18 ms·

Notion API – public beta

xvilka 5y ago
Time to integrate it with [Neo]Vim and Emacs!
- striking 5y ago
  Can't delete or modify existing blocks yet, sadly.
fishtoaster 5y ago
Well that's awesome! I've been waiting for this for a while. My company uses notion internally for project management and I'd love to extend it a little bit (eg to generate burndown charts). I'll probably try to resist the urge to build a massive, poorly-written project management tool on top of the notion api. Probably.
- jkhdigital 5y ago
  And I need to resist the urge to build an entire accounting system on top of the Notion API
dheera 5y ago
I currently use a 1-person Slack workspace instead of Notion because I can write bots to help me with various things. I'll have to see if this API is complete enough to do what I want with Notion.
- tertius 5y ago
  Expound on how you may take advantage of it.
- truth_ 5y ago
  Do you have a blog or some sort of writeup?
  - dheera 5y ago
    Not yet but I'll strongly consider writing one soon! Didn't realize there was so much interest in this.
- nicomeemes 5y ago
  This sounds really interesting to me. Care to explain how you use it (the slack workspace/bots)?
  - dheera 5y ago
    I just use Slack as a universal command line interface for everything. Slack's bot extensibility make it great for: - As a universal notification system (calendar events, github notifications, sms for the idiot apps that insist on it -- all sms go to my slack instead of my phone, alerts about my 3D printer e.g. print complete, alerts about low battery on any of my devices or robots, automatic google maps links of businesses I have visited, just about everything really) - Expanding upon references to things, e.g. if I tag a bot and type the name of a hiking trail it can fetch the alltrails page for it and link it; if I tag a bot and type the name of a restaurant it can fetch the yelp page and link it - If I paste code it can run it in a sandboxed environment and show the results much like a Jupyter notebook - As a text interface to Google Assistant (the implementation is convoluted; I have to TTS the text and feed the audio result into Google's ConverseRequest endpoint. I couldn't figure out a way to feed text directly to Google) - I have all my IOT devices linked to Slack, I can turn on/off lights, set thermostat, pause/unpause my 3D printer, request a snapshot from any camera in my house, everything right from Slack - Slack is also great because I can upload arbitrary files, pictures, videos, sounds with ease. The best part is that it is available on all my devices with data synced through the cloud and native mobile apps so it makes all of the above conveniently available on my phone and e-reader. The biggest downsides are Slack's sucky search, and editing prior messages isn't the best experience.
dagorenouf 5y ago
It's been requested for at least 3 years. I totally understand that it takes a while so I'm not blaming them. But it seems like in the meantime people have started to move on (I have). Let's hope this can bring back some momentum for them.
- arnon 5y ago
  Move on to what and why?
  - andreilys 5y ago
    So many other applications out there that don’t hold your data hostage like Notion. I learned after spending an hour to transfer notes that they have a “limit” on the number of “blocks” (aka notes) that I can have. Absolutely terrible user experience and turned me off from ever using Notion. I ended up going open source with vimwiki (and obsidian as a visualization layer, although as comments pointed out it’s not open source). much more robust and less impervious to scummy growth tactics or companies shutting down due to acquisitions/pivots in strategy.
    - nomad225 5y ago
      I had the same experience. It started off great, but I was not a fan of the idea of having all my data hostage with Notion. I'm using emacs with org-mode and org-roam right now, but I still don't have good flow with org-roam. Both Obsidian.md and vimwiki look really cool though. Do you use Obsidian and vimwiki together, or for separate purposes?
      - andreilys 5y ago
        I take notes with vimwiki (using tags) and then obsidian is the visualization layer (being able to filter and see what notes are related to one another)
    - Karunamon 5y ago
      The limitation only applies on free accounts, paid accounts for personal usage are extremely cheap, and it has full exportability into markdown and csv. Not sure what you're talking about unless this was a long time ago.
brainzap 5y ago
Time to export articles as static website
- warent 5y ago
  This is my first thought!
WORMS_EAT_WORMS 5y ago
Finally! Cool API stuff aside, this could make an excellent use case for a content back-end to your Jam-apps or quick little apps. For example, Vercel reverse-engineered the internal API and made a super awesome demo here when introducing "Serverless Pre-Rendering". [1] There's a video demo and code of how they did it. [1] https://vercel.com/blog/serverless-pre-rendering https://vercel.com/blog/serverless-pre-rendering
owlbynight 5y ago
When I initially signed up for Notion, I did so thinking the API was already usable. It was used as a selling point for their premium service even though it wasn't implemented. This was a year and a half ago or so. I felt pretty burned by it and killed my subscription. Hopefully this turns out well for the people who've been waiting for it, but that experience left a terrible taste in my mouth.
- bnt 5y ago
  Isn't that the whole point of Agile MVP development? Sell something that doesn't exist and hope someone buys it? Personally, I don't expect much from it, after working with Airtable's API and hating every second of it.
  - villasv 5y ago
    You nailed the opposite of an MVP, which is to deliver it immediately and improve it later.
    - Areading314 5y ago
      Theres a lot of reasons why it makes sense to sell something before building it. You want to be up front about this fact but getting commitments to buy something is a good idea before actually spending money and time to build it.
      - villasv 5y ago
        Of course. That has nothing to do with agile MVPs, though.
  - arcticfox 5y ago
    Well you've either got to make it clear that it doesn't exist yet, or not actually charge them until you build it. Otherwise that sounds like fraud.
  - wpietri 5y ago
tekacs 5y ago
It's nice to see this happening at last! This is a promising start, but so far it's read & append it looks like -- no updating (of blocks at least). Updating page properties can take it a way, but looking forward to seeing it expand a little.
deleted 5y ago
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spullara 5y ago
Who makes a database API with no way to change records in the database?
- jitl 5y ago
  You can update the properties of a page in a database using a PATCH request to v1/pages, details here: https://developers.notion.com/reference/patch-page https://developers.notion.com/reference/patch-page (I work at Notion, but not on the API team)
  - spullara 5y ago
    Yeah, I found that later. Still seems odd there isn't a direct API for it.
    - Spivak 5y ago
      Is this not the direct API? Databases are just a bag of pages that have the same properties. I would kinda expect that updating a record would just be a page operation.
      - spullara 5y ago
        There is a direct API for listing databases for instance. That isn't done through the pages stuff. Just a nit I guess but using the page patch API for databases updates is just weird to me.
arduinomancer 5y ago
Pretty big deal, people have been requesting this for years. Probably the number one requested feature I've seen.
- truth_ 5y ago
  > Probably the number one requested feature I've seen. Along with stylus support.
enra 5y ago
Seems extremely limited as an API, wondering what people can actually use this for. For example markdown support for read/write would make it much easier to use it as CMS or sync the data, instead of working on the custom block types.
orliesaurus 5y ago
Full Disclosure - I have been lucky enough to have closed BETA access to the Notion API and here are some things I have noticed. BTW I do not work for Notion, im totally indie :P - The team building the API has been super responsive and respectful, very good collaboration on their Dev slack and I had a great time testing things - The documentation has been updated with the feedback from the community who had access, it's in a MUCH better status now than when it started - The API speed has increased, it was really slow, now its a bit faster :) Looking forward to see how other companies are using the Notion API, whether natively or through other integrations, I've seen a lot of activity from the folks at Integromat and Typeform :) (which are awesome tools btw!)
- virgil_disgr4ce 5y ago
  I've also found them to be pretty responsive (I've messaged them a number of times with bug reports and feature requests). That really contributes to my overall appreciation of the product!
harrisonjackson 5y ago
And the Zapier integration is launched, too! https://zapier.com/apps/notion/integrations https://zapier.com/apps/notion/integrations It has the same basic trigger (new item), actions (create/update item), and search (find item) as every other CRM integration. It is missing a trigger for item getting updated - still excited to see how folks are using it though.
- harrisonjackson 5y ago
  CMS* though I am guessing it is being used as a CRM, too.
mattwad 5y ago
