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Show HN: MindIT – A web based Freemind alternative built in Meteor

35 points by sidcool 11y ago

sidcool 11y ago
Features: 1. Supports all shortcuts of Freemind. 2. Can import Freemind created Mind Maps. 3. Can export Freemind supported Mind Maps. 4. Cool tool.
- cpplinuxdude 11y ago
  Would you like a foot-rub with that sir? :)
  - sidcool 11y ago
    If that pleases the users ;)
elsen 11y ago
Nice, the help image could be smaller to fit on the screen.
- sidcool 11y ago
  Noted, will relay the information to the dev team.
cpplinuxdude 11y ago
Meteor fan here (new convert). Why build something that already exists, just by curiosity?
- dsp1234 11y ago
  Not the author, but a couple of reasons that seem likely: 1.) To learn how to build a non-toy application in Meteor 2.) Freemind is a desktop Java application, so having this be web based means it's available to more platforms.
  - sidcool 11y ago
    Very accurate, these and some more reasons stated above.
- sidcool 11y ago
  In my view, following reasons: 1. There are few web based mind mapping tools that are really good. 2. Learning new technology by making things (Meteor in this case) 3. Putting what you make in public for feedback. 4. Improving it iteratively to match the best in the market. Desktop or web-based. 5. Test the boundaries of the platform (Web in this case) 6. Feel good about it as a dev. :) Start again with a new product. Keep learning and feeling good eternally. :)
skimmas 11y ago
I was once a fan of mind maps but then stoped using them. I guess my mind evolved to some other way of organization but I always tought this kind of tool could be interesting. One thing though mind maps almost always make me grind my teeth is how most applications Have such poor defaults in terms of aestethics.
- sidcool 11y ago
  I agree with you that the look and feel are not the best, but the app is under heavy development and the UI is going to improve in leaps and bounds. Stay tuned!
creamyhorror 11y ago
I rely on Freeplane (leading fork of Freemind) to store almost all my notes and knowledge, it's really great for my purposes (better than having hundreds of text files). A diffing, web version of Freeplane would be great, because I really miss multi-client syncing and access-on-the-go features. I'm guessing this app, while cool, won't really fill that need, since it's merely compatible with Freemind. Unless it grows into a full platform to essentially replace Freemind (which is a possible way to go). Still, good job on building a Freemind-compatible app!
- adzicg 11y ago
  mindmup does diffing and version control nicely (the format is JSON) and it's web based, multi-client. http://discover.mindmup.com/geeks http://discover.mindmup.com/geeks
  - sidcool 11y ago
    An awesome feature idea. Added to backlog! Thanks.
- sidcool 11y ago
  Thanks for your feedback! With time we plan on adding more feature and give it a desktop like experience. Stay tuned!
MegaLeon 11y ago
Nice, I am developing some stuff to learn Meteor as well. What would you say be the biggest challenge you had while developing this was and how did you solve it?
- sidcool 11y ago
  A core dev team member will answer that shortly.
- sidcool 11y ago
  In fact, that warrants a dedicated blog posts on the team's experience with Meteor. Will post it soon.
thenomad 11y ago
A bit minimal for my needs but a cool start. Unless I missed it, there doesn't seem to be a way to drag items around - I tend to use visual arrangement in my mindmaps quite a bit.
- sidcool 11y ago
  It's scrollable both vertically and horizontally (as your mindmap expands) But adding draggable elements makes sense. Noted. Thanks for your feedback.
sidcool 11y ago
Any feedback will help the team make it better. I have listed high level features in another comment here.
nacnud 11y ago
Seems to say "Loading.." indefinitely. (Probably because I'm behind a corp firewall/proxy)
- sidcool 11y ago
  I think that's coz of the load of being on HN front page.
sidcool 11y ago
The next release has the following features upcoming. 1. A better and snappy UI. 2. Closer resemblance to FreeMind in terms of working with multiple nodes, look and feel etc. 3. Log in system to save and share mind-maps. 4. Dashboard for logged in users with cool features. 5. Android and iOS apps. 6. Cool animations. The team is very excited about the feedback and response. Keep it coming!
- 3dfan 11y ago
  Heya! 1) How does it work? When I click on "Create Mindmap", I get an empty page with a grey elipse on it with the words "New Mindmap". When I click that, I can change the text. Thats all. How do I create a Mindmap? 2) Who are you? What is your background? What do the 20 people on the "About Us" page do? It seems like a pretty big team. 3) How will you monetize it?
  - sidcool 11y ago
    Howdy 3dfan, 1. It uses keyboard shortcuts for now. TAB will add a child, while ENTER will add a sibling. For the complete list of shortcuts click on the 'Help' link on top right. 2. We are developers and it is being developed by freshers as a passion project. We really love creating things. It's a big team, righto, but many work on the product part time. 3. We have no plans monetizing it in the near future. We created http://ideaboardz.com http://ideaboardz.com earlier for the fun of it, and it's been received quite well. That's our reward.
clishem 11y ago
The lack of 'fork me on GitHub' button is unfortunete. Will this be open sourced?
- sidcool 11y ago
  You bet it will be open sourced once we are in a good shape. We also created an app a while ago called http://ideaboardz.com http://ideaboardz.com the source code of which is open.
ArekDymalski 11y ago
Congratulations on shipping your app. Did you consider developing smartphone-friendly version. I dream about usable mindmapping app for ~5" touchscreens :)
- sidcool 11y ago
  An Android and iOS app is being built right now as we speak. Will post an update.
_Rex 11y ago
I like the fact that it's online, but I won't ditch Freemind until you replicate their notes feature. Also, does it support simultaneous editing?
- sidcool 11y ago
  It does! Meteor gives that out of the box.
lawpoop 11y ago
One feature I've looked for is "completely" nested mind-maps. What I mean is that when I click on a node, I want the outer mind map to completely disappear as I zoom into the clicked node as an entirely new, nested mind-map. Even with collapsing, traditional mind-maps have too much information overload for me.
sidcool 11y ago
A new release just made. Features: 1. Undo/Redo 2. Actions on multiple nodes.

