Skip to main content

· 4 min read

Since a few versions Joplin Server includes a way to share notebooks between users and collaborate on them - i.e. any participant can view or modify notes in the shared notebook. It's been present since version 2.x and the feature is getting close to be stable.

How does it work?

When connected to Joplin Server (or the upcoming Joplin Cloud service), a new "Share notebook" menu item is available when right-clicking on a notebook.

Click on it, and it will display a new dialog where you can add any number of recipients. Those recipients also need to be on the same Joplin Server instance. From this dialog you can also remove a recipient or unshare the whole notebook, in which case it will be removed from everybody's note collection, except yours.

Once this is done, the recipient(s) will receive a notification in Joplin the next time they synchronise their data:

Then, finally, once the invitation is accepted, Joplin will download all the shared notebooks and notes. A shared notebook is denoted by the usual Share icon. Now the invited user can read or modify the shared notes, add attachments, etc. and the changes will be visible to everyone with access to the notebook.

What's the availability of the notebook sharing feature?

The notebook sharing feature is available on Joplin Server and Joplin Cloud.

On desktop, you can share notebooks and of course view or modify any notebook that has been shared with you.

On mobile and CLI, you cannot currently share notebooks, but you can view or modify any notebook that has been shared with you.

If I share a notebook with someone, what access do they have?

Currently they have full access to the data, including reading, writing and deleting notebooks or notes. In a future version, access control might be implemented. For example, to only give read-only access to the shared notebook.

What can actually be shared?

All the sub-notebooks, notes and resources within the shared notebook are shared.

Does it work with End-To-End-Encryption?

Yes and no. It is possible to use the share notebook feature even with E2EE enabled, however any shared notebook or note will not be encrypted, otherwise you would have had to give your master key password to the people you share with, which you'd probably not want to do.

In a future version, this might be supported. For example by automatically creating a new master key for the shared notebook. You would then provide the recipients with that master key password.

What can it be used for?

Some ideas:

  • Plan a trip with friends or within a small organisation. For example, the notes could contain the maps, hotel and flight reservations, etc. or any document or note relevant to the trip. And all participants would have access to them.
  • Work on a project with colleagues. Everybody can access various work-related documents, add to them, modify them, etc. That could serve as a knowledge base for a project.
  • Another possible use, which has been requested many times, is to support multiple profiles. You could create a main profile that have access to all notes, and in there create a Work and Personal notebook. Then you would create a separate account for work. You can then share your Work notebook with that other account. That way the work account will only have access to the Work notebooks. You can use this technique in various ways to split your notebooks between multiple accounts and ensure strict separation between datasets.

· One min read

Google has reviewed the project proposals we had submitted and all students have been approved. Congratulation and welcome to our six students - we're looking forward to see your work!

Below is the list of projects along with the student name and mentors. This year we will have a main mentor and a co-mentor for each project and in the list below, the main mentor is listed first:

BibTeX Plugin

Student: Abdallah Ahmed

Mentors: Laurent Cozic, Helmut K. C. Tessarek

Improving Conflict Resolution Process

Student: Ahmed Alwasifey

Mentors: Jack Gruber, Caleb John

Kanban Board Plugin

Student: Mablin

Mentors: Roman Musin, Laurent Cozic

Paste Special

Student: Siddhant Sehgal

Mentors: Helmut K. C. Tessarek, Stefan Müller

Real-Time Collaboration

Student: Akash Konda

Mentors: Stefan Müller, Roman Musin

Template Plugin

Student: Nishant Mittal

Mentors: Jack Gruber, Caleb John

The official Google of Summer Code page has also been updated with the list of projects:

https://summerofcode.withgoogle.com/organizations/6579646541332480/

· 2 min read

Joplin Server had a feature to share a note by link for a few versions now but it was mostly a beta feature. In Joplin Server 2.0, the feature will be officially released and should be stable.

