New Gingko Web Version (open beta)

[Adriano]

Hi everyone,

I have some good news about Gingko’s development!

For years, I’ve struggled to make even minor tweaks to the web version of the software. But it’s become abundantly clear that the underlying technologies are obsolete. It would have taken more work to incrementally upgrade everything, than to simply start over.

Which is what I’ve done. Based on the code for the Desktop version, there is now a new web version that you can start migrating to now

https://gingkowriter.com

It’s not feature-complete yet. But it’s already faster, cleaner, and much easier to develop on and improve.

This is the first public announcement of this, though it’s been in semi-private beta for some time already.

As current users, it would be very helpful to me if you tell me your thoughts on this change before I announce it more broadly. That will allow me to preemptively answer any questions other people might have.

(note: you’ll need to create a new account, but you’ll be able to migrate all/some of your trees from your existing account easily, if you choose).

[xbeta]

Hard work and great Work.

1. import bug
I found a bug in full backup import. After the full backup file Gingko-Backup-2020-12-02-070544.txt dragged into the box, there was a document list. I only selected 3 trees to import. After it finished, I checked them. In one tree, the biggest one, named 'time-line dairy" , there were some extra cards from another tree.
But I believe it works correctly in most cases. So it’s not urgent for Adriano. Just to tell the users be careful when import.

2. UI icons.
When users see the 3 icons in up-left corner, they may think:
1st is “file or folder”, yeah, it’s tree list.
2nd is “some other folder?”. oh, no, it’s export.
3ird is set/config, and it is.

3. UI icon again
There is a circled question mark in top-right corner.
I guess it’s a link or pop up to help file.
Let’s click it to read…oh, no… I don’t want to email the developer.

Enjoy Gingko, even bugs and misunderstandings ~

[Adriano]

Thanks for the feedback

You’re right about those UI elements… I can see that it’s confusing. Will change them.

If anyone notices an import bug like that, please let me know!
The more examples I have, the more likely I’ll be able to track down the issue.

Thanks again!

---

Edit:
I’ve made a few minor changes to improve those UI issues. The help button now opens a dropdown, with only one item for now (“Email Support…”). The buttons on the up-left corner now have labels when hovering over them (not much of a change, but I’m planning on redoing the whole sidebar soon anyway)

[Adriano]

Thanks again @xbeta for your feedback and help.
I found and fixed the Import bug you discovered.

(Issue was in the function for translating from old gingkoapp tree and card ‘ids’ to the new version)

[xbeta]

Yeah, it’s OK now. Import works just as I expected.

[Johnryan]

I really like this new version. It just feels right. I imported my trees and just work from here now.

One thing that has plagued me a bit, though - is that I keep getting some odd skipping and duplicating of cards.

The skipping looks like this -

Card 1

• sub card 1.1
• sub card 1.2 …WHEN ON THIS CARD - CLICKING DOWN ARROW…
• sub card 1.3

Card 2…
Card 3…
Card 4…
Card 5…
Card 6…

Card 7

• sub card 7.1
• sub card 7.2
• sub card 7.3 * sub card 7.3.1 …NAVIGATES TO THIS CARD.

I hope that makes sense.

The duplicating - I get the sense that I may have caused this - I’ll have a card that is an exact copy of another card somewhere else in the tree. Sometimes (or maybe always) they will both be highlighted when I navigate to either one of them.

Happy to find out that these are my own human errors too - just let me know, thanks!

[Adriano]

Hi John.

The duplicating is a bug that has happened to me before, and I know the cause of it.
I thought I had fixed it, but clearly it’s back. Will let you know when it’s fixed (for good?).

As for the skipping, will need to look into it.
Is it repeatable and consistent? In other words, do you have trees where you, for example, always move from card 1.2 down to 7.3 when pressing down?

[Johnryan]

Thanks for getting back to me Adriano.

Skipping: Yes, it’s consistent. It’s always in that file and it always hops from row 1 column 2 -> row 7 column 3. And I only see the issue in that location, not other locations or new cards. Those cards were created 2-3 weeks ago, if that helps.

Duping: I still think this might have been a user error. Getting back into using Gingko, I was oft hitting key commands on accident that I didn’t intend to…I’d guess that I did something like command>shift>down and created a duplicate of a card. I have not seen this issue elsewhere (since restricting myself to commands that…I have command over. But they are interwined. If I open 1 of the duped cards, the other opens as well. If I make changes to one, the changes appear in the duplicate. When I finally copied the content from the 1st and deleted it, both disappeared. But, I still had trouble getting the two areas to not be interlinked…I need to experiment with that more to understand what else is happening.

