I have been using Notion in its API form for a while through notion-py[1]. Currently, it powers my blog[2] and for me, it's a really good integration. I write something, ask my friends to review it. I run a command to publish it, and it's live. The workflow is really, really good and removes a ton of friction because the software that you write in is also the one that powers your blog's content. Overall, I think Noti…
Notion API – public beta
181–190 of 262 posts
Re: Notion API – public beta
#182* No read-only mode. I like to have documents default to a read-only mode so I don't accidentally typo random characters, or delete something when try copying. etc.
* No floating table of contents. There is a ToC block but it's at a fixed position, where it's not terribly usable especially for long documents having a giant ToC at the top isn't great. I've tried using columns but it just squishes the rest of the document way too much
* Floating heads. When you have multiple collaborators the avatars zooming up and down the left side of the document is incredibly distracting. I'd love a way to disable this completely. I don't care where in a document other people are reading.
* Database/Table horizontal scrollbar. Almost every database in our documents end up with this giant scrollbar that spans edge to edge, looking like a horizontal rule, breaking up the visual flow of the page significantly. I keep thinking it's some kind of page break.
These are just some of my initial impressions. I do think it's a very visually nice product and has a lot of neat features but I'm pretty surprised by some basic QoL stuff missing and hope to see it further refined.
Re: Notion API – public beta
#183I've recently started using Notion and I'm surprised at few things that I find incredibly annoying with it so far. Since it seems there are some Notion staff here I'll take this as a change to give some feedback to hopefully improve the product. * No read-only mode. I like to have documents default to a read-only mode so I don't accidentally typo random characters, or delete something when try copying. etc. * No floa…
I can't remember which, but either making the page full width or locking the page gets rid of them.
Re: Notion API – public beta
#184Big fan of notion. Not a fan of the data lock-in or haphazard security. For tools like this, SaaS will almost always beat open source just by virtue of elbow grease and a product direction. So I’m willing to forego the open source alternatives. But I really wish Notion gave me more options for how to host my data. AFAICT they offer no “dedicated storage” or “on premise” plan, even if you want to pay for it. In fact I…
Apart from the HN growd + a few more, I think more users likely just don't care about options to host data.
Re: Notion API – public beta
#185When I initially signed up for Notion, I did so thinking the API was already usable. It was used as a selling point for their premium service even though it wasn't implemented. This was a year and a half ago or so. I felt pretty burned by it and killed my subscription. Hopefully this turns out well for the people who've been waiting for it, but that experience left a terrible taste in my mouth.
For those like myself ignorant about the company, Notion appears to be a project management tool with integrated wiki and docs support. With at least a claimed strong user focus.
You’d have to shoehorn project management into their database paradigm, which definitely seems subpar compared to a purpose-built task/project manager. But the “personal wiki” aspect of it is fantastic.
Re: Notion API – public beta
#186Earlier quoted context omitted.
Do they still not support things like 2FA? At my previous company, we couldn't get buy-in from our security team due to them not supporting 2FA. The team loved Notion, but that was a deal breaker. Also, if I remember correctly, magic email links could not be disabled. There is no excuse for not implementing 2FA w/ an authenticator app -- it took me a couple days to implement it into my product. They've had people ask…
Maybe your security team could implement an authentication server with 2FA to cover those softwares that don't support it natively? For example, https://www.authelia.com/ is open-source.
You can't magically put 2FA in front of some third-party public site. (You could from within your own network.. but that's perhaps worse than pointless!)
Re: Notion API – public beta
#187Earlier quoted context omitted.
Do they still not support things like 2FA? At my previous company, we couldn't get buy-in from our security team due to them not supporting 2FA. The team loved Notion, but that was a deal breaker. Also, if I remember correctly, magic email links could not be disabled. There is no excuse for not implementing 2FA w/ an authenticator app -- it took me a couple days to implement it into my product. They've had people ask…
Maybe your security team could implement an authentication server with 2FA to cover those softwares that don't support it natively? For example, https://www.authelia.com/ is open-source.
Re: Notion API – public beta
#188Earlier quoted context omitted.
Apart from the HN growd + a few more, I think more users likely just don't care about options to host data.
Many regulated organizations do, though. Single reason we didn't adopt notion is lack of ability to self host.
Re: Notion API – public beta
#189Earlier quoted context omitted.
Maybe your security team could implement an authentication server with 2FA to cover those softwares that don't support it natively? For example, https://www.authelia.com/ is open-source.
How does this solution help if the SaaS offering doesn't support alternate authentication providers and doesn't offer 2FA?
Yikes, no 2FA or SSO isn't good..
Re: Notion API – public beta
#190Earlier quoted context omitted.
(Cristina from Notion here) We shared a bit more in the past about how most of our user content was stored in a single database instance (see more here: https://www.notion.so/notion/Focus-on-performance-reliabilit... ). That is no longer true and we recently re-architected this database to scale horizontally. Totally understand that you want more options for how to host your data. Unfortunately, we don't have any pla…
Off-topic question. Who draws the illustrations for Notion's marketing pages? I love the art work.
- Roman Muradov: https://www.bluebed.net/
- Iris Chiang: https://irischiangart.com