A version of Obsidian that runs on the web (browser). For file storage, something like Google Drive integration, where files can be stored there.
Why? There’s no shortage of apps coming out that do this. The files are easily synced to any web drive and available to any app that can access them.
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I’d second Nyoketti
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Is this for Chromebook users? The concept behind Obsidian was self-contained Markup files not stored in the cloud, but sync to cloud will be supported. Or if you use iCloud/DropBox/GoogleDrive/ et rest it works today.
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There are plenty companies that don’t allow programs to be installed on the company computer. Having a browser-version is a way to make Obsidian work on these computers as well.
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Although it must be a considerable amount of work I guess there are benefits for some users…
- Chromebooks (lots of them out there)
- Un-supported platforms. For instance I often use a Raspberry Pi 4 as Linux desktop and there is no ARM Linux version of Obs.
- People who are used to the web app paradigm… no installation, don’t want to have to set up a sync app
- Locked down corporate machines (for my work desktop I have to ask IT’s permission to install third party apps)
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Excatly this. Corpos usualy have rule that you cannot instal nothing on computer except from them and that is kinda complicate workflow over day. I have this situation actually.
Killer features would be for me some of this:
- Add some kind of web interface where we can add notes, it can really be simple
- Give possibility to connect to vault on web, not only on HDD, for example that vault can read files from internet adress that is in GDrive, Dropobx or something like that
- Somehow connect Dynalist & OBS, so that Dynalist is web app for OBS
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Having worked at BigEntityCorp, I support what IvanV is saying.
Having IT accept an external software from something else than Microsoft was a real pain and anyway, you had 50% odds that the install was useless (Python with no access to Pypi/Conda for instance, because “internet”).
In the case of Obsidian, it needs to be able to sync, and this will almost surely be forbidden by IT.
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Don’t know if it helps or not, but you can install obsidian without admin rights as a local user.
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You can, but you cant sync folder as eg Gdrive or Dropbox, cos system will not allow you to install folder or will report that you are moving something to “external” folder. Plus all on comp is constantly scanned.
I was actualy suprised to be able to instal Obs, but needed IT approval ( crazy ) for Ia Writer.
This one:
Give possibility to connect to vault on web, not only on HDD, for example that vault can read files from internet adress that is in GDrive, Dropobx or something like that
would solve all my problems
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Our team is looking into using GitHub + Obsidian exactly because of this scenario. Even if corporate machines would get Obsidian installed, there’s no way for them to sync to OneDrive / Google Drive.
So when you’re on your home computer or personal laptop, things are fine. When you’re in corporate environment, either use GitHub editing functionality or get a copy of your files with all of the edits home at the end of the day and create a new commit to GitHub.
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As i am in marketing, not IT would you have exmaple how to commit new GitHub? Or how to add this workflow to Obsidian?
Tnx.
I’m also outside of IT, so actually having a hard time absorbing all the new information as well as the new approaches to organizing own and team’s workflow.
Basically, GitHub works independently of Obsidian. The rough algorithm is as follows, as I understand it:
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You pretend that your Obsidian vault is a code repository with all the text files representing pieces of code (or rather text in our example).
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You initially sync this folder to GitHub with GitHub for Desktop application.
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Start editing your files, renaming them, moving around etc. The good thing that the other members of your team can do this simultaneously on their computers offline.
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Unlike conventional real-time syncing apps like OneDrive or Google Disk, you actually need to manually “commit” your edited stuff to the master version stored at GitHub.
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Others are notified and can see all the changes that you’ve made in GitHub online interface including: new files introduction, renaming of files and line-by-line comparison of each file content. They can also review your changes, accept or reject them, comment on them while also proposing their own editions of comments. Should any conflicts arise, e.g. you and your wife edited the same paragraph in the same note, they can be resolved on GitHub.
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After all the comments have been resolved, your edits and other team member edits get incorporated into the master version. That version gets distributed throughout the team members for further editing.
This is a really rough description of what’s possible. The opportunities seem to be wonderful and I trust the many developers that’ve been using this piece of technology for years. Me and the team however need to re-teach ourselves to adapt to this workflow.
You should see for yourself, if the learning is worth the benefits. Give it a go: https://guides.github.com/activities/hello-world/
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Nice point!
It’s not fun working for a company that causes trouble installing productivity software…
You should actually sell the company of using Obsidian as a standalone tool. If it’s web based all the traffic goes through an outside company network node and that one could look at all the data, so a disk based system most likely will required and a network based solution will be blocked by security sensitive companies. If I was the CTO for such a company I would block any network-related productivity tools myself.
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Obsidian was created specifically because it did not want to be a web app. Creating a web app version goes against the Obs ethos.
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Perhaps there’s a difference between “not a web app” and “not a web app exclusively”?
Let’s see how we got here. Many applications sell their virtue as being “everywhere” because our data is in someone’s cloud. Well, for a lot of folks, that’s nice but it’s also risky. So, Obsidian (and others) removed the “data in someone’s cloud” bit by making the data local. Unfortunately that cuts off a lot of users – some of them entirely. (I.e., the folks upstream on this thread, and I count myself among them.)
Maybe the forthcoming Obsidian sync feature is an answer? I don’t know if @silver or others have told us anywhere exactly what that would be doing and if it helps the case of “we cannot always be connected to our local data” or “our employers block our use”.
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What does it cut off a lot of users, incl. yourself? All you need to do is sync via something like Dropbox.
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For many corporate users, they are not given admin privileges and therefore installation of applications is blocked. Likewise, many syncing services are blocked on the firewall to avoid company data being transferred. For example, our firewall can detect torrent and P2P traffic, it detects packet patterns and can tell if it’s a torrent traffic (even if you use the encrypt option in your torrent client), and therefore apps like Syncthing, Resilio Sync, etc are all blocked.
I think a perfect example of the solution is Standard Notes. You can use their app in a web browser, desktop, mobile, and you can self-host the syncing server, and the extensions (think plugins). For corporate environments who do not give admin access to users, you can use the web app and still use your own server.
If Obsidian were to create a web app with an Obsidian sync server (for those users who do not have privacy concerns) then it would take care of majority of corporate users. I would prefer the option to self-host or select a back end sync service for data so that I can keep my data mine.
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What @AdminByTheBay said — that’s what I meant by “cuts off a lot of users”
Also, on my clients’ networks, Dropbox and other cloud storage is blocked to prevent exfiltration and bad actors.
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