Automatic/scheduled note exports
What problem are you facing?
Currently Notesnook allows automated backups, but exports must be created manually. The automated backups are in a format specific to Notesnook, which means they cannot help you if the reason you need a backup is a problem with Notesnook itself.
Their unreadable format also makes it hard to take a quick peek and check that Notesnook is creating valid/usable backups.
What's the solution you'd like to see in Notesnook?
I would suggest continuing to offer the automated .nnbackupz backups (since they can be cleanly restored into Notesnook), but offering an additional/separate option to also create regular automated exports in a selected format such as "Markdown + Frontmatter".
As a bonus, it would be nice if there was an option to have your automatic exports use an encrypted/password-protected archive (decryptable with a common third-party tool so there is no dependence on Notesnook to open it) for people who want automatic exports but don't want to leave unencrypted data sitting around.
But even just an option to use Notesnook's existing non-encrypted export functionality in a scheduled/automated way would be nice! (And hopefully not hard to implement, since Notesnook already has an export functionality.)
What alternatives have you considered?
- Manually making the exports on a regular basis. Unfortunately any backup methodology that depends on the user to remember to use it is bound to be forgotten at least some of the time.
- A non-Notesnook tool for opening and converting the .nnbackupz files, as discussed here. However, this relies on the assumption that Notesnook is creating the .nnbackupz files correctly (something that is harder to check up on every now and then than taking a quick peek at a a markdown export), and depends on the other tool being able to generate multiple formats (such as Markdown + Frontmatter) that the user could take to other apps (and the tool that generates those formats still working many years from now). Scheduled exports are probably still the most future-proof backup option.
Additional context
As precedent, a similar functionality to create automated backups/exports in markdown or another commonly-readable format is offered by other notes apps such as AmpleNote and Standard Note.
Source: streetwriters/notesnook