KleverNotes: Some news about the project!

Community
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Hi,

I’m Louis, the creator of Klevernotes.

For those who don’t know Klevernotes :

KleverNotes is a note taking and management application for your mobile and desktop devices. It uses markdown and allow you to preview your content.

It’s been roughly 9 month since I made my first post about it and 7 month since the last update. Now that things have settled down for me and I’ve transition from reddit to here, I thought that it might be cool to give some news !

On the last update I was still working alone on my personnal repo. However quickly after my post, Carl Schwan helped me integrate the KDE incubator program and has reviewed my code/answered my questions since then.
I thank him very much for that !

Btw : lots of respect for him, I’m quite ennoying with questions lol !

What’s the state of the app ?

What was new on the last post:

  • Better image support
  • Better table support
  • Some css tweaks
  • Various bugs fixes

What’s new now ?!

Here’s a list more or less in order :

  • adding todos (might need some rework)
  • various UI tweaks
  • sidebar treeview as been reworked (kirigami Addons) + search for notes
  • possibility to make quick drawing and embed them as images
  • adding link to the toolbar (they’re now clickable in the preview)
  • various bug fixing
  • possibility to print your note to pdf
  • 4 news default css style for the preview + possibility to create your own css style (need some documentation)
  • settings page, as well as the various dialogs, has been ported to FormCard style
  • shortcut for all actions (possibility to customize them will come)
  • a markdown cheat-sheet
  • moving from marked.js to an equivalent written in C++ (this will make life much more easier for futur features implementation)

What am I working on right now ?

As I said, the new C++ parser make life much easier for new feature, I’m now working on a “note linking” feature, similar to Obsidian (the map won’t be included with this)

On the side, I’m starting to make some research to embed emoji, and enable code highlight.

Quick side note

I know that the concept is similar to marknote, I don’t know who was first and I don’t care. Both project have a similar base idea but very different approach to it. I won’t list all the differences and will let you discover them if you want. :wink:

Thanks for reading me !
I’m open to any discussion/feedback :smile:

Link to the gitlab : Office / KLeverNotes · GitLab

7 Likes
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Interesting, have you considered implementing the QOwnNotes API to help with Nextcloud integration?

Have you looked into having handwritten notes in a similar way to what Xournalpp/Xournal++ does? Would be great to have a Qt/KDE counterpart to it!

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Didn’t knew about it, I’ve saved the link and will look into that, thanks !!

I do agree with you that it would be great to have a Qt/KDE counter part, however I want to keep the focus on markdown with some “extensions” here and there.

Edit : @julicenri this was suppose to be a reply to your comment, but I don’t know if I replied to your comment or just made a comment myself (discuss is confusing with this…)

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I have a question about your project, Louis. I’m using KNotes from years ago, but I’m always looking for an alternative. Why? Cause developers don’t fix issues, don’t reply at all. I have a feauture request from 2014 and an bug reported in 2023, but developers never answered (see in Login Name Required ).
I find your application similar to others I have been testing in recent years, but none of them came as close as KNotes to the way the “ATNotes” (free application for Windows) works. Although it is totally outdated and has not been updated for years, it works still in Windows 10. It works same way that Knotes, like “Stickers” and, most importantly, it allows sending “notes” between computers. KNotes is compatible with ATNotes, using the same network port, allowing me to exchange notes from Linux with Windows users and vice-versa.
Therefore, I would like to know if, since the developers of KNotes are “missing”, KLeverNotes could add the functionalities I mention:

  • Show notes as stickers
  • Allow to send notes between different computers in a network that also have KleverNotes.

Thanks

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Hi,

I’m always looking for ideas and I’ll be happy to add them if they fit well in the app.

  • when you say “show notes as stickers” you means like pin a note to your desktop ?

  • I understand your second point as note syncing. I would really like to do it, since the start, but I really Black the knowlegde needed in that area. I personnaly use syncthing to sync my note storage between my computers. This a “temporary” solution, but I don’t know when I’ll be able to solve this, I don’t even know where to start to be honest.

Edit : @Rafael_Social_User since I’m not sure that my comment is actually a “reply” (discuss is weird on my phone), I prefer to ping you to be sure :smiley:

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Does this build with QT6? I have kdesrc-build set up to use QT6 and it’s failing, but I don’t know if I’m just doing something wrong.

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@Nathan as far as I know the QT6 Ci pass on gitlab and last time I check it was building fine on my machine. I just got home, I’ll test again soon.

Do you mind sending me the errors log on private, maybe I could help you more with that :wink:

Nb: I ping you because, once again, on my phone, I don’t know if the reply button actually work lol

Edit: The app build but won’t launch due to some changes in Kirigami. I’ll need to change this, sorry about it
Edit 2: the fix should be part of my next PR, I’m actually cleaning QML code

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Well, I guess you didn’t try KNotes so that’s why you asked these questions.

  • When I wrote about “Notes as stickers”, they are just independent windows, simulating real notes that you can place in any screen or monitor, at any size, floating in the screen and resizables. Those notes can be put on top any window or locked to avoid modify then accidentally.
  • On the other hand, I was not talking about “syncing”, but to sent/receive notes from other KleverNotes users. KNotes/ATNotes let users to send (formatted or no) notes that will appear as a note in the receiver screen. Of course, both the sender and the receiver must have the application installed and running in the background. Otherwise, the application will display a message that the note could not be delivered.

I hope I have been able to explain myself better about the functionalities that I consider not only interesting, but for me, basic if I want to use something other than KNotes.

Thank you!!!

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You are correct, I did not try KNotes. I have a better understanding of what you’re talking about now, thanks.

  • I can understand the use case for this, however I don’t think this feature would fit well with the app, at least not how you explain it. I have consider a widget that let’s you quickly browse and acces your notes (not comming soon but it’s in my todo list), I could maybe add an “overview” to this, that let you read the whole note, but I’m not sure about it.

  • I can also understand the use case for this and I find it pretty interresting and useful, I’ll put it in my todo list. However, it has, in my opinion, the same issue as “note syncing”, I really lack the knowledge in this area and don’t even know where to start.

TLDR: The first point won’t be added, at least not in that form. The second point could be added, but not in the near future.

I suppose that this is not the answer you wanted, but I hope it still answer your questions :smile:

1 Like
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You got it right!!! I can’t say it wasn’t the expected answer, but I thank you all the same for clarifying it.
As I said, I have tried many note apps and they are all very similar. None of them have the functionality of KNotes/ATNotes, but you can be sure that in corporate environments or networks with local users, they are so useful that ATNotes is still in use even though it has been obsolete for more than 10 years.

Thank you and good luck with your application!

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When I include dependencies, KIO fails to build for some reason :person_shrugging: