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Sentinote - An Evernote Plugin for WordPress


Rheinard Korf

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Hi Everyone,

 

I would like to introduce Sentinote (http://sentinote.com) + an offer.

 

Sentinote is a premium WordPress plugin that makes it easy to manage your WordPress site/blog using notes in Evernote. Focus on your content, not on how you're going to publish it on your website.  

 

Sentinote uses the Evernote-API to search for and retrieve notes by Notebook and tag and then convert these notes into WordPress Posts or Pages (depending on the note tags). Like some of the other hosted solutions out there the 'published' tag is the minimum required to get you started.

 

Markdown is one of my personal favourite (and most requested) features that I am happy to say is now included in Sentinote 1.1.3.

 

Here is a rundown of the tags supported:

 

  • published -- Lets Sentinote know to take this note and process it for WordPress. Default post type is standard blog post. All notes to appear in WordPress MUST be tagged with ‘published’
  • page -- Changes the note’s post format from standard blog post to standard WordPress page.
  • draft -- Changes the note’s status to draft. This post will not be visible to site visitors.
  • nolink -- Don’t create a menu item for this page in the special ‘Sentinote’ menu.
  • close -- Close all comments and ping backs. This overrides the WordPress settings for comments.
  • open -- Open comments only for this post. Overrides WordPress settings for comments.
  • pingopen -- Open ping backs only for this post. Overrides WordPress settings for comments.
  • md -- Apply Markdown/Markdown Extra to this note (Even if the Markdown setting was not ticked for all notes).
  • nomd -- Disables Markdown/Markdown Extra for this note (Even if the Markdown setting was ticked for all notes).
  • {#} (# as page id) -- Assigns the post as a child of another post (the parent) identified by the post ID. Handy for page hierarchies.
  • {format} -- Formats available: {standard}, {aside}, {gallery}, {link}, {status}, {image}, {quote}, {video}, {audio} or {chat}. This changes the post’s format to the desired format.

 

Feature images are also supported and automatically added as thumbnails by surrounding an image in your note with [featured] and [/featured].

 

The plugin is designed to work with hosted WordPress websites, not Wordpress.com accounts. It is an extensible plugin full of action and filter hooks to allow for easy future additions and 3rd party plugin integration.

 

It is a premium plugin and I'm confident that you will love it. I am happy to grant a full refund on your purchase amount if you've activated your site with Sentinote and not entirely happy with it for up to 60 days after your purchase date.

 

To help you even further I'm offering forum users a 15% for February using the discount code 'EVERFORUM0214' at checkout. Seeing that Feb only has 28 days this discount will be limited to 28 uses and one per person.

 

If you have any other questions please let me know.

 

I'm happy for you to contact me via forum messages, the Sentinote website, Facebook or Twitter.

 

Important note: Because of the Evernote API and Markdown libraries using PHP namespaces, Sentinote will only work for sites running PHP 5.3.  Most shared hosts have this running on their servers, but not necessarily activated for all accounts. Please look at the Sentinote documentation for more on this. In most cases it is a matter of adding a single line of code to your .htaccess file or a quick support ticket to your host.

 

Also, if you use Sentinote and have feature requests or bugs to report please use the contact form on the Sentinote website. Fixing critical bugs is my highest priority as I myself use Sentinote now on half a dozen sites - if you're not happy with a bug, chances I won't be happy either and I will work hard to get it remedied.

 

Thanks for your interest,

Rheinard Korf 

http://sentinote.com

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This is absolutely exactly what I was looking for. Thanks!

 

I would love to be able to set categories via Evernote as well. I use the categories to sort content for different paid tiers. Perhaps a markdown could work? Something like [category](CategoryName) anywhere in the post.

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  • Evernote Expert

Good luck on your effort, and I do hope that you bring some similar support to the less tech savvy who prefer hosting on wordpress.com.

And I also do hope that this might be a wake up call to the awesome postach.io concept, that rather than adding plugins to bring people from other established platforms like tumblr and wordpress to postach.io , they need to do things the other way around, since established bloggers won't want to change their blog domain name.

