Ability to change default file extension

[pprevos]

I am n Emacs Org-Mode user and would love to be able to select ".org" as an extension.

It would be great to have the ability to change or add default extensions (currently only .md or .txt) through a config file.

The alternative I am working with is to convert the .md notes to Org in Emacs. I can view Org files made in Emacs in NextCloud, but cannot create new .org files with NextCloud.

Org-Mode is growing in popularity and non-Emacs-systems, such as Hugo and GitHub are now supporting this format.

No biggie, just a nice to have.

[stefan-niedermann]

@korelstar please note, that this is explicitly not a request to support org-mode as editor or viewer (i already talked to the author). It is just a request to make the available file extension options configurable via a config file (where .txt and .md should stay the default options of course).

[korelstar]

I see. Since we already accept files with this extension as notes, I think it's okay to allow this to be set as default extension.

Should we then allow to set each of the accepted extensions? See https://github.com/nextcloud/notes/blob/v4.0.4/lib/Service/NotesService.php#L174

[korelstar]

But should we really differentiate between config file and GUI? How could users find the config file option? Shouldn't we instead provide all allowed extensions in the drop-down?

On the other hand, when implementing this using the config file approach, this would fix #629, too.

Any opinions? I have to think about it.

[stefan-niedermann]

Huh, i wasn't even aware that all of those extensions are already recognized 😄... Good question.
I think it will be simpler for users to choose between .txt and .md plus explicitly custom extensions which have been configured explicitly by the user as requested in this issue.
I wouldn't offer all of those as available extensions by default though, even if the app is able to recognize them.

I understand from a maintenance point of view that you don't want to have multiple lists, but from a UX point of view, it's simply overwhelming for a user, especially because markdown and note are pretty uncommon file extensions...

Will also think about it... and i guess i need a REST endpoint to fetch the available extensions if the list isn't static anymore...

[korelstar]

I still have a problem with restricting the user choice to .txt and .md and -- at the same time -- allow the user to chose other extensions using a more complicated way. In fact, the "more complicated way" means, that a normal user can't use it, but you need to be an admin in order to edit the config file.

What I could imagine instead is to introduce an user-independent/app-wide setting as requested in #629. Per definition, this setting can only be changed by an admin. Therefore, we could allow all extensions here, since I can expect that an admin is able to deal with uncommon file extensions. User can overwrite the app-wide setting with the simple ones or stick to the default (which may be .txt or .org or ...).

@pprevos Would this be sufficient for you?

---

Implementation details (draft)

The setting can be set on the command line using php occ config:app:set notes defaultFileExtension --value=".org". In the first step, I will not provide a user interface for this, since I will document this as "beta" feature.

The settings API has to be changed. New sections for app-wide settings (read-only) and static configuration (read-only) have to be added. An example return value could be:

{
  "static": {
    "version": "4.1.0",
    "apiVersions": ["0.2", "1.2"],
    "fileExtensions": [".txt", ".org", ".markdown", ".md", ".note"]
  },
  "app": {
    "defaultFileExtension": ".org"
  },
  "user": {
    "fileExtension": ".md",
    "notesPath": "My notes"
  }
}

What about that?

[pprevos]

Hi @korelstar, that is a reasonable solution for me. I am not an admin - I use a paid server, so an option in the dropdown list would be ideal.

I am not looking to change the default from .md, just the option in the menu to create a .org file would be very useful.

Thanks for considering my request.

[korelstar]

Okay, then we have no choice and the only possible solution is to show all extensions in the settings drop-down. Still a veto @stefan-niedermann ?

[stefan-niedermann]

Personally i think that the common extensions .md and .txt are enough and other, uncommon extensions will confuse users (for example markdown and note will not be recognized as file extensions).

Using .org will bring no benefits in the Notes editor. Those files should be edited with an appropriate tool and synchronized with the Nextcloud Sync client in my opinion.

Do not consider this as a "veto", but as a 👎 from me.

[pprevos]

Org-Mode is not as uncommon as it might seem.

GitHub accepts it and fully parses them. Example: https://github.com/pprevos/EmacsLife

Adding this option would render the Nextcloud note-taking app very useful for tens of thousands of Org-Mode users.

[stefan-niedermann]

Org-Mode is not as uncommon as it might seem. GitHub accepts it and fully parses them.

In the Nextcloud ecosystem it is uncommon. I don't know a single Nextcloud app which provides support for it. Supporting org in terms of rendering was never a topic though, as i stated above for the reasons i wrote at the help forum:

the focus of the Notes app is to provide a distraction free Markdown editor. Considering the limited resources of this community driven app, the fact that Markdown is the “de facto” standard in the Nextcloud eco system (supported by Nextcloud, Tasks, Deck, Notes and many others) and keeping in mind that an editor for org-mode needs to be adjusted to the same look and feel as the Markdown editor

The proposed solution seemed to allow us to have the cake and eat it: You could allow .org as extension and the overall usability would not suffer in the default configuration.
If this solution ain't sufficient for you though (because you are not an administrator), i vote for keeping the state as it is. @korelstar you are the maintainer, it's your decision. If you are unsure, we can also ping the nextcloud/designers group for their opinion.

[korelstar]

If this solution ain't sufficient for you though (because you are not an administrator), i vote for keeping the state as it is. @korelstar you are the maintainer, it's your decision. If you are unsure, we can also ping the nextcloud/designers group for their opinion.

Yes, let's involve @nextcloud/designers regarding this question. Any opinions from you people?

[vincowl]

Hi,
As an org writer, I would have loved to find a nextcloud app to write in org mode directly. But since Notes includes a markdown parser, I can't see the point to adding .org extension to Notes. This costs me to state this since org and Notes are both really cool "tools"...

@pprevos could you please describe the editing workflow you have in mind ? I mean from creating to editing / modifying / using / searching... If you need tagging, you can do it in Files. You can mount nextcloud folders using webdavs, get ssh access, even probably use emacs' tramp mode to edit your org files remotely. That's why I decided to leave Notes to Markdown and use standard nextcloud features to use it with org and emacs.

Hope it helps...