I have to give a shoutout to the dev who wrote Nishan, a wrapper around Notion's internal API used by their webapp. I've been using it for a while and it will be a long time before the public API catches up. Getting users to find the api token from cookies has been a pain though, so I'll be looking into migrating asap. https://github.com/Devorein/Nishan https://github.com/Devorein/Nishan
shubhamjain 5y ago
I have been using Notion in its API form for a while through notion-py[1]. Currently, it powers my blog[2] and for me, it's a really good integration. I write something, ask my friends to review it. I run a command to publish it, and it's live. The workflow is really, really good and removes a ton of friction because the software that you write in is also the one that powers your blog's content. Overall, I think Notion API can open up many, many possibilities, since it can become a really good CMS, besides already being a great note-taking tool, and a team app. Notion has millions of users, and it's a huge market already. Btw, if you're interested in running your blog on Notion, I would love to hear from you! [3] [1]: https://github.com/jamalex/notion-py https://github.com/jamalex/notion-py [2]: https://shubhamjain.co/ https://shubhamjain.co/ [3]: https://twitter.com/shubhamjainco https://twitter.com/shubhamjainco
- virgil_disgr4ce 5y ago
  I am interested in running my blog with Notion. I currently use a Gatsby blog on Netlify using NetlifyCMS. So I'd need to export any entries to Markdown and commit them to the blog's repo (the rest is handled by Netlify). I'd ideally like it to be bidirectional though, so that any changes to files in the repo are going to be reflected in Notion...
- turtlebits 5y ago
  Notion static pages are extremely bloated. I commented previously about a documentation page created with notion that was 2+ mb for what was essentially 10 links
heipei 5y ago
Glad they learned from their painful mistake and ditched the .so domain in favor of a .com.
- dhritzkiv 5y ago
  Can you fill me in about why a .so domain was a mistake? Because DNS providers/ firewalls sometimes block foreign TLDs, or was there something else?
  - freewilly1040 5y ago
    > Because DNS providers/ firewalls sometimes block foreign TLDs yes, this
- juancampa 5y ago
  Mind elaborating on what went wrong with .so? I can imagine that relying on the network infra of another country is risky.
truth_ 5y ago
Nothing is perfect. But if Notion had stylus support and a Linux native client (even Electron), it would be perfect to me. They said in Twitter that stylus support is a priority, but no plans yet for a Linux client. And, the Android app is quite clunky, not as good as Android native Notes apps.
- tomComb 5y ago
  The Windows and Mac apps are just electron - not much advantage over just using it on the browser which has its own advantages. So, yes, since they are using electron they might as well provide a Linux one too, but I don't see why the lack of one would hold you back.
ibdf 5y ago
I really like the idea of what notion is trying to do, but their "databases" drive me nuts. They force a default column that's useless for relationships... and I never know if they want to be database like or excel like. Notion needs a good roadmap, and also start acknowledging user feedback, besides the "we got your feedback".
- MattRix 5y ago
  Along the same lines, the fact that they don’t have any simple inline tables that aren’t “databases” is annoying. Sometimes I don’t want a database or a spreadsheet, just a simple inline table with a few columns.
  - Spivak 5y ago
    Kinda confused about this one? Inline tables are ... well inline tables. Why does it matter that they're actually pages/databases? Is it that you want tables in the formatting sense?
    - MattRix 5y ago
      Good question! There are a few things. First, you can’t make a table that doesn’t have specifically typed vertical columns, which means a bunch of layouts just aren’t possible (you can kind of fake it with all text columns, but it gets messy. You also can’t hide the column headers. You’re forced to have a name column, and your table has to have a title (you can make the title a space but that feels like a hack). There’s just lots of chrome. Even if you lock the table, you still have the lock icon and the new row button that will never go away. These things may all seem minor, but they really do make tables not look or feel “simple”. To be clear, I’m absolutely fine with the existing tables for certain purposes, and I don’t want them changed… I just wish there was a “Simple Table” block type as well.
- Karunamon 5y ago
  It's kinda both. If you're familiar with Airtable, the feature sets are almost carbon copies of each other.
deleted 5y ago
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nazgulsenpai 5y ago
It really irks me when the pricing page for any product has any tier that requires contacting "Sales". If you don't want to include pricing for a tier, exclude it from the pricing list or add a "need something else" or "we also offer enterprise plans" after the table. Maybe just a me thing, because I'm guessing it obviously works based on how often I've come across it.
- imwillofficial 5y ago
  Seems reasonable enough to me. At a certain scale giving a price is meaningless because there are tons more factors that go into the cost.
- virgil_disgr4ce 5y ago
  The reason pricing is not shown for that tier (in most cases, I can't say for sure for Notion) is because it's not a normal tier, it includes the possibilities of negotiated pricing and custom setups. Why does it bother you?
jfrunyon 5y ago
> Start building with the Notion API BETA Okay, but what does it do and why do I want it? Why do sooooo many businesses insist on homepages that tell me literally nothing about the product they provide?
- detaro 5y ago
  really, the notion homepage tells you literally nothing about the product? https://www.notion.so/ https://www.notion.so/
  - tanaypingalkar 5y ago
    but the product is great but it is underrated for some reasons. I think it is underrated because it is a small company compare to its competitor microsoft and google and getting use to notion is also little bit tricky.
awill 5y ago
How good is Notion? Is the lock-in worth it? I'm fearful of lock-in, and just use markdown plain text, sync'd with dropbox, and then use different markdown apps on different OSes.
- freewilly1040 5y ago
  They offer the ability to export to markdown, so I don't think using it would lock you out of reverting to that option
  - SixFive7 5y ago
    Beware that for us any export has been broken for months with no real answer from Notion support other than: we know.
- RunawayGalaxy 5y ago
  imho The primary value is their pared-down databases that mostly just work like you want them to.
- Spivak 5y ago
  I've actively searched for years to find a system to dump my brain into and Notion is the absolutely perfect fit for me. The fact that everything is a page, anything can go into a page, and you can nest forever on the fly is exactly what I need to model my actual IRL problems. Putting together a Christmas list? Create a list and start adding stuff. Ahh crap, I know I want a new TV but I don't know any specifics. So I just open up the TV item in the list and dive into my research. Create a database inside there for prospective options, a separate view for finalists. Copy in images, links to articles and reviews without "losing my place." I don't have to spend any mental energy thinking about how to organize my notes because I can just pick a direction and go without being stopped by anything. Everything lives where it's most relevant I guess it how I'd say it.
chirau 5y ago
I like the look of this site. Where can I get graphics similar to those cartoons on the page?
- Operyl 5y ago
  By commissioning or hiring an artist to create them for you I suppose.
  - chirau 5y ago
    I know there are sites that provide stock illustrations, I just didn't know which ones they were. But another commenter gave me some.
- unculture 5y ago
  Here's some illustration sites / products I collected for a recent project as possible resources / inspiration: - https://storytale.io/ - https://control.rocks/ - https://picchustudio.webflow.io/ - https://undraw.co/illustrations - https://craftwork.design/downloads/friday-illustrations/
  - chirau 5y ago
    Thanks for this!
- jitl 5y ago
  We pay professional artists to draw all of our illustrations. - Roman Muradov: https://www.bluebed.net/ https://www.bluebed.net/ - Iris Chiang: https://irischiangart.com https://irischiangart.com
- commieneko 5y ago
  Hire an illustrator to create them for you. What makes the Notion illustrations so appealing and effective to me is not their style, though I love the way they look, it is that they are created for the need at hand. They are individually made to a purpose. Side note: I manage several illustrators for a team that produces educational media and one of the hardest things we have to communicate to users is what an illustration is good for. I have users come to me with an image and say, "I want an illustration that looks like this." And we ask them, "But what do you want the illustration to do." And they answer, "We want it to look like this." They don't have any particular purpose for the illustration, it's just wallpaper for their website. A way to break up a page. A function of general art direction, rather than a working part of the content. We end up doing a lot of what amounts to custom clip art, because that's what users often want. And it really does help a website or a video, or a document to have consistent art direction. But by far the the most compelling and engaging content we work on isn't from when a user asks for a set of stock images and icons, all in the same style, but it's when they comes to us and says, "We have this problem explaining this idea, or telling this story. Can you help us with that?"
todsacerdoti 5y ago
We integrated the Notion API into Pipedream. Triggers and actions coming shortly: - Demo: https://pipedream.com/apps/notion https://pipedream.com/apps/notion - Workflow Example: https://pipedream.com/@tod/p_D1C3LlN https://pipedream.com/@tod/p_D1C3LlN
tacosaretasty 5y ago
I’d be sold on their product if they had better security implementation. Company wiki’s are troves of sensitive information and I’m uncomfortable that I have yet to find any central logging on the product. I wish these things were also taken into account
barbazoo 5y ago
For anyone looking for a open source notes app that let's you keep control of your data, have a look at https://joplinapp.org/ https://joplinapp.org/.
- InitialLastName 5y ago
  The biggest thing I'm trying to replace as I move off of Notion is the dynamic lists embedded in notes. I couldn't tell but that doesn't seem like a thing in Joplin; am I missing something?
  - barbazoo 5y ago
    You mean lists like this: https://www.notion.so/Products-Materials-92c8bdfbcbd049e3a97767893c2b3bdb https://www.notion.so/Products-Materials-92c8bdfbcbd049e3a97... That doesn't exist in Joplin.
    - petemir 5y ago
      But perhaps it is doable with the new plugin system!
- urlwolf 5y ago
  I really like zim (a desktop wiki) together with some filesync software
  - barbazoo 5y ago
    What I like about Joplin is that it lets me sync with my phone without much hassle via e.g. Dropbox
r5Khe 5y ago
Interesting that there's apparently no way to update databases. That's unfortunate, because otherwise this might be a useful Jamstack data API.
- r5Khe 5y ago
  Whoops, apparently this isn't true! https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27145301 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27145301
  - yawnxyz 5y ago
    I guess one could just stuff json in these properties haha...
voodoologic 5y ago
I used to love Notion, but I switch to org-roam and emacs for privacy. The transition took a lot of work, but the cross referencing notation is just as good.
tanaypingalkar 5y ago
this will be great, people will make notion clients for terminal, i like terminal todo list or terminal apps and having a great productivity tool in terminal which will sync all the device is good idea. LIke there is spotify on terminal.
TechBro8615 5y ago
Big fan of notion. Not a fan of the data lock-in or haphazard security. For tools like this, SaaS will almost always beat open source just by virtue of elbow grease and a product direction. So I’m willing to forego the open source alternatives. But I really wish Notion gave me more options for how to host my data. AFAICT they offer no “dedicated storage” or “on premise” plan, even if you want to pay for it. In fact I heard a rumor that the entirety of Notion runs on a single unsharded database. If true, combined with the fact that this API took so long to ship, I have to assume that there is a crippling amount of tech debt in their stack. Hopefully it’s growing pains and they’re sorting it out, but it doesn’t make me feel confident about the security of my (most sensitive) data. It’s maybe also a cautionary tale about what happens when you dismiss too many early decisions as “premature optimization.” You ship fast in the beginning but a few years later you’re buried in all the debt you generated. Granted, it’s a good problem to have. If the choice is between a profitable, popular company buried in tech debt, or the perfect stack with no customers, I’ll take the debt.
- kyawzazaw 5y ago
  Apart from the HN growd + a few more, I think more users likely just don't care about options to host data.
  - breakfastduck 5y ago
    Many regulated organizations do, though. Single reason we didn't adopt notion is lack of ability to self host.
    - pfd1986 5y ago
      Same for my org. We'd have the entire team move, if self host was an option.
    - jamiequint 5y ago
      Out of curiosity what do you use for documents and email? Not using Office365/Google Docs/Outlook/Gmail at all?
scubbo 5y ago
Thank you for the reminder that I should try converting from Evernote to Notion again. Last time I tried (~2 months ago), the automatic importer died after importing ~10% of my Evernote content. Though, based on some of the comments in this thread, maybe I _shouldn't_ and should try Obsidian instead.
- fudged71 5y ago
  Obsidian/Roam if you have a lot of interconnected notes
- julianz 5y ago
  Interesting, I was able to convert a couple of thousand notes spread across about 10 notebooks from Evernote to Notion and there didn't seem to be too many issues, apart from needing to reformat quite a few that had suffered from Evernote's formatting weirdnesses.
ryanmarsh 5y ago
I absolutely love Notion and I'm excited for the future this API will bring.
dogas 5y ago
I was a huge Notion fan. However, the long sync times were driving me nuts. I have since moved to inkdrop (https://www.inkdrop.app/ https://www.inkdrop.app/) because it's much better for my use case: * I can write Markdown notes. I've only wanted to write markdown notes. * The syncing is incredibly fast because it's using an existing technology purpose-built for syncing (CouchDB) * I can bring my own CouchDB and not have my data locked in * Has a mobile app that works well * There is a "vim mode" and that makes me happy.
- nojvek 5y ago
  The big attractor to Notion for me is the All-in-on workspace idea. It's a table-database, it's a wiki, it's a kanban board, it's a team calendar, it's a project gallery, it's a blog. Tables can have wiki notes, which can have tables. The recursive nature works very well for organizing your knowledgebase and having an entire org work together. The things I hate about notion. 1) pressing / anywhere opens the menu. So annoying. 2) It's live collaboration on code is awful. We end up using codesandbox and then copy-pasting back. 3) It looses and new edits every now and then. Their sync needs work. 4) No way to proper version control documents and have a pull-request/suggestion like model for editing authoritative docs. The other player in the same market is https://coda.io https://coda.io. They go quite a bit further than notion in terms of formulas and reference tables. With both Coda and Notion, I feel I seldom have to use google docs.
  - IceWreck 5y ago
    > It's a table-database, it's a wiki, it's a kanban board, it's a team calendar, it's a project gallery, it's a blog. So what does it do that something like gitlab or phabricator cannot do ? And if you are willing to consider different products for different things then you have dokuwiki/xwiki/wikijs/bookstack for wiki and multiple popular project management tools like kanboard/focalboard.
    - kwinten 5y ago
      > So what does it do that something like gitlab or phabricator cannot do ? Gitlab is great. Their wiki is absolute shit. Notion just has a mostly really great user experience for writing notes, adding some tables or screenshots, moving them around, etc.
arthurofbabylon 5y ago
For the folks who find Notion slow or otherwise unreliable, I’d love to hear your feedback on minimal.app (or minimal.app/#beta, depending on where you’re located). Collaborative Notes just went live, making it a lighter, more focused alternative to Notion.
- EduardoBautista 5y ago
  This is something I have been wanting for a while! Markdown collaborative notes in a native app! Definitely downloading...
- dexterdog 5y ago
  I avoid notion because it's so slow, but I can't use minimal because there is no Android app.
Otek 5y ago
I tried Notion for a while, but vendor lock-in makes these tools too risky for me. I'va ahd a good run with git+md notes. A while ago i successfully migrated to org-mode and not looking back.
rm8x 5y ago
should someone have perhaps roasted their landing page I wonder
myky22 5y ago
Beings using it for a year. Perfect and flexible for developing :) Maybe I try some pythonist adaptation for my homework...
seumars 5y ago
So Notion is essentially a CMS now. I still wonder what one could realistically do with the API other than small quirky experiments
- yawnxyz 5y ago
  I'm using Notion as a CMS for a static site I've built for a grant-funded academic project. My collaborators edit the project page, which includes nested pages, tables, and even uploaded videos and images. After they've updated it, they click a special link that triggers a Vercel build, which converts Notion into JSON for the site to build into static pages. I'm using this as my backbone: https://github.com/benborgers/potion https://github.com/benborgers/potion and it's a lot more powerful than the Notion API... this reads tables and lets you show image attachments and more
- FalconSensei 5y ago
  One of the things I use notion for is to centralize my trackings: - tv, movie and actors from trakt.tv; - books from gooodreads - anime and manga from anilist The reason is that: I can make better notes, I can add extra data/properties, easier to organize in a kanban or other visualizations. But now, if I add more movies on my trakt, I run a script to export to CSV, and then have to import the new rows into Notion. With this, now my exports can add the new rows and update the data.
nojvek 5y ago
Notion is probably the most prominent startup to make .so (somalia) domain more acceptable. I've seen plenty of .io and .ai, but .so was new for me when I first saw it. I thought it was a scam when I tried Notion 3 years ago.
- rajasimon 5y ago
  They also own notion.com but the things I people like .so better.
rubyist5eva 5y ago
I love Notion, the tool/product, but I want something exactly like it but open source and where I can store my data where I want it. I guess I should get started...
