Provide access to local files - filesystem backend - use web File API

[ieugen]

Hi,

This has been discussed in the past but I believe a local file access is still very valuable and possible to implement.
See #93 .

Context:

I started using org-mode recently and tried organice a few times.
It hanged and did not perform well - web page was blank.
I was trying to do grocery shopping at the local flee market.
I can tell you, it was not a nice experience :) .

I also had to sign in to online service and/or use git - which creates a lot of commits.

I normally use Syncthing to synchronize files between laptop, servers and mobile phone. https://syncthing.net/
It works great, I am very happy with it (stopped using dropbox and gdrive, etc).
Local storage is much more reliable than internet connection.

Proposal:

I believe it should be possible to use organice with local files.

The web browser has File API https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/API/File_API that can be used on all major platforms, including mobile devices: https://caniuse.com/?search=file .

It allows you to open a file and read it's contents.
There is an example that you can try out on your mobile, on the MDN page above.
I tried it on my Android 10 and I managed to open a local csv in my case.
I am sure the same could be used to open local org files and parse them.

There is also a guide on how to access files (and even list directories) https://web.dev/read-files/ .
It shows different techniques on how to open files.

I will see if I can find some time to check the code out and do POC / PR .
It would be nice if someone with more organice experience can check if my solution is viable.

Thanks,
Eugen

Related:

• Keep an eye on browser-fs-access #663

[ieugen]

As I wrote this I realized that there is no JS API to write a file to disk from the browser.
There is the filesystem API that creates a virtual (isolated FS) but then the problem remains - how to sync to real filesystem https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/API/File_System_Access_API

Perhaps the browser could open a "Save as" dialog to "download" the content to the actual file.
But I imagine the UX would not be stellar.

Probably a good solution would be to package this web app as a native application and expose the FS API that way.
Has anyone tried doing that ?

[munen]

As I wrote this I realized that there is no JS API to write a file to disk from the browser.

exactly.

Has anyone tried doing that ?

check out the develop branch. Works for Android, already.

[munen]

Closing since you mentioned yourself that your proposal won’t work.

if you want to work on the native app branch, you’re very welcome to!