Developing an Android version based on TriliumNotes-Server-vXX-linux-arm64.tar.xz

[jasongwq]

Currently, I'm planning to develop an Android version using TriliumNotes-Server-vXX-linux-arm64.tar.xz.
The proposed technology stack is WebView + Node.js + TriliumNotes-Server-vXX-linux-arm64.

Would the TriliumNext project accept a pull request (PR) for this?
If not, would you allow me to start a separate project to release the Android version independently?

[eliandoran]

You could do a proof of concept and we can see from there, if we integrate it in our repo or keep it separate.

How do you plan to embed Node.js on Android?

[jasongwq]

Termux has already compiled and packaged a Node.js runtime that works on Android. By extracting the Node.js binary and its dependent .so libraries from Termux, we can bundle them into the app and use Java to create a subprocess to launch it.

As long as Node.js itself doesn't need updates, in theory, future updates would only require rebuilding the APK with the latest version of Trilium—no changes to the Android-side code would be necessary.

I've already completed a proof of concept. I'll publish the code once I've cleaned it up.
Below are some screenshots from the running application.

[eliandoran]

Pretty nice. Let me know once you have a repo I could look at.

[jasongwq]

Node.js Process Startup
https://github.com/jasongwq/trilium-android/blob/nodejs/app/src/main/java/com/ypwq/ypwq/trilium/NodeService.kt

Trilium Related Files
https://github.com/jasongwq/trilium-android/tree/nodejs/app/src/main/assets/trilium
(Replaced node/bin/node, node/lib/, and node_modules/better-sqlite3 based on https://github.com/TriliumNext/Trilium/releases/download/v0.98.0/TriliumNotes-Server-v0.98.0-linux-arm64.tar.xz)

[jasongwq]

Another point that needs discussion is: since Android apps need to consider power consumption, they may frequently be started/stopped or have their processes forcibly terminated—could this potentially cause damage to the Trilium database?

[eliandoran]

It's a good point. If the SQLite native gets interrupted, I suppose it can corrupt the database or leave it into an inconsistent state; it might be interesting if we can get the process to be shutdown safely somehow, just to close the database for example. There are some failsafes with the consistency checks, but the threat is real.