sol-journal

Sol Journal is a simple, minimal, journaling platform that works offline and across all devices. It can be self-hosted through Firebase and then installed as a PWA, on mobile devices for easy access on a phone, or on Desktops. Inspired by JournalBook

Introduction

Journaling is a keystone habit that can improve your happiness and overall health. Writing in a journal with pen and paper is effective, but not as easily accessible, maintained, or preserved.

Having a journal that is available on any device makes journaling easier. Being tailored specifically to journaling makes it less cumbersome than trying to utilize a note taking app or document for recording thoughts and impressions.

Getting Started

There are 2 ways to get started using Sol Journal:

You can use the hosted version (this is the simplest way to use the product) on https://journal-app-service.firebaseapp.com/
You can host your own version and manage it yourself

Sol Journal uses firebase to support offline functionality and authentication, meaning a new Firebase app will need to be setup with Firestore as a database if you wish to host it yourself. Be sure to add documents for users and entries, as well as enabling email for user authentication.

Developing

Clone the project:

git clone https://github.com/gillkyle/sol-journal

Install dependencies:

npm install

yarn

Then configure a file in a new .env file with the following keys from firebase:

REACT_APP_FIREBASE_API_KEY=<BUNCHofRandomNumbersAndChars>
REACT_APP_DEV_AUTH_DOMAIN=<your-id.firebaseapp.com>
REACT_APP_DEV_DATABASE_URL=<https://your-id.firebaseapp.com>
REACT_APP_DEV_PROJECT_ID=<your-id>

Navigate into the project directory, and then launch the site with this command:

yarn develop

The site will be opened up in your default browser on http://localhost:3000

Edit code in the /src, save your changes, and they'll reload instantly in the browser.

Features

In the spirit of minimalism, key features are what are in place for a quick, lightweight journaling experience that can work across devices, including:

🔥 Authentication: Cloud firestore persists registered users to a users document and saved journal entries to an entries document
🎨 Dark Theme: the src/styles/theme.js file contains a set of colors and default styles that are applied to components with Emotion. A default light and dark theme are already in the file
🔍 Search: full-text search of a user's entries stored in Firestore for quick access to past entries
🖥 Mobile Friendly: designed to look great on mobile as well as desktop, with easy navigation on both
💡 PWA: being a progressive web app makes it installable from Chrome/Safari on desktop, or be added to the homescreen on iOS/Android
🔌 Offline Support: read/write when you're offline and let the updates happen when your connection is restored
🗄 Export: backup all of your entries at any time to save your data

Deploy

To create an optimized build of the site run this command:

yarn build

A /build folder will be assembled that can be deployed with this command:

firebase deploy