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I've been playing around a bit with Postach.io and love the idea.  My concern is that I don't like connecting many apps to my EN account and giving others the ability to peruse my data.  If I use this plugin on a self hosted wordpress site, it doesn't rely on any other 3rd party services... correct?  My data is only passed from my website and EN.

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Sorry Rheinard, I was pretty excited about it, but $35.00 per year is way too out of my budget for my small personal log. Seems to me you should be marketing this to Evernote users with a Business WordPress site.

I just can't see the millions of personal bloggers on the free WordPress blogs, being able or willing to send that kind of money fot your plug-in, especially since it's a yearly fee.

Though I wish you much luck with it!

Wordsgood

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This is absolutely exactly what I was looking for. Thanks!

 

I would love to be able to set categories via Evernote as well. I use the categories to sort content for different paid tiers. Perhaps a markdown could work? Something like [category](CategoryName) anywhere in the post.

 

Apologies for the late reply.  For some reason my forum notification wasn't turned on. Should be a bit more responsive now.

 

Sentinote does have category support built in. To add a post to a category you tag it with the category in square brackets... e.g. [My Category]

 

I've also just released version 1.1.4 which now also supports Evernote's Note Link feature to create links between pages and posts.  

 

In addition to that I've added a WordPress shortcode, [note-content] that will embed the content of a note into another note. I use this quite extensibly for creating notes that contain a layout and then bringing in the content from other notes. This is how the Sentinote documentation page was created.

 

I've created a little video to demo this: http://sentinote.com/2014/02/sentinote-1-1-4-release-with-video-demo/

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Sorry Rheinard, I was pretty excited about it, but $35.00 per year is way too out of my budget for my small personal log. Seems to me you should be marketing this to Evernote users with a Business WordPress site.

I just can't see the millions of personal bloggers on the free WordPress blogs, being able or willing to send that kind of money fot your plug-in, especially since it's a yearly fee.

Though I wish you much luck with it!

Wordsgood

 

 

Wordsgood, I assumed it was a $35 one time fee. I think you are right, especially when Postachi.io is winning the Evernote dev awards and are providing the same service for free.

 

Hey guys,

 

I do understand your concern with the cost. If I may I'd like to explain my decision.

 

I originally wanted to price it higher, but looking at the comments Postach.io received from their community. Its unlikely that anyone will pay more than an Evernote Premium subscription. I respect that. We're building on an amazing platform.

 

Here is why I am asking for a recurring fee:

* Number 1 reason

I'm a solo startup and would love to actively develop this plugin.

 

* WordPress is GPL

In other words open source (which doesn't mean free). What it does mean is that by buying the plugin its yours. Source and all. The plugin you receive you can use indefinitely (without paying a recurring fee). But that means that you receive whichever version you've got.

 

* The License

The license is for support and updates. Quite frankly, I am not going to debug versions that are not current. If you want the most current version you will need a license.

 

* The price is low compared to other premium plugins (because of my comment earlier)

$2.9 per month is extremely affordable. In fact I can break it down into weeks... 0.67c per week.  

 

* It keeps me 100% committed

If I was to release this for free or even at a one of low cost I would be likely to drop support and loose interest. The fact that people are actually investing in the plugin means they are investing in me... and that keeps me humble and working hard.

 

* Re Postach.io being free

I like Postach.io and am looking forward to seeing what they will be bringing to the table with their premium plans.  As for saying that its the "same service" I disagree. Sentinote is for WordPress and is actively being developed to support WordPress features (e.g. categories, post formats, page hierarchies, 3rd party plugin extensions and a few others in the pipeline).  Postach.io is for people who would like to start blogging in the next 5 minutes. I can't make that claim and its not my goal.

 

If I am coming across as defensive it is because I am. I believe in my plugin and am absolutely ecstatic that I have people who use it and love it. I am even more excited about those who were there from the beginning who purchased it blindly before I was even ready. It is for all the users that I am making sure that I can support it.

