Nextcloud Talk Integration

Prerequisites

• A Nextcloud you run or rent, with the Talk app installed and enabled for your user. Tymeslot needs Talk 21.1 or later and refuses to connect to an older one.
• A Nextcloud user that is allowed to create conversations. An administrator can limit that to some groups in Talk's administration settings.
• Public conversations without an enforced password. An administrator can require a password for every public conversation, and Tymeslot cannot create one then.
• A server Tymeslot can reach over https://. Tymeslot calls it whenever a booking is made, rescheduled or cancelled.

If your user may not create conversations, or public conversations need a password, Nextcloud refuses every new conversation. The booking is still confirmed, but without a video link.

A Nextcloud reachable only on an internal network cannot be used.

Self-hosting Tymeslot on that same network is the exception. A host that resolves to a private address is refused by default, as protection against server-side request forgery. Set ALLOW_PRIVATE_IPS_FOR_VIDEO=true on your Tymeslot deployment to permit a Nextcloud server on an internal network. This applies to self-hosted installs only. On the managed service at tymeslot.app our servers have no route to your network, so a private address cannot work there whatever you configure.

Tymeslot sends your app password with every request, so the server address must start with https://. The only exception is a server at localhost or a private IP address, which a self-hosted Tymeslot with that switch may reach over http://.

How It Works

Who moderates

The Nextcloud account you connect creates each conversation, so Talk makes that account its owner. An owner skips the lobby and has Talk's moderator controls, including switching the lobby off early.

To skip the lobby and moderate, open the link in a browser where you are signed in to Nextcloud as the connected login name. Sign in there with your usual password and any second factor; the app password works only for Tymeslot, and Nextcloud's own login form refuses it. Anyone else, other users of your Nextcloud included, waits in the lobby until the meeting starts; opened while signed out, the same link makes you an ordinary guest too. If you connect an account other than your own, such as a shared one, that account owns the conversations.

1 Create an app password

An app password lets Tymeslot sign in without your main Nextcloud password. Once two-factor authentication is on for your account, your login password stops working for Tymeslot and an app password is required. Even without two-factor authentication, use one: you can revoke it on its own, without changing your main password.

1. In Nextcloud, open your avatar menu and choose Personal settings.
2. In the sidebar, click Security.
3. Under Devices & sessions, enter a name such as Tymeslot and click Create new app password.
4. Copy the password straight away. Nextcloud shows it only once.

The Nextcloud calendar guide walks through the same screen. If you already connected your Nextcloud calendar, you can reuse its app password in the next step instead of creating a new one.

2 Connect Nextcloud Talk

1. Go to Dashboard → Integrations → Video.
2. Click Connect a video provider and choose Nextcloud Talk under Self-hosted.
3. Give the integration a name if you want something other than the default.
4. In Server URL, enter the address you open Nextcloud at, including any subfolder, for example https://cloud.example.com or https://example.com/nextcloud
5. In Login name, enter the name you sign in to Nextcloud with.
6. In App password, paste the app password from Step 1.
7. Click Add Integration.

Before saving, Tymeslot signs in to your Nextcloud and checks that Talk is available and recent enough. It refuses to save if Nextcloud rejects the login name or app password, if Talk is missing or older than 21.1, or if the same login on the same server is already connected. Connecting a different login on the same Nextcloud is fine.

Expected result: the integration appears in your list of video integrations under the name you gave it (My Nextcloud Talk by default), with your login name and server host beside it.

Reusing your Nextcloud calendar connection

If you have a Nextcloud calendar connected, the form shows Use your Nextcloud calendar connection with a Copy from … button for each one. Clicking it fills in Server URL and Login name. Leave App password blank to use the calendar connection's app password, or enter a different one.

• The calendar's app password is only used while the server and login name still match the copied ones. Change either, and you have to enter an app password yourself.
• If the calendar connection is removed or switched off before you save, the form tells you it is no longer available, and you have to enter an app password yourself.
• Once saved, the two integrations are separate, each with its own copy of the app password. If you later replace that app password in Nextcloud, update both integrations.

3 Enable Nextcloud Talk on a meeting type

Each meeting type chooses its own video provider. Repeat these steps for every meeting type that should use Nextcloud Talk:

1. Go to Dashboard → Meeting Types and pick a meeting type.
2. In the Location section, choose Video Meeting.
3. Under Select Video Provider, select your Nextcloud Talk integration.
4. Save.

Expected result: the next booking on this meeting type carries the link to its own Talk conversation.

What Happens to the Conversation

• Rescheduling moves the lobby to the new start time and renames the conversation after the booking. The link stays the same.
• Cancelling deletes the conversation, so its link stops working.
• After the meeting, the conversation stays available for a while, for example for a follow-up message, and is then deleted about a week after the meeting ends. On tymeslot.app the period is seven days. A self-hosted Tymeslot defaults to seven days and sets another period with VIDEO_ROOM_RETENTION_DAYS; see the Environment Variables Reference .

Talk refuses to delete a conversation marked to be kept. Tymeslot leaves such a conversation in place and does not try again; delete it yourself in Talk when you no longer need it.

Deleting the integration

While the integration still has conversations on your Nextcloud, past meetings' included, the delete dialog says how many and offers Also delete these conversations from your Nextcloud server. Ticking it deletes all of them, and attendees of upcoming meetings find their join link no longer works.

Leave it unticked and the conversations stay on your Nextcloud, so upcoming meetings keep working. Tymeslot can only delete them again once you connect Nextcloud Talk with the same login: its nightly clean-up then deletes those of cancelled bookings, and those of ended meetings whose deletion date passed no more than 30 days earlier.

If Nextcloud Refuses the App Password

If Nextcloud stops accepting the app password, for example because it was revoked, Tymeslot stops using it at once instead of trying again. Nextcloud counts every refused sign-in against the address it came from and starts slowing that address down, so repeated attempts would only make things worse.

Tymeslot shows a Reconnect badge on the integration on your dashboard, with the reason beside it, and emails you. Until you fix it:

• new bookings are confirmed without a video link;
• changes to existing bookings are not sent to Nextcloud. Conversations of bookings cancelled meanwhile are deleted once you reconnect, but a reschedule is never caught up: the conversation keeps its old lobby time and name, so guests of a booking moved earlier wait in the lobby until the old start. For each booking rescheduled in that time, open its conversation in Talk and change the lobby time or switch the lobby off.

To fix it, create a new app password in Nextcloud, click Edit integration (the pencil) on the integration and enter it in App password. Tymeslot checks it against your Nextcloud before saving, and a successful check clears the notice. If Nextcloud has moved to a new address, change Server URL as well. When editing, leaving App password blank keeps the one already stored, except when Server URL points to a different server (another host, port or scheme): Tymeslot never sends a stored app password to a server it was not given for, so enter it again. A new subfolder on the same server keeps the stored one.

❓ Frequently Asked Questions

Verify the integration is working

• On Dashboard → Meetings, the booking shows a Join Meeting button that links to an address on your Nextcloud containing /index.php/call/
• The booking confirmation email contains the same link
• A new conversation named after the booking appears in your Talk list
• Opening the link in a private browser window before the start time shows the lobby
• Cancelling the test booking removes the conversation from your Talk list