How to Set Up a Docker Container (Advanced)

If you have prior experience with setting up containers, here you may found the mere details on getting Sendent for Outlook running.

Pease replace <YOURDOMAIN> with your actual own domain, with included protocol. For example: <YOURDOMAIN> becomes https://outlook.sendent.dev.

Docker Compose file

Notice: Some extra environment variables might be applicable. This depends wether the installation is Microsoft Exchange On-Premise or Microsoft 365.

Please advice the following article and modify the docker compose file accordingly.

version: '3.9'
services:
  sendent.outlook:
    image: rg.nl-ams.scw.cloud/sendent-public/sendent-outlook:latest
    platform: linux/amd64
    build:
      context: .
      dockerfile: Dockerfile
    restart: on-failure
    environment:
      - BASE_URL=<YOURDOMAIN>
      - FEATURES_CODES_TO_REMOVE=
    ports:
      - "4300:4300"
    volumes:
      - ./docker-config:/usr/src/app/outlook-addin/docker-config
    networks:
      - node_network
 
networks:
  node_network:

Depending on the installation, you might want to remove certain features.

⚠️ Please consider these changes carefully
If you are a Microsoft 365 user, be aware that changing these settings is not instant. Updates are distributed centrally by Microsoft and can take up to 48 hours to take effect on all clients. We also recommend incrementing the <version> element in the manifest file, e.g. if we set 2.5.0, you increment it to 2.5.1 etc.

If you want to experiment with a limited setup first, use side-loading instead, this applies changes immediately and only affects your own client.

For FEATURES_CODES_TO_REMOVE= you can set the following values to remove certain buttons and events in the Outlook add-in:

0 = Remove Activity Tracker
1 = Remove Secure Mail
2 = Remove On-Send event actions
3 = Remove Nextcloud Talk Desktop
4 = Remove Nextcloud Talk Mobile
5 = Remove Nextcloud Files related features (upload files, public sharing)
6 = Automatic email signature*

*Code 6 is new in 3.0.0 and only works with Microsoft 365 and MS_AUTH_TYPE=naa_silent. Under any other auth type, the container removes it automatically and logs a notice; add 6 to hide the notice. See How to use the automatic email signature.

Proxy allowlist

From 3.0.0, the container only forwards add-in traffic to the hosts in PROXY_ALLOWLIST. It takes comma-separated hostnames or URLs, and only the hostname is compared. If it is not set, the container falls back to the hostname of DEFAULT_NEXTCLOUD_URL. If neither is set, it forwards to any host and logs a warning.

Changes apply when the container restarts, without a manifest update. Details: How to configure the proxy allowlist.

Free users

We recommend the following default configuration.

BASE_URL=<YOURDOMAIN>
 
FEATURES_CODES_TO_REMOVE=0,1,2,6
 
PROXY_ALLOWLIST=<YOURNEXTCLOUDDOMAIN>

<YOURNEXTCLOUDDOMAIN> should for example be https://nextcloud.sendent.dev.

Licensed users

We recommend the following default configuration.

Warning: we disabled on-send interaction in this example. You can re-enable it later again if you verified the installation works correctly, by simply removing the ‘2’ in FEATURES_CODES_TO_REMOVE and then re-upload your manifest file, if you uploaded the XML file manually. On-send interaction is needed if you want to automate uploading of attachments when the send button is clicked within Outlook.

BASE_URL=<YOURDOMAIN>
 
FEATURES_CODES_TO_REMOVE=2
 
DEFAULT_NEXTCLOUD_URL=<YOURNEXTCLOUDDOMAIN>
 
PROXY_ALLOWLIST=<YOURNEXTCLOUDDOMAIN>

Reverse proxy

Please ensure that either if NGINX or APACHE is used the maximum body size is increased.

NGINX: client_max_body_size 250M; (this sets the maximum file upload size to 250 MB).
APACHE: LimitRequestBody 262144000 (this sets the maximum file upload size to roughly 250 MB).

Updating to 3.0.0

Add every Nextcloud server your users sign in to to PROXY_ALLOWLIST, unless the DEFAULT_NEXTCLOUD_URL server is the only one. Sign-in to any other server fails with "Forbidden: Target URL is not in the allowlist".
Remove quotes around the DEFAULT_NEXTCLOUD_URL value in docker-compose.yml. Compose keeps them as part of the value, and the allowlist fallback then blocks every sign-in.
Redeploy the manifest from https://<YOURDOMAIN>/manifest.xml. The 3.0.0 manifest renames the add-in to Nextcloud for Outlook and adds the signature launch event. Its version is already 3.0.0. The old manifest keeps working, without those two changes.