I recently discovered the magic of templates, and it has really increased my enjoyment and use of DevonThink (and further cemented its status as the bedrock of all the other “knowledge software” on any device I use).
Instead of creating parallel hierarchies within different iCloud roots in Finder, I now fit them into whatever Group seems natural in a DevonThink database.
However, within DevonThinkToGo, these aren’t editable or even viewable.
In some cases, it wouldn’t make sense to be able to open them, but I’m talking about e.g. an OmniOutliner doc. It is possible to open a specific location within an OmniOutliner doc using a deep link, so why not the doc itself?
Again, this is “a want, not a need”, but definitely feels like something that could make interoperability more seamless. It seems very natural to me that DevonThink should be the “central nervous system” for cross-platform knowledge apps, this would further that goal.
It seems very natural to me that DevonThink should be the “central nervous system” for cross-platform knowledge apps, this would further that goal.
Why would it seem ”natural”?
Why wouldn’t the expectation be that other apps reach inwards toward DEVONthink instead of DEVONthink reaching outward?
If there are 10 other apps people want connection to, should the burden of development and maintenance be on us for all 10? Or should those 10 individually provide, develop, and maintain communication with DEVONthink?
You’re right, the burden should definitely not be on DevonThink.
This should really be a question for OmniGroup to allow us to use OmniOutliner in this way.
I guess a follow-up point is then, if OmniGroup (or someone else) wants to allow their docs to be created-and-opened within DevonThink (serving as a “file provider” for them, in this context), can they?
I hope my post didn’t come off wrongly as we do like to play nicely with others
But the question I posed is usually not the one asked. It’s usually the case people think it’s something we are supposed to do.
As far as what can be done, I can’t speak for them. I guess that’s up to those developers to answer.
OmniOutliner uses a proprietary format for a reason: so you can only use their app. So what’s their motivation to open up that format to other developers to support editing OO documents?
Would DEVONtechnologies want to open their databases to maintenance by apps created by someone else? No, of course not.
In the software game like everywhere in commerce, follow the money.
Yes, just to be clear, I wasn’t suggesting “opening up the database format” at all: I know there are some ways in which DevonThink acts as a “file provider” (analogous to iCloud Drive), and this aspect could be leveraged to encourage users to keep more of 3rd party docs inside DevonThink rather than outside.
Of course, it depends on whether this aspect can be leveraged without “opening up the database format”, which I don’t know anything about at all.
Inter-app-operability is, unfortunately, not really a strength of iOS. We have implemented file provider functionality to DEVONthink To Go to allow opening and editing documents with other apps and we will add Open In functionality so that you can also open documents in their source app using the Share sheet.
What we cannot do is, e.g., display OmniOutliner documents inside of DEVONthink To Go as iOS’ version of Quick Look doesn’t support plugins like its Mac counterpart.