- ramnes 5y ago
  Go help the folks working on Focalboard!
  - jasonblais 5y ago
    Mattermost PM here, thanks for suggesting Focalboard! @rubyist5eva You can learn more about Focalboard - the open-source alternative to Trello, Asana and Notion - at https://focalboard.com/ https://focalboard.com/.
    - rubyist5eva 5y ago
      looks like a neat project, might set it up in my homelab and give it a try - but I dont' think it's quite what I'm looking for
resource0x 5y ago
FWIW, my note taking app is github. Created a private repo, keeping my notes as "issues". I can label, link, search them, insert images, add comments etc. Can someone name a relevant feature that is missing from github?
- isbwkisbakadqv 5y ago
  Can you explain how this works in more detail - I’m intrigued!
  - resource0x 5y ago
    Every time I want to memorize something, I either open an issue against my fake repo (created specifically for this purpose) or add another comment to an existing issue. It's a good idea to create 1 issue per topic and just keep adding separate comments. Cross-references can be added for the linked concepts. Github markdown is quite rich. There are features (like "<details>") that can be found only there. There's not much to say actually. Try it out - you will figure out what works best for you.
dawnerd 5y ago
A little late for us. We ended up switching away after being a very early adopter. The downtime, slowness and poor search really did it in for us. Hoping for the best to the team, you’ve grown so fast it’s incredible!
zimbatm 5y ago
That's good news. Some services like https://super.so/ https://super.so/ (which is brilliant) were already using unofficial APIs.
adam_ellsworth 5y ago
I've seen Notion discussed on HN for a time now, and while this seems to be well received I'm not really sure what it's for. What are the use-cases here? What's Notion being used for that this new API functionality will help in? How are you using it either personally or professionally? Thanks
- disordinary 5y ago
  Just a wiki really which is made up of smart blocks. I've used it a couple of times professionally but the companies have usually moved on to something simpler after struggling to get buy in across the team. It can be daunting when you first use it, although very powerful.
ramnes 5y ago
I'm writing a Python client right now, 99% copied from their JS implementation, if anyone wants to join the fun! https://github.com/ramnes/notion-sdk-py https://github.com/ramnes/notion-sdk-py I hope they will release an OpenAPI specification file soon so that code maintenance between different clients is kept to a minimum. :)
dancemethis 5y ago
Thankfully Anytype, the Notion killer, will be soon in beta.
- jiva 5y ago
  I’m not hopeful they’ll release anytime soon considering how long the project has been in alpha.
gmjosack 5y ago
I've recently started using Notion and I'm surprised at few things that I find incredibly annoying with it so far. Since it seems there are some Notion staff here I'll take this as a change to give some feedback to hopefully improve the product. * No read-only mode. I like to have documents default to a read-only mode so I don't accidentally typo random characters, or delete something when try copying. etc. * No floating table of contents. There is a ToC block but it's at a fixed position, where it's not terribly usable especially for long documents having a giant ToC at the top isn't great. I've tried using columns but it just squishes the rest of the document way too much * Floating heads. When you have multiple collaborators the avatars zooming up and down the left side of the document is incredibly distracting. I'd love a way to disable this completely. I don't care where in a document other people are reading. * Database/Table horizontal scrollbar. Almost every database in our documents end up with this giant scrollbar that spans edge to edge, looking like a horizontal rule, breaking up the visual flow of the page significantly. I keep thinking it's some kind of page break. These are just some of my initial impressions. I do think it's a very visually nice product and has a lot of neat features but I'm pretty surprised by some basic QoL stuff missing and hope to see it further refined.
- dervjd 5y ago
  Item #4 on your list drives me nuts as well. I can't remember which, but either making the page full width or locking the page gets rid of them.
  - infensus 5y ago
    I just added custom CSS to make the scrollbar only show on hover
- thom 5y ago
  While we’re making a wish list, the biggest thing for me would be permissions on database tables. It’s very hard to centralise info using tables when you need multiple versions for multiple people (e.g. if I’m tracking job applicants in Notion, I want to be able to store some personal information but not necessarily show that to everyone).
ipiz0618 5y ago
I tried to use notion and liked the functionalities, even I only used < 10% of them. You can basically create your own static website in it. But I stopped using it after finding I can't even copy the whole note on iOS, only one paragraph at a time. Weird design decision.
xyst 5y ago
why has adguard flagged this site as "dangerous" https://reports.adguard.com/en/developers.notion.com/report.html https://reports.adguard.com/en/developers.notion.com/report....
crossroadsguy 5y ago
So far the only new note taking app that I found polished enough[1] and worth the time is Bear and sadly it’s very very much a closed walled garden and with its subscription model it makes me very uncomfortable. Tried FSNotes - extremely immature and it doesn’t seem to have any direction at all - it’s all over, Standard Notes - visibly none native and offers no exportable local storage (by design). Decided to stay away. Hope to see some solid and simple new native apps around Notion API. [1] Fast enough, not cluttered, and have native apps (I’ve realised after years of trial and use that my note taking app has to be native and that’s non-negotiable)
guhcampos 5y ago
I used to love notion and roughly a year ago I started migrating all our documentation into it. Then someone at the company decided to turn our notion workspace into an ERP+CRM+Project Management tool. Now I hate it and moved the docs all back to Gitlab. Never logged back in.
tonystubblebine 5y ago
Congrats Alicia, if you're following these comments.
hartem_ 5y ago
We've integrated Notion API into Bardeen. Here is a page demonstrating triggers and some example workflows: https://www.bardeen.ai/notion-beta https://www.bardeen.ai/notion-beta
mothinx 5y ago
I used to use Trello for my personal life system inspired by the Getting Things Done method. I get hooked 3 months ago by one of the Notion's ambassador August Bradley who make an incredible system and course avalaible for free on Youtube. I'm excited about the API and all automations i will make by scripting for my own use cases (like an easy way to add a new item on a certain database from my CLI, or a mail adresse hooked to a database). But all your comments freak me out. As a developer, i dont't know if i have to do my own markdown system hosted locally. Notion is a great product, and guys like August Bradley open my eyes for everything i can do with it.
dvcrn 5y ago
I too tried notion for a while and I noticed that it's just getting slower and slower with each release. Even on my M1 mac it's not a very performant app which is sad. It's a bit of a jack of all trades, while doing nothing especially well. Just recently I tried using it again for a small project (3-4 people) and it quickly got chaotic and messy (used for simple task board, wiki, blogpost drafts). Right now, I recommend: - Craft (http://craft.do/ http://craft.do/) for collaborating on documents, information sharing, knowledge (can't do tables and other fancy things yet, but is native and veeeery nice) - Obsidian (https://obsidian.md/ https://obsidian.md/) for personal knowledge database (although it's also electron...) - DEVONthink (https://www.devontechnologies.com/ https://www.devontechnologies.com/) for digital office
noT1 5y ago
Notion is a clever front end that does not need to be backed by a cloud service. IT departments should be able to setup whichever backed storage they want; s3 buckets to postgres. I’m so done with propping up every wannabe unicorn. This app will never be a thing at my company. Two or three devs could make a living off this UX as a standalone client. This isn’t a Google scale engineering need.
Maxtylor 5y ago
Boost Note is a good Notion alternative I personally like. They have versatile markdown, collaboration features etc. https://boostnote.io/ https://boostnote.io/
steveharman 5y ago
https://anytype.io https://anytype.io Distributed, open source and aiming for public beta in the summer.
puszczyk 5y ago
This is a great news. I've been toying with the idea of generating parts of my blog from notion. There are currently some projects which reverse-engineered the API and provide an "unofficial" clients [1][2]. The problem though is that I'd like to blog to be minimum maintenance after a spike of work and I'm afraid the unofficial clients will inevitably break and will require updates. The problem with the current beta is the limits of the API. E.g. code block are not supported[3], so you can't really use it to generate a technical blog. Looking forward to the GA :) [1]: https://github.com/jamalex/notion-py https://github.com/jamalex/notion-py [2]: https://github.com/kjk/notionapi https://github.com/kjk/notionapi [3]: https://developers.notion.com/reference/get-block-children https://developers.notion.com/reference/get-block-children

