That's interesting, I've tried to use plain text files at the beginning too but it didn't quite work. Also if I'm not mistaken on mobile Dropbox sync is not built-in so you'll need to implement it on top of their API (including conflict handling) which is probably the most difficult part in any app like this.

That's also why having a local SQLite is useful because you can more easily compare your local state to what they have.

You're right, when I build mobile I'll have to build my own sync to dropbox, but there are plenty of libraries for that. Hopefully one that already does conflict handling =(

I do have a local database store, but the Windows Store app is written in JS so I'm using NeDB which is basically just a mongo style interface for a JSON file. At the moment I really only use it to track recently opened files.

On other platforms I'll probably use SQLite, but I won't be storing the data in there, just the metadata (access times, paths, previews, wordcounts etc)

As one dev to another I have to say I love what you've built in Joplin. I love the name, I love the terminal app idea (Why didn't I think of that!) - its really a great achievement. You've built for multiple platforms and here I am hijacking the thread to peddle my half-built markdown-editor-with-a-file-list =D

On Android, I use Dropsync[1] to make certain Dropbox folders behave more like on desktop and synchronize in the background. Works great with my markdown note files and also ensures my notes are always available offline.

(1) https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.ttxapps.dr...

boostnote[1] also does this

[1] https://boostnote.io/

Where can I follow your project? I currently use QOwnNotes on Linux which does exactly that, but would be keen to try some alternatives, in particular if you're working on a mobile version.

Here's a very basic page you can follow

http://roryok.com/flatnote/

Not open-sourced yet but will be very soon