Setting up ownCloud

Ok, today we are going to free ourselves from DropBox and Google Contacts&Calendar syncing on Android. We are going to have our little cloud storage: ownCloud . This is somewhat a follow post of setting your own full-of-FOSS Android phone post I did.

1. Setting up your ownCloud #

Just for our first time, we are going to set up an ownCloud instance on openshift . Make yourself an account on openshift, and follow the steps here and you will have it in a breeze: https://github.com/openshift/owncloud-openshift-quickstart/

Once it is installed, enforce connecting by https on settings. There you have it!

2. Exporting Contacts and Calendar from Google #

Export your google contacts in vcard format from Google (log into Gmail, and go to the contacs tab, and then click on the cog).

3. Android app #

OwnCloud has an official app published on Google Play (1mobile) but it is just for syncing files into your cloud ala DropBox.

We need an app that provides contact/calendar synchronization to Android by CalDAV/CardDAV synchronisation. There are many (privative and FOSS) apps that support that. One point worth taking into account is to chose a contact syncing app that supports as much contact fields as possible. I’m using DAVdroid for calendar and contacts, available at F-droid .

https://owncloud-<your username>.rhcloud.com/remote.php/carddav https://owncloud-<your username>.rhcloud.com/remote.php/caldav

If you are using CyanogenMod app privacity settings, don’t forget to disable them to allow the new apps to see your contacts!

4. Desktop client #

You can use the web client, or download a platform specific client of ownCloud from here If you are on debian, just sudo apt-get install owncloud-client.