Time to integrate it with [Neo]Vim and Emacs!

striking 5y ago
Can't delete or modify existing blocks yet, sadly.

Well that's awesome! I've been waiting for this for a while. My company uses notion internally for project management and I'd love to extend it a little bit (eg to generate burndown charts). I'll probably try to resist the urge to build a massive, poorly-written project management tool on top of the notion api. Probably.

jkhdigital 5y ago
And I need to resist the urge to build an entire accounting system on top of the Notion API

dheera 5y ago

I currently use a 1-person Slack workspace instead of Notion because I can write bots to help me with various things. I'll have to see if this API is complete enough to do what I want with Notion.

tertius 5y ago
Expound on how you may take advantage of it.
truth_ 5y ago
Do you have a blog or some sort of writeup?
- dheera 5y ago
  Not yet but I'll strongly consider writing one soon! Didn't realize there was so much interest in this.
nicomeemes 5y ago
This sounds really interesting to me. Care to explain how you use it (the slack workspace/bots)?
- dheera 5y ago
  I just use Slack as a universal command line interface for everything. Slack's bot extensibility make it great for: - As a universal notification system (calendar events, github notifications, sms for the idiot apps that insist on it -- all sms go to my slack instead of my phone, alerts about my 3D printer e.g. print complete, alerts about low battery on any of my devices or robots, automatic google maps links of businesses I have visited, just about everything really) - Expanding upon references to things, e.g. if I tag a bot and type the name of a hiking trail it can fetch the alltrails page for it and link it; if I tag a bot and type the name of a restaurant it can fetch the yelp page and link it - If I paste code it can run it in a sandboxed environment and show the results much like a Jupyter notebook - As a text interface to Google Assistant (the implementation is convoluted; I have to TTS the text and feed the audio result into Google's ConverseRequest endpoint. I couldn't figure out a way to feed text directly to Google) - I have all my IOT devices linked to Slack, I can turn on/off lights, set thermostat, pause/unpause my 3D printer, request a snapshot from any camera in my house, everything right from Slack - Slack is also great because I can upload arbitrary files, pictures, videos, sounds with ease. The best part is that it is available on all my devices with data synced through the cloud and native mobile apps so it makes all of the above conveniently available on my phone and e-reader. The biggest downsides are Slack's sucky search, and editing prior messages isn't the best experience.

dagorenouf 5y ago

It's been requested for at least 3 years. I totally understand that it takes a while so I'm not blaming them. But it seems like in the meantime people have started to move on (I have). Let's hope this can bring back some momentum for them.

arnon 5y ago
Move on to what and why?
- andreilys 5y ago
  So many other applications out there that don’t hold your data hostage like Notion. I learned after spending an hour to transfer notes that they have a “limit” on the number of “blocks” (aka notes) that I can have. Absolutely terrible user experience and turned me off from ever using Notion. I ended up going open source with vimwiki (and obsidian as a visualization layer, although as comments pointed out it’s not open source). much more robust and less impervious to scummy growth tactics or companies shutting down due to acquisitions/pivots in strategy.
  - nomad225 5y ago
    I had the same experience. It started off great, but I was not a fan of the idea of having all my data hostage with Notion. I'm using emacs with org-mode and org-roam right now, but I still don't have good flow with org-roam. Both Obsidian.md and vimwiki look really cool though. Do you use Obsidian and vimwiki together, or for separate purposes?
    - andreilys 5y ago
      I take notes with vimwiki (using tags) and then obsidian is the visualization layer (being able to filter and see what notes are related to one another)
  - Karunamon 5y ago
    The limitation only applies on free accounts, paid accounts for personal usage are extremely cheap, and it has full exportability into markdown and csv. Not sure what you're talking about unless this was a long time ago.

brainzap 5y ago

Time to export articles as static website

warent 5y ago
This is my first thought!

WORMS_EAT_WORMS 5y ago

Finally! Cool API stuff aside, this could make an excellent use case for a content back-end to your Jam-apps or quick little apps. For example, Vercel reverse-engineered the internal API and made a super awesome demo here when introducing "Serverless Pre-Rendering". [1] There's a video demo and code of how they did it. [1] https://vercel.com/blog/serverless-pre-rendering https://vercel.com/blog/serverless-pre-rendering

owlbynight 5y ago

When I initially signed up for Notion, I did so thinking the API was already usable. It was used as a selling point for their premium service even though it wasn't implemented. This was a year and a half ago or so. I felt pretty burned by it and killed my subscription. Hopefully this turns out well for the people who've been waiting for it, but that experience left a terrible taste in my mouth.

bnt 5y ago
Isn't that the whole point of Agile MVP development? Sell something that doesn't exist and hope someone buys it? Personally, I don't expect much from it, after working with Airtable's API and hating every second of it.
- villasv 5y ago
  You nailed the opposite of an MVP, which is to deliver it immediately and improve it later.
  - Areading314 5y ago
    Theres a lot of reasons why it makes sense to sell something before building it. You want to be up front about this fact but getting commitments to buy something is a good idea before actually spending money and time to build it.
    - villasv 5y ago
      Of course. That has nothing to do with agile MVPs, though.
- arcticfox 5y ago
  Well you've either got to make it clear that it doesn't exist yet, or not actually charge them until you build it. Otherwise that sounds like fraud.
- wpietri 5y ago

tekacs 5y ago

It's nice to see this happening at last! This is a promising start, but so far it's read & append it looks like -- no updating (of blocks at least). Updating page properties can take it a way, but looking forward to seeing it expand a little.

deleted 5y ago

[deleted]

spullara 5y ago

Who makes a database API with no way to change records in the database?

jitl 5y ago
You can update the properties of a page in a database using a PATCH request to v1/pages, details here: https://developers.notion.com/reference/patch-page https://developers.notion.com/reference/patch-page (I work at Notion, but not on the API team)
- spullara 5y ago
  Yeah, I found that later. Still seems odd there isn't a direct API for it.
  - Spivak 5y ago
    Is this not the direct API? Databases are just a bag of pages that have the same properties. I would kinda expect that updating a record would just be a page operation.
    - spullara 5y ago
      There is a direct API for listing databases for instance. That isn't done through the pages stuff. Just a nit I guess but using the page patch API for databases updates is just weird to me.

arduinomancer 5y ago

Pretty big deal, people have been requesting this for years. Probably the number one requested feature I've seen.

truth_ 5y ago
> Probably the number one requested feature I've seen. Along with stylus support.

enra 5y ago

Seems extremely limited as an API, wondering what people can actually use this for. For example markdown support for read/write would make it much easier to use it as CMS or sync the data, instead of working on the custom block types.

orliesaurus 5y ago

Full Disclosure - I have been lucky enough to have closed BETA access to the Notion API and here are some things I have noticed. BTW I do not work for Notion, im totally indie :P - The team building the API has been super responsive and respectful, very good collaboration on their Dev slack and I had a great time testing things - The documentation has been updated with the feedback from the community who had access, it's in a MUCH better status now than when it started - The API speed has increased, it was really slow, now its a bit faster :) Looking forward to see how other companies are using the Notion API, whether natively or through other integrations, I've seen a lot of activity from the folks at Integromat and Typeform :) (which are awesome tools btw!)

virgil_disgr4ce 5y ago
I've also found them to be pretty responsive (I've messaged them a number of times with bug reports and feature requests). That really contributes to my overall appreciation of the product!

harrisonjackson 5y ago

And the Zapier integration is launched, too! https://zapier.com/apps/notion/integrations https://zapier.com/apps/notion/integrations It has the same basic trigger (new item), actions (create/update item), and search (find item) as every other CRM integration. It is missing a trigger for item getting updated - still excited to see how folks are using it though.

harrisonjackson 5y ago
CMS* though I am guessing it is being used as a CRM, too.

