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In-App Text Editor #126
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Nextcloud android app is not all in one solution and it should stay that way. Beside it is at the core of Android ecosystem to make apps cooperate
I don't mean to imply that an entire app with a full suite of formating features should be implemented. I just meant for a basic type, delete and save ability such as you can do in the nextCloud webapp. The webapp doesn't implement any special features, it just makes it very convenient to make quick text corrections and additions.
I don't feel like that would make full featured editors any less relevant. If I'm reading a text note and I want to correct some error I detect, it would be nice to be able to do so from within the app. I understand and appreciate your need not to turn nextCloud Android into a swiss army knife.
I agree with both of you. As for easily editing of files a writable document provider might solve this to some extend. As for the in app editing I also get the point.
The problem might simply be the handling of edits since we most likely would have to deal with charsets and character encodings which is always a pain and leads to a lot of bug corrupting files until you finally have a properly working version.Hi @maxaustria,
thanks for your input. To some extend this is already working in the actual version(s)
open PDFs direct in pdf-viewer
That does already happen, but it opens in the pdf-viewer of your choice defined on the global/Android-OS level
open txt file directly in my favorite editor
That does also already happen, but it opens in the text-viewer of your choice defined on the global/Android-OS level. Difference to the pdfs is that you need to select the text file and click on the open with icon in the toolbar at the top (rectangle with the top arrow). So yeah that is already mentioned in your last paragraph.
open pictures in my favorite gallery ...
That is true. For pictures you don't have an option to open it with another app from within the Nc Android app
A general (better) solution is already in place though! We support the document provider so every app that also support this (e.g. the Adobe pdf viewer) is able to access the Nc Android app to open the files. So you don't even have to open the Nc Android app :)
@maxaustria thank you for the details and no worries, there are no weird questions!
PDF: you are right. I missed that details, b/c sometimes Android asks me if I always want to use this app to open this file type (Android N). Here it doesn't. Needs to be investigated. 👍
TXT: same issue imho
As for the responsiveness with images. That is strange indeed. Any idea/experience with this @tobiasKaminsky @nextcloud/android ? (tested it myself and Nc was ~1 sec and oC a lot below, Android N Nexus5X).
Please open a new issue and describe it more exactly, e.g. how many files are in the folder, how big is the image, what kind is it, ...
@tobiasKaminsky is your comment regarding this issue?
I was referring to this
As for the responsiveness with images. That is strange indeed. Any idea/experience with this @tobiasKaminsky @nextcloud/android ? (tested it myself and Nc was ~1 sec and oC a lot below, Android N Nexus5X).
Reacted by Andy ScherzingerHi everybody!
I would like to describe a bit more in detail, what is imho so difficult right now about editing text files.How I would like NC app to handle text files:
- I click (one time) on a text file in the NC app. NC opens it directly in my preferred text editor.
- I edit and save the file, then close/leave the editor.
- NC app uploads my changes quietly in the background. No user action needed.
Actually this is how NC web client works, too.
What NC app works today:
- I do a long-press on the text file in the NC app
- I open the options menu (3 dots)
- I choose "open with"
- In the "open with" dialog I choose (every time again) my preferred external text editor
- I edit and save the file, then leave the editor
- in the NC app my text file is still selected, so I choose the options menu (3 dots) again
- I choose "synchronize" and NC uploads my changes.
Imho for a "simple" task like "There is a text file I want to edit quickly", there is a lot of user action needed. And a lot of mistakes a user can do, for example forgetting the final sync step so your changes are lost.
I am not an Android expert, so probably things are much more complicated than they look at first glance. Perhaps this behaviour is linked to a wider syncing problem in NC as described in this thead #757. But perhaps, as long as the overall syncing problem is not solved, an in-app text editor would be a good solution to make it simpler to edit text files.
NC android app: 1.4.2
Android version: 6.0.1Reacted by Jos Poortvliet, Peyton Walters, Tom Kent and lancelotjHi there,
the first post on this requested feature soon is 2 years old. I would like to ask whether there has been taken some action meanwhile to implement in-app text editing.
I do appreciate your work and can only honour it by spending a beer/coffee/donation but cannot contribute any code.
So, the iOS app is able to manage in-app text editing, maybe there is a possibility to use code snippets from its developer to shorten dev-time.Thank you once again
[Android Nextcloud App 3.1.0 RC1, Android 7.1.2]
I think we should try to make the workflow as described by @spectas easier rather than featuring a built-in text editor. What can we do to improve there?
25 remaining items
Curious as to why this is a server side issue? IOS can already do it.
because we want to incorporate the servers editor capabilities while iOS implemented a local/client-side editor. So it is not a server-sice issue but a different choice for the solution to the requirement of having an editor.
@AndyScherzinger Sounds like a cool implementation, I can't wait to see it. However, as both an Android and IOS user, it would be nice to see consistent implementation across all platforms.
@blaster556 totally agree on the consistency argument, while I am not involved with thhe iOS project but maybre @tobiasKaminsky know if this will also be implemented on iOS.
Android will get with NC18 an online collaborative text editor, same will iOS have.
It uses nextcloud/text app.For now there are no plans to have an offline/local text editor in Android, as this can be done via other apps.
So currently the behavior for the edit feature for a text or Markdown file is to run the Text web application from the server in the client application window, whereas editing locally requires using the open with feature? I would suggest the value of a clearer means to represent this difference. Perhaps edit online would be a a good choice over simply edit, or open collaborative editor.
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check what Notes uses (@stefan-niedermann )
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add editor https://noties.io/Markwon/docs/v4/editor/#getting-started-with-editor
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Behaviour
- not downloaded -> open online
- downloaded -> open read-only (same like online)
- click on "edit/pencil" -> make it editable
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@tobiasKaminsky Notes Android uses
nextcloud-commonswhich itself is based uponMarkwonbynoties.iowith some additional convenience features, for example support for Nextcloud avatars. Let me know if if want to discuss an integration 🙂.Reacted by Tobias KaminskyI guess this can be closed as completed? I can edit HTML, JS, MD etc. with the app.
I guess this can be closed as completed? I can edit HTML, JS, MD etc. with the app.
@Discostu36 Well this issue has sort of morphed (online editor -> off-line editor too). 🤣 The former is done, however, yes.
I guess this can be closed as completed? I can edit HTML, JS, MD etc. with the app.
@Discostu36 Well this issue has sort of morphed (online editor -> off-line editor too). 🤣 The former is done, however, yes.
The off-line editor does of course add quite some risks of file conflicts. I would think the Notes app (notes are usually not shared, though they can be since Nc 28/Hub 7) or using a local app is a much better, less risky solution. To me, the prio of this issue is quite low as most use cases are covered with the current Nextcloud Text editor.
The original intention of this Issue is implemented today via the in-app integration of the direct edit mode of
text.For the other scenarios, such as changing Open with behavior/etc... those are either covered elsewhere or out of scope for this Issue. So I'm closing as done to avoid confusion. :)
I would be great to be able to edit text, html, css and other text files in the app. Currently we can view the file but in order to edit, you need to share with a text editor. Thanks for any consideration.