Plugin: Resume Note [v0.2.4, 2024-11-21]

t0dd · 2024-11-08T22:35:51.479Z

shikuz:

There's an experimental feature to save across restarts.

It does two things. Across restarts AND across devices. That gave me pause. Not sure why, but it did.

shikuz:

I'm not sure what you mean by that

The cursor will move by a line or two. I wonder it is has anything to do with some HTML mingled in the document. I will try to put together succinct example that can be replicated.

shikuz · 2024-11-09T13:18:02.301Z

v0.2.0

added: save scroll position independently from cursor
added: save cursor selection (can be disabled in the settings)
improved: setScroll in content script
refactored: CodeMirror content script

t0dd · 2024-11-09T14:55:59.734Z

t0dd:

The cursor will move by a line or two. I wonder it is has anything to do with some HTML mingled in the document. I will try to put together succinct example that can be replicated.

No. HTML doesn't seem to be the culprit. This is how I am testing now …

Joplin 3.1.23, Desktop, Linux (Fedora specifically, but it is the AppImage)
my custom userstyles.css and userchrome.css were removed
I turned off all plugins except Persistent Editor Layout (to save a headache) and Resume Note
I have scrolled to a spot and selected text
I have scrolled to a spot and merely planted the cursor
I switched between Default and VIM modes just to see what would happen.
Markdown editor only.

What I have found.

Upon restart of Jopln:

The only thing that survives a restart of Joplin is the note selected. This alone is a huge win, but the cursor is always kicked to the top and scrolled to the top and if something was selected, it is no longer selected
The VIM mode shows you a flash of the cursor (helpful) whereas the the Default mode shows no cursor. The editor is not input-focused when you restart Joplin.

Switching between notes:

It seems to work as designed. But only not when …
With all plugins turned on, I get jumps in cursor location, scrolling, and selections do not retain.

Conclusion:

the cursor location, selection, and scroll position is not retained upon restart, but the note selected is! Which is great.
my issues with retained selection, cursor position, etc. is the result of some plugin conflict. I will try to narrow that down. So, far, I have eliminated a number of them.

t0dd · 2024-11-09T15:42:46.296Z

Interesting burble.

The set up:

I have test note 1 in position 1 in my notebook.
I have test note 2 in position 3 or 4 in my notebook.
I scroll then select some text in each (waiting the appropriate time for the plugin to record it).
I alternate between the notes to see that the positions are saved. They are.

The test:

I select test note 2.
I click Tools > Options
I click BACK

RESULT:

I am still on note 2 (good!)
Cursor moved to the top and nothing is selected (bad¡)
I click on note 1
Positions and selection are retained (good!)

t0dd · 2024-11-09T16:22:40.681Z

Conflicting plugins discovered thus far (all remove the selection; others also seem to fudge the positioning):

Favorites
Note Tabs
Outline — those three create a separate panel; related?
Note List (preview)
Folding in Code Mirror Editor
Whitespacer
Automatic Backlinks to note
Note overview

So far the Plugins that seem to play nice are:

Backup
Combine Notes
Conflict Resolution
Diff View
Hotfolder
Import Local CSS
Inline ToDo — not fully tested by actually creating an inline todo
Inline Tags
Kminder Mindmap
Markmap
Note Rename
Persistent Editor Layout
Quick Links
Space Indenter
Tagging
Templates

Hope this helps.

shikuz · 2024-11-11T08:12:32.256Z

Thanks @t0dd for the thorough testing!

I made some improvements in v0.2.1 to the scrolling method, cursor update, and how the data is stored (without sync / note properties) so that it is persistent across sessions. Hopefully these changes will improve the user experience and compatibility with other plugins.

