(Archived) Feature request: Custom properties for note

[kurka 3]

I would like to be able to add custom properties to a note or perhaps to a folder (so that the properties applies to all notes within that folder).

For example, I would like to keep track of books I read, and need a start and end date, along with some various rating properties.

By having this functionality, it is possible to programatically use Evernote as a simple database where it is possible to search and filter on various properties.

I know that the book-example could be achieved by using the added- and updated-date as dates and keywords as ratings, but I do not want to rely on this, since the update date easily changes.

Adding custom properties gives Evernote an enormous advantage that I don't think other note applications have.

For example - you want to keep control of your weight? Add a custom property with "weight" and any application that can read notes can produce a graph without having to parse raw text in the note body.

I think that in the first incarnation of this functionality (assuming you will implement it ), I think access to the properties can be via API only (I'm currently on AppleScript), but it would of course be great to be able to add this info using the clients too.

Please consider!

[peterfmartin 221]

Here's one previous discussion on Evernote as a database:

[jefito 5,589]

The addition of user-specifiable attributes to the Evernote database gets asked here occasionally. I've not seen any Evernote feedback that this would be implemented any time soon. It's interesting, sure, but then to make it complete, you would need a fair amount of functionality (UI support, search support, etc.), not to mention making it work across their many platforms.

[BurgersNFries 2,407]

not to mention making it work across their many platforms.

I think that's the thing that people often forget and/or don't realize how problematic it can be. Anyone who's ever had to support software on a variety of setups, let alone OSs, very much understands why EN tries to keep things simple & introduce new features/big changes gradually.

[kurka 3]

Thanks for pointing out that this has been asked before. I agree that to fully implement all possible features related to custom properties (or whatever one might call it) is quite a big task, but just adding this feature to their database and allowing access via api should perhaps not be that big effort.

But since it has been brought up before, and EN is not showing any interest, I should perhaps not have too high hopes

[zenrain 5]

I agree, this would be a welcome addition, for exactly the book use case mentioned in the post.

Edit: If interested, my current workflow for reviews is tagging the note with the type of thing I'm reviewing (book, movie, beer, wine) as well as review. Then the first line of the note contains x/5. This allows me to do a quick search for tag:[type] "x/5" to see items with specific scores, or tag:[type] tag:review to see all reviews for that type.

[jefito 5,589]

Short term I wouldn't hold my breath, but who knows? Evernote's CEO has described Evernote as a 100 year company, or at least that's how they're trying to think. Some rainy day, over the next 100 years, they might decide to drop it in.