blackvoid Standard Notes - Docker self-hosted alternative for all your note needs

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blackvoid Standard Notes - Docker self-hosted alternative for all your note needs

Standard Notes - Docker self-hosted alternative for all your note needs

Not another one of those notes apps am I, right? I mean we have Synology Note Station, a globally popular Evernote, Apple Notes, Bear app, and a million others, so what makes Standard Notes special?

Notes? Who needs a notes app...?​


Before I write a bit why this article should make sense, in case you are not interested in what I have to say and are looking for the know-how of running this on your own Docker (Synology) platform, jump down to the "Requirements" section.

Standard Notes - Docker self-hosted alternative for all your note needs

Key features of Standard Notes
Standard Notes - Docker self-hosted alternative for all your note needs

More features can be unlocked with extensions (also free and covered by this tutorial)

As you can see from the images above, SN offers a lot. From a modern minimalistic look to a full mobile and desktop app, along with 2FA support, FaceID, and super fast sync service that just works.

You can host it yourself, preserving the data 100% on-site, access it anywhere from a web browser app connected to your server. Brilliant, just as Bitwarden setup is for passwords.

SN offers also a paid solution unless you don't feel up to it hosting it yourself and offers about 30 extensions at the moment to make your instance even more powerful than a simple notes app.

With its spartan looks and features, out of the box, you get a free note-taking app with sync. More than enough for the majority of people. If you are looking a bit more, like support for markdown, code, themes, 2Fa, etc, then you will need to either pay a small monthly fee or host them yourself.

This article will show you how to make it all happen and run it inside Docker on your Synology NAS along with (also free and open-source) all extensions that SN offers.


Continue reading...
 
In your article you mentioned to download MySQL. Does MariaDB from the Synology packages not work?

OTH - looks pomising, using Bookstack, too, at the moment in a docker container ;-)
 
Thank you @Rusty. This looks interesting.

I’ve dloaded the iOS app and it looks simple and nice.
A few questions if you don’t mind before I attempt the dreaded MySQL installation again :)

Once everything is setup correctly what is the sync mechanism, does it try to sync every time I launch the iOS app or can I manually sync when I want to (e.g. press a sync button)?

Do you have any experience with conflict resolution? Do you think it can handle syncing from my iPhone and my iPad?
 
Once everything is setup correctly what is the sync mechanism, does it try to sync every time I launch the iOS app or can I manually sync when I want to (e.g. press a sync button)?
Both. It will sync as soon as you stop editing (writing for a few seconds) and you have the refresh button

Screenshot 2020-10-08 at 15.17.40.png


This is the bottom right corner of the app.

Do you have any experience with conflict resolution? Do you think it can handle syncing from my iPhone and my iPad?
That is a great question I have to say. Also, haven't tested it so far. But I have just now.

Test from my iMac and iPhone at the same time. It will pick up both versions and save them both, in the end, you can choose what you want to leave.

Screenshot 2020-10-08 at 15.20.21.png
 
Last edited:
Thanks for this great tutorial. Worked perfectly so far!

Question: I've now reached the point "{"message":"Hi! You're not supposed to be here."}". Does this mean I cannot use Standard Notes from within my LAN and must use an external URL, e.g. reverse proxy?

Your tutorial tells me about registering Standard Notes using the company's URL. Where does my own instance come into play?

Ah! Guess I now know where the URL to the local instance must be entered. BUT, does this mean if the domain of Standard Notes for logging in, is not reachable, I cannot use my own instance either! So this installation is not a true self hosted one? Correct me if I'm not.

Michael
 
Thanks for this great tutorial. Worked perfectly so far!

Question: I've now reached the point "{"message":"Hi! You're not supposed to be here."}". Does this mean I cannot use Standard Notes from within my LAN and must use an external URL, e.g. reverse proxy?

Michael
No no, this means that you have set everything up as expected. The idea is that if you want to use it via a browser you can use a LAN IP address and port but configure it using their web app at: Notes · Standard Notes

Would recommend setting RP in any case.
 
Thanks @Rusty for taking the time to test it.
So does this mean that the behavior (syncing) is more or less similar to DS Note?
Hard to say for me considering that I never used NS from more than one device on the same note at the same time. This is not something that comes to my mind so never tested it. With SN it works like I said, multiple notes are generated and you decide which one to keep.

