How to get mail about a ToDo notification

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Posts that do not at least state the version number and operating system will not be answered.

Hi, I am using Joplin 2.11.11 (prod, darwin) on a MacBook Pro running 13.4.1 (Ventura)

I Have been an Evernote user for 10 years and am in the process of moving over my (5000+) notes to Joplin. What I have seen so far is very encouraging, kudos!

There is one feature in Evernote which I use extensively and I don't see how to implement that in Joplin, but maybe I'm overlooking something obvious with the plethora of plugins, so I thought I'd ask here:
Is it possible to get a daily notification sent by Joplin with the due ToDos of the day?
The desktop notification pop-up is too ephemeral, just one click and it's gone (even if you don't click on it it's gone in a second!). I would like a more persistent reminder.

Zelda

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Nice idea but I don't think there's currently a way to achieve this. Not that I know of anyway.

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Thanks. It would be very useful however; is there no email mechanism at all in the application?
BTW, the Agenda extension does part of the what I'm looking for, because I can make it show a list of upcoming and missed notification dates, but you need to open the separate view of it (which is a bit ugly in the sense that the font is too big, and anyway it takes away too much screen real estate).
So this is why I'm looking for persistent notifications outside of the application...

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No. There's a plugin but it's for receiving email, not sending. I think Joplin server has some email functionality, but again, it's not what you're looking for as far as I know.

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Thanks again; yes I had spotted that extension, but it is indeed only for sending TO Joplin, not out.
I think it would be a very useful addition. When I see how much energy has been put in this Joplin development to make it look almost as a clone of Evernote, I'm surprised not to see this possibility.
Is there some place (site, forum, email address...) for feature requests?
Z

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I am not a dev but just thinking about this suggests to me that it is not going to be an easy thing to do at the application level with the model Joplin uses. With companies such as Evernote they have a server focussed model and you have to connect to their server and store your data there. The server runs 24/7 and a client can ask the server to undertake actions such as emailing a reminder when one becomes due as, I believe, the server has full access to your data.

However Joplin uses a client focussed model. The client can use one of many different types of cloud / WebDav sever, but just for data exchange. The server is used purely as a method of moving data between clients. This data may also be E2E encrypted so it also has no idea what the content actually is when it stores it. The server plays no other part (Joplin Cloud excepted).

For a client to send notifications when a to-do is due would mean that the user's computer would have to be on, and an email enabled Joplin client with access to an SMTP server would have to be running, 24/7.

I have Joplin start upon login but I am sure that many only open Joplin when needed. So there is a very good chance that the computer will not be on or the client not active when the to-do becomes due and an email needs to be sent. This makes the usefulness of the feature at the application / client level rather questionable.

I guess (and it is just a guess) that it may be possible to add some kind of email notification service to Joplin Cloud / Server if the to-do note metadata is not encrypted by E2EE. If the to-do data remained encrypted the notification could only tell you a to-do was overdue, not what it was about. If it is possible it would also mean that it would be another feature that is only be available to a specific sub-set of Joplin users (like notebook sharing and note publishing is now).

If anyone thinks that I have got this wrong, please correct me. That's what the Internet is for, isn't it? :slight_smile:

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You are spot on, I'm afraid. Very plausible explanation, great!
It looks like I will have to do some scripting client-side; anybody experience with hooking into the Mac notification mechanism?

If anyone thinks that I have got this wrong, please correct me. That's what the Internet is for, isn't it?
And a well-developed sense of humour you got as well - LOL :wink:

Z

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Although not of particular use to you, @zeldajoplin, there is also a plugin that can send a note as email, that does a nice job:

joplin-note-email

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The reason Evernote sent it from their centralized servers is because sending email from a system is tricky and requires setting up an email server properly. And even then, they usually go through an SMTP relay so the emails don't get tunneled to the SPAMverse. 99.999% of desktop systems do not have an email server installed. There's a reason why we all use email services that don't truly live on our computers.

So, the solution: build the hooks into the Joplin Server code and label it "advance configuration" because it is. It would require installing sSMTP or Postfix as well.

Or! Add it as a feature of Joplin Cloud. You would have to "publish the note" (de-encrypt it) I think and then send it … and then re-encrypt? Maybe? (Everynote isn't end-to-end encrypted which makes things simpler for them) Of course, that publish-unpublish two-step is a bit superfluous since email is utterly insecure. That dance would at least keep the note out of the persistent Joplin Cloud ecosystem.

Dunno. Anyway. Sending and managing email is far more complicated than folks realize. :slight_smile:

1 Like
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Mmm, thanks to the helpful and knowledgeable answers here I'm beginning to understand why!

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That is a nice extension indeed, but for what I wanted to do it would need to be triggered by the todo dates, etc...
Z

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Please qualify my comments as new user. I too am an Evernote power user, with thousands of notes. I appreciated the emails reminding me to do things such as annual renewals. Would it not work in Joplin to check as part of your daily process for any to dos that are due today?
I'm just getting my head around translating Evernote stuff that I've relied on for over a decade - so far Joplin is nice and clean. I'm sure once I try things for the first time I'll get the new way of doing stuff. Phil would be proud to see that Joplin has kept the best part of Remember Everything and left out what I call useless fluff.

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As you are an Apple user: I'm fine with iOS notifications on my iPhone and iPad when it comes to ToDo reminders. But I must admit that Joplin isn't really made for task management (while it's perfect for storing and retrieving notes).

For my tasks I use the web app Nextcloud offers for it and sync it with the iOS reminders app and Thunderbird on desktop (as part of the CalDAV sync). Some people in this forum are great fans of todo.txt - but I'm not ready yet for a barebone solution like that...

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