Where is my data and what format is it in?
in progress
H
Harri
Hello! I like how you're thinking and fully agree with your stated goals & problems, so I want to try using Beam.
However, my main worry here is that where is my data? Local or/and cloud? What is the database format? How easy is it to access and backup?
The reason behind the worry being that I need to able to trust that I can access my data in the future if your app/service isn't alive anymore, or I don't want to pay for it anymore. (That's why I love using plaintext in everything where it makes sense, for example.)
Dom
in progress
Dom
under review
Hello Harri,
You’ll soon be able to export your notes in markdown (coming in 2 updates).
Your notes are stored locally unencrypted in all cases. Passwords and credit cards are stored locally encrypted, and we end to end encrypt every thing that leaves the local machine to go on our servers if you're using a beam account
.
Don’t hesitate if you have more questions.
H
Harri
Hi Dom,
Thanks for the reply!
Markdown export sounds excellent — I use Markdown whenever possible :-) I assume this means bulk export of all the data?
I'm still curious though, do you use a custom database format or a standard/open one? (Markdown export is great, but not having a private format in the first place is even more future-proof :-) And where is the local database located?
Cheers!
Dharam Kapila
Dom: Would also love to understand - are the notes being loaded into memory when using Beam? Or is it saved and read from SQLite/IndexDB? :)
Sebastien Metrot
Dharam Kapila: Hey! I'll spare you the nifty implementation details but the general ideas are:
- We locally store all your data in a couple of SQLite and json files that are located in the application's mac sandbox. (we additionnaly encrypt your password and credit card data before saving them locally with a special key that is created locally on your computer so that they are not stored in plain text or any directly readable format). If you never create / connect a beam account, that's all there is to it.
- Then, should you choose to have a beam account, we encrypt your data with your own private key (the one that you saved when you created your account) and upload the data to our servers where they stay encrypted (only YOU have the key).
While beam will soon be able to import and export Markdown contents we chose not to use it as our internal format because it has a number of limitations (both in the format and in the tools to manipulate it) that would have made the implementation much harder (we tried...)
And of course we avoid loading everything in memory all at once as much as possible ;-).
Dharam Kapila
Sebastien Metrot: Thank you so much for the details! Also agree with your decision to not use markdown as an internal format.
Love the integration of notes, and the way it currently works by the way. This is an excellent foundation to build on.