[Adriano]

Hi again,

The duping wasn’t a user error, though it might have seemed that way because it happens unpredictably. I’ve just uploaded a fix now. (fyi: the issue was: there’s a random seed used to generate the card id’s, but because of a mistake I made, it was sometimes reset, which meant you’d be creating new cards with the same id as existing ones).

The skipping is odd and I’ve never come across it before. I just emailed you about this to try to dig into it further.

Thanks again for the feedback and bug reports

[Waldleufer]

Hello Adriano,

Would it be possible to include the nice Imageimport in the new web version of gingko as well? It’s one of my most beloved features since it is so easy to use and put a little image just where I want in the text flow.

I’d also love to get the option to use the old https://gingkoapp.com/ theme. Even though I like the new blue - white default theme due to the higher contrast, I also liked the old theme light gray and white with just a little contrast very much.

Have a great day, you’re doing an amazing Job on this app and I enjoy it a lot!

[Johnryan]

Waldleufer - did you get a chance to try the gray theme in the new version of Gingko? You can find the other theme colors within the left sidebar menu (they look like audio sliders to me) and switch from there. Looks like G2 has 3 options in there so far, more would be nice - or even the option to create our own. But - all that said - one of the existing choices, currently, is gray. You can apply themes by tree. My others are in the default blue, but this one I keep in gray as a reminder of where I am. Give it a shot! Screenshot below…

Hope that helps!

[Waldleufer]

Hey @Johnryan,

Thank you for the heads up, I already tried all the new themes that are available to the present day, and I like them, especially the blue default one. I prefer that over the new gray one.

I figured I miss the green bars at the left side of the card, that tell you which card you are editing, and I personally preferred the background being lighter, like in g1. I like to read adjacent cards from time to time, without actually changing focussed card and the dark gray shade makes that pretty hard.
However these are only my personal opinions but maybe we could have a style that imitates the old visual style of g1 at some point

But to be honest, while I use the new G2 for a little bit longer, I will probably adapt to the slightly new style. In the end, its just a nuance of difference.

What I really miss is the Image Import Feature of G1 though

[Johnryan]

Ah. Yea, got it. I’m with you on all that. I wonder if some of that color adjustment, could be done with CSS…but that’s not really my area of expertise.

I am using some code, that adjusts column width (and font size) of the 2nd column, so I can put Gingko in a 25" screen and write book length content without being restricted by card-sized space - but as to making colors happen…not sure.

The import image…if I recall, upload from your computer - and insert into cards, do I remember that right?

[Waldleufer]

@Johnryan

The import image…if I recall, upload from your computer - and insert into cards, do I remember that right?

You are right Good ol G1 uses www.filepicker.io to do so.

[Waldleufer]

I recently tried out gingkowriter.com on my IPad, and I was surprised by how good it works!

However, the only thing that is still a little bit fiddly on mobile devices is moving cards. The area where a card can be grabbed is very very small (on a mobile device). Maybe there is a way to implement this element so that the dragging bar gets a little bit wider on smaller screens.

Meanwhile I learned to love the new “Default Theme”! Blue Background and white Cards. It really draws your focus to the Cards (And Subcards) that you are currently browsing / working on.

Gingko is such a good application!

Cheers
Waldleufer

[Adriano]

Glad you’re finding Gingko Writer useful

You should be able to drag a card on mobile by long-pressing anywhere on it (as long as you’re not in writing mode):

I’m working on slowly improving the mobile experience (I notice sometimes the scroll position jumps around a lot, for instance), so let me know how it goes. PS: I added a “go fullscreen” button on mobile, to give you more room, too:

[Specter]

@Adriano is there an ETA for when the edit card full screen mode will be released in the V2? That feature is awesome.

New color themes would bem cool as well

[Specter]

@Johnryan can you share that CSS please?

[Johnryan]

@Specter - sure. Here’s the code that I use, (Adriano cooked this up at some point…)

#column-container { grid-template-columns: 200px 800px repeat(auto-fill, minmax(50ch, 80ch)); } #column-container .column:nth-child(2) { font-size: 70%; }

And then, I’m using a couple different versions of that…so, in one case, I have the column widths set like so: 450px 450px 450px 900px (as it’s the 4th column in that tree that I want to widen.) In another tree, I have it set to 450px 1200px. Note that, this works great on my wider external monitor, but it falls off the screen when I’m on my laptop.

And I usually set the font shrinking part (70%) to either 90% if I am really needing to see more of the content at a glance. Or 100%, if I simply want it to stay the same as the rest of the tree but in larger containers for whatever reason.

I don’t think it matters which card you put it in (I’ve tried it in various places - so, the code works the same, no matter where in the tree it’s located) - I just try to always keep it in the top left card, so I don’t have to hunt for it.

Good luck!