35 points by sidcool 11y ago

Features: 1. Supports all shortcuts of Freemind. 2. Can import Freemind created Mind Maps. 3. Can export Freemind supported Mind Maps. 4. Cool tool.

cpplinuxdude 11y ago
Would you like a foot-rub with that sir? :)
- sidcool 11y ago
  If that pleases the users ;)

elsen 11y ago

Nice, the help image could be smaller to fit on the screen.

sidcool 11y ago
Noted, will relay the information to the dev team.

cpplinuxdude 11y ago

Meteor fan here (new convert). Why build something that already exists, just by curiosity?

dsp1234 11y ago
Not the author, but a couple of reasons that seem likely: 1.) To learn how to build a non-toy application in Meteor 2.) Freemind is a desktop Java application, so having this be web based means it's available to more platforms.
- sidcool 11y ago
  Very accurate, these and some more reasons stated above.
sidcool 11y ago
In my view, following reasons: 1. There are few web based mind mapping tools that are really good. 2. Learning new technology by making things (Meteor in this case) 3. Putting what you make in public for feedback. 4. Improving it iteratively to match the best in the market. Desktop or web-based. 5. Test the boundaries of the platform (Web in this case) 6. Feel good about it as a dev. :) Start again with a new product. Keep learning and feeling good eternally. :)

skimmas 11y ago

I was once a fan of mind maps but then stoped using them. I guess my mind evolved to some other way of organization but I always tought this kind of tool could be interesting. One thing though mind maps almost always make me grind my teeth is how most applications Have such poor defaults in terms of aestethics.

sidcool 11y ago
I agree with you that the look and feel are not the best, but the app is under heavy development and the UI is going to improve in leaps and bounds. Stay tuned!

