What is the best practice to store custom data in a plugin?

HahaBill · 2024-07-19T10:11:45.111Z

Hi, I am currently developing a plugin to summarise notes in a plugin where I would like to store summaries either in SQLite or JSON. I think either adding a table to existing Joplin's SQLite database or creating a SQLite database in the user's plugin folder are the best way to go.

However, I would like to know what is the best practice? What contributors usually do when they try to store custom data in a plugin?

For example, I would like to store changes users made in a rich editor in a panel:

HahaBill · 2024-07-19T11:21:08.573Z

Is there also a way to send data from plugin to webview? If not then I am thinking writing a script that constantly check the data in the SQLite db for new summaries created or updated.

roman_r_m · 2024-07-19T13:05:03.830Z

HahaBill:

Is there also a way to send data from plugin to webview?

Yes, call webviewApi.postMessage from your webview and set the response in the plugin.

HahaBill · 2024-07-19T13:34:48.831Z

Hmmm, what do you mean by setting responses in the plugin?

Let's have this example:

(1) When I right-click on the note, the context menu appears (in the plugin) ->
(2) I click on the one of the buttons saying "Summarise the note" (in the plugin) ->
(3) Internally that button executes the command (in the plugin) ->
(4) I get the note body and summarise the content in the body (in the plugin) ->
(5) I send the summarised content of the note to the panel (from the plugin to the web view) ->
(6) The panel displays the summarised content in the rich text editor (in the webview) -> finished!

roman_r_m · 2024-07-19T13:58:16.473Z

HahaBill:

Is there also a way to send data from plugin to webview? If not then I am thinking writing a script that constantly check the data in the SQLite db for new summaries created or updated.

Ah, I misunderstood the question.

You can try this.
Send a message from webview when it loads:

webviewApi.postMessage("getData")

In the plugin, return the promise and save a refernce to it

var sendData;
joplin.views.panels.onMessage(resourceSearch, async (msg: Message) => {
  return new Promise((resolve) => {
     sendData = resolve;
})

// and then later when you have the data, call
sendData(data);

HahaBill · 2024-07-19T17:07:30.773Z

Great! I will try that! Thank you for answering my question.

personalizedrefriger · 2024-07-19T19:14:50.192Z

HahaBill:

However, I would like to know what is the best practice? What contributors usually do when they try to store custom data in a plugin?

I suggest the user data API. This API allows adding custom syncable metadata to individual notes.

roman_r_m:

In the plugin, return the promise and save a refernce to it

The table of contents plugin tutorial should also have an example that shows how to use this API.

HahaBill · 2024-07-19T19:55:34.448Z

Oh thank you so much!! I was confused what user data API meant but now it's more clear. This is exactly what I need!! (linking each summary to notes)

HahaBill · 2024-07-19T20:15:32.396Z

One more question: Does user data API persistently store custom data in the Joplin's SQLite database?

laurent · 2024-07-19T20:28:49.306Z

Yes, but I don't think you should try to access it directly. Instead use the provided methods userDataGet/userDataSet