The one thing I believe is missing from the Nextcloud ecosystem is a true replacement for Evernote. I say ‘true replacement’ because there are many md editors which claim to be Evernote replacements (with that logic, a pen and paper are replacements as well).
Such a system would need to have the following functionalities:
Rich Text editing (aka WYSIWYG)
Ability to attach files (anything) to notes
Ability to have inline images including drap and drop
Ability to import existing EN notes
A web clipper browser extension allowing:
Full Page Clipping
Clip Selected Text
Image Clipping
Note indexing for search
For me, Evernote is an invaluable tool for research. It’s crazy that there’s no FOSS replacement for it (other than MD editors).
Did you try this? https://github.com/brantje/nextnote
(Not tried it myself so far, but was kind of hoping it would show up in the official app repository soon)
Yeah, I tried it when it was Ownote. It was buggy beyond belief at the time and totally not suitable for 1000’s of notes.
It’s also missing web-clipping which is an essential element.
EDIT: Just installed it on NC 13. It still would not be suitable for a large volume of notes (and web clippings) especially since it doesn’t seem to be tied to the standard search. In terms of a rich text editor, it’s good. It’s just not ready for a production environment. I’m not looking for a simple note taking app (Evernote is much more than that) but if I were, I might consider it.
EDIT 2: If anyone would be interested in creating an Evernote clone for Nextcloud, I could help you with functional design (I’ve been looking for a FOSS replacement for years now and have tons of notes on the topic).
I would be happy to contribute in terms of design but I can’t code to save my life. If the developers of Nextnote would be interested in really creating an Evernote replacement then, heck yeah, I would be onboard. The project doesn’t seem to be very active though.
IMHO, this is something that Nextcloud would have to get behind. There are numerous use cases for an Evernote replacement in NC. For example one way to frame it is to market it as a secure research application for investigative journalists.
Yeah, I’m just thinking that we already have many different note apps and what would be possible if all the great developers would work together. But sometimes it’s also good to have a variety of different solutions/approaches, instead of stick with an already sort of fixed candidate, that might from it’s core was not meant to fulfil all the features everyone brings together.
I’m so far just learning to create bash scripts and far away from being able to create/significantly contribute to Nextcloud/PHP apps.
Hey, I’ve also been looking for a proper Evernote replacement over the last three years.
Closest actual system to Evernote I’ve used is Zim Wiki, which includes most all features you want besides the web clipper. Zim is extremely well designed + makes it easy to link files of any size. Supposedly you can host it via PicoCMS application for Nextcloud, but I’m still testing it. Zim even includes it’s own little html server for hosting content… it is amazing, and in some ways kicks the pants off Evernote. No built-in web clipper that I’m aware of.
Joplin does the best job of exactly rendering your many thousands of exported Evernote files, but it is still missing the ability to easily export attachments, location data, and other features. For now you have to browse to the resources directory and search for the associated file id number in order to export an attachment such as a picture… no download button, etc.
WebtoPDF is an open source add-on that will convert web pages to PDF. I’ve heard good things about it as a stand-alone tool. Looks like it is also not compatible with Firefox Quantum.
Web Scrapbook is the current current successor to the old open source Scrapbook X, and also designed to transform websites into HTML files.
Web to SE is the best web clipper I can find for Firefox Quantum, saving web pages as “enhanced html”
I would like to add my opinion.
It would to be great if there is a proper note app.
I’m currently using a Synology NAS what comes with not super great but still not too bad note app. Frankly, I want to switch to an self build server as I’m sick and tired of waiting for Synology’s adoption of famous server apps besided the fact that there still a plenty missing.
The main reason hindering me doing it that there isn’t a proper replacement for Synology’s Note Station as I have hundreds of notes.
Running both parallel isn’t a real option.
Simplenote might be the nicest of them regarding the clean interface, and while the server is closed, the API seems to be well documented and for example implemented in this 3rd party server:
(too bad it is Python based, otherwise NC integration was easier…)
W.r.t. Zim Wiki (which I don’t know at all, just following the links you provided), there seems to be a subproject working on “A Firefox extension that allows a user to take snippets of web pages and place them into Zim.” https://launchpad.net/zimcapture/ (might be outdated since newest version is from 2012, but I just wanted to point out).
Rich Text editing is one thing. . we would also need to have a proper web clipping tool (not just something that takes screenshots - those are a dime a dozen).
@aproposnix Take a look at the excellent web clipping tool for Tagspaces: based on Electron, fully open source, should be usable independently with some mild tweaking as mentioned here, and currently available for latest Chrome / Firefox browsers. I’m submitting requests for it to be usable with Nextcloud so we could web clip Bookmarks and Notes from the same tool.
I’ve used it already. I have many issues with it including:
Clipping is very limited - you are essentially just downloading the webpage instead of actually clipping it. I can do the exact same thing by clicking “save as” in the browser
Unless you clip a screenshot, no images are clipped
Doesn’t keep formatting - only the text
Can’t clip tables
Clips should be automatically sent to the application- not a download
Cannot attach files to a note (a link to a file is not the same)
Way too many clicks required to do simple things
This application is very hard to mange when you have a 1000+ notes (and that’s after grooming) - esp., searching
No way to share files (esp., via email)
No way to export files into popular formats like PDF
Create beautiful documents or quickly write down notes.
Manage complex projects or set up simple task lists.
Collect and organize all your files and records.
Sync between your iPad, iPhone, Mac and PC.
.