Get Information Out of DEVONthink

Ordinarily, you’ll interact with the data in your DEVONthink database using DEVONthink itself. However, in some cases you may want to give others (on your local network or around the world) live access to your information—or make your DEVONthink database available to yourself when you’re using a computer without DEVONthink installed. DEVONthink Pro Office’s built-in Web server lets you do just that. And, if the need arises, you can export or share static information from DEVONthink in a dizzying array of formats to suit almost any need.

Use DEVONthink’s Web Server

DEVONthink Pro Office has a built-in Web server that lets you share your database live over the Web. This is useful for giving yourself (or other family members) access to your data from other computers in your home, or for running an internal Web site that provides shared information for all the employees of a small company. It also makes it possible to add new information to your database from a Web browser.

I want to emphasize, though, that this is not a full-blown database server, and it’s not suitable for running a public Web site. Compared to stand-alone servers, DEVONthink lacks many standard security, logging, performance, and customization features. So it’s good at what it does—but just bear in mind that what it does is intentionally limited.

To set up the Web server, follow these steps:

1. Go to DEVONthink > Preferences > Server (Figure 65).

   

2. Edit any or all (or none) of the following fields to taste:
   • Incoming Files: Check “Convert images & PDF documents to searchable PDF” if you want DEVONthink to perform OCR on all images and PDFs uploaded via the Web interface.
   • Bonjour Name: Enter the name your DEVONthink Web server will have on the local network.
   • Bonjour Domain: If your local network contains more than one Bonjour domain (an unusual situation), enter the domain name at which your database will be reachable (to enable proper generation of relative links). Most people can ignore this setting.
   • Port: Enter the number for the port on which the server should listen (if blank, DEVONthink chooses a random, high port number such as 60149).
   • User and Password: Fill in the credentials required to access the site (if empty, no credentials are necessary).
3. Click Start. (You can also choose Tools > Start Server, which is useful when the Preferences window is closed.)

   The Web server starts, and DEVONthink displays, at the bottom of the window, the address at which it can be reached—in both Bonjour format and as a numeric IP address (such as http://iMac.local:60150, http://172.16.85.1:6015).

4. Optionally, check Start on Launch to activate the Web server automatically when you open DEVONthink. (To turn off the Web server later, click Stop, choose Tools > Stop Server, or quit the app.)
5. Although the Web server is already running, no data is shared until you explicitly enable sharing for a database. To do this, choose File > Database Properties > Database Name and check the Share Database box. (And, if you want to share it without giving others the ability to modify its contents, also check Read Only.) Repeat as desired with other databases.

To visit your database, open a Web browser (on the same Mac, an iOS device, or another computer on your network), enter the address DEVONthink gave you in Step 3, and you should see something like Figure 66.

Because the controls available on this Web page are so simple and largely self-explanatory, I’ll refrain from detailing each one. But I do want to point out just a few key features:

• Uploading and downloading: Remote users can add new documents to the database (tagging them in the process) and retrieve entire files in their original formats.
• Creating and editing: Remote users can add plain text notes to the database (again, including tags) from the browser, and can edit existing plain text documents. (Both the New Note and Plain Text buttons result in a plain text note; however, New Note produces a pop-up window with fields for Title, Tags, and Notes, whereas Plain Text creates a blank document that you can later edit or rename manually.)
• Search: Click the Simple icon on the left side of the toolbar to search the current database, or use the full-featured Search field on the right to search either the current database or all databases.
• Organization: You can move (but not copy) documents via drag and drop, rename them, and right-click (or Control-click) them to apply labels or mark them as (un)flagged/(un)marked/(un)read.

In addition, the browser interface has buttons for Delete, Group (create a new group), Info, and See Also.

If you’re wondering about another favorite feature, chances are it’s simply not there—sorry! The Web server is great for basic access, but it makes no attempt to replicate all of DEVONthink’s functionality.

Share Data

If you want to send the document you’re currently viewing to another person, or to another app on your Mac, you can click the Share button (which appears only in Column, Split, Three Pane, and Tag views) and choose a destination from the pop-up menu. You can use this feature with only one document at a time.

This menu is the same as the one that appears in other Mac apps that support Share extensions, although most of them use the standard Share icon. (See Use the Share Extension for more about DEVONthink’s Share extension.)

Export Data

If neither live access to your database over the Web nor the Share feature meet your needs, you can export your data in many different formats. You might do this, for example, in order to save documents in a different format (exporting can also convert file formats at the same time), or to create a stand-alone Web site from a portion of your database.

All the export commands live on the File > Export submenu, and there are lots of them! (However, not every document format can be exported in every other format—for example, you can’t export a graphic as a text file.) Here are your options:

• Document: Saves the selected item in its original format, with the option to add tags in the process
• Files and Folders: Saves selected items in their original formats, preserving any group hierarchy as folders

• as Text: Saves selected documents as a single plain text file (that is, without styles); you can optionally specify the encoding using the Text Encoding pop-up menu
• as Rich Text (RTF): Saves selected documents as a single rich text file, including styles but omitting graphics
• as Rich Text (RTFD): Saves selected documents as a single RTFD file, including styles and any graphics
• as Word Document: Saves selected documents as a Word (.doc) file, including styles but not including any graphics
• as Unix mailbox: Exports selected email messages (applies only to documents in .eml or .emlx format) as a Unix .mbox file, which many email clients can import
• as OPML: Exports the selected groups and documents as an Outline Processor Markup Language (OPML) file, suitable for importing into most outliners
• as Website: Saves the selected items as a Web site—HTML file(s) and linked media, in the process converting non-Web-friendly file formats to PDF

• as Template: Saves the current (single) document as a template in ~/Library/Application Support/DEVONthink (Pro) 2/Templates. noindex, adding it to the Data > New from Template submenu (for more information, see Template)
• Database Archive: Saves a copy of the entire selected database, compressed as a Zip file