BookStack VS Wiki.js

Additionally at some point people behind this product decided to change the licensing model, and allow the use of community editions for up to 5 nodes. It wasn't my case, but that pushed me to use something more independent. So I started using dockge, then added another service for docker logs, version monitor, and keeps adding applications that are fun to use, for example homebox or bookstack. It was fun until I released the cost of energy and maintenance effort need to keep it running, at my home. Every internet issue, or power issue takes my setup down. Maybe it was not happening very often, but when I wasn’t home, and the hardware was down, there was no chance to fix it remotely. And I started relaying on that service. That is why I simply decided to migrate to hetzner, and podman at the same time, and use remote NFS. However, let's start from the beginning.

BookStack: A platform for storing and organising information and documentation.

Joplin open-source tool, with paid Sync service. However, it supports WebDav sync. As a user of Fastmail have a lot lot of storage for it. Those parts work great, links, complexity level, and clear Markdown. Themes, mobile app, tags, everything I needed was there. Unfortunately, again, for short notes, my go-to app becomes memos, for long-form BookStack, seems to be the best solution. Why? Firstly my love for self-hosted solutions boomed, also Joplin even if looks perfect for my use case was some reason hard to describe and did not encourage me to write. Soo.. I back to Obsidian.

We use Bookstack[0] for this and I can recommend it. Free and open source.

[0] https://www.bookstackapp.com/

Link | Demo | Github | License

While I haven't used it, Bookstack is spoken of favourably.

On another topic, anyone knows anything similar to what's mentioned in this issue? https://github.com/BookStackApp/BookStack/issues/473

Link to Wikijs

Wiki.js is a self hosted, open source Wiki that has a lot of awesome functionality. Unfortunately it's lacking some small, but important UI features, like a light box, to enlarge downsized images to it's full size. And unless you want to add a link to each image, to open it in a new tab, you would probably go for a modal view here.

Can't think of anything that meets all the criteria, there's always some compromise, which might just be the way it is. For example I could 'self-host' otterwiki or wiki.js on a VPS for a pretty small monthly fee, which I could also use for other stuff that doesn't make sense for a home lab, but then I also need to deal with security since it's hosted on the internet. Or I could self-host and just accept that there's risk of it not being available when my wife needs it or if I die suddenly.

WikiJS as Homepage (a bit unusual, I know...)

I love PlantUML. I was always fond of it in my early days as a software engineer and still use it today, along with all the various ways to draw diagrams out there, whether it's through a web tool like draw.io or Miro or through markup like PlantUML and Mermaid.

Some stuff I'd like to share with the rest:

- PlantUML's default style has improved since the days of red/brown borders, pale yellow boxes, drop shadows and such but I've attempted fixing it before through a preset style [I've made before here](https://gist.github.com/jerieljan/4c82515ff5f2b2e4dd5122d354...). It's obsolete nowadays, since I'm sure someone has made a style generator somewhere, and last I checked, PlantUML allows a monochrome style out of the box.

- [Eraser](https://app.eraser.io) is promising, considering that it's trying to blend both diagram-as-code markup along with the usual visual diagram editor. I'm still seeing if it's worth picking up since Miro's hard to beat.

- On an unrelated note, [WikiJS](https://js.wiki/) is a self-hosted wiki that happens to support draw.io, PlantUML and MermaidJS diagrams out of the box. Quite handy to have for your own docs.

- I use Miro nowadays since it's significantly quicker to draw things freeform and to collaborate live with folks on a whiteboard at the cost of having your diagrams in markup, but it's easy to miss the integration that [you can actually import PlantUML](https://help.miro.com/hc/en-us/articles/7004940386578) and Mermaid diagrams in a Miro board too. You can also do edits too, but it's on its own PlantUML section, of course.