mattwad 5y ago

I have to give a shoutout to the dev who wrote Nishan, a wrapper around Notion's internal API used by their webapp. I've been using it for a while and it will be a long time before the public API catches up. Getting users to find the api token from cookies has been a pain though, so I'll be looking into migrating asap. https://github.com/Devorein/Nishan https://github.com/Devorein/Nishan

shubhamjain 5y ago

I have been using Notion in its API form for a while through notion-py[1]. Currently, it powers my blog[2] and for me, it's a really good integration. I write something, ask my friends to review it. I run a command to publish it, and it's live. The workflow is really, really good and removes a ton of friction because the software that you write in is also the one that powers your blog's content. Overall, I think Notion API can open up many, many possibilities, since it can become a really good CMS, besides already being a great note-taking tool, and a team app. Notion has millions of users, and it's a huge market already. Btw, if you're interested in running your blog on Notion, I would love to hear from you! [3] [1]: https://github.com/jamalex/notion-py https://github.com/jamalex/notion-py [2]: https://shubhamjain.co/ https://shubhamjain.co/ [3]: https://twitter.com/shubhamjainco https://twitter.com/shubhamjainco

virgil_disgr4ce 5y ago
I am interested in running my blog with Notion. I currently use a Gatsby blog on Netlify using NetlifyCMS. So I'd need to export any entries to Markdown and commit them to the blog's repo (the rest is handled by Netlify). I'd ideally like it to be bidirectional though, so that any changes to files in the repo are going to be reflected in Notion...
turtlebits 5y ago
Notion static pages are extremely bloated. I commented previously about a documentation page created with notion that was 2+ mb for what was essentially 10 links

heipei 5y ago

Glad they learned from their painful mistake and ditched the .so domain in favor of a .com.

dhritzkiv 5y ago
Can you fill me in about why a .so domain was a mistake? Because DNS providers/ firewalls sometimes block foreign TLDs, or was there something else?
- freewilly1040 5y ago
  > Because DNS providers/ firewalls sometimes block foreign TLDs yes, this
juancampa 5y ago
Mind elaborating on what went wrong with .so? I can imagine that relying on the network infra of another country is risky.

truth_ 5y ago

Nothing is perfect. But if Notion had stylus support and a Linux native client (even Electron), it would be perfect to me. They said in Twitter that stylus support is a priority, but no plans yet for a Linux client. And, the Android app is quite clunky, not as good as Android native Notes apps.

tomComb 5y ago
The Windows and Mac apps are just electron - not much advantage over just using it on the browser which has its own advantages. So, yes, since they are using electron they might as well provide a Linux one too, but I don't see why the lack of one would hold you back.

ibdf 5y ago

I really like the idea of what notion is trying to do, but their "databases" drive me nuts. They force a default column that's useless for relationships... and I never know if they want to be database like or excel like. Notion needs a good roadmap, and also start acknowledging user feedback, besides the "we got your feedback".

MattRix 5y ago
Along the same lines, the fact that they don’t have any simple inline tables that aren’t “databases” is annoying. Sometimes I don’t want a database or a spreadsheet, just a simple inline table with a few columns.
- Spivak 5y ago
  Kinda confused about this one? Inline tables are ... well inline tables. Why does it matter that they're actually pages/databases? Is it that you want tables in the formatting sense?
  - MattRix 5y ago
    Good question! There are a few things. First, you can’t make a table that doesn’t have specifically typed vertical columns, which means a bunch of layouts just aren’t possible (you can kind of fake it with all text columns, but it gets messy. You also can’t hide the column headers. You’re forced to have a name column, and your table has to have a title (you can make the title a space but that feels like a hack). There’s just lots of chrome. Even if you lock the table, you still have the lock icon and the new row button that will never go away. These things may all seem minor, but they really do make tables not look or feel “simple”. To be clear, I’m absolutely fine with the existing tables for certain purposes, and I don’t want them changed… I just wish there was a “Simple Table” block type as well.
Karunamon 5y ago
It's kinda both. If you're familiar with Airtable, the feature sets are almost carbon copies of each other.

deleted 5y ago

[deleted]

nazgulsenpai 5y ago

It really irks me when the pricing page for any product has any tier that requires contacting "Sales". If you don't want to include pricing for a tier, exclude it from the pricing list or add a "need something else" or "we also offer enterprise plans" after the table. Maybe just a me thing, because I'm guessing it obviously works based on how often I've come across it.

imwillofficial 5y ago
Seems reasonable enough to me. At a certain scale giving a price is meaningless because there are tons more factors that go into the cost.
virgil_disgr4ce 5y ago
The reason pricing is not shown for that tier (in most cases, I can't say for sure for Notion) is because it's not a normal tier, it includes the possibilities of negotiated pricing and custom setups. Why does it bother you?

jfrunyon 5y ago

> Start building with the Notion API BETA Okay, but what does it do and why do I want it? Why do sooooo many businesses insist on homepages that tell me literally nothing about the product they provide?

detaro 5y ago
really, the notion homepage tells you literally nothing about the product? https://www.notion.so/ https://www.notion.so/
- tanaypingalkar 5y ago
  but the product is great but it is underrated for some reasons. I think it is underrated because it is a small company compare to its competitor microsoft and google and getting use to notion is also little bit tricky.

awill 5y ago

How good is Notion? Is the lock-in worth it? I'm fearful of lock-in, and just use markdown plain text, sync'd with dropbox, and then use different markdown apps on different OSes.

freewilly1040 5y ago
They offer the ability to export to markdown, so I don't think using it would lock you out of reverting to that option
- SixFive7 5y ago
  Beware that for us any export has been broken for months with no real answer from Notion support other than: we know.
RunawayGalaxy 5y ago
imho The primary value is their pared-down databases that mostly just work like you want them to.
Spivak 5y ago
I've actively searched for years to find a system to dump my brain into and Notion is the absolutely perfect fit for me. The fact that everything is a page, anything can go into a page, and you can nest forever on the fly is exactly what I need to model my actual IRL problems. Putting together a Christmas list? Create a list and start adding stuff. Ahh crap, I know I want a new TV but I don't know any specifics. So I just open up the TV item in the list and dive into my research. Create a database inside there for prospective options, a separate view for finalists. Copy in images, links to articles and reviews without "losing my place." I don't have to spend any mental energy thinking about how to organize my notes because I can just pick a direction and go without being stopped by anything. Everything lives where it's most relevant I guess it how I'd say it.

chirau 5y ago

I like the look of this site. Where can I get graphics similar to those cartoons on the page?

Operyl 5y ago
By commissioning or hiring an artist to create them for you I suppose.
- chirau 5y ago
  I know there are sites that provide stock illustrations, I just didn't know which ones they were. But another commenter gave me some.
unculture 5y ago
Here's some illustration sites / products I collected for a recent project as possible resources / inspiration: - https://storytale.io/ - https://control.rocks/ - https://picchustudio.webflow.io/ - https://undraw.co/illustrations - https://craftwork.design/downloads/friday-illustrations/
- chirau 5y ago
  Thanks for this!
jitl 5y ago
We pay professional artists to draw all of our illustrations. - Roman Muradov: https://www.bluebed.net/ https://www.bluebed.net/ - Iris Chiang: https://irischiangart.com https://irischiangart.com
commieneko 5y ago
Hire an illustrator to create them for you. What makes the Notion illustrations so appealing and effective to me is not their style, though I love the way they look, it is that they are created for the need at hand. They are individually made to a purpose. Side note: I manage several illustrators for a team that produces educational media and one of the hardest things we have to communicate to users is what an illustration is good for. I have users come to me with an image and say, "I want an illustration that looks like this." And we ask them, "But what do you want the illustration to do." And they answer, "We want it to look like this." They don't have any particular purpose for the illustration, it's just wallpaper for their website. A way to break up a page. A function of general art direction, rather than a working part of the content. We end up doing a lot of what amounts to custom clip art, because that's what users often want. And it really does help a website or a video, or a document to have consistent art direction. But by far the the most compelling and engaging content we work on isn't from when a user asks for a set of stock images and icons, all in the same style, but it's when they comes to us and says, "We have this problem explaining this idea, or telling this story. Can you help us with that?"

todsacerdoti 5y ago

We integrated the Notion API into Pipedream. Triggers and actions coming shortly: - Demo: https://pipedream.com/apps/notion https://pipedream.com/apps/notion - Workflow Example: https://pipedream.com/@tod/p_D1C3LlN https://pipedream.com/@tod/p_D1C3LlN

tacosaretasty 5y ago

I’d be sold on their product if they had better security implementation. Company wiki’s are troves of sensitive information and I’m uncomfortable that I have yet to find any central logging on the product. I wish these things were also taken into account

barbazoo 5y ago

For anyone looking for a open source notes app that let's you keep control of your data, have a look at https://joplinapp.org/ https://joplinapp.org/.

