/pdfscholar

A lightweight crossplatform pdf organization tool

Primary LanguageJavaScriptMIT LicenseMIT

pdfscholar

A lightweight crossplatform pdf organization tool

Minimum feature requirements

  • Store PDF files locally, no dependency on hosted servers
  • Completely accessible from the browser
  • Save pdf files with a single click from any browser
  • Open organization interface from the browser itself
  • Open pdf within the browser
  • Assign tags to pdfs and list with them

Future features

  • Be able to assign multiple tags to each pdf
  • Be able to search/list via tags
  • Notes for a pdf
  • Annotate parts of pdf
  • Search text, notes, annotations

Roadmap - Stage 1 (Node.js server Process)

  • Use electron because it is cross platform and works with native file system
  • The background process using Chokidar monitors Downloads folder (configurable) for any new downloaded pdfs
  • pdfs are transferred to a Publications folder (configurable) where pdfs are saved (the user can delete files in Downloads)
  • New pdf download triggers transfer to Publications folder and opens a new tab showing the pdf in browser (configurable)
  • The electron app starts a server in background (Stage 2)
  • Configurations can only be done through the app, as they can be a security issue if exposed.

Roadmap - Stage 2 (Node.js server Process)

  • A separate node.js server runs in background serving organization interface and pdfs being served on localhost
  • Optionally organization interface and pdfs are available via the electron app directly
  • The node.js server can be also used to self-host the service independent of electron app

Roadmap - Stage 3 (Reader Interface)

Roadmap - Stage 4 (Organization Interface)

  • List all pdf files
  • List all tags for pdf files
  • List all pdfs for a tag (or a combination of tags)

To use

npm install
npm start

Links

Annotation