👋 Hello, fellow note-takers! 3.5 pieces of juicy news since our last update.
link🔮 Plugins now support rendering HTML, Javascript, and external libraries
This is the biggest improvement to plugins since they debuted in 2023. With the new renderEmbed function, you can now put almost anything within an Amplenote note or Peek Viewer. The official documentation on embedding begin here. One silly example we recently tweeted:
Why you would need an interactive map in your note is none of our business. The point is that, as of now, there is exponentially more functionality that can be integrated directly into all the Amplenote clients. Stuff like:
A fully featured drawing/photo editor like Excalidraw
A "schedule builder" that proposes daily or weekly agendas based on your existing Task Score and time blocks
Charts and graphs of...whatever matters to you. Completed tasks by day, energy level / willpower by day, success toward desired habits, etc.
You don't really need to be a programmer to make cool plugins 😉. Why not channel all that creepy stuff people keep writing about "super-intelligent AI" toward an end that serves you? If you provide your AI Assistant with a link to the Amplenote Plugin API documentation, and maybe the code to an example plugin like AmpleAI, you should be well on your way to having a v1 plugin before you've written your first line of code.
For details on using AI to build plugins, and other tips on setting up your development environment, check out our Guide to Building/Developing Plugins (Beginner to Advanced).
link📈 New plugins highlighted by new default, "Trending" sort
When you visit the Plugin Directory, you'll notice the new default sorting algorithm is "Trending." This sort factors in how recent a plugin, combined with how many upvotes it received in the recent weeks and months.
If you're a plugin user, bookmark this page. Visit it at least once a month. You'll constantly find interesting, powerful and FREE new ways to level up your Amplenote experience.
If you're a developer, imagine how much attention your efforts can now receive. The audience is waiting to see what you'll build. In addition to possible bounties you can earn (note the use of foreshadowing), every Amplenote profile and plugin can be set up to highlight a "Contributions" link, like Patreon and equivalents.
If you think your plugin idea can change the curvature of Amplenote's grow trajectory, drop us a line and pitch us funding your effort. The bar is high, but we're listening.
link💰 Earn up to $2k per plugin through the new Plugin Bounty board
If you've got coding chops, or commensurate gumption, take a look at the brand new plugin bounties board. As exciting ideas are contributed to our Plugin Ideas voting board, we will continue to add to the collection of plugins that we'll compensate our community for creating.
We will aim to keep 20 or so plugin bounties active at any given time, so long as we can continue to be inspired by the ideas that our community presents.
linkFAQ
linkI'm not a programmer, can I create a plugin?
Quite possibly, yes! Our Guide to Authoring Plugins begins with tips specifically for plugin authors with little-or-no development experience.
linkI'm a professional programmer, where do I start?
The "Intermediate-to-advanced" section of the Guide to Authoring Plugins has suggestions specifically for you, if you want to create your plugin in a rapid-iteration environment.
linkThere is not enough API support for what I am building, who do I talk to?
Drop us a line at support@amplenote.com or on the plugin-atelier channel of our Discord and someone from our developer team will get in touch!
linkHow can I get more people to try my plugin?
There are a handful of steps you can take to get exposure for your plugin:
Ensure that your plugin has screenshots users can view. To do this, ensure you have populated the "Instructions" cell in your plugin metadata, so that your Plugin Directory entry will include screenshots. Plugins with screenshots are much more likely to be installed than those that have only text.
Announce your plugin on Amplenote's Discord server. Because that's where many of the power users are lurking.
linkWhat to do if I have some other question not answered here?
Drop a line in the comments and we will get back to you as soon as we're able. Thanks for your interest!
link📰 What else is new?
Our next "official" product update will likely drop in around 6 weeks, but we've already been busy releasing a handful of customer-required improvements. Chief amongst those is our #1 user-voted request: highlighted full-text search snippets. Now live on every platform including web, where we thought it might not be possible.
We also launched support for Calendar Events (as distinct from tasks) this week. Now, you can create recurring appointments, meetings, time blocks, etc, that you don't have to remember to check off afterwards. Creating an event is the same as creating a task, except instead of the clickable checkbox of a task, you just use a normal bullet, like so:
As long as the note that contains the bullet event is within your Calendar Task Domains, this will show up as an event at the scheduled Start Time.
Very cool update. The future of plugins is looking awesome and I am thrilled to see the highlighted search results and I think the time blocks feature has a lot of potential.
Also really enjoying the clickable bullet points.
Great work, Amplenote team!