InitialLastName 5y ago
The biggest thing I'm trying to replace as I move off of Notion is the dynamic lists embedded in notes. I couldn't tell but that doesn't seem like a thing in Joplin; am I missing something?
- barbazoo 5y ago
  You mean lists like this: https://www.notion.so/Products-Materials-92c8bdfbcbd049e3a97767893c2b3bdb https://www.notion.so/Products-Materials-92c8bdfbcbd049e3a97... That doesn't exist in Joplin.
  - petemir 5y ago
    But perhaps it is doable with the new plugin system!
urlwolf 5y ago
I really like zim (a desktop wiki) together with some filesync software
- barbazoo 5y ago
  What I like about Joplin is that it lets me sync with my phone without much hassle via e.g. Dropbox

r5Khe 5y ago

Interesting that there's apparently no way to update databases. That's unfortunate, because otherwise this might be a useful Jamstack data API.

r5Khe 5y ago
Whoops, apparently this isn't true! https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27145301 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27145301
- yawnxyz 5y ago
  I guess one could just stuff json in these properties haha...

voodoologic 5y ago

I used to love Notion, but I switch to org-roam and emacs for privacy. The transition took a lot of work, but the cross referencing notation is just as good.

tanaypingalkar 5y ago

this will be great, people will make notion clients for terminal, i like terminal todo list or terminal apps and having a great productivity tool in terminal which will sync all the device is good idea. LIke there is spotify on terminal.

TechBro8615 5y ago

Big fan of notion. Not a fan of the data lock-in or haphazard security. For tools like this, SaaS will almost always beat open source just by virtue of elbow grease and a product direction. So I’m willing to forego the open source alternatives. But I really wish Notion gave me more options for how to host my data. AFAICT they offer no “dedicated storage” or “on premise” plan, even if you want to pay for it. In fact I heard a rumor that the entirety of Notion runs on a single unsharded database. If true, combined with the fact that this API took so long to ship, I have to assume that there is a crippling amount of tech debt in their stack. Hopefully it’s growing pains and they’re sorting it out, but it doesn’t make me feel confident about the security of my (most sensitive) data. It’s maybe also a cautionary tale about what happens when you dismiss too many early decisions as “premature optimization.” You ship fast in the beginning but a few years later you’re buried in all the debt you generated. Granted, it’s a good problem to have. If the choice is between a profitable, popular company buried in tech debt, or the perfect stack with no customers, I’ll take the debt.

kyawzazaw 5y ago
Apart from the HN growd + a few more, I think more users likely just don't care about options to host data.
- breakfastduck 5y ago
  Many regulated organizations do, though. Single reason we didn't adopt notion is lack of ability to self host.
  - pfd1986 5y ago
    Same for my org. We'd have the entire team move, if self host was an option.
  - jamiequint 5y ago
    Out of curiosity what do you use for documents and email? Not using Office365/Google Docs/Outlook/Gmail at all?

scubbo 5y ago

Thank you for the reminder that I should try converting from Evernote to Notion again. Last time I tried (~2 months ago), the automatic importer died after importing ~10% of my Evernote content. Though, based on some of the comments in this thread, maybe I _shouldn't_ and should try Obsidian instead.

fudged71 5y ago
Obsidian/Roam if you have a lot of interconnected notes
julianz 5y ago
Interesting, I was able to convert a couple of thousand notes spread across about 10 notebooks from Evernote to Notion and there didn't seem to be too many issues, apart from needing to reformat quite a few that had suffered from Evernote's formatting weirdnesses.

ryanmarsh 5y ago

I absolutely love Notion and I'm excited for the future this API will bring.

dogas 5y ago

I was a huge Notion fan. However, the long sync times were driving me nuts. I have since moved to inkdrop (https://www.inkdrop.app/ https://www.inkdrop.app/) because it's much better for my use case: * I can write Markdown notes. I've only wanted to write markdown notes. * The syncing is incredibly fast because it's using an existing technology purpose-built for syncing (CouchDB) * I can bring my own CouchDB and not have my data locked in * Has a mobile app that works well * There is a "vim mode" and that makes me happy.

nojvek 5y ago
The big attractor to Notion for me is the All-in-on workspace idea. It's a table-database, it's a wiki, it's a kanban board, it's a team calendar, it's a project gallery, it's a blog. Tables can have wiki notes, which can have tables. The recursive nature works very well for organizing your knowledgebase and having an entire org work together. The things I hate about notion. 1) pressing / anywhere opens the menu. So annoying. 2) It's live collaboration on code is awful. We end up using codesandbox and then copy-pasting back. 3) It looses and new edits every now and then. Their sync needs work. 4) No way to proper version control documents and have a pull-request/suggestion like model for editing authoritative docs. The other player in the same market is https://coda.io https://coda.io. They go quite a bit further than notion in terms of formulas and reference tables. With both Coda and Notion, I feel I seldom have to use google docs.
- IceWreck 5y ago
  > It's a table-database, it's a wiki, it's a kanban board, it's a team calendar, it's a project gallery, it's a blog. So what does it do that something like gitlab or phabricator cannot do ? And if you are willing to consider different products for different things then you have dokuwiki/xwiki/wikijs/bookstack for wiki and multiple popular project management tools like kanboard/focalboard.
  - kwinten 5y ago
    > So what does it do that something like gitlab or phabricator cannot do ? Gitlab is great. Their wiki is absolute shit. Notion just has a mostly really great user experience for writing notes, adding some tables or screenshots, moving them around, etc.

arthurofbabylon 5y ago

For the folks who find Notion slow or otherwise unreliable, I’d love to hear your feedback on minimal.app (or minimal.app/#beta, depending on where you’re located). Collaborative Notes just went live, making it a lighter, more focused alternative to Notion.

EduardoBautista 5y ago
This is something I have been wanting for a while! Markdown collaborative notes in a native app! Definitely downloading...
dexterdog 5y ago
I avoid notion because it's so slow, but I can't use minimal because there is no Android app.

Otek 5y ago

I tried Notion for a while, but vendor lock-in makes these tools too risky for me. I'va ahd a good run with git+md notes. A while ago i successfully migrated to org-mode and not looking back.

rm8x 5y ago

should someone have perhaps roasted their landing page I wonder

myky22 5y ago

Beings using it for a year. Perfect and flexible for developing :) Maybe I try some pythonist adaptation for my homework...

seumars 5y ago

So Notion is essentially a CMS now. I still wonder what one could realistically do with the API other than small quirky experiments

yawnxyz 5y ago
I'm using Notion as a CMS for a static site I've built for a grant-funded academic project. My collaborators edit the project page, which includes nested pages, tables, and even uploaded videos and images. After they've updated it, they click a special link that triggers a Vercel build, which converts Notion into JSON for the site to build into static pages. I'm using this as my backbone: https://github.com/benborgers/potion https://github.com/benborgers/potion and it's a lot more powerful than the Notion API... this reads tables and lets you show image attachments and more
FalconSensei 5y ago
One of the things I use notion for is to centralize my trackings: - tv, movie and actors from trakt.tv; - books from gooodreads - anime and manga from anilist The reason is that: I can make better notes, I can add extra data/properties, easier to organize in a kanban or other visualizations. But now, if I add more movies on my trakt, I run a script to export to CSV, and then have to import the new rows into Notion. With this, now my exports can add the new rows and update the data.

nojvek 5y ago

Notion is probably the most prominent startup to make .so (somalia) domain more acceptable. I've seen plenty of .io and .ai, but .so was new for me when I first saw it. I thought it was a scam when I tried Notion 3 years ago.

rajasimon 5y ago
They also own notion.com but the things I people like .so better.

rubyist5eva 5y ago

I love Notion, the tool/product, but I want something exactly like it but open source and where I can store my data where I want it. I guess I should get started...

