Version 1.0.0
A comprehensive guide for administrators on using DashLink to create a centralized launch-pad for external tools and websites in Nextcloud.
- Introduction
- Getting Started
- Managing Links
- Group-Based Visibility
- Customizing Hover Effects
- Export & Import
- Use Cases & Examples
- Best Practices
- Troubleshooting
DashLink transforms your Nextcloud dashboard into a powerful launch-pad for external websites and web applications. Instead of searching through bookmarks or typing URLs, your team can access frequently-used tools directly from the dashboard with a single click.
- Centralized Access: All important links in one place
- Department-Specific: Show different links to different teams using group visibility
- Visual Organization: Custom icons and descriptions make links easy to identify
- Time Savings: Reduce the time spent searching for frequently-used tools
- Consistent Experience: Everyone sees the same curated set of tools
- Easy Management: Drag & drop reordering, bulk import/export
This guide is for Nextcloud administrators responsible for:
- Setting up and configuring DashLink
- Managing links for their organization
- Creating department or team-specific link sets
- Training users on available tools
- Log in to Nextcloud as an administrator
- Navigate to Settings (click your profile picture in the top-right)
- In the left sidebar, under Administration, click DashLink
You'll see the DashLink admin panel with:
- Link Management Area: List of all links with edit/delete controls
- Preview Panel: Live preview of how links appear to users
- Add Link Button: Create new links
- Export/Import Buttons: Backup or migrate your configuration
- Shows all configured links in order
- Each link displays:
- Position badge (drag handle for reordering)
- Icon preview
- Title and URL
- Edit/Delete buttons
- Group badges (if visibility is restricted)
- Shows exactly how links appear on the dashboard
- Group Filter: Simulate what different user groups see
- Effect Preview: Test hover animations in real-time
- Updates immediately as you make changes
- Click the "Add Link" button
- Fill in the link details:
Title
- The display name shown to users
- Keep it short and descriptive (e.g., "Office 365", "Time Tracking")
- Maximum 255 characters
URL
- The full website address including
https:// - Examples:
https://mail.google.comhttps://mycompany.zendesk.comhttps://analytics.example.com/dashboard
Description
- Appears when users hover over the link
- Explain what the tool does or when to use it
- Example: "Submit and track support tickets for IT issues"
- Supports up to 500 characters
Icon
- Upload a custom logo (PNG, JPG, GIF, SVG, WebP)
- Maximum file size: 2MB
- Recommended size: 64x64 pixels or larger
- OR Download from URL: Paste an icon URL to automatically fetch and save
Open In
- New Tab (_blank): Opens link in a new browser tab (recommended)
- Same Tab (_self): Opens link in the current tab
Visible to Groups
- Leave empty to show to all users
- Select specific groups to restrict visibility
- See Group-Based Visibility for detailed strategies
- Click "Save" to create the link
- Click the edit icon (pencil) next to any link
- Modify any field
- Click "Save" to apply changes
Note: Changes are immediately visible to all users who refresh their dashboard.
- Click the delete icon (trash can) next to the link
- Confirm the deletion in the popup dialog
Warning: Deletion is permanent and cannot be undone. The icon file is also permanently deleted.
Links appear in the order you specify. To reorder:
- Drag & Drop: Click and hold the position badge, then drag to the desired position
- Release to drop the link in its new position
- Changes are saved automatically
Tip: Put the most frequently-used links at the top for easy access.
Group-based visibility allows you to show different links to different teams, departments, or roles. This is one of DashLink's most powerful features for organizations.
