V4 of ownCloud Community Edition

ownCloud, the open source file sync and share project, released version 4 of its community edition adding innovations and enhancements that make the popular project even more flexible, secure and innovative.

ownCloud 4 – built through active community support – adds features like file versioning, – which actively saves files, allowing users to ‘rollback’ to previous versions – and a new API – giving developers a stable and supported way to develop applications on top of ownCloud capabilities.

The latest version, updated from ownCloud 3 released January 30, also enables users to view Open Document Format (ODF used by LibreOffice, Apache OpenOffice and others) files – quickly and easily without having to download them – something only ownCloud offers.

In addition, ownCloud 4 includes an ‘experimental’ feature for mounting of external file systems – including Dropbox, FTP and Google Drive as well as other popular consumer applications – enabling users to have all their file sync and share tools in a single ownCloud interface.

"Version 3 represented a great technology leap forward. As our community continues to grow, Version 4 has benefited greatly, and the result is the most innovative and flexible sync and share platform to date," said Frank Karlitschek, founder of ownCloud. "The latest ownCloud offers features businesses and service providers have been asking for, and adds new features and applications that meet the needs of the community and will greatly enhance our upcoming commercial editions."

With more than 450,000 users, ownCloud offers the ease-of-use of Dropbox with more flexibility and security. Users can run their own file sync and share services on their own hardware and storage, use popular public hosting and storage offerings, or both.

Other improvements

• Drag and Drop File Uploading – Enables end users to upload a file from a browser without installing a client. Open a browser, log in and then drag from the desktop into the ownCloud window.
• Shared Calendars and Calendar categories – Users can sync their own calendar, but also share their calendar with others, enabling them to see and schedule appointments while looking at the user’s schedule.
• File Encryption – new server side encryption increases file security while at rest – not even server admins can look at these encrypted files while they reside on the server.

ownCloud 4 also adds a to-do syncing plug-in, improved contacts and groups, improved file sharing, enhanced the photo gallery, improved system performance, easier installation of third party plug-ins and more.