Joplin - a note taking and to-do app

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lintalist
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Joplin open source note taking and to-do application

#1 Post by lintalist »

Just to note that I haven't actually tried it, but given the popularity of note taking Apps I thought I'd mention it as it does offer a portable version for download, how that performs I will leave for others to discover - the feature set may be of interest to some, especially the import of evernotes data, encryption, and browser addon

Website: https://joplin.cozic.net/

Joplin is a free, open source note taking and to-do application, which can handle a large number of notes organised into notebooks. The notes are searchable, can be copied, tagged and modified either from the applications directly or from your own text editor. The notes are in Markdown format.

Notes exported from Evernote via .enex files can be imported into Joplin, including the formatted content (which is converted to Markdown), resources (images, attachments, etc.) and complete metadata (geolocation, updated time, created time, etc.). Plain Markdown files can also be imported.

The notes can be synchronised with various cloud services including Nextcloud, Dropbox, OneDrive, WebDAV or the file system (for example with a network directory). When synchronising the notes, notebooks, tags and other metadata are saved to plain text files which can be easily inspected, backed up and moved around.

The application is available for Windows, Linux, macOS, Android and iOS. A Web Clipper, to save web pages and screenshots from your browser, is also available for Firefox and Chrome.
The portable application allows installing the software on a portable device such as a USB key. Simply copy the file JoplinPortable.exe in any directory on that USB key ; the application will then create a directory called "JoplinProfile" next to the executable file.
Features
  • Desktop, mobile and terminal applications.
  • Web Clipper for Firefox and Chrome.
  • End To End Encryption (E2EE)
  • Synchronisation with various services, including NextCloud, Dropbox, WebDAV and OneDrive.
  • Import Enex files (Evernote export format) and Markdown files.
  • Export JEX files (Joplin Export format) and raw files.
  • Support notes, to-dos, tags and notebooks.
  • Sort notes by multiple criteria - title, updated time, etc.
  • Support for alarms (notifications) in mobile and desktop applications.
  • Offline first, so the entire data is always available on the device even without an internet connection.
  • Markdown notes, which are rendered with images and formatting in the desktop and mobile applications. Support for extra features such as math notation and checkboxes.
  • File attachment support - images are displayed, and other files are linked and can be opened in the relevant application.
  • Search functionality.
  • Geo-location support.
  • Supports multiple languages

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Midas
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Re: Joplin open source note taking and to-do application

#2 Post by Midas »

Joplin sure looks interesting with its comprehensive feature set and multi-platform capabilities -- encompassing mobile ones and even running as a CLI application.

But, alas, it is yet another Electron-based note taker (check the changelog at https://joplin.cozic.net/changelog) and the portable download alone is a mighty 92MB, so it is definitely not for me.

Let's see how others fare. Thanks for the tip anyway. 8)

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Re: Joplin open source note taking and to-do application

#3 Post by lintalist »

Midas wrote: Wed Oct 03, 2018 3:21 amElectron-based
Oh well, I thought if I didn't mention it, people wouldn't notice - my plans for promoting Electron-based world domination are thwarted once again :-)

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Re: Joplin open source note taking and to-do application

#4 Post by Midas »

:mrgreen: :lol:

laurent22
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Joplin - a note taking and to-do app

#5 Post by laurent22 »

Joplin is a free, open source note taking and to-do application, which helps you write and organise your notes, and synchronise them between your devices. The notes are searchable, can be copied, tagged and modified either from the applications directly or from your own text editor. The notes are in Markdown format.

Portable version: A portable version already exists and is released along with each new version of the app.

Available languages: Basque, Catalan, Croatian, Czech, Dansk, Deutsch, English, Español, Français, Galician, Italiano, Nederlands, Nederlands, Norwegian, Português (Brasil), Română, Slovenian, Svenska, Русский, 中文 (简体), 中文 (繁體), 日本語, 한국말

Compatibility with operating systems: Windows, macOS, Linux (and Android, iOS for mobile)

Type of License: MIT

Link to the download page: https://joplin.cozic.net

Link to GitHub page: https://github.com/laurent22/joplin/

Submission page: https://www.portablefreeware.com/index.php?id=2977

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Re: Joplin - a note taking and to-do app

#6 Post by Midas »

Joplin is a feature rich app with plenty of options for different workflows. Markdown is definitely a plus. 8)

Unfortunately, it appears to be Electron based (am I wrong?), which means five different processes for the portable version and over a 100MB memory footprint on launch.

