I searched for this feature request and sorry, in case I overlooked it.
Is your feature request related to a problem? Please describe.
Having native apps for desktop and mobile is great. However, sometimes, when travelling or when using other devices it can be helpful to access your data online with just a web browser.
Describe the solution you’d like
Web app, either self-hosted as part of the desktop app or as a (premium) service as part of the backup plan.
Describe alternatives you’ve considered
Use the native apps or a remote desktop connection.
Additional context
Over the years for me more and more tools moved from the desktop to the browser and I find it quite convenient.
Maybe this could work using your keychain phrase with the backup node ?
I can see situations where this could be used, for example I’m a physician and when I do rounds or work in the ER I’ve got a work computer and I sometimes quickly go to my notes on notion, the bigger screen when compared to my phone is useful to show a student something for exemple.
I would love to be able to host an instance of Anytype on my headless server. Then I would be able to open Anytype from a web browser on my employer’s laptop, e.g. https://anytype.mydomain.tld
I am one of those who is an opponent of web applications, because this is not the best solution. As an additional option, yes. But in fact, in the case of this application, it is better to have a portable version or something like that.
At the same time, the portable version should not have the entire database under it because of the appetites of the application for space on the hard disk (well, or solve the problem with choosing which data to store or with the prescription of the storage history), but something like an application with a cache that tightens the data table, and when accessing the object, data from backup node is loaded into the interface.
Though app for desktop and mobile are key apps to use a web version/access would be great but I can see this being a challenge from how to host the page publicly. I have my own domains/servers so not sure if that type of route would work or not.
Anyways loving the products but I can certainly see browser access having great value to many.
Definitely this. The ability to host a, say, Anytype ‘instance’ on a server to make it available online would be something that would allow me to completely leave Notion behind. I wonder if it could work as a private backup node as well? I do think that this is something for later on though.
Perhaps the Anytype company can provide and host such a service for a fee to generate revenue - it could be done in a similar way with how they’re planning to offer paid backup nodes: some users can pay Anytype directly for backup node hosting, while other technically-minded users can host their own instance.
Would be awesome indeed, since sometimes I’m only taking my work laptop with me, where I’m pretty restricted with software. My second device is an iPad but there isn’t yet an optimised version for iOS.
Web version, especially self-hosted would make me leave Notion behind immediately
In addition to what has has been discussed already: when released, the API should allow all functionality present in the desktop app (maybe not right away), so it should theoretically be possible to write your own Web frontend. Although I would be in favour of a version developed by Anytype, it would not be the first piece of software with a community developed frontend.
I think is almost contradictory to the decentralized vision Anytype claim to have, to not have a web version.
With half of the resources used for all the apps for different platforms they’ve built, they could’ve done a web app that works for everybody and every device.
Sorry for my tone, I’m just shocked to find out about this after attending the onboarding call. No web app, no fun for me.
The idea behind is simple. If you want web version you need web server. This server will be owned by Anytype and there will be no decentralisation or ability to work offline. However we have a plan to introduce some classic web experience next year. We will share the vision with the community as soon as it will be precisely formulated. It will be really great if you could participate in discussion there.
I think a CDN to deliver the code is enough, nothing fancy and can be self hosted.
This server will be owned by Anytype and there will be no decentralization or ability to work offline
Why? How is an app different from a web app here? If current apps are decentralized (and p2p somehow I imagine), then a browser app can join this p2p network, maybe just needing a relay somewhere, again, this can also be self hosted, and a PWA can work offline perfectly.
For what I see, Anytype is not going the web3 route, at least not at the moment, so, I don’t even see the point to worry so much about centralization, when simply letting the user have it’s own data somewhere seems good enough.
Better in my opinion to pursue a good UX at this point.
It will be really great if you could participate in discussion there.
Sure, I’ll keep my account open here, but I can already say that I can’t trust a product that claims to empower the user, while denying usage from a browser.
It’s for me analogous to saying the apps will be only distributed via mailed CD’s, and give the same argument for it.
Thanks for the honest points. Want to clarify once again that we are going to introduce some web experience next year. It make most sense in the context of collaboration with others and sharing.
We do really want to do it, but it requires a lot of efforts to implement. The electron app should be redesigned to work in browsers (for example if you are picking files, an electron app assumes you are working locally, and if you are working in a browser, it is obviously not so, therefore a developer should implement this flow and so on)
Vote for the web client, it would be best if it could be integrated with a self-hosted backup backend, I see a self-hosted backup backend is on the roadmap, would love to see the web client work with the backup backend Work, in my use case, sometimes I need to use the web client, without this function, I will need a third-party web service, and then go home and use anytype for secondary editing
Make Anytype available directly in the browser instead of an application that needs to be installed first.
HOW COULD IT BE DONE
Maybe only for self-hosting solutions it should be possible to access your Anytype account from every device via a browser without installing anything extra.
REAL WORLD USE CASES
On my office notebook I don’t have administrator privileges and the Windows Defender complains about security which I cannot circumvent. Therefore I cannot install Anytype there. Offering it in a browser would solve this.
Thanks for your feedback. This is already a popular Feature Request so I’ll merge yours, and recommend you vote on this one Web App / Web Client
Keep in mind that while we fully understand your need, corporate computers are not a big priority for us. Encryption to the extent we aspire at Anytype is extremely tricky to implement in a browser, as it has many points of vulnerability.
That’s not to say that we or another contributor won’t come up with a solution in the future, perhaps in the form of an extension.
Adding a concrete use case where I’m dearly missing a web client:
All of my workout routines, including videos, are hosted and organized on my Anytype. I’m currently visiting some family and would like to set up my workout videos on their desktop, which has a large monitor.
A web client would allow me to, each day, 1) quickly log in from a web browser on their desktop, 2) workout, and 3) log out when I’m done.
Currently, without a web client, my only option is to 1) download Anytype on their desktop and then each day 2) log in, 3) workout 4) log out (and delete all content) when I’m done. I’d need to do this every single day, because I wouldn’t want to keep my Anytype logged in for anyone to access on the family desktop.
All of this is of course extremely inconvenient: having to download software on someone else’s computer is not always doable, and having to download and delete an entire Space every single day would require a massive use of bandwidth and local resources.
My usecase would be to be able to work in my Anytype objects from work. As probably for most other users, I can not install any software on computers at work (security reasons), so the only way to access my Anytype objects is via the app on my mobile phone (which I mainly use to check some things swiftly or to take some small notes that I extend upon later on from my desktop at home). I think an alternative could be some sort of self-hosted (Docker) version and logging in via remote desktop (e.g. hosting Anytype from a Raspberry Pi or so). Whatever the solution me be, in any case some basic online functionality would be very valuable. It would probably stop my doing anything without Anytype
