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Wait, what is Laverna ?

Yeah sorry, I skipped the most important part :fearful:
Laverna is described as the “open source alternative to Evernote”, and guess what ? I agree with that.

Shortly, this JS application allows you to manage your own notes easily, and corresponding data are actually stored within your browser (through its Local Storage).

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In order to access and modify them “everywhere” (hello the Cloud :cloud:), you will have to set a personal synchronization system on your own (see the latest part below).

I’m ready for this, what do I have to do ?

Laverna

Well, pretty simple : just fetch the “pre-built” application, and set it into a directory mapped by your web server (we’ll be using Apache here) :

cd /var/www/html/
git clone https://github.com/Laverna/static-laverna.git

It’s done ! What next ?

Apache

We’ll configure a new site with Apache, pretty easy too (we’ll create a new Virtual Host, but you can also add this site as a new Directory to an existing VHost) :

# nano /etc/apache2/sites-available/laverna.conf

Add a new VHost handling queries to Laverna :

<VirtualHost *:80>
    ServerName your.server.domain

    DocumentRoot /var/www/html/static-laverna/

    <Directory /var/www/html/static-laverna/>
        Options Indexes FollowSymLinks MultiViews
        AllowOverride all
        Allow from all
    </Directory>
</VirtualHost>

Activate the new site and reload Apache to parse and apply its configuration :

# a2ensite laverna && service apache2 reload

Now, just go to http://your.server.domain/, you should get the same content as on the official page : https://laverna.github.io/static-laverna/ :tada:

What a JS app !
You said data are stored locally, how I’m supposed to synchronize my notes across devices now ?

Dropbox

What ?! Dropbox ? You made me quit Evernote to use another centralized-business application afterwards ?

— Actually… Yeah :rofl:

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Explanations : The “database” tree containing your notes is fully encrypted, with the same password you may have set beforehand in Laverna’s settings. So centralized or not, no third party entity may access your personal stuff. Dropbox infrastructure “is just” a way to automatically store and backup your data elsewhere than your browser.
Otherwise, you can also set up a Remote Storage connection, but I haven’t tested it yet.

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To add Dropbox synchronization to your existing new Laverna app, just follow the steps described here.
You’ll need a Dropbox account (of course), and… nothing more :wink:

:construction: Of course, if you don’t want or can’t set up a synchronization process, you can still export your data and settings into respectively .ZIP and .JSON files, importable into other Laverna instances ! :construction:

This project is still under active development, so don’t forget to wait and see (and pull !) to enjoy latest changes.
You can also support the project with these links.

PS : This post was the first about my slow migration from Google services to free alternatives. I used to enjoy Google Keep, but it didn’t even handle Markdown syntax :rofl:

If you’re interesting in testing this, my third instance is running here (you are free to use it personally).
EDIT 2018-11-29 : This instance has been dismantled because I was not using it anymore.
If you actually read this blog post today, I advise you to take a look at Encryptic, as Laverna is not maintained anymore.