When you assign groups to a link:
- Only members of those groups can see the link on their dashboard
- Users in multiple groups see all links from their groups
- Links with no groups assigned are visible to everyone
Scenario: Different departments use different tools
Implementation:
HR Links (Visible to: "HR" group only)
- ADP Payroll
- BambooHR
- Employee Portal
IT Links (Visible to: "IT" group only)
- Jira Service Desk
- Datadog Monitoring
- AWS Console
Finance Links (Visible to: "Finance" group only)
- QuickBooks
- Expensify
- Financial Dashboard
Scenario: Tools are restricted by job role
Implementation:
Management Links (Visible to: "Managers" group)
- Analytics Dashboard
- Team Performance Reports
- Budget Planning Tool
All Staff Links (Visible to: everyone - no groups)
- Company Directory
- Time Off Request
- Internal Wiki
Scenario: Project-specific collaboration tools
Implementation:
Project Alpha (Visible to: "ProjectAlpha" group)
- Alpha Jira Board
- Alpha Slack Channel
- Alpha Drive Folder
Project Beta (Visible to: "ProjectBeta" group)
- Beta Trello Board
- Beta Teams Channel
- Beta SharePoint
Scenario: Mix of universal and targeted links
Implementation:
Everyone sees:
- Company Intranet
- Help Desk
- Email
Sales team also sees:
- Salesforce CRM
- Lead Pipeline
- Sales Reports
Support team also sees:
- Zendesk
- Customer Database
- Support Metrics
Use the "Simulate Group Filter" dropdown in the preview panel:
- Select a group from the dropdown
- The preview shows only links visible to that group
- Select "All Groups" to see all links
- This helps verify your visibility configuration before users see it
DashLink includes three built-in hover animations:
- Appearance: Description appears over a blurred version of the icon
- Best For: Links with distinctive logos/icons
- User Experience: Clean and modern, focuses on the description text
- Appearance: Card flips 180° to reveal description on the back
- Best For: Creating an interactive, playful experience
- User Experience: Engaging animation, clear separation of icon and description
- Appearance: Panel slides up from bottom with description
- Best For: Subtle animations, maintaining icon visibility
- User Experience: Smooth and professional, icon remains partially visible
- In the admin panel, locate the "Hover Effect" dropdown
- Select an effect from the list
- Watch the preview panel update in real-time
- Click "Save" to apply to all users
Note: The effect applies to all links globally. Individual links cannot have different effects.
Blur Overlay - Recommended for:
- Professional corporate environments
- Links with strong, recognizable brand logos
- When description text is the priority
3D Card Flip - Recommended for:
- Creative teams or modern workplaces
- When you want an engaging, interactive feel
- Educational or training environments
Slide Panel - Recommended for:
- Conservative or traditional organizations
- When you want subtle, non-distracting animations
- Environments where users prefer minimal motion
- Backup: Save your link configuration as a file
- Migration: Move links between Nextcloud instances
- Sharing: Share link sets with other organizations
- Version Control: Keep historical snapshots of your configuration
- Click the "Export" button in the admin panel
- A JSON file downloads automatically:
dashlink-export-YYYY-MM-DD.json - Store this file safely
What's Included in Export:
- All link titles, URLs, and descriptions
- Group visibility settings
- Open-in settings (new tab vs same tab)
- Icon URLs: Absolute URLs pointing to your Nextcloud instance
What's NOT Included:
- Icon image files themselves (only URLs to them)
- Global hover effect setting
- User-specific data
- Click the "Import" button
- Select a JSON file to import
- Review the import summary:
- Imported: Number of new links added
- Skipped: Number of duplicates detected
- Errors: Any issues encountered (e.g., failed icon downloads)
DashLink automatically detects duplicates by:
- Title: Links with the same title
- URL: Links pointing to the same address
Duplicates are skipped to prevent redundant entries.
If the JSON includes iconUrl fields:
- DashLink attempts to download icons from those URLs
- Successfully downloaded icons are saved locally
- Failed downloads are logged in the import summary
- Links are created even if icon download fails
Tip: When migrating between instances, import immediately after export while icon URLs are still valid.
