Shared Notes and Published Notebook Defaults

[Richard Michael 0]

I just now discovered that Evernote knows what's best for us and discontinued the publishing option in August, so I don't know whether it is interested in documenting this. (The guides are terribly unuseful when trying to find out how to do things other the very simplistic basics.)

I'm testing some things with the idea that if my tests work, I'll use it to build more.

-Shared Notes

Here's what I discovered today.

I have a shared note.

https://www.evernote.com/shard/s463/sh/fbf8b7de-4f44-4850-be07-604d323e5bf7/c70f3e74fc3df00d469952e85b072ff3

I later published the notebook that the note is in.

https://www.evernote.com/pub/projectcityhall/illinois

Months ago, I changed the title on the note. When you get to the note, you can see the title 'Call to Arms.'

When I place the shared note's URL in a Facebook share URL, however, the title shows as it was months ago.

https://www.facebook.com/sharer/sharer.php?u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.evernote.com%2Fshard%2Fs463%2Fsh%2Ffbf8b7de-4f44-4850-be07-604d323e5bf7%2Fc70f3e74fc3df00d469952e85b072ff3%23x%3D1

Trying to share on Facebook the note as a page in a shared notebook results in a very unhelpful display. (I was thinking if I shared it differently, I might get the current title.)

https://www.facebook.com/sharer/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.evernote.com%2Fpub%2Fprojectcityhall%2Fillinois%23st%3Dp%26n%3Dfbf8b7de-4f44-4850-be07-604d323e5bf7

On the chance that Facebook caches (either permanently or temporarily share URLs), I added an innocuous &x=1 into the Evernote URL.

https://www.facebook.com/sharer/sharer.php?u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.evernote.com%2Fshard%2Fs463%2Fsh%2Ffbf8b7de-4f44-4850-be07-604d323e5bf7%2Fc70f3e74fc3df00d469952e85b072ff3%23x%3D1

https://www.facebook.com/sharer/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.evernote.com%2Fpub%2Fprojectcityhall%2Fillinois%23st%3Dp%26x%3D1%26n%3Dfbf8b7de-4f44-4850-be07-604d323e5bf7

The results were the same.

Recently, I added a link in the top of the note to an index note for the notebook.

When reaching the note through the shared note link, clicking that link redirects the user to log in to their account. I can understand why the link might not be accessible, but it should not cause the user confusion that tries to get them to sign in.


-Shared Notebook

https://www.evernote.com/pub/projectcityhall/illinois

When a user reaches the URL above, the Join/View dialog appears. For this example, I choose view.

The screen is divided into three columns, with the left-most column being a waste of space.

Question 1:
Is there a way to set the notebook or the URL up so that the left-most is collapsed on arrival?

The notes are displayed sorted by created date descending.

Question 2:
Is there a way to set the notebook or the URL up so that a different sort (by title ascending) is invoked upon arrival?

By experimentation, I found that adding the note identifier to the URL, I can get a specific note to display on arrival -- it's just an ugly, long link.

https://www.evernote.com/pub/projectcityhall/illinois#st=p&n=8c8f0e6f-01f9-454f-9c03-dda14ac5c1da

In the query string for the URL, I presume the 'n' represents the unique note identifier.

Question 3:
What does the 'st' represent, and what other values can it be given?

Question 4:
What other query string variables and values are available and what do they accomplish?

In the snippets column, the 'Call to Arms' notes displays the Twitter bird as representing the note. That image is in the note, but it is not representative. (This has bugged me for a long time, but it becomes an issue when the notes are public.)

Ideally, this should be really simple, like just use the first image in the note. It appears that there is some hidden caluclus in determining the image to display. It appears to me, based on empircial evidence, that it picks a square image or mostly square image, regardless of the order of the images in the note.

Question 5:
How does one reliably get a preferred image to be loaded by the snippet view?

 

[gazumped 10,358]

Hi.  Notes and notebooks can be shared,  but it may be easier for us to help if you can explain exactly what you're trying to achieve...

[Richard Michael 0]

Basically, I'm trying to achieve a good experience for a user who may have never heard of Evernote and doesn't have the interest to figure out all the ins and outs of using Evernote on the web in order to get useful information.

 

I'm trying to achieve an organized view of a shared notebook through the use of an index or table of contents note.

 

I'm trying to get the current version of a shared note or notebook displaying in a Facebook share URL.

 

I'm trying to get either no image or an image that actually is representative of the note in the snippet.

[gazumped 10,358]

OK

 

If you share notes or a notebook with someone they'll need to have an Evernote account to view it.  There's no easy way to share notes without Evernote in the background,  and none that I know of to ensiure that 'snippet' views are available to the audience with whom you've shared.  It's possible to share single notes with Facebook,   but they'll be peceived as Facebook posts.