That said, I have some of the aforementioned conflicting plugins, and I installed some of the others, and did not experience problems on my end. So I suspect that the issue may be related to the general impact of plugins on Joplin's speed and latency (this also obviously depends on your machine). To address this, I added a new setting that I encourage you to explore: Delay before setting cursor and scroll position (in ms). This delay is meant to ensure that the editor is fully loaded before trying to set the cursor. Some users may be able to decrease this setting for a smoother experience, while others may need to increase it in order for the plugin to work properly. Perhaps in the future I'll have a better solution for this (like getting a ping from the editor once it's loaded).

shikuz · 2024-11-11T08:12:55.671Z

v0.2.1

added: save cursor position across sessions in settings data (default)
added: clear user data from notes when not using this method to save the cursor
added: commands: clearUserData, clearSettingsData
added: setting restoreDelay: Delay before setting cursor and scroll position (in ms)
improved: increased default restoreDelay to handle slower clients
improved: 2-step scroll
improved: update saveSelection on setting change
fixed: update cursor position only after restored previous cursor

tomasz86 · 2024-11-11T17:48:39.749Z

bj-286:

It seems to be working with the RTE too.

However, it does not work when switching from RTE to MD (and viceversa) in the same note.

Are you sure about that? I've tested the plugin in the Rich Text Editor, however to no avail. It doesn't seem to do anything for me, i.e. the note after switching back to it always starts at the beginning.

I do agree that having this plugin work for both editors and also when switching between the two would be perfect .

t0dd · 2024-11-11T20:59:19.738Z

shikuz:

So I suspect that the issue may be related to the general impact of plugins on Joplin's speed and latency (this also obviously depends on your machine). To address this, I added a new setting that I encourage you to explore: Delay before setting cursor and scroll position (in ms). This delay is meant to ensure that the editor is fully loaded before trying to set the cursor.

Hmm. I get the behavior noted no matter how long I wait before switching to a different note. And if I disable all those top listed plugins, everything works appropriately.

The desktop I am testing all of this on is rather beefy: 5GHz CPU, 32GiB RAM.

My settings in Joplin:

Resume Note v0.2.1
Refresh interval for cursor and scroll position (ms): 2000
Delay before setting cursor and scroll position (in ms): 300
Save cursor selection
Sync data using note properties (Experimental)

Note. I don't really understand what those two timing settings do. You explain them in your release notes, but I still don't understand. To me, they sound like they do the same thing.

I'm trying to see a pattern with the Plugins that affect this situation and I am scratching my head. I mean, Whitespacer goes in and changes the edit window, so I can see that, depending on ordering of Plugin runs, maybe altering the highlighted selection. Dunno. This is mysterious.

shikuz · 2024-11-11T23:45:27.405Z

Just to clarify: I'm aware that it doesn't work, as it hasn't been implemented yet. I wasn't able to make it work, but perhaps someone else will and open a PR at some point. (I know the response was to @bj-286, just thought I'll update on the subject.)

shikuz · 2024-11-11T23:50:26.964Z

EDIT: I was finally able to reproduce the problem with your help (thanks!). I've released v0.2.2 to try to solve it. Here's a settings guide:

t0dd:

Refresh interval for cursor and scroll position (ms): 2000

This setting determines how often the cursor is saved. EDIT: Renamed to Refresh interval for saving cursor and scroll position (ms).

t0dd:

Delay before setting cursor and scroll position (in ms): 300

This setting determines how long the plugin waits before trying to set in the editor the cursor position.

New setting! (v0.2.2)
Delay before starting the plugin (in ms): 1000

Since you love these timing settings, I've added another one. This one is meant to help the plugin setup the editor without interference from other plugins. I hope that the default value will work for you, otherwise try to increase it to 2000-3000.

@t0dd Hope you'll see this edited message.

shikuz · 2024-11-12T01:45:10.848Z

v0.2.2

added: setting Delay before starting the plugin (in ms)

bj-286 · 2024-11-12T16:39:39.897Z

With this plugin enabled, also with the latest version, it's almost impossible to

rename or create a new notebook (EDITED: I wrongly wrote note)
change a note title

since the focus periodically goes to the note content.

t0dd · 2024-11-12T21:44:34.852Z

bj-286:

rename or create a new note

change a note title

I do not have these issues. Curious how your system is different.

shikuz · 2024-11-12T22:48:26.628Z

I cannot reproduce this either, @bj-286, so more information on your Joplin client would help. The normal behaviour is: When opening or creating a note, the focus changes to the editor (in order to show the cursor), but if you press the title you should be able to edit it. This happens once after opening the note. (Are you editing multiple notes in multiple windows?)

bj-286 · 2024-11-13T07:28:10.664Z

In my previous post I wrongly typed "rename or create a new note" but I meant "rename or create a new notebook".
Instead, the change note title persists. While I type the title, if I stop after a few milliseconds the cursor goes to the note content.