Old Instance (old.company.com):
1. Export links
New Instance (nextcloud.company.com):
2. Install DashLink
3. Import the JSON file
4. Icons may fail to download (old URLs)
5. Re-upload icons manually or use the "Download from URL" feature
Organization A:
1. Export links
2. Share JSON with Organization B
Organization B:
3. Import JSON
4. Duplicates are skipped automatically
5. Customize groups to match their structure
Create standard link sets for common scenarios:
Template: Remote Team Starter Pack
- Zoom Video Conferencing
- Slack Team Chat
- Asana Project Management
- Google DriveExport and reuse for new teams or clients.
Scenario: IT team needs quick access to multiple monitoring and management tools throughout the day.
Implementation:
Visible to: IT group only
Infrastructure Tools:
🖥️ AWS Console - "Manage cloud infrastructure and EC2 instances"
📊 Datadog - "Real-time monitoring and performance metrics"
🔧 Jira Service Desk - "Track and resolve internal IT tickets"
🔐 Vault - "Secure secrets and credential management"
📦 GitHub - "Code repositories and CI/CD pipelines"
Support Tools:
🎫 Zendesk - "Customer support ticket management"
📚 Confluence - "IT documentation and runbooks"
🔍 Splunk - "Log analysis and security monitoring"
Benefits:
- IT staff save 10-15 minutes daily not searching for tool URLs
- Onboarding new IT staff is faster with centralized tool directory
- Reduced mistakes from typing wrong URLs
- Encourages use of proper tools instead of workarounds
Scenario: Company with HR, Sales, Finance, and Operations departments, each needing different tools.
Implementation:
HR Department (Visible to: HR group)
👥 BambooHR - "Employee records and performance reviews"
💰 ADP Payroll - "Process payroll and manage benefits"
📋 Workday - "Recruiting and applicant tracking"
📊 Culture Amp - "Employee engagement surveys"
Sales Department (Visible to: Sales group)
💼 Salesforce - "CRM and opportunity pipeline"
📞 HubSpot - "Marketing automation and lead nurturing"
📈 Tableau Sales Dashboard - "Real-time sales metrics"
📧 LinkedIn Sales Navigator - "Prospect research"
Finance Department (Visible to: Finance group)
💵 QuickBooks - "Accounting and financial management"
🧾 Expensify - "Expense reporting and reimbursements"
📊 NetSuite - "ERP and financial planning"
🏦 Bill.com - "Accounts payable automation"
All Staff (Visible to: everyone)
📧 Company Email - "Microsoft 365 Webmail"
📚 Company Wiki - "Internal documentation"
🎫 IT Help Desk - "Submit IT support requests"
📅 Resource Booking - "Conference rooms and equipment"
Benefits:
- Each department sees only relevant tools
- Eliminates clutter from irrelevant links
- Reinforces departmental workflows
- Easy to add tools as company grows
Scenario: Web agency serving multiple clients, each with different project tools.
Implementation:
Client A Team (Visible to: ClientA group)
📋 Client A Jira - "Project tasks and sprints"
💬 Client A Slack - "Team communication channel"
📁 Client A Drive - "Shared files and deliverables"
🎨 Client A Figma - "Design collaboration"
📊 Client A Analytics - "Website performance dashboard"
Client B Team (Visible to: ClientB group)
📋 Client B Trello - "Project management board"
💬 Client B Teams - "Video calls and chat"
📁 Client B SharePoint - "Document library"
🎨 Client B Adobe XD - "Design prototypes"
📊 Client B Reports - "Monthly performance reports"
Internal Team (Visible to: Staff group)
💼 Time Tracking - "Log billable hours"
📊 Agency Dashboard - "All project overviews"
🎫 Internal Jira - "Internal tasks and bugs"
Benefits:
- Team members see only their assigned client tools
- Prevents confusion between similar client portals
- Simplifies context-switching between clients
- Easy to add/remove team members from projects
Scenario: University with students, faculty, and administrative staff.
