Documentation Unclear for Non-Technical Users for WebSocket Server Config

[maradarity]

I'm a not particularly savvy user of a managed Nextcloud instance (Hetzner Storage Share). I know a little bit about development but not much.

When I install the app via the Discover page, it says "Whiteboard requires a separate collaboration server to work. Please see the documentation on how to install it." It then links to the ReadMe, where "WebSocket Server for Real-time Collaboration" is not particularly clear on what users using the GUI should do.

This doesn't help me much with the interface I get in the app.

The GUI asks me for a string for the websocket server URL. In the ReadMe's "Configuration" section, it says
occ config:app:set whiteboard collabBackendUrl --value="https://nextcloud.local:3002"

I'm assuming I should just be putting the websocket URL not that exact string(?), but I'm still not sure how to ascertain my websocket URL. The instructions are a little unclear.

The "shared secret" is baffling to me. Again, as a not very technical user, I don't want to mess up anything related to security. What do I put in this box?

Any advice would be helpful, and it might be good to add a little to the documentation for those of us using the GUI.

[maradarity]

Changed title to be clearer and added photos of what the interface shows me.

[VHett]

I'm trying to wrap my brain around this, too.
You need to set up the Reverse Proxy in your Webserver first!
I'm using Apache on Almalinux 9 and the docker variant of the websocket server.
In the Vhost settings for your nextcloud webserver add the proxy directive OUTSIDE of the section. I have it right above.
Restart your Webserver and now you should be able to point your webbrowser to https://your_domain_name/whiteboard and get this: "Nextcloud Whiteboard Collaboration Server".
Note that it's not on port 3002! Apache reads your request, finds the location /whiteboard and forwards the reques to the docker container running on port 3002 on localhost and then fowards the result to your webbrowser.
This way you have proper https encryption!
Now enter your nextcloud admin settings and scroll down to the whiteboard entry.
There you can enter the URL and password without using the cli on your server.
The websocket server URL is https://your_domain_name/websocket.

This way I don't get a timeout.

Now I have a websocket error :)

I tried an additional Listener on [my servers public IP]:3002 and changed my Vhost to <VirtualHost *443 [my servers public IP]::3002> to reach my server on port 3002 for the web socket server, but then I'm back to the timeout.

Some progress, but not yet success.

[ThibautPlg]

Hi,

@maradarity

Hetzner Storage Share

Chances are you won't be able to do that. The websocket server is a standalone mini server running either on nodejs or docker that requires to be installed and then configured.
On your second screenshot there is a link showing you the documentation (just above the first field).
Unfortunately, this is not something "non-technical users" can handle by themselves.

@VHett

Make sure you're passing through websocket upgrade. This is a bit of configuration for nginx that you should be able to convert to apache easily if needed. (Probably)

proxy_set_header Upgrade $http_upgrade;
proxy_set_header Connection "upgrade";

But this is more likely a different issue ;)