Remove dependency from Imagick extension

[sbe-arg]

Is your feature request related to a problem? Please describe.

nextcloud-snap does not support imagick hence we get filed with logs

no app in context
Exception
Class "Imagick" not found in file '/var/snap/nextcloud/50464/nextcloud/extra-apps/libresign/lib/Service/SignatureBackgroundService.php' line 68

Describe the solution you'd like

Ignore signature logo/images if imagick is not available

Maybe we can use jmagick like done with the other j* for pdf management

Describe alternatives you've considered

No response

Additional context

No response

[sbe-arg]

@vitormattos anyway to make it work wih jmagick similar to the jsignpdf within the jvm? because imagick is required for the signing but imagick is not included in snap and cannot be added at the moment.

It works if we sign the document without adding the signature

It fails if we add a signature.

[pachulo]

Out of curiosity: would if be feasible to leverage an external imaginary server, just like it can be done for generating image previews, instead of using Imagick+imagemagick ?

[henmohr]

AFAIK compiling a imaginary server only for libresign would be a good and independent way to achieve this.

[vitormattos]

@vitormattos anyway to make it work wih jmagick similar to the jsignpdf within the jvm? because imagick is required for the signing but imagick is not included in snap and cannot be added at the moment.

JMagick is a wrapper around ImageMagick, but on the backend side, replacing everything currently implemented with a different library wouldn’t be straightforward.

Out of curiosity: would if be feasible to leverage an external imaginary server, just like it can be done for generating image previews, instead of using Imagick+imagemagick ?

Imagick is used in LibreSign also for other reasons, not just for scaling the signature stamp background. It’s also used when the stamp layout includes a background image and the signature image must be merged with it.

[vitormattos]

I created a PR adding a condition to check if Imagick extension isn't loaded and return a best message.

[sbe-arg]

Thanks @vitormattos

[sbe-arg]

can we add the same to msg propose jmagick to be loaded like the other Jlibs?

[vitormattos]

That would not be a simple change to make, even though JMagick might look like a drop-in replacement for Imagick. Despite being a wrapper for the same underlying library (ImageMagick), the project itself appears inactive — the last commits are over a year old, it has few contributors, and there’s no clear documentation. Introducing it would likely become a legacy dependency within LibreSign and would see little practical use.

The Java components currently in LibreSign (such as JSignPDF and pdftk-java) exist only because JSignPDF already depends on the JVM, and we bundle a standalone JVM that doesn’t require installation. Using pdftk-java simplified the setup since it mirrors the C++ version and is also used by some Linux distributions. That’s a very limited and controlled use of Java in the LibreSign stack, we don’t have other Java-based components.

Imagick, on the other hand, is used for more complex image operations, not just resizing images, but also composing the signature image with a background layout, among other steps. Replacing that part would require a substantial rewrite.

We could eventually explore alternatives like Imaginary or even using the GD PHP extension, but both would still require system-level installation or a major refactor of certain parts of the code.

That’s why, in your scenario, it might be simpler and more maintainable to move away from Snap toward a Docker-based setup, or a standard PHP installation with the necessary extensions.

If you prefer, with enterprise support, our team can assist yours with this migration, or alternatively, we can provide a Nextcloud instance in a SaaS model, so you can use LibreSign without setup or maintenance concerns.