Accessing the local database

There are two databases in local and on remote and they sync via HTTP(S). The Inkdrop client app is built on top of a PouchDB for storing data in local and syncing with the remote database. For many parts of the application, the database is the source of truth.

Data is written to the local database first, then synced with the remote database, and changes to the database trigger Actions, Stores and components to refresh their contents. The illustration below shows this flow of data:

Accessing the data from plugins (Recommended)

There is a class called InkdropDatabase which wraps PouchDB and provides a bunch of useful methods that help you access the local database for managing notes, notebooks, tags and images.

For example, below code gets data directly from the local database:

const db = inkdrop.main.dataStore.getLocalDB()

// Get a note data by note ID
const note = await db.notes.get('note:F8xUp-23G')

// Get all notebooks
const books = await db.books.all()

// Get notes in a notebook
const notesInBook = await db.notes.findInBook(books[0]._id)

// Search notes with keywords
const result = await db.utils.search('Foobar')
const { docs } = result
console.log('Search result:', docs)

Accessing via HTTP (Advanced)

The Inkdrop client app can open a simple HTTP server so that you can access the data from an external program easily, which gives you a flexible ability to import/export your notes.

You can configure the HTTP server settings by editing config.json in the user data directory.

Quit Inkdrop, then edit it like so:

{
  "*": {
    "core": {
      "server": {
        "enabled": true,
        "port": 19840,
        "bindAddress": "127.0.0.1",
        "auth": { "username": "foo", "password": "bar" }
      }
    }
  }
}

Now, launch the app.

Troubleshooting

Check if the local server is running correctly with curl:

curl -v -u foo:bar http://localhost:19840/
# -> {"version":"5.10.0","ok":true}

Run the app with --enable-logging flag to see the server logs. See the documentation for more detail.

/Applications/Inkdrop.app/Contents/MacOS/Inkdrop --enable-logging

If the server is running correctly, you should see logs like this:

  app:info Starting server on 127.0.0.1:19840

Configurations

• core.server.enabled - Specify true to enable the HTTP server. Default is false.
• core.server.port - Defines the port number to listen. Default is 19840.
• core.server.bindAddress - Defines the IP address to listen. Default is 127.0.0.1.
• core.server.auth.{username,password} - Defines Basic auth credentials.

API reference

See the local HTTP server reference for more details.

Accessing the PouchDB instance (Advanced, not recommended)

There is a global variables named inkdrop which allows you to access the internal objects of Inkdrop. It has main property, which is a reference to the inkdrop instance in the main process. To access the local PouchDB instance in the main process:

async function getDatabaseInfo() {
  const db = inkdrop.main.dataStore.localPouch
  const info = await db.info()
  console.log(info.db_name)
}

In this code, localPouch is the instance of PouchDB. Be careful, you could break your database by accessing it with PouchDB since its API does not protect you from breaking it. Use it only if the data access API does not provide what you would do.