ramnes 5y ago
Go help the folks working on Focalboard!
- jasonblais 5y ago
  Mattermost PM here, thanks for suggesting Focalboard! @rubyist5eva You can learn more about Focalboard - the open-source alternative to Trello, Asana and Notion - at https://focalboard.com/ https://focalboard.com/.
  - rubyist5eva 5y ago
    looks like a neat project, might set it up in my homelab and give it a try - but I dont' think it's quite what I'm looking for

resource0x 5y ago

FWIW, my note taking app is github. Created a private repo, keeping my notes as "issues". I can label, link, search them, insert images, add comments etc. Can someone name a relevant feature that is missing from github?

isbwkisbakadqv 5y ago
Can you explain how this works in more detail - I’m intrigued!
- resource0x 5y ago
  Every time I want to memorize something, I either open an issue against my fake repo (created specifically for this purpose) or add another comment to an existing issue. It's a good idea to create 1 issue per topic and just keep adding separate comments. Cross-references can be added for the linked concepts. Github markdown is quite rich. There are features (like "<details>") that can be found only there. There's not much to say actually. Try it out - you will figure out what works best for you.

dawnerd 5y ago

A little late for us. We ended up switching away after being a very early adopter. The downtime, slowness and poor search really did it in for us. Hoping for the best to the team, you’ve grown so fast it’s incredible!

zimbatm 5y ago

That's good news. Some services like https://super.so/ https://super.so/ (which is brilliant) were already using unofficial APIs.

adam_ellsworth 5y ago

I've seen Notion discussed on HN for a time now, and while this seems to be well received I'm not really sure what it's for. What are the use-cases here? What's Notion being used for that this new API functionality will help in? How are you using it either personally or professionally? Thanks

disordinary 5y ago
Just a wiki really which is made up of smart blocks. I've used it a couple of times professionally but the companies have usually moved on to something simpler after struggling to get buy in across the team. It can be daunting when you first use it, although very powerful.

ramnes 5y ago

I'm writing a Python client right now, 99% copied from their JS implementation, if anyone wants to join the fun! https://github.com/ramnes/notion-sdk-py https://github.com/ramnes/notion-sdk-py I hope they will release an OpenAPI specification file soon so that code maintenance between different clients is kept to a minimum. :)

dancemethis 5y ago

Thankfully Anytype, the Notion killer, will be soon in beta.

jiva 5y ago
I’m not hopeful they’ll release anytime soon considering how long the project has been in alpha.

gmjosack 5y ago

I've recently started using Notion and I'm surprised at few things that I find incredibly annoying with it so far. Since it seems there are some Notion staff here I'll take this as a change to give some feedback to hopefully improve the product. * No read-only mode. I like to have documents default to a read-only mode so I don't accidentally typo random characters, or delete something when try copying. etc. * No floating table of contents. There is a ToC block but it's at a fixed position, where it's not terribly usable especially for long documents having a giant ToC at the top isn't great. I've tried using columns but it just squishes the rest of the document way too much * Floating heads. When you have multiple collaborators the avatars zooming up and down the left side of the document is incredibly distracting. I'd love a way to disable this completely. I don't care where in a document other people are reading. * Database/Table horizontal scrollbar. Almost every database in our documents end up with this giant scrollbar that spans edge to edge, looking like a horizontal rule, breaking up the visual flow of the page significantly. I keep thinking it's some kind of page break. These are just some of my initial impressions. I do think it's a very visually nice product and has a lot of neat features but I'm pretty surprised by some basic QoL stuff missing and hope to see it further refined.

dervjd 5y ago
Item #4 on your list drives me nuts as well. I can't remember which, but either making the page full width or locking the page gets rid of them.
- infensus 5y ago
  I just added custom CSS to make the scrollbar only show on hover
thom 5y ago
While we’re making a wish list, the biggest thing for me would be permissions on database tables. It’s very hard to centralise info using tables when you need multiple versions for multiple people (e.g. if I’m tracking job applicants in Notion, I want to be able to store some personal information but not necessarily show that to everyone).

ipiz0618 5y ago

I tried to use notion and liked the functionalities, even I only used < 10% of them. You can basically create your own static website in it. But I stopped using it after finding I can't even copy the whole note on iOS, only one paragraph at a time. Weird design decision.

xyst 5y ago

why has adguard flagged this site as "dangerous" https://reports.adguard.com/en/developers.notion.com/report.html https://reports.adguard.com/en/developers.notion.com/report....

crossroadsguy 5y ago

So far the only new note taking app that I found polished enough[1] and worth the time is Bear and sadly it’s very very much a closed walled garden and with its subscription model it makes me very uncomfortable. Tried FSNotes - extremely immature and it doesn’t seem to have any direction at all - it’s all over, Standard Notes - visibly none native and offers no exportable local storage (by design). Decided to stay away. Hope to see some solid and simple new native apps around Notion API. [1] Fast enough, not cluttered, and have native apps (I’ve realised after years of trial and use that my note taking app has to be native and that’s non-negotiable)

guhcampos 5y ago

I used to love notion and roughly a year ago I started migrating all our documentation into it. Then someone at the company decided to turn our notion workspace into an ERP+CRM+Project Management tool. Now I hate it and moved the docs all back to Gitlab. Never logged back in.

tonystubblebine 5y ago

Congrats Alicia, if you're following these comments.

hartem_ 5y ago

We've integrated Notion API into Bardeen. Here is a page demonstrating triggers and some example workflows: https://www.bardeen.ai/notion-beta https://www.bardeen.ai/notion-beta

mothinx 5y ago

I used to use Trello for my personal life system inspired by the Getting Things Done method. I get hooked 3 months ago by one of the Notion's ambassador August Bradley who make an incredible system and course avalaible for free on Youtube. I'm excited about the API and all automations i will make by scripting for my own use cases (like an easy way to add a new item on a certain database from my CLI, or a mail adresse hooked to a database). But all your comments freak me out. As a developer, i dont't know if i have to do my own markdown system hosted locally. Notion is a great product, and guys like August Bradley open my eyes for everything i can do with it.

dvcrn 5y ago

I too tried notion for a while and I noticed that it's just getting slower and slower with each release. Even on my M1 mac it's not a very performant app which is sad. It's a bit of a jack of all trades, while doing nothing especially well. Just recently I tried using it again for a small project (3-4 people) and it quickly got chaotic and messy (used for simple task board, wiki, blogpost drafts). Right now, I recommend: - Craft (http://craft.do/ http://craft.do/) for collaborating on documents, information sharing, knowledge (can't do tables and other fancy things yet, but is native and veeeery nice) - Obsidian (https://obsidian.md/ https://obsidian.md/) for personal knowledge database (although it's also electron...) - DEVONthink (https://www.devontechnologies.com/ https://www.devontechnologies.com/) for digital office

noT1 5y ago

Notion is a clever front end that does not need to be backed by a cloud service. IT departments should be able to setup whichever backed storage they want; s3 buckets to postgres. I’m so done with propping up every wannabe unicorn. This app will never be a thing at my company. Two or three devs could make a living off this UX as a standalone client. This isn’t a Google scale engineering need.

Maxtylor 5y ago

Boost Note is a good Notion alternative I personally like. They have versatile markdown, collaboration features etc. https://boostnote.io/ https://boostnote.io/

steveharman 5y ago

https://anytype.io https://anytype.io Distributed, open source and aiming for public beta in the summer.

puszczyk 5y ago

This is a great news. I've been toying with the idea of generating parts of my blog from notion. There are currently some projects which reverse-engineered the API and provide an "unofficial" clients [1][2]. The problem though is that I'd like to blog to be minimum maintenance after a spike of work and I'm afraid the unofficial clients will inevitably break and will require updates. The problem with the current beta is the limits of the API. E.g. code block are not supported[3], so you can't really use it to generate a technical blog. Looking forward to the GA :) [1]: https://github.com/jamalex/notion-py https://github.com/jamalex/notion-py [2]: https://github.com/kjk/notionapi https://github.com/kjk/notionapi [3]: https://developers.notion.com/reference/get-block-children https://developers.notion.com/reference/get-block-children