web version

[avelino]

I like and prefer desktop software (installed on the os), but sometimes accessing it from the web speeds up the editing of a note

[astoilkov]

Because Nota stores files on the file system accessing them through a web app is complicated. How do you imagine opening your local notes through a web version?

[avelino]

my notes are in google drive (synced to my file system), is cloud sync support a real path for you?

[astoilkov]

It's possible but it will be hard. Thanks for the idea.

[avelino]

if it is not a real feature for the application close the issue

[astoilkov]

I will leave the issue open so others can join the conversation. This way we will also see if there is a demand for this.

[borekb]

Hi, a few ideas around this:

• Web platform will be getting File System Access API so it's possible that Nota could work from the browser in the near future.

• Another way to work is to have a Google Drive connector (and others) – this is probably more limited as it is per-file instead of having a concept of a "workspace" but it would still be useful to me – sometimes, I want to edit a single MD file and don't need the entire workspace.

• Another option is that Nota would be rendered on a page like nota.md/try, there would be no persistence to begin with (it can be added in the future similarly to how e.g. TypeScript or Prettier playgrounds do it, or even better, how Excalidraw does it). The use case for this is that I have a URL which I can open and it gives me a much better Markdown editing experience than, say, a GitHub issue textarea. (This could also be a possible channel to get new users 😉.)

[astoilkov]

Nice. I am wondering when a web version is useful.

• Is it when you are on mobile?
• It's possible that you are on a desktop, don't have the app, but have access to the web. Isn't that an edge case?
• Does a web editor have an advantage over the desktop version?
• Isn't a web extension that brings the Nota editor (or similar experience) for every textarea (or at least on GitHub) a better solution?

I am asking because this is a hard feature and we should be sure it creates enough value.

[borekb]

The web version is "nice to have" for me and I'm certainly happy enough with the desktop version only. Just wanted to share some technical ideas around this.

To your points:

1+2: I hate editing documents on mobile 😄. For me, it would still be on a desktop computer, for example, when I'm on our home laptop which is Windows, and even if Nota supported Windows, I only occasionally need to do "work" there so opening a web URL would be more convenient for me.

3: Well, if you did some sort of persistence, I could share links like nota.md/edit/x690wk3kjwrekj and that would be sort of a unique feature of the web version (and a nice promo for you, possibly).

4: I guess if you made Nota work on the web (which I assume is mostly dealing with some "native" code like spell checker and various desktop-only UI patterns), for example, if you extracted the core editor into its own web component (similarly to how VSCode is a complex product but the underlying Monaco editor can be used in isolation), then I think it should be quite "easy" to use this "Nota Editor" in various contexts, from GitHub / GitLab textareas via a Chrome extension, to nota.md/try.

[astoilkov]

1+2: Got it.

3: Yes, this is true. This is similar to what some other products are doing — so it probably is a good idea.

4: Yeah. We are aiming for that. Currently, the editor is isolated but there is more work in refactoring in order to make the transition easy.

Thanks!