 

Thanks for the well wishes Wordsgood.

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Wordsgood, I assumed it was a $35 one time fee. I think you are right, especially when Postachi.io is winning the Evernote dev awards and are providing the same service for free.

 

Hey guys,

 

I do understand your concern with the cost. If I may I'd like to explain my decision.

 

I originally wanted to price it higher, but looking at the comments Postach.io received from their community. Its unlikely that anyone will pay more than an Evernote Premium subscription. I respect that. We're building on an amazing platform.

 

Here is why I am asking for a recurring fee:

* Number 1 reason

I'm a solo startup and would love to actively develop this plugin.

 

* WordPress is GPL

In other words open source (which doesn't mean free). What it does mean is that by buying the plugin its yours. Source and all. The plugin you receive you can use indefinitely (without paying a recurring fee). But that means that you receive whichever version you've got.

 

* The License

The license is for support and updates. Quite frankly, I am not going to debug versions that are not current. If you want the most current version you will need a license.

 

* The price is low compared to other premium plugins (because of my comment earlier)

$2.9 per month is extremely affordable. In fact I can break it down into weeks... 0.67c per week.  

 

* It keeps me 100% committed

If I was to release this for free or even at a one of low cost I would be likely to drop support and loose interest. The fact that people are actually investing in the plugin means they are investing in me... and that keeps me humble and working hard.

 

* Re Postach.io being free

I like Postach.io and am looking forward to seeing what they will be bringing to the table with their premium plans.  As for saying that its the "same service" I disagree. Sentinote is for WordPress and is actively being developed to support WordPress features (e.g. categories, post formats, page hierarchies, 3rd party plugin extensions and a few others in the pipeline).  Postach.io is for people who would like to start blogging in the next 5 minutes. I can't make that claim and its not my goal.

 

If I am coming across as defensive it is because I am. I believe in my plugin and am absolutely ecstatic that I have people who use it and love it. I am even more excited about those who were there from the beginning who purchased it blindly before I was even ready. It is for all the users that I am making sure that I can support it.

 

Thanks for the well wishes Wordsgood.

 

 

Thanks for the response.  In the interest of full disclosure, I've worked for a commercial CMS software company in the past and have spent many a late night knee deep in LAMP servers cursing PHP and SQL.  I've only recently started to use WordPress personally and it took me about 30 minutes to push out my first plugin. 

 

Writing and supporting a quality piece of software isn't easy and a programmer should be compensated accordingly.  I'm the first one to agree to this.  A matter of fact, you will see my first reaction was one of excitement to your product.  I struggle with your subscription fee.  

 

I don't have any issues with the the subscription concept, provided...

  1. You get more than just bug fixes.  Bug fixes are mistakes by the developer.  Plain and simple.  Nobody but the developer should pay for correcting them and keeping their software bug free and relevant.  Most developers ask that customers update to the latest paid version to help make that easier.  Quite frankly, your comment regarding this is arrogant and not customer focused.
  2. Significant additional features are actively being developed.  This plugin is pretty straight forward and I'm not exactly sure what additional features you could add on an ongoing basis.  If you do have big plans, you may find it a good idea to explain that to potential customers.
  3. You are providing bandwidth, server space or processing power somewhere down the line.  You are not.
  4. That I'm not paying a developer to stay "100% committed" for his own interests.  Did you really type that?

However, the market is a B%@# and it will bare out your strategy.  If I revisit your site in a year or two and you are doing well, I stand corrected.  I never hope to see failure for any person or venture, especially the small guy.  Good luck.

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Hi Rheinhard,

Please know that I do understand your reasoning and yes, worked out over the long-term, it's not that much money. Unfortunately for me, it is actually a matter of counting my pennies. My blog is not, and will never be, remotely commercial. Essentially, it's just a cheap way for me to blow off some steam while also connecting to other folks dealing wiith the frustrations of chronic illness.

But I truly do wish you much success! :)

Wordsgood

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Thanks Wordsgood!