Implementation:
Students (Visible to: Students group)
📚 Canvas LMS - "Access courses and assignments"
📖 Library Portal - "Search catalogs and reserve books"
💳 Student Account - "View grades and manage registration"
🎓 Career Services - "Job board and resume help"
🏃 Recreation Center - "Book gym facilities"
Faculty (Visible to: Faculty group)
📝 Canvas Instructor - "Manage courses and grade assignments"
📊 Banner Admin - "Student records and enrollment"
📧 Faculty Email - "Institutional email"
📚 Research Portal - "Grant applications and IRB"
🗓️ Faculty Calendar - "Office hours and meetings"
Administrative Staff (Visible to: Admin group)
💼 Workday HR - "Payroll and benefits"
📊 Banner System - "Student information system"
🎫 Help Desk - "IT support tickets"
📧 Exchange Admin - "Email administration"
📈 Analytics Dashboard - "Enrollment and retention metrics"
Everyone
🏫 University Homepage - "Official website"
📰 Campus News - "Announcements and events"
🗺️ Campus Map - "Building locations and directions"
📞 Directory - "Faculty and staff contact information"
Benefits:
- Each user role sees appropriate tools
- Reduces support burden from users accessing wrong systems
- Streamlines daily workflows for all user types
- Single location for all university web tools
Scenario: Hospital with doctors, nurses, administrative staff, and billing department.
Implementation:
Clinical Staff (Doctors, Nurses groups)
🏥 EMR System - "Electronic medical records"
💊 Pharmacy Portal - "Prescription management"
📋 Lab Results - "Patient test results"
🗓️ Scheduling - "Patient appointments"
📚 Clinical Guidelines - "Treatment protocols"
Billing Department (Visible to: Billing group)
💰 Claims Portal - "Insurance claim submission"
📊 Revenue Cycle - "Billing analytics"
🏦 Payment Gateway - "Patient payment processing"
📋 Coding Reference - "ICD-10 and CPT codes"
Administrative (Visible to: Admin group)
👥 HR Portal - "Staff management"
📊 Dashboard - "Hospital operations metrics"
🎫 IT Support - "Technical assistance"
📧 Email - "Staff communication"
Benefits:
- HIPAA compliance through role-based access
- Clinical staff focused on patient care tools
- Billing isolated from clinical workflows
- Reduces training complexity for new staff
Scenario: Fully remote company needs centralized access to collaboration tools.
Implementation:
All Remote Staff
💬 Slack - "Team chat and channels"
📹 Zoom - "Video conferences and webinars"
📁 Google Drive - "Shared documents and files"
📋 Asana - "Project and task management"
🕐 Toggl - "Time tracking for projects"
📊 Miro - "Virtual whiteboard collaboration"
📧 Gmail - "Company email"
🗓️ Google Calendar - "Meetings and events"
Benefits:
- Single location for all collaboration tools
- Especially valuable for remote workers who switch tools frequently
- Reduces time lost searching for meeting links
- Helps new hires discover all available tools
- Creates consistency across the organization
✅ Do:
- Use high-quality, recognizable logos
- Maintain consistent icon sizes (64x64 or larger)
- Use official brand logos when available
- Ensure icons work well in both light and dark mode
❌ Don't:
- Use low-resolution or pixelated images
- Mix icon styles (some with borders, some without)
- Use generic icons for well-known brands
- Forget to test in dark mode
✅ Do:
- Order links by frequency of use (most used first)
- Group related tools together
- Use clear, concise titles
- Write helpful descriptions that explain when to use the tool
❌ Don't:
- Create more than 10-15 links per group (too overwhelming)
- Use technical jargon in titles
- Leave descriptions empty
- Create duplicate links with slightly different names
✅ Do:
- Keep group names aligned with your organization structure
- Document which groups see which links
- Review group assignments quarterly
- Test visibility with the preview panel before deploying
❌ Don't:
- Create too many granular groups (manage at department level)
- Forget to update when employees change roles
