nncli 0.1.2

NextCloud Notes Command Line Interface

nncli

NextCloud Notes Command Line Interface

nncli is a Python application that gives you access to your NextCloud Notes account via the command line. It's a "hard" fork of sncli. You can access your notes via a customizable console GUI that implements vi-like keybinds or via a simple command line interface that you can script.

Notes can be viewed/created/edited in both an online and offline mode. All changes are saved to a local cache on disk and automatically sync'ed when nncli is brought online.

Pull requests are welcome!

Check your OS distribution for installation packages.

Requirements

• Python 3
• Urwid Python 3 module
• Requests Python 3 module
• A love for the command line!

Installation

• Via pip (latest release):
  • pip3 install nncli
• Manually:
  • Clone this repository to your hard disk: git clone https://github.com/djmoch/nncli.git
  • Install nncli: python3 setup.py install
• Development:
  • Clone the repo
  • Install Pipenv: pip install pipenv
  • Stand up development environment: pipenv install --dev

Features

• Console GUI
  • full two-way sync with NextCloud Notes performed dynamically in the background
  • all actions logged and easily reviewed
  • list note titles (configurable format w/ title, date, flags, category, keys, etc)
  • sort notes by date, alpha by title, category, favorite on top
  • search for notes using a Google style search pattern or Regular Expression
  • view note contents and meta data
  • pipe note contents to external command
  • create and edit notes (using your editor)
  • edit note category
  • delete notes
  • favorite/unfavorite notes
  • vi-like keybinds (fully configurable)
  • Colors! (fully configurable)
• Command Line (scripting)
  • force a full two-way sync with NextCloud Notes
  • all actions logged and easily reviewed
  • list note titles and keys
  • search for notes using a Google style search pattern or Regular Expression
  • dump note contents
  • create a new note (via stdin or editor)
  • import a note with raw json data (stdin or editor)
  • edit a note (via editor)
  • delete a note
  • favorite/unfavorite a note
  • view and edit note category

HowTo

Usage:
 nncli [OPTIONS] [COMMAND] [COMMAND_ARGS]

 OPTIONS:
  -h, --help                  - usage help
  -v, --verbose               - verbose output
  -n, --nosync                - don't perform a server sync
  -r, --regex                 - search string is a regular expression
  -k <key>, --key=<key>       - note key
  -t <title>, --title=<title> - title of note for create (cli mode)
  -c <file>, --config=<file>  - config file to read from
  --version                   - version information

 COMMANDS:
  <none>                      - console gui mode when no command specified
  sync                        - perform a full sync with the server
  list [search_string]        - list notes (refined with search string)
  export [search_string]      - export notes in JSON (refined with search string)
  dump [search_string]        - dump notes (refined with search string)
  create [-]                  - create a note ('-' content from stdin)
  import [-]                  - import a note in JSON format ('-' JSON from stdin)
  export                      - export a note in JSON format (specified by <key>)
  dump                        - dump a note (specified by <key>)
  edit                        - edit a note (specified by <key>)
  delete                      - delete a note (specified by <key>)
  < favorite | unfavorite >   - favorite/unfavorite a note (specified by <key>)
  cat get                     - retrieve the category from a note (specified by <key>)
  cat set <category>          - set the category for a note (specified by <key>)
  cat rm                      - remove category from a note (specified by <key>)

Configuration

The current NextCloud Notes API does not support oauth authentication so your NextCloud Notes account password must be stored someplace accessible to nncli. Use of the cfg_nn_password_eval option is recommended (see below).

nncli pulls in configuration from the config file located in the standard location for your platform. At the very least, the following example config will get you going (using your account information):

[nncli]
cfg_nn_username = [e-mail]
cfg_nn_password = nihilist
cfg_nn_host     = nextcloud.thedude.com

Start nncli with no arguments which starts the console GUI mode. nncli will begin to sync your existing notes and you'll see log messages at the bottom of the console. You can view these log messages at any time by pressing the l key.

View the help by pressing h. Here you'll see all the keybinds and configuration items. The middle column shows the config name that can be used in your config to override the default setting.

