125 lines
6.2 KiB
Markdown
125 lines
6.2 KiB
Markdown
Silver Bullet is extensible, [open source](https://github.com/silverbulletmd/silverbullet), **personal
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knowledge management** software. Indeed, at the most basic level that translates to “a note-taking app with links.” However, Silver Bullet goes a bit beyond just that.
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Let’s have a look at some of its features.
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## Features
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* Runs in any modern browser (including mobile browsers) and is installable as a PWA.
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* Provides a distraction-free, enjoyable markdown writing experience using [[Live Preview|live preview]] that **reduces visual noise**, but still gives direct access to the underlying [[Markdown]] syntax.
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* Supports wiki-like page linking using the `[[page link]]` syntax, keeping links up-to-date as pages are renamed.
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* Optimized for keyboard-based operation:
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* Quickly navigate between pages using the page switcher (triggered with `Cmd-k` on Mac or `Ctrl-k` on Linux and Windows).
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* Run commands via their keyboard shortcuts, or the command palette (triggered with `Cmd-/` or `Ctrl-/` on Linux and Windows).
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* Use [[🔌 Core/Slash Commands|slash commands]] to perform common text editing operations.
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* Supports annotating pages with metadata (using [[Frontmatter]]).
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* Provides a platform for [End-user Programming](https://www.inkandswitch.com/end-user-programming/) through its support of [[🔌 Directive|directives]] (such as [[🔌 Directive/Query|#query]]), which make parts of pages _dynamic_.
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* Robust extension mechanism using [[🔌 Plugs]]
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* You own your data. All content is stored as plain files in a folder on disk. Nothing fancy.
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* Silver Bullet is [open source, MIT licensed](https://github.com/silverbulletmd/silverbullet) software.
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## Try it
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Here’s the kicker:
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==You are looking at a (more or less) operational copy of Silver Bullet **right now**==.
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That’s right, **this very website is powered by Silver Bullet itself**. 🤯
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On this site, everything is editable as in a regular copy of Silver Bullet, just none of it persists (the back-end is read-only). So, edit away, reload the page and everything resets.
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So, don’t just sit there, try it!
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* Click on the page picker (folder tree) icon at the top right, or hit `Cmd-k` (Mac) or `Ctrl-k` (Linux and Windows) to open the **page switcher**. Type the name of a nonexistent page to create it (although it won’t save in this environment).
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* Click on the run button (top right) or hit `Cmd-/` (Mac) or `Ctrl-/` (Linux and Windows) to open the **command palette** (note that not all commands will work in this mode).
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* Select some text and hit `Alt-m` to ==highlight== it, or `Cmd-b` (Mac) or `Ctrl-b` to make it **bold**.
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* Click a link somewhere on this page to navigate there.
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* Start typing `[[` somewhere to insert a page link (with completion).
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* [ ] Tap this box 👈 to mark this task as done.
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* Start typing `:party` to trigger the emoji picker 🎉
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* Type `/` somewhere in the text to invoke a **slash command**.
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* Hit `Cmd-p` (Mac) or `Ctrl-p` (Windows, Linux) to show a live preview for the current page on the side, if your brain doesn’t speak native Markdown yet.
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* Open this site on your phone or tablet and... it just works!
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* Are you using a browser with **PWA support** (e.g. any Chromium-based
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browser)? Click on that little icon to the right of your location bar that says “Install Silver Bullet” to give SB its own window frame and desktop icon, like it is a stand-alone app (not particularly useful on silverbullet.md, but definitely do this once you install it yourself).
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Oh yeah, and you can use fancy things like tables:
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| Page | Comment |
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|----------|----------|
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| [[Silver Bullet]] | Main product page |
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| [[CHANGELOG]] | The latest updates |
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or code snippets, like JavaScript:
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```javascript
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function helloWorld() {
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return "Hello there!"
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}
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```
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or YAML:
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```yaml
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name: Silver Bullet
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rating: 5
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```
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There are a few features you don’t get to fully experience in this environment, because they rely on a working back-end, such as:
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* [[🔌 Directive|Directives]] are disabled, although you will see them being used across this site (they just don’t update their content dynamically).
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* Intelligent **page renaming**, automatically updating any pages that link to it.
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* **Full text search**.
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* **Extending** and updating SB’s functionality by installing additional [[🔌 Plugs]] (SB parlance for plug-ins) and writing your own.
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## Demo video
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Some things are just [better explained in a video](https://youtu.be/VemS-cqAD5k).
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## Where to go from here
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Click on the links below to explore various aspects of Silver Bullet more
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in-depth:
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* [[CHANGELOG|What’s new?]]
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* [[💡 Inspiration]]: some of the projects that inspired Silver Bullet
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* [[🔌 Plugs]]: extensions available in Silver Bullet
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* [[🔨 Development]]: how to start hacking on Silver Bullet itself
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## Installing Silver Bullet
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This consists of two steps (unless Deno is already installed:
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1. [Install Deno](https://deno.land/manual/getting_started/installation)
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2. Installing Silver Bullet itself
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### Install Silver Bullet
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With [Deno installed](https://deno.land/manual/getting_started/installation), run:
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```shell
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deno install -f --name silverbullet -A --unstable https://get.silverbullet.md
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```
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This will install `silverbullet` into your `~/.deno/bin` folder (which should already be in your path if you followed the Deno install instructions).
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To run Silver Bullet, create a folder for your pages (it can be empty, or be an existing folder with `.md` files) and run the following command in your terminal:
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```shell
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silverbullet <pages-path>
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```
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By default, Silver Bullet will bind to port `3000`, to use a different port use the the `--port` flag.
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Once downloaded and booted, Silver Bullet will print out a URL to open SB in your browser (spoiler alert: by default this will be http://localhost:3000 ).
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## Upgrading Silver Bullet
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Simply run:
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```shell
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silverbullet upgrade
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```
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And restart Silver Bullet. You should be good to go.
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## Support
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If you (hypothetically) find bugs or have feature requests, post them in
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[our issue tracker](https://github.com/silverbulletmd/silverbullet/issues). Want to contribute? [Check out the code](https://github.com/silverbulletmd/silverbullet). Want to chat with us? [We have a Mattermost instance](https://silverbullet.cloud.mattermost.com/), join us!
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