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Subscribe to a federated catalogue

Federation is the open in OpenCatalogi — every instance can expose its catalogues to other instances, and any instance can subscribe to read those catalogues alongside its own. Subscriptions are read-only: the source instance stays the source of truth.

Goal​

By the end you will have subscribed to one remote catalogue, confirmed that its items appear in your Search and in your Catalogi list, and read one of its publication detail pages.

Prerequisites​

  • The federation directory loaded (/apps/opencatalogi/directory). On a default install this lists the Conduction-curated peers; an admin can add private peers (see Manage federation sources).
  • Network reach from your Nextcloud server to the remote OpenCatalogi instance — federation is HTTP, so any firewall block on outbound 443 breaks it.

Steps​

  1. Open Directory in the navigation. The view lists every known peer with its name, URL, number of catalogues, last seen timestamp, and a status badge (online / unreachable). Use the search box at the top to find a specific peer.

    Directory of federation peers

  2. Click a peer to open its detail page. The page lists every catalogue the peer exposes — title, summary, item count, organisation. Each one has a Subscribe button.

    Peer detail with subscribe button

  3. Click Subscribe on one catalogue. A dialog confirms the source URL and asks whether to sync immediately or schedule the first sync. Pick Sync now for a first run — the dialog progresses through Connecting → Fetching → Indexing → Done and reports the item count.

    Subscribe sync dialog

  4. Back in your local Catalogi list, the subscribed catalogue shows up alongside your local ones — it carries a federated badge to mark the difference, and the source peer is shown in the metadata header.

    Catalogi list with subscribed catalogue

  5. Open the subscribed catalogue and click any publication. The detail page renders the same as a local item — the typed properties, the attached files, the related items — but read-only. The audit tab attributes the changes to the source peer rather than to a local user.

    Federated item detail, read-only

Verification​

The subscribed catalogue shows up in your Catalogi list with a federated badge, its publications appear in your Search results, opening an item renders the full detail page in read-only mode, and the federation-source detail page shows a last sync timestamp.

Common issues​

SymptomFix
Subscribe dialog hangs on ConnectingThe remote URL is unreachable — curl it from your Nextcloud server. TLS cert errors are the most common cause; install the CA chain or set the source to Skip TLS verification (only on trusted networks).
Sync reports Done but no items appearThe remote catalogue is empty, or the schema versions don't match and every item failed validation. Switch on Detailed sync log on the federation source and re-run.
Subscribed items disappear after a weekThe subscription has a TTL set on the admin side — see Manage federation sources.

Reference​