MGL Notes App

Another Mongolian note-taking experience built with ClojureDart and Flutter. The app combines vertical Mongolian typography, a block-based editor, sync-ready persistence, and modern UX patterns to help writers collect, organize, and revisit ideas.

Looking for a more lightweight drafting companion? Explore the simpler note app mongol-drafts built around core vertical writing workflows.

Highlights (2025-11)

• Favorite shelf: horizontal favorites list in the drawer with quick navigation and unfavorite actions.
• Inline note references: [[Linked Note]] titles now form references that open inside the editor and keep cross-note relationships in sync.
• Automatic tag extraction: hashtags inside blocks are promoted to structured tags, reused across search and filtering.
• Upgraded search surface: unified panel (notes + tags), suggestions, infinite scroll, and filter badges for tag/date context.
• Electric Sync adapters: upload / pull helpers (notes_app/utils/sync.cljd) plus login & registration hooks ready to integrate with an Electric backend.
• State helpers refresh: pagination, toast, and loading primitives reused across lists for consistent feedback.

Recent Block Editor Enhancements

• Block metadata support: each block can store JSON metadata (meta_data column) for extensible block-level properties and custom attributes.
• Block indentation/levels: hierarchical block structure with tab-based indentation, enabling nested content organization and outline-style editing.
• Link ID tracking: editor state maintains link-ids map to track note references ([[title]]) and keep cross-note relationships synchronized.
• Note title metadata: note titles support metadata storage, enabling rich title-level attributes alongside block metadata.
• Todo/task list support: blocks can be marked as todo items with checkbox functionality, stored in block metadata for task management and completion tracking.
• Background and foreground colors: customizable block-level background and foreground colors stored in metadata, enabling visual organization and highlighting of important content.

Feature Overview

• Block-based editor with Mongolian vertical input, reordering, block-level persistence, indentation/levels, per-block metadata support, todo/task lists, and customizable background/foreground colors.
• Favorites pinned inside the app drawer for one-tap recall.
• Tagging via inline #hashtags, automatic creation, and tag-note associations.
• Search workspace covering notes, tags, and suggestions with pagination and custom keyboard support.
• Recycle Bin for soft delete + restore with paginated history.
• Import / Export JSON snapshots with quick share/delete actions.
• Authentication screens (login & register) wired to Electric Sync auth APIs.
• Offline-first storage using Drift, with sync markers to reconcile local ↔ remote.
• Custom Mongolian keyboard & fonts bundled for vertical script typing on any platform.
• App lock & security with password protection, auto-lock timeout, and unlock screen.
• Settings screen for theme, fonts, security, data management, and app preferences.
• Help & Support screen with getting started guide, FAQs, and support information.
• About screen displaying app version, features, and developer information.

Tech Stack

• Flutter UI with Material 3 theming and lifecycle hooks.
• ClojureDart business logic compiled to Dart (lib/cljd-out/).
• Drift for local relational storage, FTS indices, and reactive queries.
• Electric Sync integration points (auth, token, push/pull) for multi-device sync.
• Mongol / mongol_code packages for vertical text components.
• Shared Preferences & Path Provider for lightweight persistence and file IO.

Getting Started

Prerequisites

1. Dart SDK ≥ 3.8.1
2. Flutter (stable channel)
3. Clojure CLI & ClojureDart toolchain (clojure -M:cljd)
4. macOS/Linux shell capable of running the above tools

Installation

git clone <repository-url>
cd mgl-notes-app
flutter pub get
clojure -M:cljd
flutter pub run build_runner build
flutter gen-l10n
flutter run

Tip: run flutter pub run build_runner build --delete-conflicting-outputs after schema changes. Localization: run flutter gen-l10n whenever strings change because the generated Dart under lib/l10n/ is no longer tracked in Git.

Environment Variables

src/notes_app/services/env.cljd exposes base-utl for Electric endpoints. If you switch to .env files, load them via flutter_dotenv before bootstrapping the app.

Common Workflows

• Develop: flutter run (emulator or device).
• Unit test: flutter test.
• Analyze: flutter analyze.
• Build release:
  • Android APK: flutter build apk --release
  • Android App Bundle: flutter build appbundle --release
  • iOS: flutter build ios --release
  • Web: flutter build web --release
• Regenerate ClojureDart output: clojure -M:cljd.
• Regenerate Drift artifacts: flutter pub run build_runner build.

Synchronization Hooks

notes_app/utils/sync.cljd provides four entry points:

• upload-pending-notes!
• upload-pending-blocks!
• pull-notes-from-server!
• pull-blocks-from-server!

Pair these with scheduling (app lifecycle, background isolates, or manual triggers) once an Electric Sync backend is live. Successful pushes mark rows as synced and keep block FTS tables updated.

Authentication helpers in notes_app/services/auth.cljd call electric-sync.auth for login/registration, update local user IDs, and refresh note feeds post-auth.

Import & Export

notes_app/services/import_export.cljd exports complete note bundles—blocks, tags, metadata—to JSON files under ~/Documents/exports. UI actions in import_export.cljd allow sharing or deleting those bundles. Import routines handle recreating notes, blocks, and tag associations.

Project Structure (snapshot)

mgl-notes-app/
├── lib/
│   ├── main.dart
│   ├── cljd-out/            # Generated Dart from Clojure sources
│   └── database/            # Drift database + generated files
├── src/notes_app/
│   ├── main.cljd            # App entry + route table
│   ├── theme.cljd           # Light/Dark theme definitions
│   ├── screens/             # Home, editor, search, recycle, auth, settings, unlock, about, help, import-export
│   ├── widgets/             # Mongolian UI components (chips, lists, favorites, etc.)
│   ├── states/              # Atoms & pagination helpers for notes/search/tags/ui/theme/font/security
│   ├── services/            # DB, auth, env, import/export, preferences
│   └── utils/               # Blocks, tags, clipboard, navigator, sync, toast, file, date, platform
├── assets/
│   ├── fonts/               # Mongolian fonts bundled in pubspec
│   ├── data.zip             # Keyboard dictionary
│   └── next.zip             # Next-candidate dictionary
├── pubspec.yaml             # Flutter + Dart dependencies
├── deps.edn                 # ClojureDart dependencies
└── README.md

Development Guidelines

• Favor semantic naming in both ClojureDart and Dart outputs.
• Keep long-running operations async and wrap UI mutations with loading/toast helpers.
• Add drift migrations/tests when evolving persistent models.
• Contributions: fork → branch → commit (feat: ...) → PR.

License

MIT License. See LICENSE for the full text.

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Built for Mongolian note-takers with ❤️.