Image Embedding and Encrypted Attachments

MistMachine commented 7 years ago

Editor's note: This issue was originally posted to address a workaround to functionality that is no longer supported. The issue then spurred a discussion around the feasibility of encrypted attachments in Standard Notes.

October 2018 Update: FileSafe is now available, and allows encrypted attachments. (No inline image support yet though.)

Original Issue

Sooo.... I am not sure if there are any plans to improve implementation of embedding images but I figured a not so simple work around with the Markdown Editors that could be implemeneted as an extension or integrated into the file attacher extension. 1) Attach the the desired image to the documents with the file attacher extension 2) From the action bar, drop down to Manage Attachements and copy the link of the opened page 3) From this link you need to replace some parts of the link to navigate to your attached image https://standardnotes.org/ext/file_attacher/b14e81ca-fa45-4a9e-abda-f9dfe567ab78/files?key=*******************your_personal_encryption_key********************&item_uuid=***********specific_document*********** to https://standardnotes.org/ext/file_attacher/b14e81ca-fa45-4a9e-abda-f9dfe567ab78/download?key=*******************your_personal_encryption_key********************&file_path=/file_attacher/***********specific_document***********/name_of_image.png (I figured this out by using action to download the file I attached to the document and quickly copying the link from the tab that it opens in my Chrome Browser, so that method also works) Then input this link to the desired format for embedding images The resulting code will look like < img src = "https://standardnotes.org/ext/file_attacher/b14e81ca-fa45-4a9e-abda-f9dfe567ab78/download?key=*******************your_personal_encryption_key********************&file_path=/file_attacher/***********specific_document***********/name_of_image.png"> Anyways, I am posting this hoping to see this tedious work around that already utilizes existing features to embed your own images to your documents. I would try to send a push myself but I am not very experience at making and designing software Loving this product by the way. So glad I bought a sub.

moughxyz commented 6 years ago

Components like FileSafe in general are not present on mobile, but this is something we hope to get to in the near future.

jdotjdot commented 6 years ago

Would it be possible to build/fork a Markdown editor that makes image attachments appear to be inline through some indirection?

What I'm imagining is a special Markdown image reference to an encrypted FileSafe image—this could either use a special URI (![Cool Image](filesafe://path-to-my-image.png)) or be granted some special syntax in a Markdown extension. The editor, when displaying the note, would fetch the attachment from FileSafe, decrypt it, and then temporarily base64-inline it in the rendered version of the Markdown. The base64 inline would not be saved with the raw text of the note, hopefully avoiding the note size bloat referenced above. The primary reason to inline rather than just save the file locally and display with a local file reference is to handle concerns about the security of the image cache.

I've been trying to think of ways to solve this issue, because for me (and it seems others), image inlining is the top reason why I haven't been able to migrate to Standard Notes. Arbitrary file/image attachments aren't enough; I do need inlines.

moughxyz commented 6 years ago

Hmm..interesting idea. I think that might be possible, but would have to explore it more. What's the use case for inlining, in your opinion? I don't want to give the impression that these articles would be publishable to anywhere, because the displayed image is private and only exists in the current context. Though I suppose we can probably call that out so there's no confusion. But what kind of notes would you compose that would require inline images for private use?

jdotjdot commented 6 years ago

Notes, journal entries—I'll often take small screenshots of things I want to remember or keep an image of, insert them into the note inline, and then write commentary about them.

Is Standard Notes just not the right tool for my use case? Should I use Joplin or Crypt.ee instead?

r3dshell commented 6 years ago

Screenshots inline are a must have. Honestly it is the only feature keeping me back from using SN fully.

jdotjdot commented 6 years ago

Frankly, I'd rather have the images inlined and saved to the note, even if it balloons the note sizes. If it was a big issue for the shared service, I'd run my own SN server--or, maybe there's a way to have all notes backed by storage like S3 or Dropbox, like FileSafe offers.

technicalguy commented 6 years ago

@jdotjdot this was suggested above: https://github.com/standardnotes/forum/issues/96#issuecomment-409115541

ajvsol commented 5 years ago

For balancing image embedding UX with FileSafe's security I think this could be achieved with a similar UX to what I've seen done in another app (video).

It uses a small button with an icon for the filetype and text for the filename and on hover or mouse click it shows the image in a preview box.