These are the plugins I use on MacOS 14.7

Joplin 3.1.24 (prod, darwin)

Backup: 1.4.2
Cursor Sync: 2.1.0
Joplin Calendar: 1.2.0
Resume Note: 0.2.2
Rich Markdown: 0.15.1
Tagging: 1.0.3
Toggle Editor Menu & Keyboard Shortcut: 1.0.1

shikuz · 2024-11-14T09:10:53.486Z

Sorry @bj-286, I couldn't reproduce these problems on Joplin 3.2.1 (macOS 14.7.1) with the same plugins installed (and I didn't encounter such problems in Joplin 3.1.24, but I didn't have these plugins then). What are your Resume Note settings?

t0dd · 2024-11-20T21:47:48.348Z

BUG. Or just "interesting" behavior.

If there is a Home Note configured, and you exit and then return to the application, you are returned to the Home Note. Presumable this is intended behavior, but I have thoughts on that. See bullet 3.
If I am somewhere else in the application and click Note then Go to home note, I will be returned to the notebook of the Home Note and not necessarily the Home Note itself. I.e., it takes me back to the last opened note in the notebook that houses the Home Note.
I would like a Home Note configured, but not have Joplin return me to that note upon restart. I want to stay where I left off. If I want to go back to the Home Note, that is why we now have that wonderful "Go to home note" feature now.

Thanks for a welcome addition to the suite of plugins.

UPDATE: Interestingly, when I click on a saved note via the Note Tabs plugin, I am also sent to the notebook and last opened note in that notebook and not the note I asked for. Same is true for the Favorites plugin.

shikuz · 2024-11-21T00:35:51.442Z

Thanks for the feedback, @t0dd.

I'll start with this:

t0dd:

Interestingly, when I click on a saved note via the Note Tabs plugin, I am also sent to the notebook and last opened note in that notebook and not the note I asked for. Same is true for the Favorites plugin.

This is something that I haven't found a way to address yet. What happens is that whenever the user opens a note, the plugin checks whether the folder changed. If the folder changed, the last active note is switched to. The reason for this approach is that there is no separate event for clicking on a folder (note and folder selection are coupled), so the only way to keep track of folders it to wait for a change in the selection of a note. The order of events in both scenarios is similar:

Select a folder --> Joplin loads a note --> Plugin sees a new folder --> Plugin changes to last active note

Select a tab --> Joplin loads a note --> Plugin sees a new folder --> Plugin changes to last active note

I could not find a way to distinguish a click on a tab from a click on the list of folders, they both produce the same event. The reason that you don't experience this when using the note list (and when you switch to a tab within the same folder), is that if you change to a different note within the same folder, the plugin does not try to restore the last active note. To be honest, my solution was to disable Save the last active note in each folder on my client and use only saved cursor positions, but this is what you wanted the plugin for in the first place.

t0dd:

If I am somewhere else in the application and click Note then Go to home note, I will be returned to the notebook of the Home Note

Given the explanation above, you can probably see why this happens. I can try to solve this in this particular case because the plugin can distinguish between a click on Go to home note and a change of note due to other user actions, so stay tuned.

t0dd:

I would like a Home Note configured, but not have Joplin return me to that note upon restart.

Sure, I'll add a setting for this.

t0dd · 2024-11-21T00:39:37.046Z

All that makes sense. Interesting coarse dial that Joplin gives you there. Thank you for the explanation.

Yeah, a setting for that Home Note behavior upon restart would be welcome.