OpenRegister

Flexible object storage for Nextcloud — schema-driven registers with REST APIs, multi-tenancy, and audit trails

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OpenRegister provides a way to quickly build and deploy standardized data registers in Nextcloud. Define your data models with JSON Schema, store objects in high-performance registers, and expose them through REST APIs that follow NLGov API Design Rules and Common Ground principles.

It is the shared data backbone for apps like OpenCatalogi, Procest, Pipelinq, and Software Catalogus.

Screenshots

Dashboard	Registers	Objects

Features

Core

• Schema-driven Registers — Define data structures with JSON Schema and organize them into registers
• Full CRUD API — Create, read, update, and delete objects through a standards-compliant REST API
• Multi-tenancy — Complete organization-based data isolation with user management
• Role-based Access Control — Fine-grained permissions at register, schema, and object level
• Audit Trails — Full history of all object changes with user attribution
• Time Travel — View and restore previous object states at any point in time
• Soft Deletes — Safely remove objects with configurable retention and recovery
• Object Relations — Create and manage typed connections between objects across registers
• File Attachments — Manage files with text extraction, OCR, and version control
• Schema Validation — Validate objects against JSON Schema with enhanced error messages
• Object Locking — Prevent concurrent modifications for data integrity
• Bulk Operations — Perform batch create, update, and delete operations
• Events and Webhooks — React to data changes with events for integrations and automation
• Data Filtering — Select specific properties to return for data minimization and GDPR compliance

Search and AI

• Full-text Search — Search across registers with PostgreSQL pg_trgm, no external engine required
• Automatic Faceting — Dynamic filtering based on object properties with UUID resolution
• Semantic Search — AI-powered search using PostgreSQL pgvector for meaning-based discovery
• Vector Embeddings — Automatic vectorization of objects and files stored natively in PostgreSQL
• File Vectorization — Chunk and vectorize documents (PDF, DOCX, images with OCR) for semantic search
• Content Generation — AI-powered text generation, summarization, translation, and classification
• LLM Providers — Supports OpenAI, Ollama (local), Fireworks AI, and Azure OpenAI

Integrations

• SOLR Integration — Optional Apache Solr for advanced search scenarios
• Source Synchronization — Keep registers in sync with external data sources
• Schema Import — Import schemas from Schema.org, OpenAPI, and GGM standards
• CalDAV Tasks — Attach Nextcloud tasks and comments directly to data objects
• JSON-LD and Linked Data — Standards-compliant output for the open data ecosystem

Architecture

graph TD
    A[Vue 2 Frontend] -->|REST API| B[PHP Controllers]
    B --> C[ObjectService / SchemaService]
    C --> D[MagicMapper — typed columns]
    C --> E[ObjectEntityMapper — blob storage]
    D --> F[(PostgreSQL + pgvector)]
    E --> F
    C --> G[Solr — optional]
    B --> H[RBAC + Multi-tenancy]
    B --> I[Event System + Webhooks]
    C --> J[AI / LLM Provider]

Data Model

Entity	Description
Register	Collection of schemas with shared configuration and access rules
Schema	JSON Schema definition that validates and types objects
Object	Data record validated against a schema, stored in a register
AuditTrail	Immutable change log entry for an object
ObjectRelation	Typed link between two objects (within or across registers)
File	Attachment with text extraction, chunking, and vector embeddings

Directory Structure

openregister/
├── appinfo/           # Nextcloud app manifest, routes, navigation
├── lib/               # PHP backend — controllers, services, mappers, events
│   ├── Controller/    # API and page controllers
│   ├── Service/       # Business logic (ObjectService, SchemaService, SearchService…)
│   ├── Db/            # Database entities and mappers (MagicMapper, ObjectEntityMapper)
│   └── Handlers/      # RBAC, faceting, search, multi-tenancy handlers
├── src/               # Vue 2 frontend — components, Pinia stores, views
│   ├── components/    # Reusable UI components
│   ├── store/         # Pinia stores per entity
│   └── views/         # Route-level views
├── img/               # App icons and screenshots
├── l10n/              # Translations (en, nl)
├── tests/             # Integration tests (Newman/Postman)
└── docusaurus/        # Documentation site (openregisters.app)

Requirements

Dependency	Version
Nextcloud	28 – 33
PHP	8.1+
PostgreSQL	12+ (recommended, with pgvector and pg_trgm)
MySQL	8.0+ (alternative, no vector search)

Installation

From the Nextcloud App Store

1. Go to Apps in your Nextcloud instance
2. Search for OpenRegister
3. Click Download and enable

From Source

cd /var/www/html/custom_apps
git clone https://github.com/ConductionNL/openregister.git
cd openregister
composer install --no-dev
npm install
npm run build
php occ app:enable openregister

Development

Start the environment

docker compose -f openregister/docker-compose.yml up -d
# Nextcloud available at http://localhost:8080 (admin/admin)

Frontend development

cd openregister
npm install
npm run dev        # Watch mode
npm run build      # Production build

Code quality

# PHP
composer phpcs          # Check coding standards
composer cs:fix         # Auto-fix issues
composer phpmd          # Mess detection
composer phpmetrics     # HTML metrics report

# Frontend
npm run lint            # ESLint
npm run stylelint       # CSS linting

Tech Stack

Layer	Technology
Frontend	Vue 2.7, Pinia, @nextcloud/vue
Build	Webpack 5, @nextcloud/webpack-vue-config
Backend	PHP 8.1+, Nextcloud App Framework
Database	PostgreSQL 16 with pgvector + pg_trgm
Search	Magic tables (SQL), Solr (optional)
AI	Ollama, OpenAI, Fireworks AI, Azure OpenAI
UX	@conduction/nextcloud-vue
Quality	PHPCS, PHPMD, phpmetrics, Psalm, ESLint, Stylelint

Documentation

Full documentation is available at openregisters.app

Page	Description
Installation	Complete installation and configuration guide
Features	Feature documentation (objects, schemas, registers, search, AI)
Developer Guide	Development setup, Docker profiles, PostgreSQL search
API Reference	REST API endpoints and bulk operations
Testing	Integration test suite (Newman/Postman)

Standards & Compliance

• Data standard: JSON Schema, JSON-LD, Schema.org
• API standard: NLGov REST API Design Rules (Logius)
• Dutch interoperability: Common Ground principles, VNG standards
• Accessibility: WCAG AA (Dutch government requirement)
• Authorization: RBAC with organization-level multi-tenancy
• Audit trail: Full immutable change history on all objects
• Localization: English and Dutch

Related Apps

• OpenCatalogi — Publication and catalog management (uses OpenRegister as data layer)
• Procest — Case and process management (uses OpenRegister as data layer)
• Pipelinq — CRM with lead pipelines (uses OpenRegister as data layer)
• Software Catalogus — GEMMA software catalog (uses OpenRegister as data layer)
• NL Design — Design token theming for government standards
• DocuDesk — Document generation

License

EUPL-1.2 — see LICENSE for details.

Authors

Built by Conduction — open-source software for Dutch government and public sector organizations.