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Open OpenCatalogi for the first time

A first look at OpenCatalogi — where the app lives, what the navigation gives you, and how to tell it is wired up to OpenRegister and the federated network.

Goal​

By the end you will have opened the Catalogi app, recognised the dashboard and the left-hand navigation, and confirmed that the Catalogi and Search views load.

Prerequisites​

  • A Nextcloud account on an instance where the OpenCatalogi app is installed and enabled.
  • The OpenRegister app installed and enabled — OpenCatalogi stores its objects (catalogues, publications, themes, organisations) in registers, so it is a hard dependency. The app installer enables OpenRegister for you on first install.

Steps​

  1. Open the Nextcloud app menu in the top bar and pick Catalogi. You land on the OpenCatalogi dashboard.

    OpenCatalogi dashboard

  2. The dashboard shows the high-level counters — total catalogues, publications, organisations, themes — and a feed of recent activity. On a fresh install the counters read 0; they update as you (or a federation source) add items.

    Dashboard counters

  3. Open the left-hand navigation. Directly below Dashboard you find one entry for every catalogue you have access to, each under the catalogue's own title; when there are no catalogues yet, there are no such entries. Clicking one opens the publications page for that catalogue, where Add Publication creates a new one, and keeps the entry highlighted while you work there. Under the heading Publications, that page lists everything in the registers and schemas configured on the catalogue in one list, newest first, such as its publications and publication rules. A publication opens on its detail page; an item of another schema opens in the form for that schema. The list follows along when a catalogue is created, renamed or deleted, without reloading the page. Below the catalogues sit Search, Catalogi (managing the catalogues themselves) and Directory (federation peers). Documentation, the store, reports and the roadmap are pinned to the bottom of the navigation, and the gear opens the settings.

    OpenCatalogi navigation

  4. Click Catalogi. The list opens with a Cards / Table toggle and an Add Catalogue button. Existing catalogues show as cards with title, summary, item count, visibility badge and last-updated time. An empty install shows No catalogi found — expected until someone creates the first one (or subscribes to a federated peer).

    Catalogi list

Verification​

You are set up correctly when: the OpenCatalogi dashboard renders without an error banner, the left navigation lists the entries above, and clicking through to Catalogi shows either rows or a clean No catalogi found state — not a load error.

Common issues​

SymptomFix
"OpenRegister is not installed or enabled" bannerEnable OpenRegister (occ app:enable openregister) and reload Catalogi.
Dashboard loads but every counter shows 0Expected on a fresh install — move on to Browse a catalogue.
Catalogi is missing from the app menuThe app is not enabled for your account — ask an administrator to enable it (and check it is not restricted to a group you are not in).

Reference​