See example configuration file below for more notes.

[nncli]
cfg_nn_username = [e-mail]
cfg_nn_password = nihilist
cfg_nn_host     = nextcloud.thedude.com

# as an alternate to cfg_nn_password you could use the following config item
# any shell command can be used; its stdout is used for the password
# trailing newlines are stripped for ease of use
# note: if both password config are given, cfg_nn_password will be used
cfg_nn_password_eval = gpg --quiet --for-your-eyes-only --no-tty --decrypt ~/.nncli-pass.gpg

# see http://urwid.org/manual/userinput.html for examples of more key
# combinations
kb_edit_note = space
kb_page_down = ctrl f

# note that values must not be quoted
clr_note_focus_bg = light blue

# if this editor config value is not provided, the $EDITOR env var will be
# used instead
# warning: if neither $EDITOR or cfg_editor is set, it will be impossible to
# edit notes
cfg_editor = nvim

# alternatively, {fname} and/or {line} are substituted with the filename and
# current line number in nncli's pager.
# If {fname} isn't supplied, the filename is simply appended.
# examples:
cfg_editor = nvim {fname} +{line}
cfg_editor = nano +{line}

# this is also supported for the pager:
cfg_pager = less -c +{line} -N {fname}

Note Title Format

The format of each line in the note list is driven by the cfg_format_note_title config item. Various formatting tags are supported for dynamically building the title string. Each of these formatting tags supports a width specifier (decimal) and a left justification (-) like that supported by printf:

%F - flags (fixed 5 char width)
     X - needs sync
     * - favorited
%T - category
%D - date
%N - title

The default note title format pushes the note category to the far right of the terminal and left justifies the note title after the date and flags:

cfg_format_note_title = '[%D] %F %-N %T'

Note that the %D date format is further defined by the strftime format specified in cfg_format_strftime.

Colors

nncli utilizes the Python Uwrid module to implement the console user interface.

At this time, nncli does not yet support 256-color terminals and is limited to just 16-colors. Color names that can be specified in the config file are listed here.

Searching

nncli supports two styles of search strings. First is a Google style search string and second is a Regular Expression.

A Google style search string is a group of tokens (separated by spaces) with an implied AND between each token. This style search is case insensitive. For example:

/category:category1 category:category2 word1 "word2 word3" category:category3

Regular expression searching also supports the use of flags (currently only case-insensitive) by adding a final forward slash followed by the flags. The following example will do a case-insensitive search for something:

(regex) /something/i

Creating from command line

# create a new note and open in editor
nncli create

# create a new note with contents of stdin
echo 'hi' | nncli create -

Importing

nncli can import notes from raw json data (via stdin or editor). For example:

echo '{"category":"testing","content":"New note!"}' | nncli import -

Allowed fields are content, category, favorite, and modified

Exporting

nncli can export notes as json data to stdout. Example:

# export a single note by id
nncli -k somekeyid export

# export all notes
nncli export

# export notes matching search string
nncli [-r] export some search keywords or regex

Note that nncli still stores all the notes data in the directory specified by cfg_db_path, so for easy backups, it may be easier/quicker to simply backup this entire directory.

Category

Note category can be modified directly from the command line. Example:

# Retrieve note category (e.g. "category1")
nncli -k somekeyid cat get
# Returns "category1"

# Add a category to a note, overwriting any existing one
nncli -k somekeyid cat set "category3"
# Now tagged as "category3"

# Remove a category from a note
nncli -k somekeyid cat rm
# Note now has no category

Tricks

Advanced text editors usually tailor their behavior based on the file type being edited. For such editors, notes opened through nncli should be treated as Markdown by default. However, you can change this on a per-note basis through the use of modelines. In Vim, for instance, a modeline is a comment line conforming to the pattern below.

; vim:ft=votl

Now when I edit this note Vim will automatically load the votl plugin. Lots of possibilities here...

Thanks

nncli is a fork of sncli by insanum. This application further pulls in and uses modified versions of the simplenote.py module by mrtazz and the notes_db.py module from nvpy by cpbotha.