[HN Gopher] Joplin - an open source note taking and to-do applic...
___________________________________________________________________
Joplin - an open source note taking and to-do application with
synchronization
Author : josefslerka
Score : 57 points
Date : 2021-06-15 20:14 UTC (2 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (joplinapp.org)
(TXT) w3m dump (joplinapp.org)
| threatofrain wrote:
| Joplin has been around for awhile in this space; has anything new
| happened?
| dewey wrote:
| Looks like a v2 recently went into "pre-release":
| https://joplinapp.org/changelog/
| herdst wrote:
| I used it for quite some time, but a couple of things have made
| me stop using it as of late.
|
| Firstly, its just not very nice to look at, especially compared
| to something like Notion. I want something thats a joy to work
| in.
|
| Secondly, the mobile experience kinda sucks. I used to use it to
| maintain a list of when i've taken my medication. Upon opening
| the app, i first have to wait to make sure my notes are fully
| synced from anything I changed on my laptop. Then once ive
| updated the note, I have to wait for the notes to be synced
| before i close it. If you close the app before syncing completes,
| it wont work.
|
| Also all sorts of UX issues in the app, primary one I can think
| of is the keyboard going over the top of the text you are trying
| to write.
|
| In general, a lot of the time I dont really have the need to have
| a see both a markdown-rendered window, and the text window. I end
| up closing the markdown-render window so I have more screen area
| to see what im writing. But then it just doesn't look good?
|
| Im not trying to hate on Joplin, I really want to enjoy it. I
| even wrote a plugin for it. Does anyone have any similar
| thoughts?
| hashhar wrote:
| So many people here are going to be one of today's lucky 10,000
| [1] to learn about the awesomeness that Joplin is.
|
| It's been around for quite a long time, in active development,
| with a nice ecosystem and well-polished featureset and interface.
|
| I've been loving it for the time I've been using it. It even has
| a web clipper.
|
| [1]: https://xkcd.com/1053/
| mixcocam wrote:
| Why do people keep using Dropbox and others for syncm?!
|
| Just use syncthing.
|
| syncthing.org
| bachmeier wrote:
| I have to admit, my experience with Syncthing is not what I'd
| call smooth. It's great when it works, but I didn't find it
| trivial to set up, the sync didn't work all the time, and then
| I was running my own storage/backup system.
|
| I use Joplin with OneDrive and it works great. Setup was
| clicking a couple buttons. My employer provides me with 1 TB of
| storage. The free version gives you 5 GB and OneDrive
| standalone gives you 100 GB for $1.99 a month. I'm just a user
| but I'd encourage anyone to go the OneDrive route with Joplin
| rather than messing with Syncthing.
| barbazoo wrote:
| I use it for simple off-site redundancy.
| lbotos wrote:
| Joplin is great, been using it for a little over a year now.
|
| What's not the best is react native is... complex (rightfully so,
| many layers of abstraction) and it's hard to contribute unless
| you really grok every layer (JS/React/iOS Apps/XCode)
|
| I tried to fix the spinner direction on mobile and trying to test
| was _challenging_. That said, If you are a react native expert,
| and can spare literally 30 min and wanna help feel free to take a
| look: https://github.com/laurent22/joplin/pull/4506
| dang wrote:
| Past related threads:
|
| _Joplin - an open source note taking and to-do application with
| sync_ - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22439485 - Feb 2020
| (36 comments)
|
| _Joplin - a note taking and to-do application with
| synchronization capabilities_ -
| https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21555238 - Nov 2019 (150
| comments)
|
| _Joplin - A note-taking and to-do app with builds for desktop,
| mobile, terminal_ - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15815040
| - Nov 2017 (204 comments)
| amaccuish wrote:
| One day I dream that OneNote will be open source
| JazzXP wrote:
| I've transitioned to Joplin as my every day note taking app.
| Evernote did their dash with me when they limited to 2 devices (I
| was considering paying for it until that point, it showed that
| they're willing to change terms on a whim).
|
| OneNote never resonated with me.
|
| I was just syncing a directory of MD files for a while.
|
| Joplin ended up working well for me, syncing to my own NextCloud
| server. The only thing I wish were different is that it wasn't an
| Electron app using heaps of memory (this is what stopped me
| adopting it earlier).
| gilch wrote:
| How do the UI and features compare to Evernote?
| eMGm4D0zgUAVXc7 wrote:
| I could use the _opposite_ :
|
| A TODO-app which has _no_ synchronization capabilities so I don
| 't need to worry about leakage of private data.
|
| Ideally it would use a very simple plaintext file format for its
| database so it is future proof, e.g. http://todotxt.org/
|
| The TODO.txt format seems very nice but the Android apps listed
| on that site are either not fully developed or unmaintained, and
| one even looks like it's not open source.
|
| Simpletask seems like the most advanced implementation, but it
| got kicked out of Google Play for the usual Google shenanigans,
| so the author says on a sticky GitHub issue that he has lost
| motivation: https://github.com/mpcjanssen/simpletask-
| android/issues/1110
| dankco wrote:
| You might be interested in a project I created for exactly the
| use case you describe - simple, text-based notes/todos managed
| via a CLI: https://github.com/dkaslovsky/textnote
|
| The project received some attention on the front page of HN a
| few months ago: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26123436
|
| Because all notes are plaintext and stored in a single
| directory, it is easy to use standard tooling (such as grep) to
| extend the functionality. If cloud synchronization is a must-
| have, simply sync the directory to your provider of choice.