As noted, full changelog and downloads at https://github.com/laurent22/joplin/releases.

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Re: Joplin - a note taking and to-do app

#7 Post by laurent22 »

It's indeed Electron, which I know is not everybody's cup of tea :)

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Re: Joplin - a note taking and to-do app

#8 Post by webfork »

Background

I realized the other day that I'm sharing a crazy amount of information on via a free simplenote service. It has an unclear security status, so I started looking into some alternatives. (Note that I'm using Alephnote for this, which is not affiliated with and doesn't require the Simplenote service.)

As such I started looking for something to replace it and saw that Joplin is open source and has built-in encryption. It's Electron, which is not ideal, but I think I can use PsExec to force it to use just one process. Anyway, on the test ...

Steps:
Download exe and launch

Status: Not portable. Writes settings to the local JoplinProfile (good) but also saves a ton of data to AppData\Roaming ... amusingly the program tells you right up front when you click on options "Notes and settings are stored in: C:\Users\USERNAME\Downloads\JoplinProfile"

Resources (in megs):

RAM: 230 (across 5 processes)
Disk space: 134 (not counting the folder in appdata)

Optionally, you can run Psexec to help reduce the program interference with other running programs: PsExec64.exe -d -low -a 2 "C:\temp\JoplinPortable.exe"

Note about NTFS compression to save space: I ran this on the Joplin download file and it didn't move an inch. It appears to be entirely self-contained and compressed, which is very interesting by itself.Strangely I tried to use NTFS compression on the Joplin download file and it didn't move an inch. It appears to be entirely self-contained and compressed, which is very interesting by itself.

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Re: Joplin - a note taking and to-do app

#9 Post by vevy »

webfork wrote: Sat Aug 08, 2020 10:15 am Optionally, you can run Psexec to help reduce the program interference with other running programs: PsExec64.exe -d -low -a 2 "C:\temp\JoplinPortable.exe"
Nice!

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Re: Joplin - a note taking and to-do app

#10 Post by webfork »

vevy wrote: Sat Aug 08, 2020 10:34 am
webfork wrote: Sat Aug 08, 2020 10:15 am Optionally, you can run Psexec to help reduce the program interference with other running programs: PsExec64.exe -d -low -a 2 "C:\temp\JoplinPortable.exe"
Nice!
:) I expect those kind of tweaks will be part of my program posts going forward. Just wish I could find something that would push multiprocess tools like Joplin down to one or two.

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Re: Joplin - a note taking and to-do app

#11 Post by webfork »

Various updates here: New version: v2.7.1.5 (https://joplinapp.org/changelog/) and also I keep seeing this program coming up on lists for people seeking an open source Evernote alternative. In large part because it will accept Evernote export files, but there's also some feature overlap.

Various ongoing headaches with Zettlr mean some renewed interest on my part.

---

I was encouraged that the portability status had changed because the install page specifically calls out a downloadable portable version: https://joplinapp.org/help/#installation. Even more intriguing is that a Joplin portable version is available that specifically calls out the program as already portable, just trying to make it work with the PortableApps structure: https://github.com/uroesch/JoplinPortable

There's a thread over at https://discourse.joplinapp.org/t/probl ... ble/1344/2 from roughly the era that I first tested. It suggests the issues I ran into AppData last time are just incidental settings and can be deleted without consequence. I don't love that because I'm worried it's going to break some functionality, but it might be a way to make the program function portably.

Status: Unclear -- I couldn't sort out whether the AppData files were functionally temp files as mentioned above or actively used by the program. I'm going to keep this in the not portable thread until that gets resolved.

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