creamyhorror 11y ago

I rely on Freeplane (leading fork of Freemind) to store almost all my notes and knowledge, it's really great for my purposes (better than having hundreds of text files). A diffing, web version of Freeplane would be great, because I really miss multi-client syncing and access-on-the-go features. I'm guessing this app, while cool, won't really fill that need, since it's merely compatible with Freemind. Unless it grows into a full platform to essentially replace Freemind (which is a possible way to go). Still, good job on building a Freemind-compatible app!

adzicg 11y ago
mindmup does diffing and version control nicely (the format is JSON) and it's web based, multi-client. http://discover.mindmup.com/geeks http://discover.mindmup.com/geeks
- sidcool 11y ago
  An awesome feature idea. Added to backlog! Thanks.
sidcool 11y ago
Thanks for your feedback! With time we plan on adding more feature and give it a desktop like experience. Stay tuned!

MegaLeon 11y ago

Nice, I am developing some stuff to learn Meteor as well. What would you say be the biggest challenge you had while developing this was and how did you solve it?

sidcool 11y ago
A core dev team member will answer that shortly.
sidcool 11y ago
In fact, that warrants a dedicated blog posts on the team's experience with Meteor. Will post it soon.

thenomad 11y ago

A bit minimal for my needs but a cool start. Unless I missed it, there doesn't seem to be a way to drag items around - I tend to use visual arrangement in my mindmaps quite a bit.

sidcool 11y ago
It's scrollable both vertically and horizontally (as your mindmap expands) But adding draggable elements makes sense. Noted. Thanks for your feedback.

sidcool 11y ago

Any feedback will help the team make it better. I have listed high level features in another comment here.

nacnud 11y ago

Seems to say "Loading.." indefinitely. (Probably because I'm behind a corp firewall/proxy)

sidcool 11y ago
I think that's coz of the load of being on HN front page.

sidcool 11y ago

The next release has the following features upcoming. 1. A better and snappy UI. 2. Closer resemblance to FreeMind in terms of working with multiple nodes, look and feel etc. 3. Log in system to save and share mind-maps. 4. Dashboard for logged in users with cool features. 5. Android and iOS apps. 6. Cool animations. The team is very excited about the feedback and response. Keep it coming!

3dfan 11y ago
Heya! 1) How does it work? When I click on "Create Mindmap", I get an empty page with a grey elipse on it with the words "New Mindmap". When I click that, I can change the text. Thats all. How do I create a Mindmap? 2) Who are you? What is your background? What do the 20 people on the "About Us" page do? It seems like a pretty big team. 3) How will you monetize it?
- sidcool 11y ago
  Howdy 3dfan, 1. It uses keyboard shortcuts for now. TAB will add a child, while ENTER will add a sibling. For the complete list of shortcuts click on the 'Help' link on top right. 2. We are developers and it is being developed by freshers as a passion project. We really love creating things. It's a big team, righto, but many work on the product part time. 3. We have no plans monetizing it in the near future. We created http://ideaboardz.com http://ideaboardz.com earlier for the fun of it, and it's been received quite well. That's our reward.

clishem 11y ago

The lack of 'fork me on GitHub' button is unfortunete. Will this be open sourced?

sidcool 11y ago
You bet it will be open sourced once we are in a good shape. We also created an app a while ago called http://ideaboardz.com http://ideaboardz.com the source code of which is open.

ArekDymalski 11y ago

Congratulations on shipping your app. Did you consider developing smartphone-friendly version. I dream about usable mindmapping app for ~5" touchscreens :)

sidcool 11y ago
An Android and iOS app is being built right now as we speak. Will post an update.

_Rex 11y ago

I like the fact that it's online, but I won't ditch Freemind until you replicate their notes feature. Also, does it support simultaneous editing?

sidcool 11y ago
It does! Meteor gives that out of the box.

lawpoop 11y ago

One feature I've looked for is "completely" nested mind-maps. What I mean is that when I click on a node, I want the outer mind map to completely disappear as I zoom into the clicked node as an entirely new, nested mind-map. Even with collapsing, traditional mind-maps have too much information overload for me.

sidcool 11y ago

A new release just made. Features: 1. Undo/Redo 2. Actions on multiple nodes.