 

Eddie_, I do appreciate the comments and I totally understand your points.  I'm not interested in a verbal sparring over $35, nor any of the technical reasonings. My interest is in providing a plugin that people want to use... a plugin I want to use. I would like to add one comment regarding the ongoing development, however.

 

Yes, it is a simple plugin. From a simple perspective all it is doing is pulling data from Evernote. Once the data hits WordPress it gets processed depending on note content and tags. Straight forward. What makes it possible for ongoing development is that the plugin is loaded with action hooks and filters. Almost all parts of the plugin can be tapped into and extended... by me or by other developers.  Don't have support for a certain custom post type, no problem, a simple extension plugin adds support. This is where I can really listen to my community and respond to their requests without effecting the core of the plugin.  By keeping the integrity of the core in tact I am serving my users.

 

I also thank you for your comment regarding letting people know what is coming up. I am doing exactly that and developing a roadmap.

 

I'm positive that in 2 years I'll still be developing Sentinote. I now use it for a number of personal and client websites and it is making my life a whole lot easier as I am sure it will others.

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The notes within notes feature just solved a problem I had! Loving it so far. Flawless integration.

My site's not to this point yet, but I'm eventually going to have multiple people post. And while sharing notebooks would work at first, I think I'm going to need something a little more locked down. We'll see as it becomes more important, but we're definitely going to talk in the future.

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  • 1 month later...

Hi Rheinhard,

 

many thanks for your idea to develop this plugin.

This is exactly what I was looking for. I'm currently building up my own business which will be basically content provision related to the digitized world for a certain target audience ( generation 45+).

So, because I'm a long-years Evernote user and believer I had the idea from the very beginning to use the notes for content management. Mainly the (growing) functionalities for editing and designing notes with all kind of content ( pictures, videos, voice etc) and the additional available tools around evernote as skitch enforced the idea further. I was quite clear that the CMS will be Wordpress ( fitting theme not yet found) and therefore I only missed the functionality you now provide.

 

I  bought and installed the plug-in today and it works fine and as expected.

 

Do you have any further idea for the development path of the plugin ? I could image such functionality like bi-directional sync , means if there are changes made within Wordpress (updates of pages, new pages etc.) to sync them back into evernote. That would even more bring the evernote notebook into a real and complete backup.

Just as an idea.

 

Rgds Uwe

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Hi Uwe,

 

Thanks for your kind words. Its always great when someone reaches out and lets me know that they find this plugin a help. 

 

To answer your question about future development, I will point you to a blog post I did a little while ago which highlights the roadmap I see forward for the plugin: http://sentinote.com/2014/02/sentinote-1-2-is-coming/

 

At this stage I don't have any set timeline for these developments and recently I am also holding back adding any new features just yet. Will hopefully have more news soon.

 

Thanks again,

Rheinard

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Rheinard, 

I was on my my way to your websitie to subscribe. This is just what I've been needing to actually make my blogging plans happen....

From what I've observed, your commitment and updates to the project are enough for me to feel confident in investment in a subscription. Looking forward to using your product.  I was slightly disappointed when that wasn't available, but still want to subscribe.How long until you have it ready for sale again? What's the delay?

 

thanks,

 

MVader

vadermills.com

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Rheinard, 

I was on my my way to your websitie to subscribe. This is just what I've been needing to actually make my blogging plans happen....

From what I've observed, your commitment and updates to the project are enough for me to feel confident in investment in a subscription. Looking forward to using your product.  I was slightly disappointed when that wasn't available, but still want to subscribe.How long until you have it ready for sale again? What's the delay?

 

thanks,

 

MVader

vadermills.com

 

MVader, please see my next post.

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Hi Everyone,

 

I have a big announcement to make today.  This week I've been employed by the great Incsub, the people behind Edublogs and WMPU DEV (the largest premium WordPress site on the web). This means that I am now required to work on other fantastic WordPress plugins and can no longer be the only dev working on Sentinote.  

