I was hoping this forum would be a safe place to suggest features, discuss concepts, etc., without the usual forum anger waves. Apparently not. I
10 Likes
These are already in the development plan
How about a self hosted option? Could this be rolled out in a docker container hosted behind a reverse proxy? This would keep all the data on the users infra and allow remote access through a web VNC connection.
5 Likes
Just so everyone is aware, an Electron app is a web app. What you interact with is actually a Chrome browser window! Only difference is the html / css / javascript is served from the installation directory versus the internet.
The only problem to solve for a web-based version would be how to access the files. The upcoming sync solution would be one avenue. As would connecting via API to any generic sync provider. As would simply accessing a local vault.
Well, I guess there is one more problem, serving the app. But considering the reliability of Dynalist, I think the devs have a handle on this one 
1 Like
Itās not quite as simple as that. If itās written as a local application, itās not a trivial matter to rewrite as a web app. Which is why you tend not to see desktop electron apps making their way to centrally served apps.
@Klaas Please keep the discussions civil. We donāt tolerate personal attacks like this, please donāt do that again.
you are being selfish
As for what counts as legitimate issues - donāt worry too much about that. We have a wonderful team of moderators who are helping us prioritize. If enough people run into the same issue or use case, itās a legitimate issue and weāll prioritize appropriately.
6 Likes
I think to add onto the discussion about company policy, the policy is usually to not allow apps to be āinstalledā, but web based apps are usually ok. This is probably because installing an app allows more direct control over the computer, which poses a security risk for the corporate network. Whereas webapps run in a sandbox and is protected from accessing native system resources so webapps canāt āmount an attackā on other PCs of the same network.
7 Likes
The other issue is data security. Iāve not had an employer who would allow documents to leave the network or be accessed from the web except through highly managed channels.
4 Likes
Web apps operate inside a sandbox and canāt access system files ā if those could be accessed we are all in trouble. So yes you could build Obsidian inside the web browser and accessing the sandboxed files, but nothing else could access it ā which is not the intent as far as I know of Obsidian which is a way to have an open way of accessing MD files from the file system.
I goes back to my wondering how companies allow their core data be placed outside their domain, in the company where I work this is not accepted. A local file system backed up by internal tools is much, much better security-wise.
2 Likes
This might work if you use a third party cloud storage API like Dropbox. The web application could authenticate on the back end and sync files locally using the cloud storage to keep things in sync. Iād anticipate some weird race conditions, but it should work in principle.
Agreed. Obsidian has become an integral part of my daily workflow. I live in paranoia about the day when I cannot use Obsidian on my work laptop due to some internal security concern!
1 Like
I have a similar problem of not being able to install any 3rd party software on my working PC, and access to my knowledge base is very important for me at work. Web app with sync can be a paid option, new source of revenue.
3 Likes
What kind of documents we are talking about? The idea is to keep your home notes about technologies that you are researching or working with, accessible from office, if there will be an web app with sync, you wont download or upload anything directly.
+1 for web app
I agree. The idea of obsidian seems to be privacy-focused, so the only option I could see would be to create a simple online editor that can show obsidian links.
I share the same concerns as @AdminByTheBay. @IvanV Something along the lines of this (I think) is the only security conscious solution.
I know this is an old post but I seriously appreciate you spelling this out, @AlexanderSavenkov. I have been looking at this idea of getting my Obsidian files online and absolutely drowning in lingo-heavy guides and suggestions. Just having a clear starting point makes a world of difference! I already went through the Hello World tutorial and plan to explore more 
4 Likes
I justed published an Obsidian-compatible template of Jekyll, if youād like to check out :
6 Likes
Yes, a web app is necessary.
3 Likes
I agree web access is important (for me). I stopped using Joplin and started using Obsidian for this very reason. Since Obsidian files are .md files, I sync these to my self-hosted Nextcloud and installed the md plug in so that I can at least view and edit them if Iām away from my personal laptop. You donāt get the benefit of all the Obsidian functionality but its useable and fills the gap for me. Iād still love a full- or almost full-featured, self-hosted web-accessible version.
4 Likes
Just my +1 here too, even if itās not a priority right now and thatās perfectly fine.
Re. whether it would support an āillegitimateā use (as per the discussion above): not necessarily. I work in academia, and we have our office computers maintained by IT. They install whatever program we want on it; but you have to call them, it takes about 15 minutes with all, even if they are not busy at the moment, and you have to redo it (if you dare) with every single update. So, itās not illegal at all to use a 3rd-party app ā but itās a real PITA. A web-version would make this easier.
I mostly use my laptop in the office now too. But there are people out there who donāt.
1 Like
Need one developer to write converter and formatter.
-
trun md to html converter
-
backlink, yaml, block embed, block ref ,etc formatter.