the request string including the trailing slash (^(.*)$ /seahub.fcgi$1)
7. Now test your Kolab and Seafile again, everything should now work on the same server.
8. It's time to combine Chwala with Seafile. The most interesting part. :-)
   Please edit your /etc/roundcubemail/config.inc.php file and all the Seafile stuff:
   
   

   // seafile
   $config['fileapi_backend'] = 'seafile';
   $config['fileapi_seafile_host'] = 'www.example.com';
   $config['fileapi_seafile_ssl_verify_peer'] = false;
   $config['fileapi_seafile_ssl_verify_host'] = false;
   $config['fileapi_seafile_cache_ttl'] = '14d';
   $config['fileapi_seafile_debug'] = true;

9. That's it.

Now you can use your Seafile server in Kolab as a file storage. But keep in mind, password protected folders are not accessible through chwala this way.