 

As a result of some hard thinking, hard negotiating and some hard reflecting, I have decided to release Sentinote to the public, for FREE. To see the full announcement you can read it over on the Sentinote blog.

 

If you are a WordPress developer and Evernote users, I welcome you to join the project. I am looking for a contributor who will continue the work I started and help implement the vision I had for Sentinote 1.2 (the roadmap). I am no longer able (for a variety of reasons) to continue developing the plugin.

 

Thank you to those of you who believed in the plugin and gave me (a little upstart) a shot and helping me become a better developer.  

 

Cheers,

Rheinard

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Congrats Rheinard! That sounds very exciting and I wish you much success! :)

Releasing Sentinote free is very kind and generous of you. I hope someone else will pick it up and continue development.

Good luck in your new job! :)

Hi Everyone,

I have a big announcement to make today. This week I've been employed by the great Incsub, the people behind Edublogs and WMPU DEV (the largest premium WordPress site on the web). This means that I am now required to work on other fantastic WordPress plugins and can no longer be the only dev working on Sentinote.

As a result of some hard thinking, hard negotiating and some hard reflecting, I have decided to release Sentinote to the public, for FREE. To see the full announcement you can read it over on the Sentinote blog.

If you are a WordPress developer and Evernote users, I welcome you to join the project. I am looking for a contributor who will continue the work I started and help implement the vision I had for Sentinote 1.2 (the roadmap). I am no longer able (for a variety of reasons) to continue developing the plugin.

Thank you to those of you who believed in the plugin and gave me (a little upstart) a shot and helping me become a better developer.

Cheers,

Rheinard

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  • 3 weeks later...

Is there any way to connect Sentinote to more than one Evernote notebook?

 

Hi,

 

Technically, you can. I made Sentinote to be extensible so that parts of it can be hooked into using actions and filters.  That said, Evernote has the restriction of only searching one notebook at a time. This restriction means that I I was to implement a feature to use multiple notebooks, then it will be costly and will chew a lot of resources. Not ideal.

 

Depending on what you are trying to do, here are a few options.

 

Scenario 1:  Using ALL your notebooks (Only notes tagged with 'published' will sync).

This will override the default notebook specified in Sentinote options and will search ALL your notebooks for 'published' tag.

 

In your theme functions.php file paste the following code:

// Modify the search stringfunction sentinote_search_all_notebooks( $search_term ) {    $search_term = 'tag:published';    return $search_term;}add_filter( 'sentinote_evernote_search_string', 'sentinote_search_all_notebooks' );

Scenario 2: Using a WordPress Network installation (multi-site)

Install Sentinote for each blog in the network and select the relevant notebook for each blog.

 

Other than these two solutions, it would require parts of the plugin to be rewritten.

 

I hope this answers your question.

 

Cheers,

Rheinard

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  • 2 weeks later...
Big thanks! That helped us to solve it :)

 

We have run into another issue now though. Longer dashes (–) don't get through. When Sentinote encounters one it will stop importing the text at that point. Is this a known issue? Has it got a known solution?

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We have run into another issue now though. Longer dashes (–) don't get through. When Sentinote encounters one it will stop importing the text at that point. Is this a known issue? Has it got a known solution?

 

This is a known issue.  You will especially find this when using the Mac client as it changes a lot of things in to special characters.  Some of these break the note import.  If you'd still like to create an m-dash or an n-dash, you can use 3 dashes (converted to m-dash on import) or 2 dashes (converter to n-dash on import).

 

Unfortunately I haven't got to fixing this bug yet.

 

Cheers,

Rheinard

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Ok, I'll just wait for a fix then. We can live with this for now :)

Another issue: We cannot have matching author names of every article in Evernote and on the website. So now we are manually changing author and category in WP after import. Unfortunately it seems Sentinote lets Evernote "sync back" the original author and category a little bit now and then, messing up our website.

The best solution of course would be if we could just use tags for which authors and categories WP should use, so that everything could be handled directly in EN.

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