User Authentication with IMAP, SMB, and FTP¶

You may configure additional user backends in ownCloud’s configuration file (config/config.php) using the following syntax:

<?php

"user_backends" => [
    0 => [
        "class"     => ...,
        "arguments" => [
            0 => ...
        ],
    ],
],

Note

A non-blocking or correctly configured SELinux setup is needed for these backends to work, if SELinux is enabled on your server.. Please refer to the SELinux documentation for further details.

Currently the External user support app (user_external), which is not enabled by default, provides three backends. These are:

IMAP
SMB
FTP

See Installing and Managing Apps for more information.

IMAP¶

Provides authentication against IMAP servers.

Option	Value/Description
Class	`OC_User_IMAP`.
Arguments	A mailbox string as defined in the PHP documentation.
Dependency	PHP’s IMAP extension. See Manual Installation on Linux for instructions on how to install it.

Example¶

<?php

"user_backends" => [
    0 => [
        "class"     => "OC_User_IMAP",
        "arguments" => [
            // The IMAP server to authenticate against
            '{imap.gmail.com:993/imap/ssl}',
            // The domain to send email from
            'example.com'
        ],
    ],
],

Warning

The second arguments parameter ensures that only users from that domain are allowed to login. When set, after a successful login, the domain will be stripped from the email address and the rest used as an ownCloud username. For example, if the email address is guest.user@example.com, then guest.user will be the username used by ownCloud.

SMB¶

Provides authentication against Samba servers.

Option	Value/Description
Class	`OC_User_SMB`.
Arguments	The samba server to authenticate against.
Dependency	PECL’s smbclient extension or smbclient.

Example¶

<?php

"user_backends" => [
    0 => [
        "class"     => "OC_User_SMB",
        "arguments" => [
            0 => 'localhost'
        ],
    ],
],

FTP¶

Provides authentication against FTP servers.

Option	Value/Description
Class	`OC_User_FTP`.
Arguments	The FTP server to authenticate against.
Dependency	PHP’s FTP extension. See Manual Installation on Linux for instructions on how to install it.

Example¶

<?php

"user_backends" => [
    0 => [
        "class"     => "OC_User_FTP",
        "arguments" => [
            0 => 'localhost'
        ],
    ],
],