I use Joplin and I do like it very much, but I would like to be able to at least view (not edit) the notes from web browser… Which is not supported.
Are there good alternatives that are:
- fully open source
- have android client
- have web client or viewer
- can be synched VOA WebDAV or native method
I can also settle for a Joplin web viewer of sorts!
UPDATE: i opened up a can of worms. I would have never tought there would be so many tools for this task, and so many different shades of how it can be done. Even excluding ALL the non-truly-FOSS solutions out there, there are still tons of tools with good points and bad points. Of course, NONE fits my bill so i will spin mine… Joking, i have no time for that.
Using joplib-webview feels too much. Spinning containers just for that meh. Will try tough. The joplin .md files are only “sync” files, from which yo ucan probably extract the notes. But that would be not the best idea. Maybe some kind of link to Joplin terminal would be the way forward. I will see.
I will stay on Joplin, it’s the closest i could find to what i need, the only lacking is a web viewer, which i can live without for the time being after all.
Thank you all, and to anybody still chiming in!
Need to check this out. Seems interesting …
It’s perhaps a bit of a different beast, but you may give a quick look at https://silverbullet.md.
This looks neat.
I want to try this…
I just did yesterday and I think it nails all my needs. Also the author seems to be nice and helpful
Gonna second Silverbullet. I’m a current logseq user, but I’m really liking the direction of this. Mainly because of the ease of accessing from multiple devices such as desktop, laptop, and mobile. I’m currently opening my logseq graph in sb on my android phone. Once I switch over fully, I won’t have to worry about syncing my logseq graph.
Does silverbullet compare to obsidian? Can you use both? I like obsidians mapping graphical things but i haven’t looked at them extensively yet…
Huh, there’s a lot of us calling software “beasts” in this thread.
I kind of get it. Note apps are normally horribly cumbersome data serialization ecosystems you have to invest a lot of time into before you really feel like its doing anything more than a standard text editor could
I meant beast in the figurative sense. It’s not a desktop app, which perhaps doesn’t make that much of a difference. I wrote it so I think I’m entitled to call my own software a beast 😂
Wow that’s an very interesting beast! That moment when you realize that the website is the tool itself really is something
Logseq is great. It’s still in early development. Only sync is not so great. I use Git and wrote two scripts (pull/push) for Android which I start manually. The desktop application is very powerful and extensible. The app only supports the most common features without any plugin support.
It’s also pretty great if you’re able to code.
It’s a very different kind of beast, but I’m very much enjoying it so far. Linking things is definitely Joplin’s weak point whereas this is a core strength for logseq.
I often used bullet points in my Joplin notes, so having that as the default works for me too. However, since Op has said they want plain text notes Obsidian seems like a better fit (although logseq does save pages as text it’s not what it feels like in use).
I see what you mean. Basically synch on your own…
I also use Logseq and I use SyncThing to sync between devices. I just started a month ago, so I can’t say for sure, but so far it has been pretty great.
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Good point, been using it for years, but trying to get rid of NextCloud that, while being an amazing tool, is overkill for my use case.
Migrated to a WebDAV server, Card/CalDAV server and Joplin. So far so good, but missing the ease to access notes from web too for a quick glance when on a PC (for example, to copy&paste some stuff) without installing the desktop app (work PC or friend’s PC).
No offense but if you’re using at least three things nextcloud provides I’m not so sure it’s overkill.
Good observation… Let’s say NextCloud is a heavyweight and after many years its time to explore alternatives?
Maybe. I found that using redis, the php cache, and disabling unused apps (like photos) sped it up. Personally it just provides a lot to me and is only one thing to manage.
Great for my use case. Maybe not anymore for yours but food for thought. Good luck on whatever you choose. Lot of good programs recommended here.
Notesnook would fit your bill here pretty well.
Not self hosted. Requires email and the use of their servers to sync.
It needs to be self hosted - no docker containers that I can find.
https://github.com/streetwriters/notesnook-sync-server
Based on this, it’s not yet available. I use Joplin server for my stuff and have been wanting to move away to a web based platform as I tend to reinstall my OS every few months and like to be able to dial in my self hosted instance and reference for what I need.
This looks… Overwhelming… O my… I want back to having only ONE alternative please!!!
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O need plain text notes. I want them synched on my self hosted server I want no external dependency to login/sync services which are not selfhostable. I need them on android, web (even read-only is OK) and optionally PC.
i went through a bunch of these and eventually settled on trilium
This. Save yourself some time and just go with Trillium. It does not have a native mobile app yet, but when it does, there’ll be nothing to compare! :P
i sort of made the native app myself using an android app called hermit that is meant for that kind of thing.
You can use a WebDAV server to sync your notes in Joplin, and if your WebDAV server has a web interface, you can view your notes in a browser.
May I suggest Nephele as a good WebDAV server you can use.
Available for Docker as well.
Nephele looks promising! But how to view Joplin notes from browser? They don’t seems readable directly from folders but somehow messed up
They’re markdown files, so you can view them in the browser.
Mmm, not really? This is what i get by opening a “d8c18c2732b5476c932be62a292750f8.md” file from my Joplin storage folder:
id: d8c18c2732b5476c932be62a292750f8 parent_id: 661a69f5c0df4c7fb1a2bf0657f0e198 item_type: 1 item_id: e66b22624674439582bfd11582e0e1db item_updated_time: 1705987325033 title_diff: “[]” body_diff: “[{"diffs":[[0,"/Spaces\\n"],[1,"\\nNotesnook.com\\n"]],"start1":119,"start2":119,"length1":8,"length2":23}]” metadata_diff: {“new”:{},“deleted”:[]} encryption_cipher_text: encryption_applied: 0 updated_time: 2024-01-23T05:22:05.194Z created_time: 2024-01-23T05:22:05.194Z type_: 13
not really human readable to me (yes, readable, but…)
I didn’t realize Joplin saves in such an odd format. The filename is .md, but the format is something proprietary.
What’s weird is a few of my notes don’t look like that. They look like normal Markdown. But most look just like yours.
Nephele looks great. After some fiddling i couldn’t make it work with sub-paths (/path/path) so i will keep using Apache as WebDAV server, which fits my bill so far. Unfortunately Joplin notes are NOT plain text (not even .md) as far as i can see, so that is not an option.
I’m stuck on Joplin personally, but have you taken a look at Standard Notes? I think it checks all your boxes.
for simple note taking, memos https://github.com/usememos/memos is excellent
i should add there’s an android app you can use with it as well: MoeMemos
I love Memos and MoeMemos, but whenever my phone lose internet I cant open my notes. That made me move to Obsidin and Syncthing (for now)
oh that’s a shame, my phone is almost never offline so ive never had that problem 😅
This combo looks promising!
I suppose Notesnook and StandardNotes come closest to these requirements. Also interesting: AnyType.
Maybe Obsidian with Git sync? I have Gitea hosted locally and my obsidian sync across to that.
I do use Obsidian and you can use what you want to sync between devices by activating plugins. I’ve used many différent notetaking app and Obsidian make my day! https://obsidian.md
I moved from Joplin to Obsidian and am very happy with the move, but it’s not FOSS
Have you checked out AnyType?
Anytype is amazing, but when they give you these super long passkeys to decrpyt? That makes having to either memorize the something like 12 short words, and keep them in the exact order they tell you, you sort of have to put them in a notebook (ironically), password manager or whatever you choose to store it.