For me, this is more than enough and its syncing is so fast that in reality, you will really have to have both devices on the same note active in order to provoke this scenario. Not something that I see myself doing but there it is.

On a side note, I have been using this platform for about a week now, on and off, and I have to say it works great. Haven't noticed any problem with a desktop or mobile versions. Stable with no data loss over time. Sync is top, and backup is working fine (out of the box).

Still need to see the image upload part (works over WebDAV or some "cloud" providers) but haven't had time to deal with that just yet.
 
No no, this means that you have set everything up as expected. The idea is that if you want to use it via a browser you can use a LAN IP address and port but configure it using their web app at: Notes · Standard Notes

Would recommend setting RP in any case.
Still the question remains: since my local instance is connected to SN web apps, if those services are unreachable, so are my notes. Considering Bookstack is a truly local service on my NAS, Standard Notes isn't. I still have to access their website to sync to my local NAS.

Or am I still wrong with my assumption?
 
Still the question remains: since my local instance is connected to SN web apps, if those services are unreachable, so are my notes. Considering Bookstack is a truly local service on my NAS, Standard Notes isn't. I still have to access their website to sync to my local NAS.

Or am I still wrong with my assumption?
That is correct indeed but you do have a mobile and desktop app that is local, so in any case, you have more than one way to access your SN.

But you can self-host the web part as well. I am working on adding this to my article as well, just didn't have time these days.


This is the code for the webapp
 
But as far as I understood, I first have to register (an account?) at Standard Notes services at first and redirect the default sync URL to my local instance, hence my SN docker must be reachable from external (preferable by a https secured URL of course).

Why asking? Because, I've download the Android app of Standard Notes yesterday and tried to connect to my local server. But the settings in the app require using an e-mail address for logging in. I did not add any e-mail address during my docker setup procedure so far, not can I access any administration site either.

Hence, I still guess I need an account (token) from SN which allows accessing my local SN installation.
-- post merged: --

But you can self-host the web part as well. I am working on adding this to my article as well, just didn't have time these days.
OK, that would change the game and convert everything into a true local service....

OTH, from the link standardnotes/web

Creating your private notes account​

  1. Launch the web app at app.standardnotes.org.
  2. Click Register to create your private notes account.
 
But as far as I understood, I first have to register (an account?) at Standard Notes services at first and redirect the default sync URL to my local instance, hence my SN docker must be reachable from external (preferable by a https secured URL of course).

Why asking? Because, I've download the Android app of Standard Notes yesterday and tried to connect to my local server. But the settings in the app require using an e-mail address for logging in. I did not add any e-mail address during my docker setup procedure so far, not can I access any administration site either.

Hence, I still guess I need an account (token) from SN which allows accessing my local SN installation.
-- post merged: --


OK, that would change the game and convert everything into a true local service....

OTH, from the link standardnotes/web
Well, that took a whole 3 min to setup. Running self-hosted web app :D.

Regarding your question about the account. I have not registered with any account on their official site. My first account was registered via a desktop app using the register button. As a destination, I have put my notes (sync) server and that was it. This info on the git page is an example one I would say.

UPDATE: added the steps for self-hosted webapp in the original article
 
Regarding your question about the account. I have not registered with any account on their official site. My first account was registered via a desktop app using the register button. As a destination, I have put my notes (sync) server and that was it. This info on the git page is an example one I would say.
You mean your account was created in your local instance? That would be OK, of course. But I will now set up the webapp, too and see how it performs. Thanks!
 
So I took the challange again and used the Android App to access my local SN.

I entered an email address and a password and under section other options, I've changed the URL, now pointing to my Synology using the specified port that I've used when creating the docker container.

When in settings and pressing the register button. A short message tells me "generating keys" and after a second or two, a popup appears telling me about a server error that occurred.
The docker protocol does not reveal any error, though...

Will have to investigate further and try the desktop app, too.
 
A short message tells me "generating keys"
This is normal and I have seen that as well. But in my case it worked. Keep in mind that I have used a full https access towards my SN instance. Could be that it will not work with a "local" LAN setup.
 

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