The attachment itself is formatted as a simple embedded image in Markdown e.g. ![caption](http://i.imgur.com/GMfCpZB.png), but for FileSafe it could be something like ![caption](../attachments/GMfCpZB.png)

Having the inline attachment button is in itself is a great upgrade and one step closer to image embedding. This can then be incrementally extended in the future to have preview extensions which display those attachments on mouse click, whether it be images, PDFs or whatever.

hilsonp commented 5 years ago

I would really be your next Extended supporter but screenshot insertion inline (on all platforms) is the minimal requirement. Seeing my use for technical notes, brainstorming notes, documentation, words only are no more enough. I was soo happy to find a platform that allowed so many things (publishing as blog included) until I had to face the fact that I can't make the move without easy image support.

Sad, I'll have to stick to OneNote for now... and I hate it, really.

moughxyz commented 5 years ago

The Bold Editor supports image insertion inline. This was released a few weeks ago.

dreamflasher commented 5 years ago

I love the speed in which you are developing @mobitar and that you are so close to the community/customers! Sounds like we can close this ticket‽ :)

jdotjdot commented 5 years ago

Strongly recommend highlighting this somewhere! I am a long-time user who has felt this pain and I had no idea it was released

On Fri, Jun 14, 2019 at 10:29 Marcel Ackermann notifications@github.com wrote:

I love the speed in which you are developing @mobitar https://github.com/mobitar and that you are so close to the community/customers! Sounds like we can close this ticket‽ :)

— You are receiving this because you were mentioned. Reply to this email directly, view it on GitHub https://github.com/standardnotes/forum/issues/96?email_source=notifications&email_token=AAKEOQJSZOUU5XOR54IR5GTP2OTNVA5CNFSM4D5IGQCKYY3PNVWWK3TUL52HS4DFVREXG43VMVBW63LNMVXHJKTDN5WW2ZLOORPWSZGODXW6UZI#issuecomment-502131301, or mute the thread https://github.com/notifications/unsubscribe-auth/AAKEOQINATJYGD6W4NVEDYDP2OTNVANCNFSM4D5IGQCA .

hilsonp commented 5 years ago

Hello.

Thank you for getting back to us.

This is a good step in the right direction. No brainer publication (Listed.to) is a big part of the reason I would migrate all my notes to StandardNotes.

The publication is not having the images (https://listed.to/V1EVdZpoAn). Will you address this ?

I had a look at my Filesafe on Google Drive. The inline images are rather small json files. This let me wish you may embed those json within the note itself. You could do this for small inline images and use the Filesafe for larger images or files.

You would address the need of probably a vast majority of your users that only want to paste screenshots or small images to illustrate their notes/articles. This would also let us view the images when offline (which is not the case with the Filesafe stored on another storage).

I really don't care about having yet another storage app.

I want a Notes app that:

Respects my data - SN does it.
Is clean and simple - SN does it.
Allows me to paste inline screenshots (cropped) and small images to enrich my articles/documents - SN somehow allow this to some extent.
Is based on tags, with possibility of nested tags - SN allows this.
Publish articles to a blog - SN does this.
Publish articles privately - SN does this.
Features Markdown editors - SN does this.
Is multi-platform - SN does it.
...

What SN currently misses:

Export of the images when publishing to listed.to.
Offline access to images (not asking this for attachements or big images).
Inline images in other editors (Markdown ones).

The export of the images being the most important one.

Thank you,

Pierre

moughxyz commented 5 years ago

Appreciate the feedback @zorglups!

CharlesCage commented 5 years ago

I get the feeling that I'm missing something about inserting FileSafe images into notes. I see the copy, but when I insert the text I don't see any way to easily get back to the image.

moughxyz commented 5 years ago

You can only paste the insertion link into the Bold Editor. Other editors do not support FileSafe previews inline.

nblumoe commented 5 years ago

Thanks for the great work on Standard Notes and making it Open Source.

@mobitar do you have any plans to add features that @zorglups mentioned above (https://github.com/standardnotes/forum/issues/96#issuecomment-502310021)?

moughxyz commented 5 years ago

@nblumoe nothing concrete yet, but definitely want to head in this direction.

nblumoe commented 5 years ago

@nblumoe nothing concrete yet, but definitely want to head in this direction.

Having images published to Listed would be amazing and my personal priority from that list. Looking forward to it, keep up the great work on Standard Notes! Thanks! 🙏

effieeee commented 2 years ago

Tracking further here: https://github.com/standardnotes/forum/issues/1762

standardnotes / forum

Image Embedding and Encrypted Attachments #96