To share a note, you will need the corresponding desktop application v2.0. Then you can right-click on any note and select "Share note..." from the context menu. You can also select multiple notes, and each will have its own share link.

After that a dialog opens showing you the note - from there you just need to click on "Copy shareable link" to create the share link and copy it to the clipboard.

You can then share this link with anyone and they will be able to see the note in their browser:

Note that at the moment sharing a link does not work with End-To-End Encryption. If you share a note, it will always be decrypted, even on the server. This should be addressed in a future version. The URL however is secure - only people you share the URL with will be able to see the note. In other words, it's not possible to guess or discover the URL any other way.

· One min read

Google has announced the project slots for GSoC 2021 and granted us 6 this year. That's a big step up from our first GSoC last year when we got 2!

In the coming weeks we will be reviewing the student applications again and select the 6 candidates as well as mentors. By the way if you might be interested in co-mentoring a project, feel free to let me know (More info in this post).

· 2 min read

A message from PackElend, who's been helping us organise GSoC this year (and last year)

Hi Community,

we are going to apply for the GSoC student slots next week, soon we know what can be done this season.

To put us in a comfortable position it would be appreciated if there would another handful of people who would mentor a project.

Is there anyone interested in doing so?

Here is some information about the role of a mentor:

After student selection​

  • Ensure your student is ready & active. They should have a dev environment, be regularly communicating in the community, and have prepared a project plan together with you.
  • Read the GSoC Mentoring Manual and ask questions if you have them.
  • If the student is not active during the community bonding period, please contact the organization administrators.

During the program​

  • Help your student be successful. Commit to spending a minimum of 4 hours each week answering questions, giving advice, working with your student on blockers.
  • Agree with the students how many times per week they should write a progress report. Ensure that they deliver this report on time each week, and evaluate their progress.
  • You might have adjust goals based on their progress.

· One min read

Been checking the numbers now and then and I see there will soon be more TypeScript than JavaScript code in the repo:

Probably a good part of the JS code is in the CLI app, which hasn't been updated much. Critical parts of the app are now in TypeScript, including the synchronizer, database and encryption service. Joplin Server is also entirely in TypeScript. Even the database rows are now typed thanks to sql-ts.

So anyway TypeScript has been a big win for the project as it made it possible to refactor and modernise many parts of it in a safe way, and make the code future proof and easier to work with! I expect we should get to over 50% over the next few months.

· One min read

Just a quick announcement to let you know that on 3 and 4 April, we will have a stand for Joplin at the Journées du Logiciel Libre in Lyon, France. The JdLL has been taking place in Lyon for 22 years and is a popular open source conference in France. Last year we had a stand too, but of course that was cancelled due to Covid. So this year is a first for Joplin so if you're around, come and say hi!

Also I am looking for anyone who could help look after the stand, even for an hour or two, over these two days. There won't be a lot to do - pretty much just hand over fliers and answer the occasional question, which as Joplin users I'm sure you'll know the answer to. Coffee and/or beers are on me :-) So if you aren't far and would be interested, please let me know!

· 2 min read

We are going to apply again this year for GSoC. If we are selected by Google, this year's theme will be centered around:

  • Joplin plugin system - eg. development of various features that can be done as plugins, and improvement of the plugin system itself.

  • Joplin external applications - anything that can be developed as an external application and that makes use of Joplin's API and other extension points.

At times we had a rough GSoC last year, mostly because we weren't familiar with the process and how to best handle various situations, but overall it was a success and we got great improvements to the search engine and keyboard shortcut systems thanks to our two students. We plan to make some adjustments to the way we welcome students to make the process go smoothly this year.

We will submit the GSoC application on 19 Feb and will let you know if we are selected. Like last year, we would appreciate any help with managing the event - if you are interested in being a tutor, or if you can help with welcoming new students and answering their questions, please let us know!

So far, we have @CalebJohn, @PackElend, @tessus and myself as potential tutors.