- Show the same link to multiple overlapping groups (creates duplicates)
- Leave groups empty with no links
✅ Good Examples:
- "Submit IT support tickets for hardware, software, or access issues"
- "Track project tasks, assign team members, and monitor sprint progress"
- "View real-time sales pipeline and quarterly revenue forecasts"
❌ Bad Examples:
- "IT stuff" (too vague)
- "Click here to go to Jira" (obvious, unhelpful)
- "The main CRM system used by the sales department for managing customer relationships and tracking sales opportunities across all regions" (too long)
Weekly:
- Review new link requests from staff
- Check for broken links or services that have moved
Monthly:
- Audit group memberships as staff change roles
- Review link usage and remove rarely-used tools
- Update descriptions based on user feedback
Quarterly:
- Export a backup of your configuration
- Review and consolidate groups if needed
- Survey users on which links are most valuable
Annually:
- Complete audit of all links, icons, and groups
- Update for organizational changes (mergers, restructuring)
- Review and revise your overall linking strategy
Possible Causes:
- User is not in the assigned group
- Link is disabled
- User hasn't refreshed their dashboard
Solutions:
- Verify group membership in Nextcloud user management
- Check the link is enabled in the admin panel
- Ask user to refresh their browser (F5 or Ctrl+R)
- Use the preview panel to simulate what that group sees
Possible Causes:
- Icon file was corrupted during upload
- Icon exceeds 2MB file size limit
- Unsupported file format
- Browser cache showing old icon
Solutions:
- Delete and re-upload the icon
- Compress or resize the icon file
- Use PNG, JPG, GIF, SVG, or WebP format only
- Clear browser cache or hard refresh (Ctrl+Shift+R)
Possible Causes:
- JSON file is corrupted or invalid
- Icon URLs in JSON are unreachable
- Permissions issue writing to app data directory
Solutions:
- Verify the JSON file is valid (check with a JSON validator)
- Import will still work, icons just won't download automatically
- Check Nextcloud logs for permission errors
- Re-upload icons manually after import
Possible Causes:
- "Open In" setting is incorrect
- Browser is blocking new tabs
Solutions:
- Edit the link and change "Open In" to "New Tab"
- Check browser popup blocker settings
- Some browsers may override this setting based on user preferences
Possible Causes:
- JavaScript is disabled
- Browser compatibility issue
- Nextcloud theme conflict
Solutions:
- Enable JavaScript in browser settings
- Try a different browser (Chrome, Firefox, Edge, Safari all supported)
- Disable browser extensions temporarily to test
- Report issue on GitHub with browser version details
Solutions:
- Use Groups More Aggressively: Split links by department/role
- Review Necessity: Remove rarely-used links
- Create Priority Tiers:
- Top 5 links: Daily-use tools
- Next 5 links: Weekly-use tools
- Remove: Monthly or less frequent
- External Link Pages: For rarely-used tools, create a separate wiki page instead
If you're setting up DashLink for the first time:
Week 1: Start Small
- Add 3-5 universal links everyone needs
- Test with a small group
- Gather feedback
Week 2: Expand
- Add department-specific links
- Set up group visibility
- Train administrators
Week 3: Refine
- Adjust based on user feedback
- Add descriptions and better icons
- Optimize link order
Week 4: Full Deployment
- Roll out to entire organization
- Create documentation for users
- Establish maintenance schedule
- Technical Documentation: See
/docsfolder for implementation details - GitHub Issues: Report bugs or request features
- Nextcloud Community: General Nextcloud support
- Effect System Guide: Learn how to add custom hover effects
We'd love to hear how you're using DashLink!
- Feature Requests: GitHub Issues
- Bug Reports: GitHub Issues
- Discussions: GitHub Discussions
DashLink v1.0.0 | Licensed under AGPL-3.0-or-later | View on GitHub