| dude01 wrote:
| I've been using https://github.com/vimoutliner/vimoutliner for
| about a decade, everywhere I work. Just text files with simple
| Ascii checkboxes.
| InitialLastName wrote:
| AIUI Joplin effectively does that; its synchronization
| abilities boil down to "Integrate with file synchronization
| tools that don't natively create sync folders on your phone so
| you don't have to pay for a pro Dropbox account".
|
| I just set up a test sync, and the files in my Dropbox
| Apps/Joplin folder are just Markdown and JSON (there appear to
| be some dotfiles, but I'll bet they just cache the database
| graph etc).
| eMGm4D0zgUAVXc7 wrote:
| Well thanks, but on Android it demands "full network access",
| so it does want to do something on the internet :|
| InitialLastName wrote:
| I suppose it's possible they want to use the sync service's
| API rather than the app? Web stuff is really the wrong end
| of the stack for me, so not sure what the "right" decision
| there would be.
| eMGm4D0zgUAVXc7 wrote:
| See my reply to jszymborski for my problem with that.
| frankish wrote:
| I believe Markor[0] might satisfy your needs of having a
| TODO.txt editor that has no sync capabilities. I have to use in
| combination with Dropsync[1] to sync my notes.
|
| Admittedly, I only use Markor for my plaintext notes and rely
| on Todo.txt[2] for my TODO.txt needs, which is still maintained
| and has syncing builtin.
|
| [0]: https://gsantner.net/project/markor.html
|
| [1]:
| https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.ttxapps.dr...
|
| [2]:
| https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=net.c306.ttsup...
| swiley wrote:
| org mode in emacs is pretty great and there are lots of org
| editor apps for smartphones if you don't want to run full
| emacs.
|
| Personally I sync my org files along with my calendar using git
| and that works well enough for me.
| pitched wrote:
| I've had a lot of trouble finding org editors for my phone.
| Org web like it might be the favourite right now but I don't
| really want to host it myself.
|
| Can I ask what format you use for calendar files too? That's
| another one I have a bit of trouble with! Everything seems to
| want to use the Google APIs for everything.
| bachmeier wrote:
| Use Obsidian or Logseq or Zim Wiki or TiddlyWiki or Zettlr or
| one of the many others.
| jszymborski wrote:
| FWIW, synchronization in Joplin is:
|
| - Optional
|
| - End-to-end encrypted
|
| - Can be self-hosted or restricted to a file-system (like a
| network drive)
| eMGm4D0zgUAVXc7 wrote:
| Thanks.
|
| That is nice but consider a broader point of view please:
|
| If not carefully choosing offline-only software, then almost
| _everything_ demands internet access nowadays. _All_ of those
| things will claim that they handle my data safely. Obviously
| that cannot be true, leaks do still happen.
|
| So from the perspective of someone who has to actually
| install, use and frequently update a _dozen_ of Android apps,
| it is much easier to stick to only using such which do _not_
| want internet access instead of constantly having to read a
| very large amount of changelogs because all software you use
| is hooked up to the internet.
| bhaak wrote:
| > So from the perspective of someone who has to actually
| install, use and frequently update a dozen of Android apps,
| it is much easier to stick to only using such which do not
| want internet access instead of constantly having to read a
| very large amount of changelogs because all software you
| use is hooked up to the internet.
|
| Even offline-only apps might gain online capabilities. You
| need to read the changelogs nevertheless.
|
| In the case of Joplin, AFAIR it is offline first when you
| start it. As it supports various sync options you have to
| configure one before it will start syncing over the net.
|
| I think the risk of Joplin getting a sync option that is
| activated by default is about the same as an offline app
| getting online features.
| corobo wrote:
| Can you not just use a bunch of .txt files in a directory and
| whatever your usual editor of choice is at that point?
| rhodozelia wrote:
| I am a heavy one note user with a group we all sync our notes to
| a network drive abs it works well.
|
| Would this be equivalent but supports iOS and Linux?
| eitland wrote:
| I've used both a fair bit and I think it would be hard to
| replicate the multi user magic of older OneNote versions in any
| program at the moment.
| Thorentis wrote:
| One missing feature that has been requested many times, and
| largely ignored, is linking between pages quickly like in
| Confluence or a wiki. The biggest value in taking notes for me,
| comes from the ability to link multiple notes together freely and
| quickly.
| jf___ wrote:
| that has been addressed in the quicklinks [1] and the backlinks
| [2] plugin, which are an absolute bliss
|
| [1] https://discourse.joplinapp.org/t/quick-links-plugin/14214
|
| [2] https://discourse.joplinapp.org/t/automatic-backlinks-
| with-m...
| bachmeier wrote:
| I just tested Quick Links. It looks okay, but the big thing
| is that you need to be able to create a link to a new page as
| you type, then open the page and start typing. Quick Links
| speeds up the process of linking to an existing page. You can
| already drag a page link from the sidebar onto the page.
| weswpg wrote:
| i have to drag and drop from the note list to link my current
| page to another
| notimetorelax wrote:
| It's a pity OSS doesn't have the resources to vet the names. In
| Russian this name doesn't sound good no matter how you pronounce.
| arthurcolle wrote:
| I guess no Russians listen to Janis Joplin either then.
|
| "You can please some people some of the time. You can't please
| all the people all the time."
___________________________________________________________________
(page generated 2021-06-15 23:01 UTC)